By Bert Harbinson / August 29th, 2021
After one week we’ve seen the two expansion teams, Colorado & Minnesota, each play two games. Meanwhile the two established teams have four games under their belt including the home-and-home from last Saturday.
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4. Seattle Snakes
Previous Ranking: N/A
Seattle is the biggest disappointment of the season thus far. I don’t think anyone in the organization expected the team to start off 0-4. The four games have been split into doubleheaders. Seattle Snakes starter, Matt Kaskel, showed signs of exhaustion in both sessions. He played little to no defense in the second game of his opening day doubleheader, and seemed tired out by just the second half of the first game against Howell. There was some improvement however, as he played well against the Hammers in the second game. If I were the treadmill in his building I’d be expecting a visit soon. The area in which Seattle has excelled this season is in the blocks department. Through four games, Seattle sits at 19 rejections. The 38 block pace would be second all-time (behind only Hammer in PHL I (45)). Unfortunately for Seattle, three of their four remaining games are against the tallest team in the PHL, the Minnesota Mystery.
3. Minnesota Mystery
Previous Ranking: N/A
Minnesota also made their debut in a home-and-home series but theirs was against the Howell Hammers. Minnesota revealed their team name during the pre-game festivities, which may have taken some head space away from Elbakry’s game. As previously mentioned, Howell played some great defense but a big reason why was because the Mystery offense required it. Elbakry was able to get into the paint by effectively using the walls better than any other player has before him. It took some getting used to because of the tricky travel rules regarding wall passes but once he gets the hang of it, he’ll be deadly with that move. His long wingspan allows for a wider margin of error on wall passes.
2. Colorado Crushers
Previous Ranking: N/A
Colorado shocked a lot of fans with their 2-0 showing in a home-and-home with Seattle on Opening Day. Game one started off slow for the Crushers as they fell behind 9-4, but they fought back and sent the game to overtime after fighting through a block from Snakes. Once the game got to overtime, the two teams traded blows until it was 24-23 in favor of Colorado. With a driving lay-up, Colorado set the single game points record in his debut. His 26 points was one higher than LeBron James’ debut point total. The second game wasn’t nearly as close, literally and figuratively; in a 17-6 win, Stone hit five three-pointers clearing the single-game mark by two. The biggest takeaway I had from the debut was Stone’s handles. Based on the small sample, it looks like he has the best in the League this year, and possibly the best in PHL history.
1. Howell Hammers
Previous Ranking: N/A
No surprise here as Howell sits on top the standings at 4-0. In their two opening games against Minnesota, Hammer welcomed the new guy with a double-double performance which was followed up by another in game two. Despite being about two-thirds of a foot shorter, Hammer picked up nine blocks in the series and set a new PHL record for single game steals with seven. The Howell defense didn’t stand quite as tall against Seattle where they had just two blocks in the first game and none in the second. It was the first time in nine games that Hammer had an egg in the block column. In both games against the Snakes, the Hammers fell into early holes (6-2 in the first game, and 8-2 in the second) but came back to win. Hammer sees an opportunity with the two-time champion Anaheim Bullsharks out of the League, and he’s not messing around.
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