The summer season of the Laguna Draft League is a perfect example of why draft leagues have become more and more common over the last two years in Ultimate Hoops.

The amount of parity in Laguna this summer is unfathomable. The nine games played so far this season have had an average margin of victory of 7.22 points. Four of the nine game have gone to overtime, and only one game has been decided by more than double digits.

“This is definitely the most parity we’ve had across the board,” Laguna League Coordinator, Jovan Zamorano, said. “Every team has a chance to win…they each have a solid starting five or an even roster of eight players.”

This is exactly the kind of competitive basketball we all want to play in, and Laguna has mastered it. And this is coming two years after Laguna ditched its open league after the Summer 2017 season, which had an average margin of victory of 21.41 points.

“The way we transitioned is we’ve given the members what they wanted, they wanted more parity,” Zamorano said.

Here’s a quick breakdown of each week:

Week 1

Average margin of victory: 14.67 points

This is the only week that saw the average margin of victory get skewed, due to the 132-92 blowout that Reincarnated handed All Talk. Other than that, we get two overtime games that overshadowed the blowout. Most notably, we get an 87-86 win for Kash Money over Secret Squirrels that had a crazy road to get to overtime.

The game was 72-71 and saw a combined 11 points in the final 26.6 seconds, which included a smooth dunk from Michael Cox, and two clutch 3s from Mason Jones that sent the game into overtime.

Week 2

Average margin of victory: 4.67 points

This week features the heavyweight matchup of Michael Cox vs. Jacob Havron. Those two have the two highest PPR’s in the league, and they did not disappoint in this matchup. Here were their numbers:

Cox: 33 points, 21 rebounds, 10 assists, three steals and two blocks on 14-29 shooting - 39.6 PPR

Havron: 35 points, 15 rebounds, one assist, one steal on 14-25 shooting - 37.5 PPR

Cox earned a slightly higher PPR, and more importantly, he earned the win, as Kash Money beat Reincarnated 88-81.

Zamorano said this has been the best game of the season so far, mentioning that Kash Money is “undermanned” besides Cox. In this game, Michael Gore - the third-leading scorer for Kash Money - was missing, but they were still able to beat Reincarnated in overtime, despite Reincarnated being at full strength.

Week 3

Average margin of victory: 2.33 points

This might have been the pinnacle of the season thus far. There are games decided by four, two and one point.

The highlight of this week came in an 86-85 overtime thriller between Reincarnated and Make It Work. Both teams had to play with only five players, which explains the combined 10-64 shooting from beyond the arc.

Make It Work relied on Jeff Gomez, who scored 36 points and grabbed eight rebounds. Reincarnated got a boost from the duo of Havron and Matt Sweany, who combined for 77 points (89.5% of their team’s points) and 39 rebounds.

The three-minute overtime period went back-and-fourth until JJ Reed hit a game-winning layup with 6.8 seconds left.