Week 20 in the NBA lockout brought the bleakest news yet, with the player’s union opting to disband and the owners letting them. Time to celebrate! We’ve illustrated the pattern of players jumping ship since July 1.
Despite a dearth of open roster spots overseas, I’d still expect to see a spike in players freakin’ out and going to Turkey (where most people who freak out end up) in the coming weeks. You’ll notice almost no defectors during the height of the negotiations between the NBA and NBPA. I threw negotiations in quotes because I’m a snarky blogger and such behavior is what is expected of me.
Anyway, you could click on this ESPN player tracker that details which players are overseas, which players are rumored to go overseas and which players have no interest in leaving, or you could check out Razzball’s infographic detailing the same exact thing (only with more colors!) months before ESPN got around to it.
Boston’s Reggie Lewis really wasn’t much of a factor last season. He averaged less than 7/2/2 as a rookie. But so far this season, he’s taken on a premiere spot on the bench and has been da bomb for Boston so far this season. How bomb? Pretty darn bomb. Also, am I using “bomb” correctly? Doesn’t matter. I’m moving on. Last night Lewis ended with 15/6/3, five steals and a block in 25 minutes as he helped save the aging and battered Celtics team from having to run up and down the court against the just-battered Heat. Boston’s only six games into the season and we’re talking about them being injury-riddled. Ainge has a sprained knee, Bird’s Achilles is forcing him to move gingerly (and by gingerly, I do, in fact, mean “to move like Bill Walton”). Boston is now as good as the Clippers and Lewis has a lot to do with that. No, seriously. This busted Boston squad looks worse than their record and right now Lewis is a high point. Of all the secondary players that are still somewhat available in fantasy leagues, Reggie is the player that really shouldn’t be unowned the most. And while that wasn’t my bestly constructed sentence, don’t allow it to cloud your judgment. Not everyone can own M.J. and, um, M.J. and normally the end of most fantasy benches are filled with guys that do one or two things well. Lewis could be poised to surge. By the way, “Poised to Surge” really needs to be the name of Whitesnake’s next album. Anyway … Reggie Lewis, ladies and gentlemen. Go get ‘im.
Stuff below. Get excited.
Pearl Washington – 8/11/7 counts as the best fantasy line from the Heat last night, an 84-65 loss in which no one on the Heat looked like they’d ever enjoyed playing the game of basketball. Washington’s scoring numbers were a little low and his rbd/ast numbers were way high. Skip him.
Johnny Newman – 21 points, as he hit his eighth and ninth three-pointers last night. He’s an add right now as the Knicks seem to be running the old “Ewing-goes-down-low-while-the-rest-of-you-chuck-up-threes” offense. If Ewing ever goes on to become a coach, I sincerely hope he’s not involved in this type of offensive scheme.
Akeem Olajuwon – 28/16, with five steals, but also seven turnovers. It’s like the painter sneezed right before his final masterstroke.
Mike Woodson – Thursday? Four points. Friday? Ten points. Sunday? Twenty-six points. Last night? Another 26 points. Pepsi! Disco! Alpha! Charlie! Woodson! Hey, would you stick around and do a little more of this week and a little less of last week?
Rodney McCray – The Kings traded away more than 42 ppg when they sent Otis Thorpe to Houston and Reggie Theus to Atlanta. The Kings t’weren’t no good with those guys, imagine how good they are with McCray shooting .347 so far this season in an attempt to make up those 42 points? Actually, I don’t have the patience to wait for your imagination. The Kings are averaging 91.4 points on 39 percent shooting from the field – both are league worsts. Or leaguewursts if you’re from Milwaukee.
Karl Malone – Career-high 16-of-17 from the free throw line as Malone scored 26 of his 36 points in the second half after missing most of the first half because of foul trouble. The Mailman had two fouls before 90 seconds had passed in the first quarter. And if this game is here, you can imagine the doozy waiting for you down at the Line of the Night.
Reggie Miller – Nine threes in his last five games. That’s a league-best. Still, he’s not the sophomore Reggie I’d most want on my fantasy team. Don’t act like you’ve already forgotten the intro blurb of today’s post.
Mike Holton – 37 min., 12/1/10, 2 stl. I take back everything bad I’ve ever said about him. Except for that thing about his grandmother. That was justified.
John Paxson – 24 min., 21/1/8, 4 3ptm. What’s that? The Bulls were playing the defenseless Sixers last night? You don’t say.
Horace Grant – Two weeks ago, I predicted (hoped) that someone besides Sam Vincent would step up to help Jordan. I predicted Will Perdue eventually, but General Grant has double-doubled in four of his first seven games as Vincent has withered into mediocre-at-best territory. He ended last night with 38 min., 15/15/2. It will be interesting to see if Scottie Pippen‘s season debut will affect Grant’s minutes at the three. It better not considering I just snatched Grant out of the free agency pool.
Chris Mullin – The Warriors switching Wally and the Beave’s next door neighbor from shooting guard to small forward seems to have paid off. He’s getting to the line more and is averaging the league’s sixth-highest number of points so far (27.8 ppg).
Mark Price – 12-for-12 from the line coming into last night’s game; 15-for-16 coming out of it. You go right back to yesterday’s game and try it again, Mark. You’re gonna do it until you get it right.
Moses Malone – Scored 21 points, including Atlanta’s final field goal with seven minutes to play (not a typo). It’s not like he’s worth more to your fantasy team if he scores a game-winner, but it’s still an extra feather in your cap. Can’t have too many cap feathers, can you?
Danny Schayes – Let no man claim Schayes is loungin’. PUN! He’s averaging 19.1 pts/8.6 rbd in his first seven games, helped a bit by the Nuggets having played three overtime quarters in its first seven games, two last night.
Danny Manning – Let’s stay with the Dannys, shall we? 20/8/2, with 3 blk and 4 tov. Fouled out in 34 minutes from the bench. This was his second game of the season. Facts!
Adrian Dantley – Left the game with 8:37 remaining in Q1 after cutting his lip and “knocking back” his two front teeth during a collision with Mark Aguirre. Eyewitnesses say Dantley wasn’t quite Rick Derringer ugly, but was closer to it than anyone should be comfortable with.
Bill Laimbeer – Swished a trio of threes. How normal is this? In his previous 650 regular season games he’d only made two three-pointers in one other game. So … not normal at all really. Also, the Pistons haven’t lost a game yet. Mares eat oats and does eat oats and Billy Lambs beat nightly. Isiah beats nightly too. What else is new?
A couple weeks ago we looked at how the Lakers dismantled and, um, re-mantled five championship teams throughout the ’80s. Here’s a look at the shifting tides for Chicago’s first and only six championships.
I’ll keep the commentary to a minimum, but I always forget how different the first three teams were from the last three. Outside of Jordan and Pippen, no one from the third championship team was on the fourth championship team. Look at the 1994 and 1995 columns, specifically the careers that ended and began because of Jordan’s absence.
Also, I’m pretty sure Jo Jo English‘s career can be summed up like this: “NBA basketball is fan-tastic! Hey, Mike, where you goin’? … Mike? … Shit.”
Sweet vindication! It was just a matter of time before Roy Tarpley – my evolutionary Jabbar – proved me right. 35/17/1, with a pair of steals, a pair of blocks and a sweet .652 from the field. If you rearrange Roy Tarpley, you can spell “breathtaking” (provided you also add and substitute a few letters not already found in the name Roy Tarpley). The 35? The 17? The .652? All career-highs. This warm, fuzzing intro to today’s daily Razzball notes? I can only assume that for Tarp, it’s also a career high(light). I reached a bit for the guy, convinced some of you to do the same and was a bit worried by the first few games. The Lakers were rough, and he had to bump against Akeem a game later. Then came the Heat and now the Suns. It’s no wonder this guy’s catching fire! Roll him out there, fantasy owners and remember to thank me come playoff season!
User your computer’s track ball to scroll down. Or you can just guess what else is written down there:
Larry Bird – Reportedly suffering from a recurrence of tendinitis in his Achilles’ tendons and the Celtics doctor hasn’t ruled out surgery that would sideline him 3-4 months. Bird poop.
Norm Nixon – After double-doubling in his first game, then scoring 11 and 12 points in his next two, his owners were hoping Nixon was a guy they could kick around. Then in his fourth game, he played 25 minutes, shot .222 from the field and ended with a 4/2/2 line and they all went to go stick their heads in their ovens.
Mark Price – Double-doubled in first three games of the season. He’s only had nine in his last two seasons. As you were.
Mark Jackson – Keeping with the Mark theme, when choosing a game ball before each home game, Jackson said, ”I like to get a relationship with the ball – sort of like you do with a woman. You want to get a feeling for it. You try to get an understanding with it. I don’t want to sound corny, but it’s kind of a sensitive thing.” Thankfully, he’s in front of the camera and not providing commentary behind it. I’d have to constantly go walk out in traffic listening to this guy.
Johnny Newman – There are rumors that the Blazers are considering trading aweighe Kiki for Johnny Newman. John E. Newman was overheard saying, “what me worry?” But considering Vandeweighe isn’t schedule to step on the court until the New Year must sour his milk a tad.
Cliff Levingston – He’s totaled 32/7/2 through his first four games, while Antoine Carr has totaled 39/25/4. What I’m trying to say is you should have drafted Moses Malone.
Vinnie Johnson – 17.5 ppg in last two. Hold off on burning a waiver add just yet. Microwaves cool just as fast as they heat.
Cliff Robinson – Another double-double (26/10) on Wednesday, another self-inflicted slap to my noggin for drafting McMillan over Robinson. He’s averaging 22/8 in first four games, and he’s shooting the lights out (.581). Considering he wasn’t drafted before the fifth round in most drafts, this bump in production could be huge for his owners.
Ricky Pierce – He’s averaged 16/3/2 through the first five full seasons of his career and 24/2/2 so far into year six. Still, he wasn’t drafted before the seventh or eighth round in most drafts, as he still gets little respect among casual fans. I blame his weak chin. Chicks hate weak chins and let’s face it, tons of chicks are casual fans.
Derek Harper – He was as cold as the cases in that “America’s Most Wanted” show. (Sidebar: has anyone watched that yet? I feel like week after week, it’s gotta be a downer. I’d watch a show called “Finding America’s Most Wanted,” but nothing short of that) Anyway, Harp shot 1-for-9 (.111), and ended with a 4/2/11 line. Don’t sweat it. Wait ‘til you see Rodney McCray’s line.
Rodney McCray – Rodney McCray’s line: 4/8/8, 0-for-15 (15!) from the floor. And Rodney wonders why he doesn’t get any respect.
Eddie Johnson – 37 points in 29 minutes from the bench after an Opposite Day McCray shooting performance of 15-of-19 from the floor. If he manages even two more games like this for the rest of the season, I’ll replace all my records with CDs.
Jose Ortiz – Got the start for the Jazz in his debut on Wednesday. The first start by a Puerto Rican in NBA history went like this: 5/6/0 in 16 minutes. One night later, he plays seven minutes earning nothin’ but three fouls. So this is working out well.
Derrick Chievous – In 35 minutes, the Houston rookie ended with a 27/3/4 line and is averaging 16.3/3.3, with 1.5 steals per game. Derrick is trouble, kids. Better call his spinster sister, Miss Chievous.
L I N E O F T H E N I G H T .545/.875 / 2 3ptm/ 52 pts/ 3 rbd/ 2 ast/ 9 stl / 2 blk/ 2 tov
Michael Jordan – Scored 25 in the first half, 19 in the fourth quarter and the Bulls beat the Celtics in Boston for the first regular season game since 1985. This is what you paid for. He is why you paid it.
Nate McMillan played 18 minutes before leaving with an as-yet unidentified leg injury. Frankly, I think it hasn’t been identified because it doesn’t exist. I think Mac wanted attention and Lord knows he wasn’t going to get it on the Supersonics – the best team that no one really wants to watch. This won’t affect the Sonics a fraction as much as it will affect McMillan owners. He’ll miss anywhere between 1-4 weeks depending on what the injury is. Either way, if you haven’t pushed away your Apple IIe to go pick Xavier McDaniel off the waiver wire only to stop dead in your track to realize that you still need your computer to pick X-Man off waivers – you should go do that now.
Let’s keep the cattle drive a-ramblin’. Here’s what other fantasy basketball happenings happened in fantasy basketball last night:
Kevin Edwards – I’ve mistyped his name as “Kelvin” three times in the last week. Some names choose the people they belong to, not the other way around. I’ve already made the sign, “We measure our Heat in Kelvins,” and that sign is too great to start calling him Kevin now. Anyway, Kelvin is averaging 32 mpg/17.5 pts/ 3.5 rbd/ 2.5 ast, after franchise’s first two games.
Kelly Tripucka – The Hornets gained their first franchise victory last night as Hell’n’Kelly scored 24 points, which is about what one assumed they were getting from the only known quantity on the expansion franchise. Still, it’s a little unsettling for Tripucka owners that thought he’d be eating at a table for one all season, that rookie Rex Chapman scored 16 points in 27 minutes Tuesday. Chapman strung together a nice handful of games in the last five days and anything that makes Tripucka’s hair stand even further on end is okay by me.
Kurt Rambis – 17/14 last night. He’s shot over .750 from the floor in two of his first three games and scored at least 16 points in two of the last three also. As it’s becoming clear I have no idea what kind of talent is on the Hornets roster, I can only say the situation in Charlotte is worth watching. Or not. See if I care.
Ken Norman – Checked in for 34 minutes and ended with 15/15, and two blocks. No one whose name started with anything other than K was allowed to play basketball last night.
Quintin Dailey – 18 points in 23 minutes. Man, if Dailey could find 36 minutes per game, he’d be averaging 22/0/5 so far this season. Remember this if Norm Nixon goes down for any extended time. If “ifs” and “buts” were candy and nuts, we’d all have … something, something. Let’s assume “we’d all have Quintin Dailey on our fantasy teams.”
Johnny Newman – J-New has scored 19, 19, 35 in his first three games of his junior year. This would be one helluva denouement if this were Newman’s last season; as it appears his career is just about to get huge, call it his J-Newement.
Reggie Miller – The skinny sophomore has scored at least 19 points in every game so far and swished at least a three in his last two. He’s averaging over 33 mpg so far. Can you guess how many other second-year players can say that? None. Eat it with a spork.
Wayman Tisdale – 24 pts in 24 minutes from the bench. Rostering him wouldn’t kill you, but give him the skunk-eye if you do. Just in case.
Moses Malone – 18/22, with 4 blocks. He’s like Rain Man. He also shot .286 from the floor, which is like the hat water burning baby.
Roy Tarpley – You can either have the Roy Tarpley that pounds in a 13/12 double-double, with a trio of steals and a pair of blocks or you can have the Roy Tarpley that doesn’t commit 6 turnovers and five fouls. But you cannot have both.
Joe Barry Carroll – Fuzz Barry Carroll scored at least 19 in two of his first three, double-doubled in two as well. After averaging just 13 ppg last season, I’m guessin’ J.B. is O.K.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar – He’s missed double-digit points in two of his first three games, while shooting .440 and averaging just 25 mpg. Orlando Woolridge did a lot of the cleanup duty, thanks to Kareem making him look good by comparison. Cap’s been making teammates look good for years … it just didn’t used to be at his own expense.
L I N E O F T H E N I G H T .625/ 1.000/ 0 3ptm/ 22 pts/ 7 rbd/ 18 ast/ 2 stl/0 blk/4 tov
Magic Johnson – They say he tried last night. Honestly, I don’t know that he did. Otherwise, he would have made his one three-point attempt.
