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Man, what a huge night it was across the NBA with nearly every team in action.  It obviously all starts with the shocker Philly put on the Heat, and Michael Carter-Williams‘ unreal debut.  I was following with my co-workers during the game and tweeted that if he got a triple-double in his first NBA game, the universe would implode.  Thankfully MCW was a steal short and we’re all still here.  His final line of 6-10 (4-6 3PTM 6-8 FT) 22 Pts 7 Rebs 12 Asts and 9 Stls might actually win some owners their matchups this week on its own.  Just preposterous.  Most steals in NBA history in a player’s debut.  Ok before we all go nutso, remember the Heat played without Dwayne Wade (rest), don’t have a PG, and had all their hands weighed down with new championship rings.  So that’s not really an excuse, but so what?!  The shooting efficiency was fantastic (the biggest knock on him coming into the year), plus he had only one turnover (his second main knock).  “Nice knockers!”  Thanks Young Frankenstein!  MCW indeed moves up a fair bit in value in my eyes, but this is likely his best line on the year.  MCW was wildly inconsistent in college and I don’t expect much consistency on a terrible 76ers team (I know they just beat the Heat, but c’mon).  Look for John Wall to lock him up on Friday and cool the hype.  Despite inconsistencies, it goes without saying that MCW should be owned in all leagues now (78% Yahoo, 59.4% ESPN), so if for some reason he’s available in your league, you gotta get him.  I’m not expecting MCW to be an elite player, but will continue to contribute even in down games.  Here’s what else I saw across Fantasy Basketball last night:

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Despite the two nationally telecast Opening Night games (with the Heat/Bulls starting at 8:00 PM EST), the season really started at 7:00 with the Magic against the Pacers.  Non-fantasy players probably didn’t know this game ever happened.  All the sudden in the second quarter, Andrew Nicholson just went off, going 8-9 in the first half with 18 points.  Next thing you know, ESPN Fantasy Basketball is down.  Why RCL is on Yahoo!  But despite the Magic losing the lead and the offense going stagnant early in the third, Nicholson only played another few minutes in the second half and got stuck at 18 points in 19 minutes, only taking one additional shot and going 8-10 on the night.  Womp womp.  I never thought too much of Nicholson and don’t think he’s a guy to go rush to the wire for (unlike ESPN fantasy players!), and don’t forget Tobias Harris sat out with the ailing ankle.  19 minutes sounds about right for Nicholson, and he’s obviously not going to be a 48 PPG scorer per 48.  But I hope the kid enjoyed the moment in the sun during that first half shooting spree.  You temporarily broke Fantasy!  He was like the Fantasy Basketball Kevin Ogletree.  Here’s what else went down last night in the NBA:

Please, blog, may I have some more?

At last!  At long last.

The fantasy basketball season is upon us and we finally get to start seeing our lineups in action.  I, for one, am pumped like never before.  Sure it may be because it’s my first full season as the Razzball Editor on hoops, and sure, it may be because it’s the last year the North Carolina team will be called the “Bobcats”, but hey, we all have our things to look forward to!

If you’re new to Razzball, I’ll be giving you daily recaps of everything that went down across fantasy hoops (starting tomorrow) along with contributions from our other great writers (Pete, Dan and Slim) throughout the year.  And if you missed my mention of it once or twice through the preseason, I work for a company that makes the Yahoo Fantasy Basketball player highlights which will start going up tonight!  We also make the TNT Overtime highlights which come up on the timeline as you’re watching the game (It’s free!  And starts tonight!).  I bring this up, well first because it’s the coolest job, and second because I get to watch a lot of hoops and break down film of typically two games a night.  So at the end of Daily Recaps I’ll be letting you what games I’m watching that night and you can either tweet me (@jbgilpin) if you’re wondering about something in the game or ask in comments the next day.  We’re next level here at Razzball!

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Whewwww-eeee!  What a fun draft.  A good four-and-a-half hours after the draft start time I had picked my 17th player, and I think I really like my team.  But with a lot of picks, I did feel a bit like Jerry Lundegaard in Fargo trying to defend them; “it’s a real good deal this one, real good!”  Thanks again for filling out the league loyal Razzball Nation, and again thanks to our friends at RotoGold.com and the TDBSportsNetwork (which you can catch me on their “The Double Bonus” Show throughout the season and from last Wednesday) for helping class up the joint.

So if you missed the post launching the league, the Razzball Elite Dynasty League had our inaugural draft last night, an all-out brawl of an Auction draft with some really interesting bidding wars.  Looking at you Ben from RotoGold and you pumping up Giannis Antetokounmpo for $15 late!  The league is 20 teams, 12 starters (two of every position and two UTIL) and five bench spots.  Using my abacus over here, that’s 340 players owned.  Neeedless to say, things got really interesting once we were in the bottom end of starters.  There is no inflation, we voted on a true Dynasty application, with lifetime contracts.  Free agent pickups all must be done with your $100 yearly FAAB, and those players can be kept on a $1 lifetime contract.  So FAAB bidding will be a critical element through the season.

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Ahhhh, it’s finally that time when drafts are becoming more and more meaningful and abundant, we’ve got the REL Auction draft on Thursday, and two RCL leagues drafting this weekend which still have spots open!  Don’t forget the grand prize in RCL of Razzball gear and a permanent imprint of your team name shaved in my head.  I mean, where else can you win a fan league and brand the resident editor?  I’m not really looking forward to the looks I’m going to get (doesn’t help I’m 6’7 and people be lookin’ anyway!), especially if a team like Your Mom wins.  Ugh.

So in order to hopefully restore my honor, my second RCL team was drafted last Thursday, and I gotta say, while I’m lukewarm to my team, you RCL leaguemates were brutal.  Here’s how the draft went down (full draft results):

Please, blog, may I have some more?

So I’m sitting around and thinking to myself, “you know, I like auction leagues, I like deep leagues, but there isn’t a really deep dynasty/auction league I’m in…”  That’s my inner monologue!  So much deeper than Grey’s random italicized voice.  And it dawned on me that in my short time as Razzball Hoops Editor I’ve made some new industry friends over at Rotogold.com and the TDB Sports Network and wanted them to join in a really intense league that we could play with the loyal Razzball Nation.  So I started the REL (Razzball Elite League) and we currently have 12 spots open at the time of this posting to fill the 20-team league.  If you want in – shoot your e-mail below and I’ll invite ya!  It’s a league that’ll make you grow chest hair.  A league that’ll test your will.  A league that will separate the deep, scouring, fantasy nerds from the semi-manly.  So shoot your e-mail below if you want an invite and we’re looking forward to a nice relaxing Auction draft at 9:30 EST next Thursday.  Bring it!

As I’m sure you’ve probably read ad nasueum, every auction is different, any player can be nominated first and the money/team that guy goes to alters the rest of the draft.  So be sure to adjust accordingly and above all, get the guys you like!  Don’t get too caught up in price enforcing/inflating and enjoy the squad you put together.

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Listen, I know a lot of drafts have gone down, but I think we’re still right in the sweet spot of the drafting season.  And while we’re in that sweet spot, why not start up an RCL Hoops league where we need more commishes!  I am putting an embargo on comments unless you start up a league!  Haha – kidding.  But what’s less funny is the curse of my love for Trey Burke, as he’s going to have surgery on his index finger.  “Don’t you point at me!”  “I can’t help it, it’s the cast!”  The original report of him missing 8-12 weeks had him a 100% no bueno in my book, but then he tweeted out (I guess using other fingers) that it should only be 4-6 weeks.  Apparently he’ll be in a splint three weeks and will be reevaluated.  As in – “my fingy still hurty!”  I’m moving Burke way down and taking it as a sign to completely cool off my love for him.  As in Arnold in the last bad Batman movie cool.  “Tonight’s forecast – a freeze is coming in!”  John Lucas III becomes the starting PG it appears in most games and probably needs to be owned in deeper leagues, but I wouldn’t drop someone that good for him. Lucas III didn’t crack the updated rankings because I don’t see season-long impact from him.  Alec Burks could start some games at the point as well, and remains ranked as I think he plays both guard positions and minutes all year.  That is despite a horrible 1-13 shooting performance last night…  The Jazz are also re-evaluating trading for the Bulls’ Marquis Teague in a possible trade.  Then there’s a rumor that free agent Jamaal Tinsley might also get signed.  Sounding more and more like the Jazz PG is going to be a black hole this season.  So I’m avoiding them all, but still holding Burke in 12+ team leagues (like my 1st RCL League) and hoping.  Here’s what else has been going down through the preseason, and a final rankings update:

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Maybe because I didn’t follow the NBA preseason as closely last year as I was working exclusively on Football, but I feel like there’s been a lot more preseason injuries in only the first week of action than in year’s past.  Then again, Rodney Stuckey wasn’t even on the court, and slammed his thumb in his car door and needs surgery.  It’s gonna make for a hell of a hitchhiking thumb in that cast!  What it is with Detroit athletes and getting hurt in their cars?  Not even a month ago Nate Burleson broke his arm reaching over to keep some boxes from falling and slamming into the median.  All Detroit athletes need to avoid using motor vehicles.  Maybe that’s proof right there Obama shouldn’t have bailed out GM.  Give them all mopeds.  Oh wait, yeah that won’t work, will is Monta Ellis?  Maybe segways?  I’ve got it!  Just tell Andre Drummond he has to carry every Detroit athlete to where they need to go until his FT% goes above 50.  He’ll be like a Detroit athlete tauntaun.  See, tell me why I’m not an NBA coach.  I already had moved Kentavious Caldwell-Pope way up before the Stuckey injury with how the Pistons coaching staff was praising him, and look for KCP to move to right around 100 overall in my next rankings update.  Here’s what else went down since we last looked in at preseason action:

Please, blog, may I have some more?

The preseason is upon us!  And just like how you don’t put too much stock in Spring Training or the NFL Preseason – there isn’t anything to go too crazy about with what happens in the box scores.  However, some guys do get hurt, hurt guys can show they’re back, and there’s additional news to spruce up everyone’s rankings (my updated top 200 is below and broken down by position in the menu).  But before you scroll down! We really need some RCL commissioners to start up new leagues to show me just how bad my rankings are.  The winner gets their name shaved in my head for god’s sake!  Please don’t make it anything too profane… I don’t want to tell the barber he has to put @$%#% somewhere in my scalp!  Rather than belaboring current events and more RCL pandering, let’s just hop right in:

Please, blog, may I have some more?

RCL BasketballRazzball Hoops Nation!  It’s that time of year where you bring your smack to the table, your chips into the pot, your yelling at my ranks to the battleground.  It’s RCL time for Basketball and I’m excited for the best RCL season this side of Jeff Hornacek’s short-shorts.

 

Listen, I know RCL last year didn’t go very smoothly over here on hoops.  I took over as editor mid-season, had a lot of things not transition well, and I take responsibility for not shepherding through the final few months when I took over as well as I could have.  To make up for it, I went to Grey on my hands and knees and pleaded for the biggest prize pool we’ve ever given out with the sweetest Razz-pimp gear.  The top winner will get a 2013-2014 RCL Champion Jumpsuit (branded basketball of course) and their choice of a Razzball T-Shirt.  Second place won’t go empty-handed either, and will get a T-shirt of their own as well.  But it doesn’t stop there.  As an acknowledgement of shame and embarrassment from last year, I will shave (well – will have a professional barber somewhere – hopefully from Barbershop) the winning team’s name in my head and post on the Razzball YouTube channel.  That way when you see the back of my head like in my avatar pic, you’ll see in painstaking pale scalp skin the name of your winning team.  Wear your sunglasses!

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Here you have it, folks!  Below you have the entirety of the Razzball top 200, listed by their Yahoo position eligibility (spoiler alert – RCL Basketball might be there!) and my 1/2-a-twitter two-cents on each guy.  As the bartender in The Fifth Element would say, if you do “want some more” shoot your comments/bashing below!  I’ll be updating periodically through the preseason, so if any player moves up or down significantly, I will change their name to green or red so you can track player movement.

Remember that past the 120s or so, you can reach on virtually any of these ranked guys with reckless abandon in standard leagues.  In deeper leagues, I tried to map out about where I would get everyone.  A guy like Archie Goodwin I think has oodles of upside, but is buried in Yahoo and ESPN noodles (aka – their rankings) so I can wait on him in deeper leagues until his rank below, but might take a last-pick flyer on him in medium-depth leagues.  I’ll be breaking each position down every day this week so you have positional cheat sheets, but first here is our rankings:

Please, blog, may I have some more?

And we finally wrap up our big rankings week with Centers, the big men to carry your Boards-n-Blocks, so if Pete says any of these rankings are dead wrong – he knows what he’s doing!  Just as long as he steers clear of my Jonas Valanciunas love – the Luminescent Lithuanian is my call!  Has been since last year!  Every fantasy site has been stealing it from me!

As mentioned before, all Razzball ranks are broken down by Yahoo position eligibility (view all top 200 here), so there won’t be direct positional crossover to other fantasy sites:

Please, blog, may I have some more?