It appears that maybe the Rookie of the Year race could resemble the Dunkin Donuts jumbotron race the United Center plays during time outs atBulls games. It’s nothing special: an animated donut, coffee cup and bagel race twice around an animated track. There are six pre-recorded outcomes that play on a loop every six games. The coffee cup starts off with a huge lead, slows down and here comes the bagel. Now the donut takes a big lead. Last turn, here comes coffee cup. Oh, it looks like coffee cup. Except that coffee cup has suddenly stopped and bagel finishes! The place goes nuts. The only two things that get Bulls fans more buzzing is when the team scores 100 points and everyone wins Big Macs and when Brian Scalabrine enters the game. Go figure. People enjoy races that don’t matter. So when I tell you that the Rookie of the Year race has Kyrie Irving in the lead, after MarShon Brooks and Iman Shumpert took brief and early leads, I don’t blame you when you roll your eyes. For fantasy purposes though, it’s worth speculating that with D.J. Augustin missing the Cats’ next three games due to an inflammatory condition of the sesmoid bone (which is either a busted big toe or the title of the most awful of Dr. Who episodes), Kemba Walker seems poised to make his own jog around the ROY track. Last night, Walker earned a career-best 22/5/2 line that included 2 blk and 2 3ptm in 36 minutes. Maybe this game is an anomaly borne from nice timing and we never see him do this again. Maybe he carries this on for another week, then returns to 11/3/3 for the rest of the year, or maybe this is the spark that catches fire. Any which way, own Walker if he’s unowned, play Walker if you haven’t been and always root for the donut at the United Center. Here’s what else went down Tuesday night in fantasy basketball.
Wait! Don’t go just yet. There’s still time to get in on the $1,000 NBA fantasy hoops contest over at Daily Joust. Even if you don’t win the jackpot, there are still small money prizes to be had for entrants. People are still into money, right? I’m very out of touch! Anyway, click here or in the upper right corner of this page to check it out. See it? Okay, back to the blurbs.
Derrick Brown – Season-high 15 points to go along with 4 rebounds, 2 steals and a block in 33 minutes. By season’s end, you will have owned every last member of the Charlotte Bobcats.
Bismack Biyombo – Played 11:07, didn’t block nothin’. Remember what I said two days ago: he needed 23 more seconds.
Ryan Anderson – 24 points and 5 3ptm last night. The night before? 0 points, 0 3ptm. Two-game averages? 12 pts/2.5 3ptm. See how that works? We’re good.
Glen Davis – Big Baby jumps with the meager force of someone launching from a patch of black ice, which explains why his shooting percentage is .345 in his last four games, but not how’s he’s managed to average 7.8 boards in that span.
Darren Collison – Failed to dole out one assist. Matter fact, not a single Pacer guard managed an assist last night. I don’t know what a tiny Pacer is for, if not to hand the ball to the larger Pacers standing closer to the basket.
Carmelo Anthony – Held scoreless in the first half of a game for the fifth time in his career. Ended the game with 1 point in 30 minutes. It was the first game of his career he played that many minutes without scoring. Just 32 more games to catch up to Dennis Rodman.
Iman Shumpert – 1-for-9. ShumpShump has never taken more than six shots in a game before tonight. The fact that he chose his absolute coldest game to do so tells you much of what you need to know about the rookie.
Amir Johnson – I could have made Aaron Gray the subject of this blurb about Johnson losing his starting spot to one of the statistically worst players in the league, despite the fact that he’s healthy, but I didn’t. I didn’t because Aaron Gray is not a fantasy option for any team. And right now, man, neither is Johnson.
Andrea Bargnani – Drained 34 points along with 5 3ptm after returning from six games worth of calf pain. With DeRozan completely pooping out this season, Bargs is Toronto’s best offensive option, bar none-i.
DeMar DeRozan – 4/1/2, on 2-for-8 shooting. SELL! /Adam has the urge to throw something breakable against wall, has nothing in his hand with which to throw, goes to the kitchen to grab some crackers, hurls them against the wall, not good enough, picks up a coffee mug, crashes it against the wall, not good enough, picks up cat, looks at cat, decides the mug was okay enough, puts cat down.
Antawn Jamison – 2-for-6, with 5 points. This after his 1-for-10, 4-point performance on Friday.
Ronnie Price – 4/5, with 2 steals. Jared Dudley: 6/1, with 3 steals. Meh. Tomato-To Otto.
Raymond Felton – Two assists, six turnovers. Ray-Ray’s assist:turnover ratio is, I think, um … shizz:balls.
