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If I lived in the country, I’d like to be within walking distance of a brook. Hearing and watching water flow is so relaxing to me. Plus, it could help irrigate my farmland and hopefully fish would swim rampant in it. I like watching fish. I’m a terrible fisherman, though, which bodes well for the fish. Funny story. My buddy took me fishing off the pier once and I caught this fish that was maybe six inches long. Kid next to me, maybe eight years old, looks at my fish, then looks me dead in the eye and says, “That ain’t no fish!” F U kid. Anyways, I mention a brook because I know what to expect from it. It’s going to bring water, fish, and it damn well ain’t going anywhere. Unless the neighbor upstream builds a dam. Damn! Russell Westbrook brings that same consistency.

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11 straight trip-dubs! He now has 128 for his career, 10 behind Magic Johnson and 53 behind Oscar Robertson. He should knock that out in two seasons tops. From a fantasy perspective, the high turnovers and low shooting efficiency keep him down (top 35 over the past seven games), but the counting stats. Oh, those counting stats. He’s AVERAGING a trip-dub. They flow like water down the Westbrook.

Here’s what else I saw last night:

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Sorry for the delay in content here from yours truly, as I’m still without power due to downed power lines from Hurricane Matthew.  After all our silliness on the Pod, turns out I got it worse than Slim!  But at least we had no damage and no broken bones unlike Gordon Hayward.  Man this one sucks!  Apparently Rodney Hood decided to talk about it in Game of Thrones vicarious detail, revealing the bone popped through the skin.  Injuries in preseason make me want to gouge my eyes out like The Mountain vs. Viper!  He’s expected to miss 4-6 weeks, which will only claim about 2-3 weeks of the regular season.  I’m likely to move him down a few spots in my Top 200 Ranks, but nothing substantial.  I think Hayward’s fans already overrate him a little bit, but if you trust the Gordon’s fisherman, then you have a discount situation on your hands!  Just don’t go reaching too hard too fast, or else you might see part of your pinky bone sticking out…  In the meantime, vault Joe Johnson up your deep league boards.  I already thought he’d be pretty usable in his bench role leading the 2nd unit, and now he gets a few weeks with starting minutes.  Here’s some other news and notes around the NBA during this preseason:

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Look, I’m only human.  I have urges.  I can’t help the way my brain chemistry works.  I try my best to fight it, to stay logical, to be sure and stay wrapped up…  But I can get caught in the rookie nookie like anyone!

After a DNP-CD on opening night, of course I was a little worried about Myles Turner‘s role with the Pacers moving forward, especially after being so high in the green with his rank that Ruby Rhod was even speechless….  He did have a little bit of a bum ankle Wednesday night, but dressed for the game and didn’t get off the bench.  And last night, I had this huge emission of relief when I saw Turner get into the game in the first wave of subs in the 1st quarter.  It felt like a sneeze only better!  Then that feeling of a sneeze turned into an epic euphoric trip that was slightly reminiscent of a KCP-high.  Turner looked absolutely unbelievable, well beyond the numbers on the stat sheet.  His line ended up 4-6 FG (0-2 FT) 8/4/0/2/1 in 18 minutes with 4 fouls, so it wasn’t exactly a flashy debut on paper.  But he’s a better FT shooter, a few fouls were ticky-tacky as the refs were calling it tight all night, and he is his own offense.  Was hitting jumpers from deep mid-range in isolation, had no hesitation, looked 100% confident and in control, and had a second monster block called off due to a baby nudge right before it went up.  He was the #1 option with the second unit, and while Ian Mahinmi is playing well (11/9 with a block last night – maintaining usability), I think Turner could easily fit with the starters.  They want to push the NBA lead for pace, he can hit quick jumpers, and is big and fundamental enough to man the paint, both on O and D.  Dude is biggggggg.  Listed at 240, but ain’t no way!  I’m 240 and 6’7, and he looks way bigger than me with 4 inches!  Jordan Hill started last night for the matchup against the big Grizzlies, but didn’t look special at all.  There will still be some easing in, but Turner should leap frog Hill sooner than later, and play C minutes down the stretch if there’s worries about Mahinmi’s FT shooting.  The line didn’t jump off the page unlike his play that jumped off the screen, so now is the time to shoot the buy lows and hope Turner’s owners didn’t see the debut.  Here’s what else happened last night in fantasy basketball action:

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Flashy player.  Ridiculous opportunity.  Buzzy preseason.  A lot of times it ends up fizzling out, sometimes it works out OK, and one time it’s C.J. McCollum.

C.J. went absolutely bonkers in his 15-16 debut, hitting 14-22 from the field including 6-9 3PTM for 37/6/1/1/0 and no TO.  Video game numbers!  So he’s a shooter, and he does what NBA shooters do – keeps draining em when they hot!  But I think we need to take a step back and consider a few things:  Other than massive Pts and treys it was fairly empty.  This was against the Pelicans, who without Brow, might look worse than the Sixers; they look horrific.  And the third thing that no one seemed to mention while anointing McCollum the next big thing in combo guards this preseason – he’s got a pretty extensive injury history.  He’s at the pinnacle of a sell high for me.  Do I think he’ll be hot garbage all the sudden?  Of course not.  But do I think he scores 37 again this year?  I don’t.  Well, unless they faced the Pelicans every night…  I’d shop around in the 40-50 range of ADP and see if you can get lucky.  As with all fantasy takeaways off one game, it’s always good to keep from overreacting.  Compared to fantasy football, we’re at the same point as about 9 minutes into the first quarter of week 1.  Still a long way to go.  Here’s what else went down during the first full slate of fantasy basketball action:

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Yikes.  After an injury-plagued 14-15 season where virtually every starter missed a good chunk of time, the injury bug hath reared it’s ugly head yet again for the Pelicans.  I need comfort!  Time to shame eat 50 beignets!

After Jrue Holiday‘s slow recovery from another stress reaction in his leg, the Pelicans plan to limit him to 15 minutes a game until January and sit him on back-to-backs.  Then Norris Cole suffered a high-ankle sprain a little over a week ago, and given an “up to 6 weeks” timetable.  And right when the Tyreke Evans buzz couldn’t get louder, we get hit with news on The Blindside (starring Sandra Bullock) that he had arthroscopic knee surgery and will be out 6-8 weeks.  The Pelicans need a new conditioning staff!  Hopefully this gets all the injuries out of the team’s system and we see 82 games of Brow…  Anyway, the Pelicans signed Nate Robinson late last week, and all the sudden he’s looking at starting minutes to open the season – starting when Jrue sits and playing a ton off the bench after Jrue’s 15 allotted minutes.  Lord help me, but I actually drafted him in the JB vs. Slim RCL last night…  All he needs to do is put it within 15 feet of Brow and he could fall into 5 assists with the upside for a few 3s and some points with low TO (18 Pts last night, but 0 AST and 4 TO – had 9 dimes previous 2 games with only 3 TO, TO isn’t usually an issue).  It’s like Jose Calderon, but with a few more minutes.  Ugh, I just threw up in my mouth a little with that comp though…  Here’s what else has gone down over the past few days in preseason action:

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Razzup people?! It’s a glorious time of year! Postseason baseball, football in full swing, and best of all, the NBA regular season is about to begin! Less than two weeks! This will probably be my last post before the regular season starts, so pretty exciting stuff! Just a public service announcement to start out, I’ll be writing the weekly waiver wire column that will be released every Thursday afternoon during the regular season. So before that starts, I’d like to get everyone’s input on a few things: First, does anyone have a suggestion for the name of the series? I really want to stay away from the standard “waiver wired” theme that seems to be really prevalent in fantasy circles. It does have to have either wire or waiver somewhere in the title though. So let me know in the comments if you have any ideas!

The second order of business is the format. Is it more helpful to sort waiver pickups by overall value? Or sort them by overall value at their position? Also, I’d like to answer trade question on the article comments, and possibly feature at least a couple interesting trades, from the past weeks comments section, at the end of every article. Would you guys be interested in that?

So let me know what you all think about those questions, and I’m definitely open for input on what you’d like to see!

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Mmmmmmm, is there anything saucier in fantasy basketball than a rookie fresh from a great Summer League tearing up preseason?!  Obviously Ricky Rubio‘s haircut is the only thing saucier to me!

After Stanley Johnson posted some crazy stats in Vegas (16.2 PTS 1.8 STL 1.0 BLK), StanVan has given his prodigal son StanJo a ton of run in preseason and the rook has taken off with multi-3PTM games in his first 3, a rainbow line last Thursday against BKN (12/7/2/2/2) and frequently getting to the stripe.  Unfortunately he’s cooled off a tad the past two games with a little bit of a dud last night, and he’s in a pretty robust rotation of SG and SF, mainly with the much more boring Marcus Morris playing solid this preseason as well.  But even at likely a bench role to start the year, Johnson can play anywhere from the 1-to-4, as he’s already played some out-of-position PG this preseason.  In the last update to my Top 200 ranks, I moved StanJo to 94th for the rainbow line upside.  I’m not going too crazy for the rookie nookie, but he’s certainly worth a look around 100 in the 9th round.  If only he had a twin like Morris – but also named Stanley – then we could have dueling StanJos in the NBA!  Here’s what else has gone on through the past week of preseason:

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Man, the question posed in the title there is a real toughie…  I need to make a pros and cons list.  I mean, more like a pros and D-league list…

First to last night – how can you call a throw right there?!  Is Brad Stevens calling plays for the Seahawks all the sudden?!  Ugh, enough football, but we’ll tie one more NFL reference here in the open if we can…

The Cavs went into Minnesota on Saturday night, and Kevin Love‘s return to Minnesota wasn’t exactly a metaphorical hug.  I love the random ginger at 0:55…  He has no idea what to do!  He’s like, “boo!” wait, I mean, maybe I should clap?  It’s like the end of Air Bud where both the creepy pedophile looking dude and the annoying kid try to call for the emotionally conflicted dog.  Anyway, Cleveland got to see both of their #1 picks from the last two years, and spoiler alert!  Andrew Wiggins did better.  A cool 31/1/1/4/0 on 14-25 shooting and absolutely no issues with Kevin Martin back in the line-up.  And still no Ricky Rubio, who is back tonight! All of Wiggins’ damage done with recent-signee Lorenzo Brown playing all 48.  Meanwhile, Cleveland’s “other” former #1 pick Anthony Bennett played 13 minutes of nothingball.  0/1/1/0/0, and as we mentioned on the Pod with Andy Behrens the other week, Draymond Green went in the second round of that draft!  Hopefully Kevin Costner had nothing to do with this Cleveland team’s Draft Day.  That movie bombed harder than the Manziel pick!  Here’s what else went down over the weekend in fantasy basketball action:

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Duh-duh-duh-duhhhh.  Duh-duh-duh-duh-duh!  Mandatory to listen to this while reading.

It’s the final day of the regular season!  If you’re reading you’re probably in your league championship or you’re awesome and keeping up with fantasy for next season.  I’ll be starting to do some offseason work next week, and probably start formulating the Razzball rankings for the 2013-2014 season.

But for those of you in your championships, it’s the final countdown.  One last day of a full roster to either snag that roto title or beat that douche who always changes his league smack or motto to something he finds funny about how good one of his players did.  We get it, “Luis Scola’d your nuts last night.”  Time to put him away.

Here’s some story lines to keep in mind and players out there to consider with a little recap of last night sprinkled in:

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Against the terrible Bobcats and with everyone on the Knicks benched, Chris Copeland just went off.  He’s always been a scorer, but made the Bobcats wish they had this guy starting all year instead of playing inconsistent minutes for the Knickerbockers.  Copeland went 12-25 (4-8 3PTM) for 32 Pts 7 Rebs 2 Asts and 1 Stl.  He played all but 1 minute of this game with all your New York regulars sitting this one out.  I think he’s a must start in Wednesday’s finale.

The end of the NBA regular season is always rife with crazy games like this.  So I’m going to try and hit on all the guys that can make an impact for you tonight as streamers and Wednesday:

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Tobias Harris is going to be immortalized in my fantasy career as the guy who got me through some injuries and LeBron benchings to win titles in almost every league in 2013.  I was on this guy at the trade deadline and continue to ride him into the sunset with a twinkle in my eye.

With LeBron yet again benched like I had a feeling he would be, Harris was a monster against his former Bucks going 13-20 (3-4 3PTM) 30 Pts 19 Rebs and 5 Asts.  Harris hit a monster 3 with 1.9 seconds left to send it into OT and put the Magic on his back.  That kinda sounds like a sex move.  There’s something kinda like that called a Houdini, but I’ll let our friends at urban dictionary or something explain that one.

Here’s what else went down last night across the NBA:

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Fantasy Championship!  Some leagues have just wrapped up their finals and hopefully you’ve got a nice Shiva for your mantleplace.  But in other leagues the championship has just begun or it’s the last week-and-a-half for roto.

With a lot of big name players (ahem! Dwyane Wade ahem!) not getting on the court, there’s going to be a ton of new fringe guys getting minutes.  It’s been since Saturday since we’ve had a round-up, so let’s look at the weekend’s action (no games yesterday with the NCAA final):

Please, blog, may I have some more?