The Warriors are now fighting to regain their composure after the massive injury to Kevin Durant. Unfortunately, without him, this is a much weaker squad than last year. This was quite obvious in their 87-94 loss to the mediocre Bulls squad on national TV. Although, Matt Barnes did an admirable job of filling in KD with a massive 2/0/0/0/0 line…
Please, blog, may I have some more?
by: JB Gilpin
Man, hell of a weekend! Injuries, DNPs, I got a credit card hacked, went to a wedding, saw the sorry Panthers beat Jay’s sorrier Chargers… Out of control out there! Thankfully we’re nearing Christmas, time to see some family, gets some time off work, and hopefully get our fantasy teams healthy… But noooooooooooooo! The fantasy gods gave us a bah humbug last night, with Nerlens Noel finally debuting off knee surgery, only to go down with a kankle. He was looking pretty good too, especially with a little dunk on his first basket!
The hair on the other hand… I dunno… Shot 3-5 FG, hit his 2 FT, for 8 points and a steal in his first 10 minutes of the season. Sucks it ended prematurely with another injury, and especially on the Sixers, who are treating everyone with kid’s gloves and have too many centers anyway. Also sucks we don’t have any idea what his role will be, as Joel Embiid sat this one out to further maintain his EMBIIIIIID minutes. As long as it’s under 4 hours, we’re good! Here’s what else went down over the weekend in Fantasy Basketball action:
Please, blog, may I have some more? by: JB Gilpin
Could there be anyone else in the NBA that everyone can get behind and root for than Jrue Holiday?! At this rate, he needs to run for prez in 2020! And just to make him even more likable, he’s now wearing rec spec goggles. Soooooooo dope! It’s like he’s playing ball underwater! When he hit this stepback, I’m pretty sure I heard him say “you miss me?!” on the game broadcast, but I have a feeling it was my mind playing tricks on me…
Jrue didn’t take any time to shake off the rust, going 21/2/7/1/1 on 8-14 shooting against the Blazers Friday night (including that sexy crossover), then 22/2/9/1/0 on 9-17 shooting against the Hornets on Saturday. 14:4 AST:TO to start it off, shot over 50% both games… Just so awesome! I know what I’m thankful for! And just to make things EVEN MORE awesome, he rewarded Tim Frazier owners who remained patient, by showing they can co-exist. Bi-partisan! 12/3/8 and 17/5/8 for Frazier in those two games, plus the Pelicans won both of them. And they weren’t against cupcakes either, winning at home against the Blazers then the Hornets. Pass the beignets, we got a party goin on! As a Frazier owner in a couple RCLs, I’m going to hang strong until his numbers tell me otherwise. Unfortunately, I’m not a Jrue owner anywhere though… Depressing! But I don’t even care, Jrue is a boss, and if he beats me in some fantasy matchups, I will tip my cap and be rooting for him anyway. You’re my boy, Jrue! Here’s what else went down over the weekend in fantasy hoops:
Please, blog, may I have some more?As we prepare for the 2016-17 Fantasy Basketball Season, I’ll be taking a look at each NBA team with their major adds and drops to see if we can pan for any surprise rotational gold. This open is especially witty for the Nuggets. We’ll be counting down from worst NBA regular season to the best, mainly because I’m still figuring out how to rank the Warriors…
Phoenix Suns (23-59)
Key Acquisitions:
F Jared Dudley
F/C Dragan Bender (Rookie)
F Marquese Chriss (Rookie)
G Tyler Ulis (Rookie)
G Leandro Barbosa
Key Losses:
F Markieff Morris
F Mirza Teletovic
F Jon Leuer
G Ronnie Price
G/F Chase Budinger
A Feeling of Complacency
Is it weird that I always really liked the Suns logo?! It just looks cool every time I see it!
What a draft day for the Suns! Absolutely loaded at guard, the Suns manage to snag two upside-y bigs that can stretch the floor, hit treys, and play some D. Of course, they’re 19-year-old projects and have a wide range of outcomes, but as a rebuilding team, they made awesome moves.
Besides the rookie class, the Suns hold off on free agency and only invest in a few Milk Duds. They still have one too many guards, but given the injury issues of Knight & Bledsoe, depth isn’t the worst thing. That said, it wouldn’t be surprising to see one of the two dealt at the deadline through Phoenix’s rebuilding efforts. But going into opening night, here’s how they’re looking:
Please, blog, may I have some more? by: JB Gilpin
PPPPPAAAANNNNTTTHHHHEEERRRRSSSS!!!!! Aight, aight, this is fantasy hoops, we’ll just leave it at that.
On Friday morning, the Clippers shed one of their % drain players, giving the DNP-king [another] fresh start in Houston. And what does Josh Smith do in his debut?! Goes all J Smoove like you’d expect! Goes 1-10 FG, 0-2 FT, for some reason took 4 treys and missed them all (what did you expect after bricking the first 3, Smoove?!), but still gets a rainbow line for 2/5/6/2/3. Oh yeah, 2 TO in there too. Smoove did bounce back last night after almost single-handedly costing the Rox a W in his debut, going 16/3/2/2/2 yesterday afternoon for back-to-back rainbows. He apparently stole someone else’s talent ala Space Jam alien, because he shot 6-14 FG, 2-2 FT, and had only 1 TO. “Talkin’ bout the Dream Team, we’re the Mean Team!” Josh Smith is not a good 9-cat fantasy asset in any league, and even in 8-cat, he’s probably not ownable in 12ers for me. That mean enough?! But the real criminal aspect of the acquisition is of course their absolute hatred for Terrence Jones. HE’S getting the full Mean Girls treatment – they’re feeding him Swedish weight gaining bars, JB Bickerstaff made out with his boyfriend, they’re turning his best friends against him… That organization is an institutional bully – culminating in a whopping 10 minutes of action last night with Dwight Howard (kankle) still out. I didn’t understand the McHale firing, I don’t understand this trade, I don’t understand the Ty Lawson signing… They’re taking this off the rails faster than Lindsay Lohan’s Prius! Or, well, Lawson’s Prius… Here’s what else went down over the weekend in fantasy hoops action, plus The 7 Ahead for Week 14:
Please, blog, may I have some more? by: JB Gilpin
…The Sixers don’t have a Clue, that’s for sure!
On a night of comebacks where we saw the Spurs come back from their largest deficit at home to beat the Cavs, we also saw the Bulls down more than 20 in the 2nd quarter and 16 at half come back and just obliterate the Sixers in the 2nd half and overtime by unleashing the Godzilla.
“God” the key word in that one! Jimmy Butler just went insane going 15-30 FG (2-4 3PTM 21-25 FT) for 53 Pts. “Ohhhhhh, look at me, I’m Slim, I get another point on the 30-pt Challenge Board! Do you get double if they score 60, because it was close!” And of course I poked the Slim, texting him earlier yesterday afternoon that Butler might not play, being listed as a game-time call due to a kankle. Yeahhhhh, so much for that. At least I won’t suffer this kind of loss again, as Butler made himself a top-10 scorer last night, upping it to 23.1 PPG. Butler still kept it multi-cat with 10 boards, 6 dimes and 3 steals to top if off. I haven’t been so turned on by a Butler since Michael Caine! He’s also continuing a trend that the second round wings are paying off – Buckets, Kawhi Leonard, Paul George, Draymond Green… It’s really making some nice parity among the game’s elites so there’s enough to not mind a later draft pick in 16-17, as you’ll be able to nab two solid players at the first turn. It’s going to make next year really interesting… Here’s what else went down last night in fantasy hoops action:
Please, blog, may I have some more? by: JB Gilpin
Welcome back from Thanksgiving! I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday, with leftovers still to spare to get you through a full work-week back. I even bought a few extra boxes of stuffing since that ran out fast on T-giv day! Got two or three meals left to go… God I love Thanksgiving!
And while I added several inches to my waistline, Draymond Green has been stuffing his stats even more! Back-to-back tripdubs over the weekend for #OccupyDraymondGreen, going 14/10/10/1/2 then 13/11/12/1/4 on Friday and Saturday. The multi-cat phenom hit two treys as well on Friday – averaging a career-best 1.6 3PTM a game on the season – while his FG% has continued to climb all four seasons as a pro, up to 48.2% this year. It’s almost like the Warriors have good players or something! The only knock is his TO are up, but even in standard 9-cat he’s bringing back top-15 value on BBMonster and top-10 on Yahoo. I remain a little incredulous that a lot of people thought 2014-15 was a fluke (I guess?), and I had to defend a “high” rank a few times in the comments. So after this Thanksgiving weekend, I am thankful Dray is helping our Yahoo F&F team be decent this year and that rank is working out… Because trust me, a lot has gone wrong. Friggin’ Rubio… Here’s what else went down over the weekend in fantasy hoops, plus The 7 Ahead for week 6:
Please, blog, may I have some more?Crazy game in OKC last night! It was a crazy night across the board! For a while I thought the Sixers were really going to pull that one out – had the lead most of regulation and then clawed back late – but Russell Westbrook playing like Michael Jordan these days got the Thunder the OT win.
Behind all of RW’s historical hooblah which we’ll go into later, is Isaiah Canaan‘s career game. Career best 31 points on 10-16 FG (8-13 3PTM 3-3 FT) 31/7/6/1/0. And of course he does that right after I said you’d rather own Ish Smith! And Ish did ish in 15 minutes… All that said, Canaan had 29 early in the 4th and the Sixers couldn’t figure out ways to consistently get their hot shooter the rock. The continuity was awful with Philly only staying in the game by taking some horrible deep 3 pointers with no spacing or rebounders. It felt like one of those college intramural games where the much better team was struggling because the other team’s scrubs kept hitting 3s for some reason. Did I say intramural? I meant more like every time Duke beats Chapel Hill! Only because of the 3s… Although Chapel Hill has trouble teaching their players the difference between “2” and “3” so there’s that… I would still Aaron Brooks over Canaan and I’m not dropping a valuable guy just for this hot shooting game. Here’s what else went down last night in fantasy hoops action:
Please, blog, may I have some more? by: JB Gilpin
Happy New Year’s Eve, Razzball Nation!
May your champagne be stocked, your last night of horrific eating before a New Year’s resolution be gorged, and your lists of things to reflect on be lengthy. Number one on my list right now is my groin is healthy! Rough, rough injury for the Charlotte Hornets and fantasy owners’ front lines with Al Jefferson out at least the next month with an adductor strain. Not that you need it, but Dr. JB is linking a little pic here [FAMILY FRIENDLY!]. Enough groin talk already!
When I heard Big Al was out for a month, I made the same face as Bill Walton’s Basketball-Reference picture… Lots of shock waves across the Hornets, with Bismack Biyombo likely starting at the 5. I don’t think he plays 30 minutes a night, but the boards-n-blocks upside puts him into the Rudy Gobert conversation. Like Gobert, Biyombo won’t be winning a game of knokout anytime soon… Shooting 44% from the FT line this season, and under 50% in his career. A big winner here is Marvin Williams, who should be owned in 14ers and worth a bookmark for shallower. Off 8/14/3/3/0 Monday night, the Hornets are going to move Cody Zeller into a lot of C minutes as the Hornets have no real front-line depth. Williams hit a couple of treys in that game as well, and as with all Hornets, is in line for a few more shots with Big Al’s 16.3 FGA distributed to the masses. For deep leaguers, don’t forget about Noah Vonleh who was sent to the D-League recently for a little seasoning. He’s expected to be called back up momentarily, and as you’d assume with a team losing their best player, the Hornets are likely to fall even further in the Eastern standings. Vonleh might get some experiential run as the season presses on to develop the 9th overall pick in this year’s loaded draft. Here’s what else went down last night across the NBA:
Please, blog, may I have some more? by: JB Gilpin
Wow, what a wild night across the NBA-osphere. Tons of injuries, lots of scrubs getting some burn, if I didn’t know better, I woulda though it was late March. But no! I guess we can start with that other JB as Jerryd Bayless moved into the starting line-up and lit up the Hawks for a season-high 29 Pts. Shooting 12-21, it was pretty ThrAGNOFfy for 29/2/2/1/0 with 5 treys. Why you avoid the 3-point specialists on draft day! Who knows what preppy-boy Brad Stevens is going to do next, and while getting the Pacers on Saturday isn’t a great matchup, home games vs. GS, BKN, then DET next week could be a 10 3PTM week for JB. And while he’s not as multi-cat as the real JB over here, we can all grab the band if we need some scoring. I’ll wear a headband as well for the moral support! Here’s what else went down on a very busy night of injuries and surprise games in the NBA:
Please, blog, may I have some more? by: JB Gilpin
No no no, that’s not some sort of euphemism for not flushing… Victor Oladipo had a unreal game last night, almost giving the Magic enough to beat the Bulls in tres overtime. I watched this game and was making all sorts of Oladipo highlights slashing to the rim. Ended up with a 35/4/8/3/1 line shooting 15-24 with a trey. Career-high alert! And it wasn’t due to the minutes (58), he only scored 2 in the 3 OTs I believe. Did boost his dimes by a few though… A guy I was extremely steadfast about holding onto and buying low is paying out your quarterly dividends. Well, it would be more like bi-weekly dividends, but if a stock did that I want in! The 8 TOs last night was a bugaboo, but just part of VO’s game. He’s going to continue to get these big minutes and touches for the duration. Pumped to see him finish out his rookie of the year campaign. Here’s what else I saw in a busy night of NBA hoops:
Please, blog, may I have some more? by: JB Gilpin
Leandro Barbosa had a really good run in the 2000’s, captaining the Black Pearl, slashing to the basket with some great drives – just like the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise was all-around fun to watch in his prime. After a decline in Leandro’s play, he was shipped to Toronto for some turkey named Hedo Turkoglu. Barbosa averaged nearly 13 Pts a game north of the border in two seasons, but then he was constantly asea with stints with the Pacers and Celtics before tearing his ACL in February last year. And man, did that injury make him look attractive to the Wizards, who traded for him in a salary move. Never playing for the Wizards and not getting any deals in the offseason, Barbosa looked stranded on the Isla de Muerta. But some rum runners and/or braiding human hair from his back to lash together sea turtles got him back to civilization and re-signed by his former Suns a week ago. After three meh games, Barbosa broke out with a 21/3/2 game last night. Commodore Barbosa! Bootstraps’ bootstraps! He stayed on the court just over 30 minutes, and was infinitely better scoring the ball than Gerald Green, who shot 2-16. Labradoodle alert! No need to Geoffrey Rush to the wire in 10-teamers or 12-teamers, unless you’ve got a banged up squad in 12-team and only need points. He’s a little interesting in deeper leagues though. Mainly because he’ll get minutes, get shots, and will breakout on cold Green nights. Here’s what else I saw last night across the Caribbean:
Please, blog, may I have some more?A little birdie told me our 2024 Fantasy Baseball subscriptions are live. The little birdie also said it includes our Draft War Room. You really wanna lose in a fantasy baseball league to a little birdie? Would be kinda embarrassing, tbhhttps://t.co/1ag7IFSYS0
— Razzball (@Razzball) January 8, 2024
