The Flash is finally finding his stride!
Skiles still had some “SKIIIIIIILES!” moments, but is finally letting the youngun Aaron Gordon get his consistent minutes in the starting 5. It was such a tough decision sitting that phenomenal Channing Frye! Ugh. And as much as I’d like to see the Magic lose every game to get Skiles the hell outta there, he’s coached Orlando to a better record than anyone woulda thought. Last night he kept rotations that were sparking a comeback, led by Gordon who went 19/14/5/0/2 in 39 minutes, shooting 8-11 with no TO. The only black eye was a very unsavory 3-9 FT. That’s almost two black eyes! But he’s been a decent enough FT shooter to not worry too much on that… With the minutes starting to look consistent (gulp, I may have jynxed it… SKIIIIILES!), Gordon is looking like a must own in all 10 team leagues or deeper. The STL and BLK have been pretty anemic until last night, but as the Magic were streaking late in the 3rd quarter, he just seemed to get this stride in him, and little extra pep in his step. He had a nasty steal with a behind the back shake-n-bake then dime during the comeback run, and a great putback slam in the 4th. Sometimes the younguns can really build off success, so let’s hope this is the start of a streak as epic as Will Ferrell heading to the quad. There’s more coming! Here’s what else went down over the weekend in fantasy hoops, plus The 7 Ahead for Week 15:
Evan Fournier – 24 Pts for his highest outing since Nov 18. SKIIIIIIIILES! Crazy he did that in only 23 minutes, as Skiles played Mario Hezonja – who I guess was decent – for 33 minutes, and put the Elfrid on the Shelfrid, giving him only 15. Rotations were weird, but they frustratingly worked…
Marcus Smart – 26/5/0/2/0, but where’s the beef?! Wish he had a few dimes… But no complaints, 5 treys and 5-5 FT makes it a nasty line. A lot of commenters seemed to be getting off the Smart bandwagon, but I’ve been a fan, recommending a strong hold. I mean, it’s in my avatar and everything!
Jordan McRae – After an acceptable debut getting signed from the D-League (12/2/4/1/0 Friday night), people seemed to be going Gnarls Barkley McRae-zy! While he had that 61-point D-League game, he’s still a guy who was cut by the Sixers… Then went all the way down to 4/1/1/0/0 last night with 3 TO. And that was in another absolute dud from Archie Goodwin. Lordy the Suns are a mess…
Carmelo Anthony – After panicking all his owners, had a nice weekend of 19/10/8/4/0 and 24/10/2/0/2 lines. But just to keep everyone jittery, said he still has soreness in his knee. Yikes. He’s pretty much a rich-man’s Tyreke Evans. You ride it when it’s good, and just expect some DNP-knees.
Langston Galloway – The Harlem Renaissance is putting up some crazy metrics-whore numbers after getting inserted into the starting line-up, going 11/7/5/3/1 Friday then 9/3/5/3/0 last night, without a single TO. Only cat he wasn’t great in was FT%. We can only hope that when Jose Calderon gets back from the groin, he can sit that groin on the bench!
Dwyane Wade – 1.5 rainbow! 24/4/7/3/3 at the Bucks, and followed it up with a 17/4/8/2/1 line last night as the Heat beat up on the spiraling Hawks. Coach Butthole is tightening up there in ATL!
Giannis Antetokounmpo – They say at the end of the rainbow is a pot of gold, but for Giannis it was a pot of poo! 28/4/6/3/2 for a sexy rainbow, but at the end of it was 6 TO. He’s having a great year, but those TO are starting to get as out of control as Greece’s economy.
James Harden – His 33/7/7 Friday night was very meh for Harden… I wasn’t even gonna mention him! But Harden didn’t see his name in the early draft of the post, so went ham Saturday night for 40/7/11/4/0 with 6 treys. Beard en fuego!
Terrence Jones – …the Rockets are en furiating though, that’s for sure! 14 then 6 minutes in two games over the weekend. Feb 18 is the trade deadline, so you have to wait for a trade which might not happen, PLUS a landing spot where’s he featured enough to be worth the stash. Tough to hold in 10 or 12ers.
Clint Capela – I’d say Tjones’ chances of being what he was last year post-ASB are 12.5%. Or what Capela shot at the FT line Saturday night! Eesh, 1-8. It’s almost like…
Dwight Howard – …is his mentor or something! To be fair, Dwight has his best FT% since 2010-11, so there’s that… Then again, he can’t keep his shoulders from popping when Nene fouls him… It was apparently a little scrappy, but when I tried to find a video to put in here, all I got was Show Me How To Nae Nae videos. Stay tuned to brittle-Dwight’s injury status.
Serge Ibaka – Fantasy owners are turning on him faster than Jeff Teague! Pretty brutal past two games, with 8 total points, 6 total boards and 2 total blocks. Yeesh. However, the minutes were abnormally low, so I would try some lowball offers. Gauging by commenter frustration, he should come pretty cheap!
Enes Kanter – Back-to-back 20/10 games, and a big reason Ibaka lost some run. At least, I’d imagine there’s some correlation. Enes Kanter – killing the value of high-end blockers one team at a time…
Dirk Nowitzki – 4 blocks against the Nets Friday night. “Hey Brolo, why don’t you try jumping a little when you take layups, buddy!” After the defensive outpouring (has 2 steals as well), he gets rewarded with a DNP rest. But they were playing the Suns, if there’s any game you don’t need him, it’s that one.
Gorgui Dieng – Choo choo! Hop aboard the Dieng Train! Getting starts at the 4, and went 20/15/2/2/0 against the Jazz Friday night. I’d probably have to take him over Gordon if that opportunity presented itself, but man that would be a tough call!
Andrew Wiggins – Oh dear lord, yeah this is going into a deep abyss of emotion for me! Easily my worst call, as he had a 2-11 FG travesty for 5 points against the Jazz and was 2-12 at half before I gouged my eyes out against the Blazers last night. Yup – went full Oedipus.
Zach LaVine – Was 1-7 last night at half, another reason for the Game of Thrones eye gouge. And this was off three straight hot games! Maybe I’ll wake up, get a Minority Report eye-implant, and see he turned it around…
Derrick Favors – Felt more like 6 months, but after about a month out we finally have Favors back from his back. 20/9/1/0/1 against the Wolves Friday night. Welcome back!
Michael Kidd-Gilchrist – Geez, way to COMPLETELY botch his recovery timetable, Hornets! Had a decent debut and was playing very MKGish before I went to sleep last night, which keeps him more on the periphery of 12ers than in the inner circle.
Austin Rivers – As Kevin Garnett would say, against the Lakers “ANYTHING IS POSSIBLEEEEEE!” Almost rainbowed for 17/2/1/2/2 against the worse LA team, then back to normally Rivers yesterday afternoon – hit some shots to score 16 points, but did nothing else.
LeBron James – Caused a nice hubbub by wearing the wrong shorts. With another Panthers Super Bowl coming up, the last thing we need is another wardrobe malfunction!
Stanley Johnson – On a little bit of a roll scoring 12+ Pts in 4 of the past 5, but really isn’t doing enough anywhere else to get me all warm-n-fuzzy like everyone was in the preseason. Succumbed to the rookie nookie!
Brandon Jennings – Got hot against the Raps, 22/4/0/2/1 in 22 minutes with 5 treys. This one was particularly tough to envision after he didn’t hit a field goal his previous 3 games! Like in marriage, a good BJ is really rare…
Harrison Barnes – Hit a trey as time nearly expired in an epic, tough win against the… Sixers?! What in the hell?! Too bad he is pretty boring for fantasy and was awful last night…
Brook Lopez – Broke Lopez is all Fixed right now! Crazy lines over the weekend, going rainbow 28/12/3/2/2 against the Mavs on Friday, but in a loss where the Nets didn’t even score 80! Sheesh. Followed it up with a huge 33/10/1/3/4 near rainbow, but again the Nets lost to the awful Pelicans. His value is red hot, the Nets would be INSANE not to trade him for a big haul at the break.
Nikola Jokic – Man, this guy is insane! Jock Itch for 16/11/2/5/0 against the Pacers, even chipping in a trey. He’s been a huge surprise to me, a real Tough-Actin’ Tinactin.
Myles Turner – To the big man I DID see coming, Myles got a whopping 40 minutes of run against the Nugs. Now, OT and no Ian Mahinmi (sore back) helped, but it’s still nice to see they’ll let the rook roll at times. It was also nice to see Vogel stick with Turner at the 4 instead of a spot start at the 5 – I think it shows commitment to the starting PF role. The line wasn’t shimmering (8/9/3/0/4), but even when the shot is off, it seems the swats are there!
Jordan Hill – He’s been mimicking his game off Turner to get more minutes! Picked up the start at the 5 and had a crazy 20/7/3/1/6 line. 6 blocks! Geez Denver, get your head out of the clouds! And by clouds, I mean mary jane clouds.
Monta Ellis – Back-to-back huge games for Monta, going a season-high 32 points on a 32/9/6/3/0 line in the OT win against Denver. Took friggin’ 28 shots too! Paul George only taking 15… Crazy talk!
Jeff Green – Well, I streamed him as a ThrAGNOF and he’s staying hot! 29/1/2/3/0 with 3 treys, but for a guy that hasn’t averaged over a steal a game since 2009-10, I’m not buying this little STL streak he’s on that’s helping his value. Once it goes cold, I’m droppin’ his ass.
E’Twaun Moore – Shifted into the starting lineup, and while it seemed smart when they destroyed the Lakers, it looked pretty dumb when they got romped by the Clippers. I’m a little jaded, they just never give Tony Snell a full chance – when he starts all he does is get 3PTM shots! Of course he’s gonna be up and down, give him some plays!
Amar’e Stoudemire – The ageless STAT picked up some decent lines over the weekend for fantasy basketball’s most annoying hip. Hassan Whiteside is killing me! He’s the subject of season 2 of How to Make a Murderer…
The 7 Ahead
- 5-game week: n/a
- 4-game weeks: ATL, BOS, BKN, CHI, CLE, DAL, DEN, DET, IND, MIA, NO, NY, ORL, SAC, SA, UTA, WAS
- 2-game week: Golden State Warriors
- Weekly League Streamers (by Y! ownership percent/games this week): Dennis Schroder (29%/4), Shane Larkin (4%/4), Evan Turner (26%/4), Garrett Temple (8%/4)
- Stream days: Tuesday, Thursday, Sunday
Overall Thoughts: Well, back to a more typical week. A whopping 17 teams have 4-game schedules, so hopefully you’re pretty full-up in weekly leagues. Man, when are the Warriors ever going to play their schedule out?! Third 2-game week for them, so your fringy Warriors you’re likely sitting. For my streamers, I just love the Hawks matchups for Schroder (DAL, @PHI!!!!!, IND, ORL). Same for Larkin (DET, IND, SAC!!!!!!, @PHI!!!!!) – I’m not sold on his minutes, but the Nets just have a great slate. Miss Turner has been good enough for a little stretch here that I’d stream him, and for a 4-game week, Garrett Temple is still a mad usable player in 9-cat weekly since he never turns it over.
Monday: Pretty full Monday kicks it off, with ATL, CHI, DAL and ORL coming in off back-to-backs. Always gotta keep an eye on your Mavs gramps. Then heading into b2bs are MIL and TOR. CLE@IND could actually be a pretty interesting game if the shots fall for up-tempo Pacers, and it could be a 120-120 kinda game. ORL off that b2b goes @SA – just off a big loss – so it could be a 25-point deficit by halftime. A little worrisome for your Spurs. Finally, you always like your Kings matchups, so play your Bucks with no hesitation. Jerryd Bayless could be an interesting deep streamer.
Tuesday: An early stream night with a 5-game Tuesday, with BOS, MIA, MIN starting up their b2bs. MIA@HOU should be an entertaining one if Whiteside can play, but it could be without Dwight and his shoulder too. The injured big men Super Bowl! Min goes @LAL, I expect a lot of good guard minutes in that one. We’ve also got TOR@PHO – also known as “the easiest way to continue a win streak.” If they beat Denver tonight, then it could be a pretty low-minutes game from a lot of your Raptors regulars on the b2b.
Wednesday: A “that’s more like it” humpday, with 22 teams in action. You’re playing your regulars, and as listed in my weekly streamers, you love Schroder at Philly. DET and NO head into b2bs, so if anyone gets banged up, be sure and track your Piston and Pels. Not to be confused with your Keenan and Kels.
Thursday: 4 games on NBA Night, with HOU@PHO, LAL@NO (ewwwwwwwwww!), NY@DET and TOR@POR. The Knicks head into a b2b, so be sure you’re tracking updates on Melo’s knees. Man, the Raptors getting a West Coast cakewalk to continue their win streak! Backup Rockets could be intriguing against the Suns, maybe you gamble on Ty Lawson or god forbid Tjones in that one. I don’t love a lot of the other matchups or else he’d be a weekly streamer for me, but Norris Cole is about as must-stream as it comes against the Lakers. Well, we’d wanna be sure Tyreke Evans sits again, but if he does I’d love Cole as a stream or DFS play.
Friday: 10 games on Friday as this week is a more standard MWFSat schedule, so you’re playing your regulars. A tonnnnnnnn of teams are on b2bs – we have BKN, CHA, CHI, CLE, DAL, IND, MEM, PHI, SA, UTA and WAS on b2bs to start the weekend. No teams have a Sat/Sun stack, so if you’re maximizing your streaming in limited moves leagues, you’ll have to Fri/Sat or Fri/Sun stack. With both Friday and Saturday so full, be sure you have an open starting spot before assuming a two-game weekend fits. And as always, track your vets or banged up guys on those b2b teams – especially the Spurs who go @DAL, then home hosting the Lakers on Saturday. They might sit the whole starting 5 in that one!
Saturday: Another 10-game slate, with as mentioned, no b2bs. As listed above, I’m rolling the dice on Shane Larkin just for the matchup – @Philly on Saturday. The league’s punching bag, the Phoenix Suns, host the Jazz; so if any fringy Jazz are available, I could see going there as well.
Sunday: On Super Bowl Sunday, we wrap up with 4 games. A little surprising the NBA even scheduled that many! We’ve got ATL@ORL, DEN@NY, LAC@MIA, and SAC@BOS. Of those squads, ATL, DEN, LAC, ORL and SAC have b2bs carrying over until Monday, so be very cautious in your streaming. I obviously love my Schrodes, but I’m mostly looking at those Celtics against the non-existent Kings defense – again tapping the well of my weekly streams with a recommendation of Evan Turner. Kelly Olynyk if he’s available would be a play for me as well.
I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend, and is looking forward to a big Super Bowl prep week! This is our final full week until the All-Star Break, so hopefully if you’re limping into the layoff, your squads can get healthy for the stretch run. Thanks for dropping by, Razzball Nation!
