Yeah, I don’t think that title made any sense… But alas weather hath wreaked it’s icy cold fist of skulduggery and given me very little time for the update this morning. Concerns over some sort of phenomenon known as “black ice” perils a return journey. I have never heard of such things in NC! Blame those who believe in Global Warming! It ain’t warm at all! Sure, sure they’re related, but related in a Woody Allen is married to his daughter sorta thing… The cold is ruining my jokes, I swear, it’s the cold! I’ll try to get to as many things from last night as a I can, but as you probably realized by now, these are a stream-of-consciousness updates. There’s no telling where they’ll go! So let’s go way off the reservation and start with Rudy Gobert. Cue the Stephen Colbert puns! After starting with the big boys, Gobert got some D-League seasoning (we all know the French are good at cooking!) and in 8 games averaged 13.9/11.4 with an even 3 blocks a contest in only 27 minutes per. So the Jazz called him up, and after only 16 total minutes his first two games, got some big run last night with Derrick Favors out for an 8/6/1/1/3/broke Alexey Shved‘s nose line last night. That’s some solid aggressive play! “Shot” 4-5 (I think all 4 were dunks) and looked really solid for a terrible Utah team. If he can get 20 minutes per the rest of the year with an emphasis on late-season development time, he could be a sneaky source of blocks in deep leagues. The Americone Dream! Wait, he’s French though… Damn this cold! Here’s what else I saw last night in fantasy hoops:
Rudy Gay – Tied his career-high going 41/8/5. Kinda surprised he hadn’t scored more than that in his career… Be even more a ball hog!
DeMarcus Cousins – Rainbow alert! Only one steal away from a double rainbow going 18/11/6/3/4. Is he a first-rounder next year? I mean, gonna be tough to rank him much lower!
Anthony Davis – Is definitely a first-rounder if not a top-5 pick, and not to be outdone rainbowed as well for 16/6/2/2/4.
Tyreke Evans – Led the Pels in shots with 15 for a 17/3/3 line. But got blocked 6 times?! C’mon ‘Reke! Not like it’s that hard to see where DMC is on D!
Nicolas Batum – Remember when I did the rankings and I said I was scared of his offense? Another single-digit game scoring only 3 for a rainbow 3/5/2/2/2 line. I still like Batum a lot, but I think my ranking of him outside the top-20 was correct.
Ricky Rubio – “Why does everyone hate me!?” Well, if you can’t shoot, then NBA fans hate you… 11/5/13/5/0 and a great bounce-back game. Looked good, got 39 minutes, the Wolves blew out the lowly Jazz twice in a row, I think Rubio is ready to make my high ranking of him not look so bad… Let’s hope anyway! Plus might get de facto more minutes if…
Kevin Martin – … Martin misses much time. Went for a steal and looked like he might’ve cut his pinkie on Alec Burks’ tooth or something funky. Was bleeding really bad and had to go to the locker room. Along with Shved’s broken nose bleeding everywhere, this game was a bloodbath! If you see “pinkie cut” somewhere and shrug it off, it didn’t look good. Especially if it was a break that bled that bad. Keep him monitored and might have some rough shooting games once back.
Gordon Hayward – Finally returned from his hip injury and looked great. 10-17 (2-5 3PTM 5-6 FT) for 27/5/5/3/0. No lingering concerns at all.
Trey Burke – Didn’t do too much and disappeared a bit. 9/2/5. Chalking it up to rookie inconsistencies and a good buy low.
Kevin Love – Neared a triple double. Just look at some of these assists! I bet if it was Kevin Love late in the 49ers game, he woulda put enough juice on it to get to Michael Crabtree! You hear that Sherman?!
Kyle O’Quinn – Is an O’Boss. Look at this block! 15/8 with two swats. Decent fill-in big man in even deep 12 teamers right now.
Andray Blatche – Another good game. Slim is grinning through that beard at me. More comprehensive analysis of our bet to come tomorrow.
Sorry again for the short post this morning, but it’s a weather-shortened 6 inning game, and we’ve a full slate that will take us into 19 innings of extras tomorrow. Drive safe out there you east coasters and good luck tonight!
