Gilbert Arenas replaced the injured Al Thornton in the lineup on Thanksgiving and was the lone sweet helping of cranberry sauce in an otherwise turkey of a game for the Wiz. But Gil? Gil’s holding it down like a 40-year-old mom lookin’ way better than most of your 20-year-old friends. He’s started the last seven games, averaging 3.1 3pm/20 pts/4.6 rbd/6.6 ast/1.8 stl. Really, the only place he’s not excelling is in his shot efficiency (.424) but if you expected much better from ol’ Gil, you don’t know ol’ Gil. But the news here is that this Gil does resemble the old one. No, he’s not the top 6 Hibachi from five years ago, but he lasted until the sixth round in most drafts and since his debut on November 5, he’s looked fine. Healthy. Sane. Gunless. And this is a great thing, maybe the best thing for fantasy owners. Not only is a team with a healthy Arenas as its sixth pick a force to be reckoned with, but the league – your league, other leagues, all leagues – are a more fun place with this guy playing.
Here’s some leftover stuff(ing) from last night:
Psyche your face! As the turkey’s tryptophan tends to grab hold of me for days at a time, there won’t be an Add/Drop post this week. Stop your whimpering or you’re getting smacked like Fredo in ‘The Godfather.’ “You can act like a man!” Act like men, avoid picking up Pistons this weekend, David Lee will bounce back sooner than later so don’t trade him for a matinee of the new Cher movie and when in doubt, the person getting the best player in the trade is usually the one winning the trade. I’ll be manning the comments, so feel free to drop those all you want. Have a great weekend, snitches!
No for real, here’s what else went down in fantasy basketball last night:
Al Thornton – Likely to miss a few games after tweaking his ankle on Tuesday. Tweaking is the technical term for what he did. You may know the injury better as “messed up” or “jacked.”
? Nick Young – If you drafted Ben Gordon or Rip Hamilton and want a pure scorer who doesn’t suck at purely scoring this season, go for Shannon Brown. If someone already snatched him up, grab C.J. Miles. And if someone already snatched him up … well, Young dropped 20 last night and has scored 18+ in five of his last six games, but in the time you spent reading this, someone probably snatched him up too.
Andray Blatche – Poked in both eyes in the third quarter and never returned. He was the luckiest of all Wizards, as he didn’t have to see the remainder of the thrashing his team took from the Hawks. Unfortunately, he’ll probably regain his eyesight in time to see up-close what the Magic has for ’em.
Francisco Garcia – Sat out with a cold. Speaking of cold, FraGa Rock is averaging 6.4 point and 0.7 treys in his last seven games after being one of the foremost chic picks in early November and averaging 2 treys and 14.3 ppg. Looking back, that’s about as chic as a Hawaiian shirt and L.A. Gears.
Tyreke Evans – His .429 season FG% doesn’t look so bad when you compare it to the 9-for-37 (.243) he’s shot in the last three games. He’s not hurt, he’s getting minutes, he’s just cold. And while he’s far from a bust, if you can find someone who thinks ‘Reek’ is still a top 30 player in this league, go ahead and make a trade that punishes him for thinking that.
Delonte West – West’s hand injury may be bad enough that he misses the rest of the season. If it happens, Nate Robinson becomes more than the little guy in the locker room making Shaq reach all the high stuff.
Marvin Williams – Since returning from injury, Williams has averaged 24 mpg/6.6 pts/3.4 rbd over seven games. Don’t drop him in favor of a Piston, but almost anyone else would be a better option at this point.
Eric Bledsoe – 6/3/5 in 31 minutes. Yeah, I’m all done with him.
Blake Griffin – The 25/15 is nice, but the five dimes and 11-for-15 from the line is like a Christmas miracle on Thanksgiving. Side note: Does Thanksgiving have its own miracles? I mean, I guess pilgrims not detonating all the Native Americans with their muskets counts as a miracle, but I was thinking more in the vein of Baron-Davis-suiting-up-and-dropping-40-and-15-on-the-Kings kind of miracle. No? Darn.
