Devin Booker had yet another great scoring performance against the Thunder on Friday night. 6-39-6-8-0-1-5, shooting 16-of-28 from the field in 39 minutes. He also crossed the 4,000 point threshold, becoming the third-youngest player to do so, behind LeBron and KD. Pretty remarkable for a guy that doesn’t get that much attention on a terrible Suns team and this great performance still wasn’t enough to beat OKC last night…Anyway it was another big slate of games on Friday and crunch time is approaching for a lot of fantasy teams, so let’s jump in to the daily notes! Here’s what went down last night in fantasy basketball:
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Carmelo Anthony– 14-8-2-0-0-1 on 6-of-18 shooting. He’s a guy, I don’t know why, who I enjoy seeing struggle. Maybe because he was all they talked about on ESPN radio in New York the last five years. He had a lot of apologists on the Knicks, but I guess I wasn’t one of them.
Paul George– 3-20-5-5-2-2-3 on 6-of-16 shooting and 5-of-6 free throws. This was an off-night for him…
Russell Westbrook– 2-43-14-8-1-1-5. It’s kind of baffling how the Thunder can beat some of the elite teams, but struggle against the Suns… Maybe they like to keep it close so they can get their stats up?
Elfrid Payton– 18-10-8-2-2-1 on a not-great 6-of-16 shooting, but did go 6-of-6 from the line. I just want to see him cut the bird’s nest off his head. It could only improve his court vision. If he was a baseball player, he wouldn’t even need a brim on his helmet.
Josh Jackson– 1-19-5-4-2-0-1 on 8-of-15 shooting, but only 2-of-5 from the line. If you’re punting efficiency or are in a points league, he’s you’re guy.
Thaddeus Young– 10-8-0-4-0-0 on 5-of-11 shooting. Young, money!
Bojan Bogdanovic– 14-4-4-0-0-2 with 12-of-13 FTs. Odd line where he only made one basket and the rest came on free throws.
Lance Stephenson– 1-16-3-3-2-0-1 in 26 minutes. Three out of four good games, but he’s nothing more than a streamer in shallower leagues.
Giannis Antetokounmpo– 2-24-10-3-1-3-3 but shot 6-for-18. He did chip in 10-for-12 free throws, so you’re not complaining too much.
Eric Bledsoe– 2-15-7-6-2-2-3 but only shot 3-for-11. Eric the Bled will get his rainbow lines, but the Bucks still lost their fourth game in a row.
Khris Middleton– 2-30-5-2-3-1-6 on 11-of-21 shooting. Maybe the most underrated player in the league. He’s kind of similar to Klay Thompson with less 3’s, but better FT volume.
Jason Terry– Played 36 minutes and scored six points. He did get three blocks somehow, but the Bucks are kind of short handed at SG.
Paul Millsap– 1-15-7-1-5-1-2 on 50% shooting and 4-for-4 from the line in just 27 minutes. He was reinserted into the starting lineup for this one and hopefully, if you held on, he can help you out in the fantasy playoffs.
Wilson Chandler– 4-1-1-0-0-1-1 in 31 starters minutes. WIIIILLLSOOONN!!! He still got the start and a nice allotment of minutes so you may want to hold. I’m holding. Chandler that is. Not drugs or anything like that.
Gary Harris– 1-26-4-0-4-0-4 on 11-of-18 shooting and 3-for-3 from the line. I love this guy. Dirty Harris makes your day once again.
Will Barton– 2-24-6-2-1-0-3 in 33 minutes off the bench. Sixth man of the year? He was robbed in’15-’16 when they gave it to Jamal Crawford. That always pissed me off, so I’m gonna show you the stats to compare: Crawford’s season that year- 1.5/14.2/1.8/2.3/0.7/0.2/1.4 on 40.4% shooting and 90.4% FTs. Barton’s season- 1.4/14.4/5.8./2.5/0.9/0.5/1.7 on 43.2% shooting and 80.6% FTs. Okay, it’s pretty close, but the only thing Crawford was actually better in was FT%.
Jarell Martin– 16-7-1-1-0-3 in 28 starters minutes. I think it’s time to strongly consider thinking about adding him.
Marc Gasol– 3-22-9-5-0-0-7. Son mentioned it the other day, but he’s a trooper for sticking it out on this team and you’ve gotten just about what you paid for on draft day. I’m sure we all would have liked a better FG%, but you’re quibbling at that point. I mean, you could have drafted Jimmy Butler and gotten screwed right before the playoffs. See, it’s important to have perspective.
Harrison Barnes– 1-26-7-2-0-0-3 on 9-of-19 shooting and 7-of-7 FTs. This is close to his ceiling, and 16 points would be near his floor. Not exciting, but safe. He’s the Toyota Corolla of fantasy basketball.
Dirk Nowitzki– 5-18-6-2-0-2-2 on only 10 shots. Dirk turned back the clock once again. He’ll have his solid nights, but he’ll definitely have his quiet ones too. Overall he’s ranked 63rd overall on Yahoo!
Dennis Smith Jr.– 2-25-1-3-1-0-1 on 9-of-17 shooting, but struggled from the line once again, going 5-for-8. He needs to work on his free throws or he’s gonna turn out like Wiggins. I still have high hopes for him though.
Lauri Markkanen– 3-17-12-1-0-0-0. If he was a rookie last year, would he have been ROY? Something to ponder.
David Nwaba– 10-11-5-3-1-2. N.W.A.-ba coming straight outta Chi-Town!
Kris Dunn– 3-18-7-7-1-1-2. So many youngsters on the Bulls, it’s hard to decide who to write about.
Bobby Portis– 2-22-5-2-0-0-2. A poor man’s Harrison Barnes? I think he could be a sleeper next year depending on what the Bulls do in the offseason.
CJ Miles– 6-20-1-1-1-1-0. He got hot. Nothing but threes.
Jakob Poeltl– 6-3-0-0-3-1 in 22 minutes off the bench. If you need to stream blocks, you could do worse.
Otto Porter Jr.– 2-24-6-2-1-0-2 on 9-of-12 shooting. If you’re building your team around pure efficiency and D-stats (a great strategy), Otto is your guy.
Stephen Curry– 4-28-1-3-2-0-0 on 8-of-15 shooting and 8-for-8 from the stripe. He did leave the game with an ankle injury, but it appears to be minor.
Draymond Green– 2-7-9-1-0-3. Only took three shots, as the Warriors didn’t even seem to try tonight against the Hawks despite the close final score. I always wonder, if he was drafted to someone like the Magic, would he be anything?
John Collins– 1-16-8-2-0-1-2 on a stellar 6-for-7 from the field and 3-for-3 from the line. Two nice games in a row… I’ve been waiting all year for this. I’m gonna celebrate with a Tom Collins if he brings me the ‘ship.
Taurean Prince– 5-15-3-1-4-0-5 on 5-of-17 shooting. The two caveats that hold him back from great value, held him back once again tonight (FG% and TOs).
Dennis Schroder– 2-27-5-9-1-0-4 on 10-of-21 shooting and a perfect 5-for-5 from the line. The German suplexed the Warriors, but it wasn’t enough.
Kent Bazemore– 5-29-3-0-2-1-4 on 10-of-16 shooting and 4-for-5 from the line. Revenge game! Yeah, who could forget Bazemore’s stint on the Dubs?
Kemba Walker– 4-31-1-5-1-0-1. Another great Friday performance by Kemba. Keep Walking.
Frank Kaminsky– 3-19-4-3-0-0-1 with 6-for-6 from the line in 27 bench minutes. He’s been on a decent five-game run now. Extremely boring, but decent. Only two turnovers in his last nine games! See, I told you boring…
Robert Covington– 2-16-5-2-3-0-1 on 5-of-10 shooting and 4-for-for FTs. Please, let this be the start of a hot streak to close out the year.
Joel Embiid– 1-23-15-4-0-3-4. Only made 6-of-11 free throws, but the Sixers still got the win. He’s 7th in the league in rebounding. Just mentioning, because I think it’s overlooked because of everything else he does.
Ersan Ilyasova– 2-18-4-3-0-0-0 in only 23 minutes off the bench. This was his second game back with the Sixers as the Hawks forgot to call ‘No take-backsies’.
Blake Griffin– 12-10-9-0-1-2 on 5-of-14 shooting and 2-for-4 from the line. Blake Whiffin’! Why do I get joy from this man struggling? Him and Melo. I don’t know why. He did nearly trip-dub and even got a block, so not all bad.
Reggie Bullock– 4-21-5-1-1-0-2 in 41 minutes. This game went into OT so there were some slightly inflated lines, but Bullock’s been ballin’ and has scored in the ‘teens in nine straight. He doesn’t contribute much outside of 3’s and points, but that’s all you really need him for.
Aaron Gordon– 3-27-13-2-2-1-1 on 10-of 19 shooting. A.G. looks to be All Good after a lengthy stint on the DL.
D.J. Augustin– 4-20-5-9-0-0-3 in 41 overtime-fueled minutes. He’s a guy that you might have on your roster and it’s like “I guess I’ll hold him…” Then you miss out on hot free agents because he’s not quite droppable, and then you just look for one bad game to drop him. That kind of player.
Michael Beasley– 7-2-1-0-1-2 in 20 starters minutes. I thought he was gonna be a great pickup once Porzingis went down, but The Walking Bucket has looked more like The Walking Dead.
Enes Kanter– 18-14-0-2-2-1 on 9-of-16 shooting. Having a great year on the hapless Knickerbockers.
The Knicks are a dumpster fire right now. You could look at Trey Burke (12 points in 19 minutes) or Troy Williams (11 points in 17 minutes), but New York basically has a bunch of second rate players vying for attention. To me, they’re mostly streamers depending on what category you need on a given night.
DeAndre Jordan– 19-20-3-1-2-2 on 9-of-11 “shooting.” Only shot 1-of-2 free throws, so maybe the Knicks would have been better off fouling him as the Clippers scored 128 points…
Montrezl Harrell– 19-4-2-1-1-1 in only 16 minutes. 8-for-9 from the field as well. He really fills it up even with the low minutes. Definitely a streamer.
Austin Rivers– 5-19-5-2-1-0-1 on 7-of-13 shooting. Stone Cold!
Nemanja Bjelica– 2-12-4-1-1-0-2 in 45 starters minutes. Should definitely be added with Butler going down. Thank you Captain Obvious!
Andrew Wiggins– 4-27-3-1-1-0-4 on 10-of-19 shooting, but only 3-of-8 FTs. I absolutely hate this guy’s game. He shoots it every time he touches it, and usually for a poor field goal percentage. He doesn’t hit his free throws, and he contributes almost nothing in terms of defensive stats. I feel like Thibodeau just shakes his head at him a lot…Anyway, this was actually a decent game for him, as long as you’re punting free throws.
Karl-Anthony Towns– 1-13-4-0-1-0-1 but was ejected with two technicals after only 20 minutes. This was the first of three ejections in this game as things got a bit chippy on national TV…
Jeff Teague– 2-25-4-2-2-0-2 and also got ejected after 26 minutes for shoving Ricky Rubio. I think Rubio really sold it and they gave Teague a flagrant 2, but in today’s NBA he might as well have punched someone in the face…Soft.
Jae Crowder– 3-15-3-1-0-0-2 on 6-of-15 shooting. In case you were wondering, he was the third guy to get ejected. He had a decent game as his dad watched on from the sidelines and they cut to him ten times during the broadcast. He’s been better on the Jazz and might be worth an add. I’m not gaga over him though.
Donovan Mitchell– 2-26-4-2-1-0-3 on 10-of-18 shooting and 4-of-5 free throws. Mitchell and Yess! I think he deserves ROY. Simmons got to sit out a year and learn a lot of things without actually playing which kind of gives him an unfair advantage.
Rudy Gobert– 26-16-1-1-4-1 on 7-of-9 shooting and 12-of-14 free throws. The free throws are a bit of a surprise, but those blocks are juicy. He’s looking to close out the year on a high note and the Jazz are gunning for a playoff spot in the crowded West, so this is the perfect situation for fantasy owners.
