Who says NBA is an indoor sport?! Roll out the tarp!
During a rainy night in Brooklyn, all the sudden the ballboys were throwing towels on this spot on the court as somewhere in the rafters was a pretty steady leak. I looked away from the game for a minute then looked back, and I thought at first they were cleaning up a massive bleeding injury! At least that wasn’t the case… Ended up being about half an hour rain delay, complete with maintenance rolling out a trash can to collect the water. It’s like Kap said when we were chattin’ last night – just like his high school gym! The Nets arena leaking with the tears of Nets fans…
While Brooklynites had to watch a short-handed Heat team beat them at home, there’s at least some fantasy goodness to be had from some flashy younguns. Professor Plumlee! Young professors I bet would make a killing with college chicks… Anyway, Mason Plumlee for 21/9/1/1/1 last night, shooting 8-12 FG and leading the Nets in scoring. Sure the Heat front line is a bunch of dudes you’ve never heard of and an over-the-chicken coup Birdman, but good to see him hitting on his potential as the starter, finally. There’s still some blemishes – 4 TO and a surprisingly good-for-Plumlee but bad-for-real-life 5-8 FT (stop it with the hyphen phrases!), but if you can handle the FT drain or already have a FT-punting (dammit!) team, he’s a perfect fit. I think he’s as close to a must-own in all leagues while Brook Lopez is out, but many teams don’t have a streamer spot and/or can’t handle the bad FT%. Brolo is getting reevaluated Saturday, meaning he’s out at least three more. So while the Nets are leaking talent, don’t let Plumlee leak through your waiver wire. Here’s how the rest of the NBA big news shook out:
Jabari Parker – Ugh. Probably would’ve been the lead, but I wanted something more fun and upbeat… Might have been the tears of Bucks fans that leaked into Brooklyn’s roof. Torn ACL and out for the year, kinda what I suspected. And will probably miss a little time next year before getting eased in. Really hurts his dynasty/keeper stock as well. Awful.
Sergey Karasev – Maybe he got twisted up too much after slipping on that wet spot! I picked him up in REL since he’s starting, and I was actually really impressed with his game until a sore left side made him exit in the 3rd. 11/3/3/0/1 hitting a trey and a couple really skillful, contested layups. Pro-rate his night to finish out with the starters, and could’ve been a 15/5/4 kinda game. If this isn’t a long-term injury, and I can’t imagine it is, he’s worth an add in 16ers. Worth noting that even when Karasev went out, Bojan Bogdanovic barely played and did very little in 16 total minutes. This is Karasev’s job when he’s healthy.
Deron Williams – Wow, kinda took me by surprise he has dimebags in 4 of 5. 15/11 last night, and if you’re worried about his health and/or the Nets blowing it completely up (which they seem intent on doing), might be a solid sell-high window. I’d look at teams desperately needing dimes and see if there’s something to get there.
Mario Chalmers – Played well even with Dwyane Wade on the court! Shocking! 10/7/5/4/0, only taking 3 shots (2-3 FG & 6-6 FT). 4 steals in back-to-back games, but other than that has been Willow walking across the street. Aka – a little pedestrian.
Chris Andersen – Feeling good after yesterday’s open! No Heat fill-in PF or C do anything, except Birdman for 9 Reb and 2 Blk. It’s only deep league usable, or a pure-boards/blocks stream, but he should deliver!
Shabazz Muhammad – Woooo, feeling even better! 21/4/0/3/0 after I picked him as a streamer yesterday and said he’d have a 20/5-type game. Guess the Shabazz stat line is all me! He had 8 steals on the season through 23 games so that’s obviously a fluke, but the scoring certainly isn’t! If you need some points, Shabazz is your man.
Mo Williams – He’s old. Had a bad back. So by the power of deduction I figured he wouldn’t do much. 6/1/2 hitting a trey in 14 minutes, as Zach LaVine played 34 for 8/3/8 and 4 TO. I see no reason to not keep LaVine running the big minutes in an all-out developmental year, but Flip might want a veteran PG out there as Mo gets eased in. Who knows…
Gorgui Dieng – Choo Choo! I hope you stayed on the Gorgui Dieng train! 12/12/1/0/3 with no TO. That dry spell of blocks was indeed fluky, as he’s 2+ the past three.
Thaddeus Young – Thad the Impaler! Usually Thad the Imploder this year though… 29/4/2/2/0. First time over 20 Pts in ten games and only the second time since the opener. About all you can be happy with is he’s kept up the nice steals, but the expanded three-point game we saw last year is gone and his FT% has been awful. I still think he’s one of the league’s most-likely trade candidates, and wherever he goes it’s just gonna be worse. I’m running with scissors on this one – cut and run!
Anthony Davis – So I noticed that over the weekend there was a spike in AD owners with Brow trade questions while he was out with the chest injury. Hopefully you’re feeling better now! 31/9/1/1/3 hitting 12-15 FG and 7-7 FT. Why anyone else on the Pelicans even touches the ball is a mystery to me…
Ryan Anderson – Mister Anderson! My name is Neo! 28/5/3/2/0 with no TO hitting 6 treys. He’s been huge the past three, and I know in some shallowers he was dropped. “That was you in my computer… How did you do that?!”
Enes Kanter – Still a horrific defender, but 29/7/1/2/3 on 12-22 shooting. Tough to bash on that! He’s only topped 20 points in three games this year, and it’s been in 2 of the last 3 games. Coincides with Derrick Favors‘ missed time! Nice little sell-high window.
Rudy Gobert – Might be his last start, as Favors participated in shootaround and was questionable before being ruled out. Rudy was just fine as a fill-in for 6/9/2/0/3 with no TO shooting 3-6 FG. L’Voyage may be at an end.
Trey Burke – He’s a Mr. Jekyll and Carlos Hyde within each game too! Scored 14 through the first 8 or 9 minutes of the first quarter, yet ended with 16 on the night. Fail! 1 Ast to 5 TO. Epic fail! It’s so incomprehensible these runs of elite then horrifc AST:TO ratios this year! 9:14 the past four games now… Remember when I was pumped for this guy out of the draft last year?! Yikes.
Amar’e Stoudemire – Have you seen this commercial yet?!?! Friggin’ awesome, loved it. STAT for 10/5/2/0/2 against a tough matchup in Tyson Chandler returning to MSG. Still, a pretty decent enough showing, and he’s been one of the biggest surprises this year to me.
Jose Calderon – Told you guys! I saw 3 games worth and I was done-zo. 3/4/2/0/0 in 32 absolutely worthless minutes. It’s tough against that juggernaut D of Jameer Nelson! Hah! Bleck.
Tim Hardaway Jr. – Should’ve been a nice ThrAGNOF play! But 0-8 from deep. Breaking my heart, Timmay! Some will fall at some point, and the PT is there with J.R. Smith ailing and Iman Shumpert with one arm a stump-ert.
Chandler Parson – Whew! Able to get back out there returning from his back issue, and what a perfect game to get eased back in blowing out the hapless Knicks. Looked good too for 13/3/6/1/1 and no TO. Left no crummies!
#OccupyDraymondGreen – ESPN doesn’t understand basketball. First there was this which I mentioned on the Pod yesterday, then last night during the Warriors game they put up Draymond’s FG and points. The announcer (some schlub, I dunno who) towards the end of the game was like “Green with 2 points and 0-4 from deep.” Ummmm, what?! Dude goes 4/10/6/1/5 and you’re slamming his game?! Don’t you have some sort of Kobe he-said, he-said to report about?
Marreese Speights – Someone showed up! 18/8/0/02 on 7-14 FG in 26 great minutes in the GS loss at Memphis. Streak broken! Andrew Bogut had to get his knee drained (don’t worry, drained of icing!) over the weekend and David Lee just can’t figure out how to not be hamstrung, so this Speights run could continue for a good bit longer. Apparently Bogut has things called “Chondromalacia” and “bone edema”, but other than me copying and pasting those terms from Rotoworld, I dunno what that means. But sounds fancy and scary, kinda like expensive caviar. I’ve only had it on sushi, do I need to seek some good Russian shizz out?
Shaun Livingston – Been pretty usable the past 5 games, and I streamed him a couple ago and using him for one more tomorrow night on a light slate. Then GS is off until next Monday. It’s low-upside, but 12/3/3/0/1 yesterday and if you need low-end across the board production, look no further. Especially if you need to plan ahead a waiver move with Daily-Tomorrow settings like RCL.
Beno Udrih – A huge part of that Grizzlies 20-0 run in the second quarter last night. Plus I love the PA that goes Uuuuuuuuudrih! 6/1/8/1/0 with no TO. It’s only for the deep leaguers, but his AST:TO has been un-Trey Burke-ish.
Russell Westbrook – This just in! Looked really effing good. 32/6/7/4/0 with only 1 TO. Line of the night!
Kevin Durant – Shocker! Looks good too. OKC has now won 7 straight and 9 of 10. Always good to have two MVP-caliber guys! And played 35 minutes as the minutes restriction seems indeed lifted.
Serge Ibaka – Back to old Ibaka! What you drafted for! 9/6/2/0/7, waved a Diekembe “no-no-no!” in there, and even chipped in a trey even though he was only 3-10 FG.
Reggie Jackson – Well that 30ish minute role as the 6th man isn’t coming together… Only 20 last night for 8/2/3/1/0 and under 22 minutes with terrible numbers the past 3… Definitely worrisome, but I’d try to hold in almost all leagues. The minutes should go back up a bit and there’s just too much upside should RW get hurt again (knock on wood, and knock the wood very lightly with that hand!).
Darren Collison – Pretty low 6/5/3/2/1 line, but had to come out early with two fouls in a tough matchup. Might’ve messed with his flow. When a good player has back-to-back bad games, that’s when it’s time to pounce with the buy lows!
Tacko Fall – I love this guy! Mentioned him about a month ago and hope he makes it to the NBA.
Streamers/Cheap DraftKings Picks:
Khris Middleton (11% owned) – The Duchess! Off that emotional high of hitting the game-winner Monday night, plus the emotional low of losing Jabari for the year – this could swing either way. But the minutes should be there, as we’re still waiting on Ersan Ilyasova to get back. Should be pretty fast pace of play at Portland and K-Middleton could play blowout minutes with the second unit as well.
Jusuf Nurkic (1% owned) – The Au Jus! Don’t worry Slim, Nurkic is still your stomping ground, but I could easily see Timofey Mozgov get into some foul trouble yet again against Dwight Howard (5 PF in 14 minutes last Saturday), and we get a bigger dose of the Au Jus than we’ve seen yet. I already grabbed him in one league for Jabari. As Slim mentioned on the Pod, Nurkic’s per-36 numbers are pretty boring… 15.7/14.5/2.1/1.5/3.0. I could do that in per-36s! Well, best I might be able to do is play 30 seconds one game, hit one 3 and grab one board. 216.0/72.0/0/0/0 per-36… I could live with that! Retired!
I hope everyone had a great Tuesday, and enjoy the big slate tonight! Thanks for stopping by!
