The embargo is lifted! I can’t wait to buy some cigars… If you missed it, Obama has opened his front door to Cuba while continuing to backdoor the Canada oil pipeline. Hey-o!
And Mark Cuban has opened up his roster for some international trade, bringing Rajon Rondo into Texas. The Mavericks are reportedly changing their team name to the Dallas “You Don’t Mess With Texas!” Huge move in real basketball, but who cares about any of that?! Rondo takes a pretty substantial hit to his value, as Monta Ellis is going to sap a lot those assists with his slashes. But it’s nothing to panic about, as his atrocious 40.5 FG% will go up and the 3.4 TO should go down. And maybe a coach there can teach him how to hit a FT…
The rest of the swapperoo is Jameer Nelson, Brandan Wright, Jae Crowder and a first-rounder to Boston for Rondo and Dwight Powell with a swap of second-round picks thrown around in there just to make it look fancier. I guess if you still had Nelson in a 12 or 14er, he’s droppable. I could see Tyler Zeller lose some PT to Wright, but who knows. Chapel hill centers, reunite! The obvious big impact here is Marcus Smart, who was at 30% owned right when the trade broke (somehow got him in both RCLs!). That only shot up to 40% right when this posts, so he’s still available in several leagues. Boston has no reason to start Nelson over him in order to get a ton of development time for their rook PG. His fantasy game is really limited – I still don’t think the treys are going to come around in a huge way this year and we’ll be happy to see half the assists Rondo was getting a night. But he should be plenty good enough for all 12ers. Smart stashers feeling smart! Here’s what else went down last night in NBA action:
[Psyche! Quick note that I’m off next Monday, then Thursday and Friday due to Holiday scheduling. So Daily Notes will only be out Tuesday and Wednesday next week, along with our Holiday special Razzball Basketball Podcast on Tuesday. But I am of course always here for comments, even on Christmas, so if you need to get away from screaming kids in order to scream about how Batum has been awful, we’re ya spot!]
Kevin Durant – Gasp! Rolled his ankle on Marreese Speights‘ fat foot. “I had to hit the ball of Frankenstein’s fat foot!” While he had to miss the whole second half, it’s just a “mild” ankle sprain. Was going nuts too! 30 Pts in the first half (10-13 FG, 5-6 3PTM, 5-7 FT), just enough to get Slim a point on the board… Crazy! I wanna go on record though and mention he was my first pick too… I highly doubt we see him tonight, mostly because it’s against the Lakers and it’s the same foot he broke. Spoiler alert! Russell Westbrook is an easy DraftKings play.
Carmelo Anthony – To sit, or not to sit… Sat out with the bum knee last night, and the rumors of the shutdown are swirling like a clogged toilet! To use that fun metaphor two days in a row… A lot of owners are panicking, so if you can afford a risky stash, I’m more on the get-Melo-dirt-cheap side. Impossible to know what you could get out of Melo owners, but if you are a Melo owner youself, definitely don’t just give him away.
Tim Hardaway Jr. – Led the Knicks by far in minutes (40) and shots (19) with no Melo. 23/2/5/1/0 on 8-19 shooting with 5 treys. He’s certainly a ThrAGNOF, even as a starter, but one you can feel good streaming and holding a bit.
Jose Calderon – Have I mentioned yet that I’m done with him? Much rather have Smart, which was a great question I got on the Twitts. 12/3/2/1/0 on 5-10 shooting with only 1 TO, but no treys, and this is a BETTER game from him. Ay dios mio!
Travis Wear – Really Knicks? Wear as a starter? He played a year at Chapel Hill when I used to watch more UNC games and was nothing special at all, even in college…
Amar’e Stoudemire – Rainbow-STAT! 16/6/2/2/4. He’s been the Miracle this year. Miracle 2! Starring Kurt Russell as Phil Jackson.
Jimmy Butler – Whoa, a huge game from Buckets! I guess the first thing you have to ask is, “I wonder if Derrick Rose played…” And… He did not… 35/5/7/4/1 for a phenomenal line, hitting 4 treys and 9-10 FT. Rose should be fine, he’s just sick, but if he were suddenly out for the year, Butler is probably a top-15 player. Don’t put that bad juju out there though, Buckets owners! Rose is out again tonight, so spoiler alert! Buckets is an easy DraftKings play.
Joakim Noah – Returned from his kankle to play 34 minutes. It wasn’t great (4/13/3/0/1 on 1-8 FG, 3-6 FT), but at least he’s out there!
Nikola Mirotic – More-minutes-Mirotic! 13/1/3/3/1 with a pair of treys and no TO. If only someone had recommended/played him as a stream!
Aaron Brooks – 18/2/5 in 25 minutes, and is a solid deep league sleeper for tonight as well. Trouble is, Bulls are going at Memphis. Suffocating D of Beno Udrih! Hah, I keed, but fantasy goodness shouldn’t be as plentiful.
Taj Gibson – Missed last night, but is traveling with the team for the battle in Memphis. Tape that ankle up, boi!
Austin Rivers – I really thought he could be pretty good this year if given an opportunity… And it sure as hell has been there… Started last night for Tyreke Evans (knee bruise – doesn’t sound too serious but then again that’s what happened to George Hill!) and went 10/1/6/0/0 with no treys. Given a lot of his minutes were high-stress on D guarding James Harden (and did pretty well I may add!), but just isn’t showing any improved polish I was hoping for.
Anthony Davis – Why I recommended you Brow owners stay true! 30/14/3/2/5 on 10-17 FG and 10-12 FT is just plain unfair. He had a driving Euro-step too. No joke.
Jrue Holiday – Is like, “yo Brow, you’re not the only one who can rainbow line! And I can add in a dimebag!” 16/3/10/2/2. If this team were in the East they would be on a Warriors-type run.
DeMarcus Cousins – Roll out the red carpet! Then roll it back up as the Kings lost to the Bucks and Boogie missed the buzzer beater… Even with 6 TO and no blocks, nothing but a lot of encouragement. The 27/11/5/1/0 is ancillary to the 33 minutes. The Fantasy God of Injuries has finally forsaken us!
Ben McLemore – Remember when Nik Stauskas poked his head in there, and we were all concerned it might be going back to a time share? That was cute… 41 minutes for McLemore, led the Kings there, for 22/4/3 and a trey. Hit 8-10 FG and 5-5 FT. Pop some tags!
Johnny O’Bryant – We have two Irishmen now! Made his NBA debut Wednesday night playing 5 empty minutes, then 6/1/1/0/0 in 17 minutes last night with 2 TO. If you’re already not convinced you should be avoiding, I should throw in he had 4 fouls and the Bucks needed a big as desperately as Amanda Bynes needs a new bong with Larry Sanders suspended for his lunacy. Kidd was kinda forced to play KOQ’s brother against the big SAC line-up, and Run-DMC took him to pound town. Yikes, this is spiraling out of control! All you need to know is you can leave O’Bryant at the Rest Stop.
Khris Middleton – You’ve got to be Kidding me! Only 18 minutes and you start O’Bryant?! I guess the matchup thing makes a little sense, but Jared Dudley for 33 minutes?! It takes 33 minutes just to eat ONE Milk Dud! Sure Duds scored 19, but camon. Somehow amidst this mess, the Bucks are over .500 again at 14-13. Make sense out of that for me, commenters…
Jerryd Bayless – JB’s of the world having a huge Thursday night! Buckets, Bayless, me! Eh, I dunno what I did that was that great… Slowly welcomed in turning 27 at midnight… Yikes… Anyway, JB for 17/4/5/0/1 and now in double-digits in 5 straight and 9+ points in 7 straight. 20+ minutes in all of those, chipping in a little Reb/Ast/Stl/Blk with a 3PTM a game… Deep league worthiness at it’s best! Oh, and the celebration legit begins tonight, so any late comments/tweets at me past 10 or 11 PM EST tonight might get some funky answers! “KCP over KD any day!”
Draymond Green – There’s something that makes it a big Thursday night! If you didn’t see this saucy tweet, I’m going to continually boast my #OccupyDraymondGreen-ness all over the place anyway. 16/9/9/1/1 hitting another trey. 1-4 FT is baby poo, but his near tripdub last night was anything but soft! His FT% on the year was 77.3% before last night, so nothing serious there.
Stephen Curry – “Awwwweeeeeeeeee!” Like the heavenly, meditating sound…
Klay Thompson – You couldn’t put up 30 for me???? You lousy ThrAGNOF “Piece! Of! Monkey! [bleeeeeep]!” Wow – unintentionally had two Happy G references today!
Andrew Bogut – My bad everyone… I dropped him in a 12er as it seems like it’ll be another month or so now… I shoulda known… The only things guaranteed in life are 1 – start your guys against the Sixers and B – Bogut is going to miss at least 25% of every season. Got some platelet-rich plasma injected into his knee like a jelly donut, which is a great metaphor since his knees are jelly donuts. Speights and his fat feet for 10/5/1/0/2, and nearly a must-own in all 12ers.
Reggie Jackson – Yikes, it just ain’t happenin’ is it… I’ll give him one more game tonight against the Lakers, in what theoretcially is a blowout. But if he isn’t closer to 30 minutes with a good game, it’s adios muchacho.
Streamers/Cheap DraftKings Picks:
Andre Roberson (1% owned) – Cascade effect! Assuming no KD, AR should be able to rack up some minutes off 10/12/3/1/0 and no TO last night. Also chipped in a trey, and had no TO. He’s easy to robber-son off the wire!
Gary Neal (6% owned) – As Slim and I mentioned on the Pod and I mentioned as a rule of the land in the Bogut blurb, always play your guys vs. the Sixers! And with Lance Stephenson out with a bruised pelvis from humping the Goddess of Horrible 3-Point Shooting too much, Neal should be killin’ it in teal. Easily could see a 20-point game with 4 triples.
Sorry again we’re off next Monday, but two great holiday specials next week will hopefully tide you over as you chug rum and eggnog on Christmas Day! See you next Tuesday!
