You hate to see in sports when a guy gets hurt, then loses his starting spot once he’s back to action. Usually it’s for a youthful upside guy that takes off when given an expanded role, but don’t say that to Alex Smith… And it’s not like Matthew Dellavedova was some sort of entrenched starter either… Before we feel too bad for this guy, he just sold his life story into a movie. Crocodile Dundee 4 – Welcome to the NBA! The last one was written by someone in fantasy sports, gimme the green light, Hollywood! Delly returned from 5 games off with a bum hammy (due to all his storyline pitching to studios) to go 2/2/4/1/0 in 18 minutes off the bench. Taking the starting minutes like a bull by the horns (maybe I should’ve gone with “Buck” by the horns!), Malcolm Brogdon had a fire lit under him yesterday afternoon seeing the incumbent get back, posting a career-high 22 points on a 22/1/5/3/1 line with 2 treys.
Hitting his Js and taking it to the rack! Take that, Dundee! They actually overlapped a few minutes as well, and while I still don’t think Brogdon is going to keep ascending (and Delly was likely on a little bit of a leash), I kinda wish I got some Broggy shares. Alsoh, there was Disturbingly no Giannis Antetokounmpo who was down with the sickness, but someone needed to score a little more, and Malcolm stepped up! If he’s somehow still available in your 12ers (maybe he was cut for streaming with Delly coming back), I’d be sure and give him an add. But in 10ers it might get a little roster crunchy. Roster Crunchy – a new cereal from Patty General Mills! Here’s what else went down over a cold & snowy weekend of fantasy basketball action:
Patrick Beverley – Magic was in the air Friday night! 17/9/3/3/0 on 7-9 shooting against Orlando, but only 6/2/7/0/1 last night at the Raps. He’s been so sneakily good though – career highs in 45.4% shooting, 4.4 dimes, 6.3 rebounds, and all with only 1.4 TO. It’s like a “good” version of Rajon Rondo!
Aaron Gordon – Anddddddd, there goes the Aaron Gordon run… Was on a really great stretch through Friday night (18/6/7 against the Rockets, but ya know, D’Antoni!), but 2/6/1/0/0 last night as the Magic got blown out by the Lakers. Remember when Orlando/LAL used to be super drama because of Dwight?! Ain’t much to see in that game anymore!
Brandon Ingram – The raw rookie is heating up! I guess that would make him a cooked rookie? I’ll say he’s medium rare right now… Back-to-back 17 Pt games over the weekend (hitting 6-9 FG in both), going 17/3/2/0/1 last night in 27 minutes. I know I’ve been pretty anti-Ingram, and I’m sticking with it. I don’t think he can shoot 66% most nights. That said, nothing makes me happier seeing Nick Young getting cold and ceding some of his minutes! He finally took swaggy to over-the-top with the hip wriggle, and now he lost his shot!
Andrew Wiggins – Even going full Canadian wasn’t enough to bring the Wolves a victory against the Wiz Friday night, going 41/1/2/2/0 on 16-30 shooting with 8-10 FT. Maybe try to attack the glass a little more, eh?! Then cooled off for 16/5/4/0/1 in 6-19 shooting Saturday. 3-7 FT with 5 TO?! With the 1 trey in there, it looks like an old J Smoove line!
Derrick Favors – Was on the upswing and looking great against the Wolves Saturday (15/6/1/3/2 no TO), but only 4/3/1/1/0 with 3 TO last night. That said, twas against Memphis, who you hate as your opp. Might be a sliver of a buy low open after that game, as long as you’re willing to take the injury risk.
George Hill – Stayed healthy for back-to-back games! Oh dammit, now I jinxed it! 19/5/7/1/0 then 15/4/2/1/1 over the weekend, with 2 treys in each game. We’ll take this 85%ish output as long as you don’t get hurt again, Papa Georgio!
Ersan Ilyasova/Robert Covington/Nerlens Noel – We are, The 3 Rainbow Line Amigos! 20/2/3/2/2 on Friday from the Six-Foot-Turkey, Lord Covington went 9/3/2/2/2 in a somewhat paltry line, then Captain N from the depths of Brett Brown’s abyss of hatred got enough run for 13/8/2/2/3. Took a night of three rainbows just to hang in with the Celtics! Still lost though… Then they beat the Mess by 10 yesterday and only Lord C followed up with a good outing (15/11/1/5/1).
Isaiah Whitehead – Still getting good minutes, and while he has his negatives (6-16 shooting, 10 TO over the weekend), he can help deep leagues! 10/10/3/1/0 & 5/3/3/0/2 lines.
Caris LeVert – BKN’s first-rounder is starting to see his minutes solidify over 20 a night, and finally had a breakout Friday for 19/4/5 and 2 treys against the Cavs. Followed it up with only 6/3/2 against the Sixers yesterday afternoon… Bleh, but if you need a deep league flier, maybe he keeps amping up that run as the Mess develop him (and the tank gets tankier and tankier).
Kyrie Irving – Return from the hammy! 32/3/4/2/0 against the Mess with no TO in a fantastic return from a week off (did shoot only 10-26 though), then solid enough in a tough win at the Suns, going 27/2/7/1/0 with 4 treys. 7 TO against the Suns though?!
Kyle Korver – It’s old news now, but traded to the Cavs and has yet to make his debut. Bleh, I think he’ll be like a smarter version of J.R. Smith. Take a few less 3s, make around the same, shoot a better percent, and not dap Jason Terry on the oppo bench in the middle of a game…
Tim Hardaway Jr. – With Korver out, it should help solidify those Hawks wings minutes I kept complaining about! 22/2/3/0/0 for TIMMAY! against the Mavs on Saturday, with you guessed it, 5 treys. ThrAGNOF! If you’ve been relying on that sort of game from Swaggy P, swap-a-roosky!
Willie Reed – One last willy for fantasy owners from Willie! 22/12/2/0/3 with no TO against the Lakers on Friday, hitting 10-15 FG and only 2-5 FT. Hassan’s little bro! But then big bro Hassan Whiteside returned yesterday, yet Willie was still half-mast for 4/10/0/1/1 in 17 bench minutes. I don’t think you get a pseudo-Bebe out of Willie off the bench, but as the Heat season drags on and Hassan mentally checks out, I could absolutely see Willie being a fantasy playoffs x-factor.
Greg Monroe – I haven’t written much on Moose this year, but he’s starting to really flourish as the 30ish MPG center now. 19/7/4/2/1 against the Poppycockers on Friday, then 12/12/3/4/1 hosting the Wiz yesterday. There’s still risk of a trade (but it looks more and more unlikely to me now), but I think I would ride this out and not sell high. I mean, unless someone wants to send you something crazy for him of course…
Chandler Parsons – Speaking of crazy, Parsons is still a psychiatric-ward-for-JB waiting to happen… 9/1/1/0/0 in 16 minutes yesterday, but hey! Hit 3-4 FG and 2 treys! He came in sick, so thankfully he was able to gut it out for his 16 minutes… Ugh, smh…
Stephen Curry – There’s my alpha chef! 40/4/6/1/1 then 30/4/6/2/0 over the weekend with 5 treys in each, shooting 50%+ in each. Praise chef!
Austin Rivers – After a fantastic encore from his breakout last Wednesday (24/6/2 against the Kings with 4 treys Friday), sat out yesterday with illness. Lots of illness going around the NBA last night! Everyone probably picked it up the last time they played at the Pacers, and caught Bird flu (womp womp, I got dad jokes today!!!!).
Chris Paul – Another stud back from a hammy, and did his usual studly things for 14/6/12/3/0 and 19/6/18/2/0 lines over the weekend. The latter was in only 29 minutes too! Coulda gone Goromotaro except with the dimes! I’ll need to think of a 20/20 Pts/Ast term… Double dimebag of course works for the dimes part!
The Shakespearean Tragedy of Ty Lawson/Darren Collison – Well, I coulda titled this blurb “The Shakespearean Tragedy of the Sacramento Kings”, but ya know… Lawson got an unreal helping of 37 minutes on Friday against the Clip going 17/4/6/1/0, but then only 22 minutes last night (15/2/3). Erstwhile, Colly gets 35 minutes starting alongside Lawson Friday for 20/5/2 and 3 treys with no TO, then 14/1/2/3/0 on 6-9 shooting with 2 treys yesterday. I guess the only tragedy is it’s looking like Lawson is ownable too, but yeah, looking like both are viable in 12ers.
Donatas Motiejunas – Dmo running the pick-n-ro’! Fantastic debut for the Pels, going 11/5/4/1/0 with a trey on 4-5 shooting in 20 minutes.
Look at him running that pick and roll! He can roll to the basket flashing a nice little post game there, and as we know, can pop out for the treys as well. Really fits that NBA trend right now… Unfortunately for Terrence Jones, it looked really fitting for Dmo, hah.
Marcus Smart – Man he’s taking an underrated step forward. 14/2/8/1/2 against the Sixers Saturday then 22/5/6/2/1 with 5 treys last night. The seasonal numbers don’t look as good as he’s been playing lately.
Lucas Nogueira – Hey Bebe! Look at those minutes, Bebe! Started next to JV Saturday at the Bulls, and got friggin’ 42 minutes! 9/8/1/2/1 in a decent enough line, but yeah, back down to 13 minutes yesterday against the small-ball leaning Rockets (4/4/0/1/1). Playing his familiar brand of D-stat filler in the lower minutes though!
Emmanuel Mudiay – Yeesh, 0-9 FG Saturday and in a pretty bad funk. I had been holding on in most 12ers since at least his TO are under control now, but bleh. Moved on to stream in a few leagues.
Jusuf Nurkic – With that Bird flu going around the NBA, it claimed another victim in Nikola Jokic, giving the Jamba Jus a starting shot again! Jamba Jus – with extra nutrients to fight off winter colds! And he was pretty standard Nurk, with the good (11/10/0/3/1) and the bad (5-14 FG, 1-4 FT, 2 TO). Apparently the Nuggets are openly shopping Nurk too… Now they have to showcase TWO different centers?! Hah.
Cameron Payne – Getting his 16-17 off on the right foot! 8/2/1 with 2 treys in his debut, and should be a nice deep-league, combo guard filler as he rounds out into 20ish MPG.
Davis Bertans – I don’t watch Sportscenter too much, but watched a few minutes on Sunday morning, and they cut to “Spurs/Hornets! Let’s tell you about Davis Bertans!” I was like, wtf Sportscenter, Bertans?!?! 21/1/2/1/0 in 18 minutes Saturday against the Hornets, on a ridiculously efficient 5-6 FG (4-5 3PTM 7-8 FT). I talked about liking him a couple weeks ago, but he’s a young bench player for the Spurs… Ain’t much to see here, and David Lee was out with a knee booboo.
Nicolas Batum – Ugggghhhhh. Hyperextended his knee and will miss 1-2 weeks. Nice little opportunity for Jeremy Lamb though, who went 13/8/3/0/1 as the starting SG Saturday, and I think is worth even a 12er stream while Batum is out. Hornets go at the Rockets tomorrow too…
Markieff Morris – Bringin’ the Kieff against the Bucks! 20/10/1/3/0 yesterday with a trey. Nice to see a little upside from his typical empty-ish 10 point/7 rebound games haha.
James Harden – Finally, I thought I would never see a quaddub again!!!! 40/10/11/2/2. It looks like only a tripdub, but you add in the 10 TO, and voila! Man the Rockets and the D’Antoni system is looking like a tough team to beat…
Montrezl Harrell – …especially with how Trezl is running the pick-n-roll! After a little lull, 28/5/0/0/1 restored the faith, on an absurd 12-13 FG. At 65.6% from the field now on the year. Clint Capela‘s minutes bout to split down the middle!
DeMarre Carroll – Whoa, mini-DMC outburst! 26/8/0/1/0 with 6 treys yesterday, but ya know, #againstHouston.
Marquese Chriss – Well, 2 outta 3 ain’t bad! Two of his last three games have been great, going 12/3/4/1/3 yesterday against the Cavs with a trey. 31+ minutes in 2 of the last 3 as well. Definitely worth a flier add in anything deeper than 12ers, but it’s tough in shallower. Could easily go back to 15ish minutes the next few games.
Jon Leuer – Leuer might be looking at 0ish minutes the next few games with a sore knee. Stay tuned, but if he’s looking doubtful, you just have to move on in 12ers. No upside here.
Kentavious Caldwell-Pope – Addiction reaching Hunter S. Thompson levels! After snowy weather had Blazers fans Fear and Loathing in Portland, the Pistons/Blazers game got played yesterday, and KCP and C.J. McCollum went on a buzzer-beater rampage! CJ hit a couple great 3s to push the game into OT1 and OT2, but the dagger came from KCP!
26/4/2/4/0 last night with 4 treys. Nice bounce back after a dud last Thursday.
Allen Crabbe – Crabby getting hotty! 30/1/1/1/0, for a career-high night. 12-15 FG with 5-5 treys. Pretty empty line though, so you know where this is going… CrabNOF! Do crabs have faces?! I mean, their eyes are like, connected to their main body structure! I have no idea! Doctor G, do you happen to be a crab doctor as well?!?!?!
I hope everyone had a fantastic weekend, and stayed warm and safe through the snowstorms that hit the east coast! Hit me up on the comments and let’s catch up on fantasy hoops, hmmmmmm?! (stealing that from Dan A haha, love the “hmmmmmm?”s hah!)
