AD to IR, LeLuka Makes Lakers Debut

I honestly think this is bad script writing. And when it comes to bad writing, it takes one to know one, ya know? No, I don’t know, just to avoid the self-own, but what I’m trying to say is, Anthony Davis getting injured? Who could ever think?

I mean, true, the last 2-3 seasons have been his healthiest since he entered the league, but Davis going down, especially after getting traded for a top-3 25-year-old player, well, let’s just say Nico Harrison might want to think about non-extradition countries and where their best beaches are for the time being. I won’t bother adding my hot take here, I’ll only surmise it this way; Mavericks fans are asking, is Nico a basketball terrorist? I don’t know the answer, but I believe if you were wanting to be one, this is probably the best way to go about it…

Oh, okay, one hot take, but throwing fans out that call for your firing is pretty soft. That’s it, no jokes. It’s just soft and I think we should call that out.

Anyways, let it be said that AD was looking like fire (26 points, 16 rebounds, 7 assists and 3 blocks in 31 minutes) before he went down with what looks to be a hamstring strain (grade 2, the medium of strains, as no one says) and he’ll be re-evaluated in a month, as I’m sure the whole NBA apparatus will be re-evaluating this trade until the end of time.

On the flipside, Luke Doncic made his Laker debut, providing an underwhelming 14/5/4 on 5/14 shooting and 1/7 from three. LeBron James scored 24 points with 7 rebounds and 8 assists.

One last Lakers tidbit (I know, I hate writing this much about them!), it looks like the Mark Williams trade is definitely dead after a failed physical, so the Lakers going out without a true big man is a choice. Charlotte is exploring legal options, but I’ll just say it would have been interesting to see what either Williams or Dalton Knecht could do in their new roles.

Here’s what else I saw the past few days…

The Warriors are looking better than okay since adding emo superstar (what I shall call him from here forth) Jimmy Butler to the mix. He’s scored 45 points in the past two games (28 total free throw attempts as well) and had four steals last night against the Bucks. This is actually what you want to see, an activated Butler on defense, because if he’s showing energy there, you’ll see it on the offensive end times two.

Steph Curry, as if sensing the pressure that his All-Star nod was not deserved this year (of course I’m going to sneak in that take), scored 38 points, tying his season-high, but only went 6-16 from three. His averages the last two games are 36/5/5 on 71% total shooting though.

And (so far my pick for MVP) Nikola Jokic went 40/7/8 against the Blazers, and this was just in three quarters. Fun fact, that is the 12th fourth quarter he has not had to play in this year.

Yes, I will enter the discourse, especially since I mentioned it earlier in the season, but SGA is a great player, no way he is MVP right now and while I think you can make a case for SGA, out-right dismissing what Jokic is doing this year and using “defensive” side of the ball as the focal point just doesn’t work when you look at the rest of the differences.

Despite losing Fox, the Kings continue to look good as DeMar DeRozan went for 42 points against the AD-less Mavs.

Quick note on the Thunder, Aaron Wiggins has gone 23/6/2 on 58% field goal, good for a +130 in his last six games.

And Jayson Tatum is still doing Jayson Tatum like things, going 33/8/2 on 60.4% total shooting against the Heat.

Lastly, and not really fantasy-related, sorta, but Kyrie Irving was selected to the All-Star game as replacement for AD. I personally would have loved to see Norm Powell make the squad, but that’s pure homerism. I would say that leaving Domantas Sabonis off the roster just seems ridiculous.

So here’s some fantasy relevant stuff: Currently, Sabonis is first in rebounds, third in win shares, fourth in three-point percentage and carries a slash of 21/14/6 basically. If the NBA and Adam Silver just wants to reward the Mavericks fanbase with this decision, they’d be much better off rewarding them by shooting Nico and the Adelson owners into the sun. (Not the Suns mind you, they have their own issues.)

Too many takes, so little time!

Jay is a longtime Razzball everything who consumes an egregious amount of Makers Mark as a vehicle to gain wisdom and augment his natural glow. Living in the D.C. area, he also likes spending time visiting the local parks and feeding lettuce to any turtles he encounters, including Mitch McConnell.