It’s been over 24 hours now. The sun rose. The sun set. People played basketball.
Regardless of how you felt through Tuesday night, I think pretty much everyone can agree it was morally exhausting. My wife actually wanted to watch the SNL Election Special last night that we DVRed, and all the laughing I did through the year plus of skits just got no response from me this time. Well, the Jay Pharoah as Ben Carson was still pretty boss… But it was a poor DVR choice!
With all the divisiveness and vitriol flying around, I just don’t know if democracy is working any more. Bring back a monarchy! Hell, The Walking Dead is doing it… (I think I’m going to make Nene‘s nickname King Ezekiel, but I’ll work on graphics for that later) No more Healthcare.Mozgov, it’s time to [re]embrace Lord Covington! His followers were jumping off the bandwagon like they were in Paris in 1789, but now we need a strong leader to get behind! 23/6/1/1/1 with no TO for Robert Covington against the Pacers for by far his best line on the season, hitting 8-16 FG with 5 treys. Just needs to get in more uptempo games! Honestly, I know I lost some RobCo faith, but I’m back on the bandwagon. I’m a flip flopper! Sue me! So be sure he wasn’t cut in your 10 or 12 team leagues, and scoop him up if so. Looks like his shot is back. It is worth mentioning that USG-whore Joel Embiid got a DNP though, so that might have helped things open up, but then again Embiid tweeted this yesterday:
Well America is tanking!!! All we can do is Trust The Process…
— Joel Embiid (@JoelEmbiid) November 9, 2016
Embiid 2020! If it becomes a contest of which candidate – Embiid or the incumbent – is bigger in the downstairs, we all know who would win that one!
Here’s what else went down in Fantasy Hoops last night:
Rondae Hollis-Jefferson – Not a huge game, but any time he’s scoring more than 2 points, it’s on the upwards trend! 8/5/4/0/1, and gets salvaged from being another absolute dud by going 6-6 FT. Be aggressive! Be, be aggressive!
Brook Lopez – Still taking his treys, and kept the FG% up this time! 8-12 FG (1-5 3PTM), and using my fantasy basketball abacus, I can draw the conclusion he made every shot within the perimeter. But, ya know, Asshat.
Justin Hamilton – Straight up Teletovics for 21/4/0/1/0 with 5 treys. He’s been a good deep league contributor, but the 10/12-team worthy spikes are a little few and far between.
Sean Kilpatrick – On top of the injury to Jeremy Lin (hammy), Isaiah Whitehead got American History X curbstomped by Gorgui Dieng Tuesday night, and sat with a concussion. Then to make things more fun, they cut Greivis Vasquez who needs another ankle surgery. So Sean Kill Pat moves to an out-of-position starting PG, and went 7/4/5/0/0 with 4 TO. I’m still keeping him around though, no surprises this game got away from the Nets, and once Lin and/or Whitehead is back, I think we see some fun production back to his natural 2 spot.
Joakim Noah – After that disastrous opener in Cleveland, Noah had been decent-ish, but 2/7/4/1/0 last night in only 21 minutes… I imagine we’ll be seeing a continuous flood of Noah drops.
Brandon Jennings – Gets a dimebag tallying 11 dimes. Everybody seems to be wanting legalized dimebags lately! He was at 3.8 dimes a game off the bench and this was a blowout against the Brooklyn Mess. Not much to see here for standards.
Willy Hernangomez – 14/6/0/1/2 in 15 junktime minutes. I’m sure Donald Trump avoided him as a contrarian DFS play last night…
Dario Saric – He’s down, then up, then down, then 14/12/3/0/2 last night. Only 9 shots though in 34 minutes, with 3 TO. Not sold he can be consistent.
Jahlil Okafor – 24 minutes in the start for EMBIIIIID, going 15/3/1/1/2 on 7-11 shooting. 1-5 FT, but that has always been a bugaboo.
Sergio Rodriguez – More like “SergiNOOOOOOO!!” 1-14 FG in a team-killing FG% effort, going 2/2/5/3/0. Despite being ice cold lately, he’s still your unquestioned starter.
Jeff Teague – Everyone just needs a Philly cheesecakewalk on the schedule! 30/2/9/2/1 on 10-16 shooting in 41 OT-fueled minutes. Pulled a Space Jam on Sergio and just took all his talent!
Al Jefferson – Back-to-back Zach Randolph-ish games off the bench, going 18/6/0/2/0. He’s pretty blah, but we knew he’d do more than his paltry output through the first six games.
Zach LaVine – En fuego! Shoots an absurd 14-22 with 7-9 from deep. He jumps so high on his treys that he’s always open! Then can jump on the drives too!
37/4/3/1/0 with no TO. He’s now shooting 48.9% from deep on 6.4 attempts. Didn’t see this kind of improvement!
Andrew Wiggins – What are you getting other stats for?! 29/4/6/0/0 in the most complete line of his career. Hah, well that’s probably not true, but 4 rebounds is like he was DeAndre Jordan out there!
Tyus Jones – Continues to outplay Kris Dunn (17 min 2/2/3/0/2) off the bench, going 10/4/5/2/0 with 2 treys and no TO in 31 minutes. Start the defender, then bring in the offense. If anything, neither has taken a step to look like they’ll overtake the starting position, and it sound like Ricky Rubio is progressing, despite lacking a timetable.
Elfrid Payton – That’s what I’m talkin’ about! 18/3/7/1/0 with only 1 TO and a trey. I knew the Shelfrid could do it! His hair had extra bounce in this one too.
Aaron Gordon – 40.7% from the field now after 2-9 last night, as he continues to struggle with his %s. It hasn’t come together like the breakthrough we hoped, but I feel like there’s still more upside beneath the surface here. Might be a buy low for me.
Avery Bradley – Even with all the big man injuries, we finally saw the REB get back to normal in a 21/3/2/2/1 line with 3 treys. But that’s still some awesomesauce!
Jaylen Brown – I had room for him on a few RCLs as he was getting starts for Jae Crowder, but now I have that room again… Only 13 minutes last night of pretty much nothingball.
Marcus Smart – PG was your lone bright spot for the C’s in a bad loss last night, with IT2/3 and Smart playing well, with the latter going 20/3/1/1/0 with 4 treys. 2-5 FT though… Maybe if the top of his head didn’t look like a scarecrow, he could have a brain and make his damn freebies!
Otto Porter – I am getting OttoCorrected these past few games, that’s for sure! Absurdity! 34/14/4/3/3 in maybe the best Roto line of all time, hitting 3 treys, shooting 14-19 FG, and 3-3 FT. Anddddd without a TO.
It’s pretty easy when you’re getting open jumpers and IT2/3 is trying to box you out! I still want to be steadfast and call him a sell high, but jeepers creepers he’s looking like a keeper.
Bradley Beal – Got hurt last night, and fortunately it’s nothing to do with those stress reactions. Slipped on a wet spot and did an ugly man-split – I definitely thought it was a groin thing – but turns out the injury is to his hammy and he’s getting an MRI. He sounded optimistic it wasn’t as bad as it looked though (I would GIF that one, but as a dude, it hurts too much to watch).
Marcus Thornton – Got the extra burn with Beal out, going 16/4/4/3/0 with 3 treys. Short term ThrAGNOF!
Gordon Hayward – If he fell in your drafts, you are loving life right now! 29/7/4/1/1 on 10-19 shooting, getting him to a career-best 47.2% FG% as a starter (small sample of course), and a huge volume 22-22 FT to start the season. Maybe he needs to break his finger every preseason! Here’s how I picture the Jazz training room next August:
Rodney Hood – Staying productive even with the good-lookin’ Gordon back, going 20/4/4/2/0 with 4 treys. Hood been good! We’ll see if his %s can maintain this big step up.
Michael Kidd-Gilchrist – Struggled last night against that Jazz D, going 2/9/1/2/1. Still a scrappy line!
Marvin Williams – Revenge game! Had started fairly slow, but has a nice ThrAGNOFfy 19/8/1/0/0 line with 5 treys. We knew the blocks wouldn’t be at 1.0 again, so if you went in just nabbing a stretch-4 ThrAGNOF late in your draft and didn’t overpay, you’re feeling OK…
Jimmy So Many Buckets! – 39/4/7/6/0 for Jimmy Butler, trying to take the Bulls by their horns to a big win, but fell to the looking-really-good 6-2 Hawks. Mannnn, he had 4 steals through the first 6 games! Now 10 steals, TEN, in the past 2 games. Ocean’s Fourteen has found the new member!
Dwyane Wade – Also tallied a big steal total – 5 – in a 25/3/3/5/0 line. No one questioned these two could be awesome, just need them to stay healthy!
Paul Millsap – 16/11/6/1/2, albeit with 6 TO. The Hawks won even with committing 22 TO! Yikes.
Dennis Schroder – Kicked in his 4 TO, and also shot a horrific 5-19 FG. He was -17 to backup Malcom Delaney‘s + 25. Thank god for a nice second-unit showing, Hotlanta!
Thabo Sefolosha – Also contributed his 4 TO, but otherwise had a really surprising line. 20/5/1/3/1 on 8-9 shooting with 2 treys. Other than the steals, he had been pretty hot garbage though.
DeMar DeRozan – Apparently is going to push for the scoring title this year. Crazypants! 37/4/6/3/0 and off to an ¡increíble! start.
Kyle Lowry – Tripdub flirt in the battle against Russell Westbrook, going 19/9/13/0/1 with 5 treys. Nice to see the dimes coming back!
Lucas Nogueira – With Jonas Valanciunas still out with a balky knee, Jakob Poeltl got the start, but Egg Nog got 29 minutes off the bench of 10/7/1/2/2. On offense, he just stands around like the best of them, waiting for lobs! But hey, 5-5 FG and a ridiculous +30 in a 10 point win… Short-term BlockNOF while JV is out!
Steven Adams – Has his thumb rapped up like he’s an injured hitchhiker, yet still goes 8-8 from the stripe. He’s 2.3-2.4 for 94.7% from the line this season. This might be the biggest story in all of sports right now. Dude was a 55% FT shooter over 3 seasons! WTF is happening?! Whoever worked with him in the offseason could make millions by helping all the worthless bigs missing their FT (cough, Capela, cough).
Kentavious Caldwell-Pope – Mmmmmm, ThrAGNOF addiction! 27 points on 5 treys. Off a 0-6 FG 1-3 FT game too… Roller coaster of addition!
Jon Leuer – Continues to lead the second unit in minutes, but in a close game got only 24 minutes to his season average of 27 going into the game. It’s not a huge difference, but 11/9/1/0/0 with 2 treys is kinda blah and I still think he’s a little over his head.
Alex Len – Got the start with Tyson Chandler still out (personal, and thoughts and prayers with him), going 16/14/0/3/1 on 7-10 shooting with no TO. Surprisingly hung with shoulder-hair Drummond too! Nice step forward for Len’s hopeful future as their no-question starting C.
Marquese Chriss – Everyone’s big waiver add the past few days has really fizzled out as a starter. 0/5/1/0/0 on 0-4 shooting, and Jared Dudley all the sudden looked like he had a pulse, going 19/5/1/1/2 in 30 bench minutes. You’d think a salty vet like Milk Duds wouldn’t need this kind of motivation to get going!
James Harden – Can the D’Antoni system really work?! The 5-3 Rockets pick up a HUGE win in San Antonio, with Harden tripdubbing his way to a 24/12/15/1/0 line. Almost quaddub with the 8 TO!
Clint Capela – 2-4 FT, drop the confetti! Raises his FT% to a stellar 23.5%.
Kawhi Leonard – Trying to put this team on his back, but 34/7/1/1/2 with 4 treys wasn’t enough. The old forwards and centers need to step up!
Pau Gasol – Sheeeeeeesh, hard to step up only playing 13 minutes! What in the world, in a 2 point loss at HOME no less! I don’t think there was an injury here, but dayum if this isn’t crashing and burning. Still might float some buy lows, but the price is depreciating quick. If the price of a car goes down the 20% after you drive it off the lot, imagine how much it goes down in it’s 17th year!
Harrison Barnes – Revenge game! 25/8/1/0/0. Yawn.
Justin Anderson – With Wesley Matthews sitting, J.J. Barea sitting, hell the entire starting 5 pretty much sitting, Anderson gets 41 minutes and goes 16/8/7. He lost minutes to the even more boring Dorian Finney-Smith earlier in the week, so if somehow you’re in an epicly deep league, I would sell high.
Seth Curry – Same with Curry, who got 17 shots and only hit 4 of them in the battle of the Currys. The overall line ended up looking really nice though (10/1/9/5/2), but it begs the question… WHO THE EFF IS LETTING SETH CURRY BLOCK THEM?!
Warriors Starting 5 – Dismantled the makeshift Mavericks with ease, with all 5 getting 4+ dimes. Everyone had about the line you’d expect too, except stupid Zaza Pachulia in HIS revenge game only getting 13 minutes. Yeah my bad, they really don’t want to play him at all until the playoffs.
Portland TrailLosers – What in the world?! Utter humiliation from your Blazers, going down 61-32 at half, then 93-50 at the end of 3. Ouchhhhh. Damian Lillard shooting 1-10, C.J. McCollum had a line more reminiscent of what I thought he’d do last year… Twas ugly.
Chris Paul – With the blowout, the Clip starters didn’t play too heavy either, with Paul getting only 23 minutes of 19/4/7/1/0. At 7-1, the Clippers might be a surprise sleeping giant in the West, after everyone kinda wrote them off as a status quo.
I hope everyone had a solid outing from their guys on this heavy-scheduled Wednesday night, and is looking forward to a strong finish to the week! Catch you on the Podcast tomorrow!
