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It was an absolutely wild season for fantasy basketball – one that had more twists and turns than watching Shutter Island backwards – so we’re at the point now where it’s time to clear our heads and unpack some things. Who were the top dogs? Who were the team-crushing disappointments? How about the surprises we could never have seen coming?

Well, this week I’m kicking off our awards season with the point guard position. Let’s look a little closer, dig a little deeper and dish out some well-deserved hardware to some of the NBA’s best floor generals.

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Kevin Durant is back!

For what feels like the millionth time. How many times does this guy have to be “back” before it’s not even a story anymore? I guess he gets infinite re-entries on this – ESPN even used the exact headline “KD is back!” It literally never ends, but I guess we gotta talk about his fantasy impact anyway.

Elsewhere on OKC Thunder throwback night, Russell Westbrook went HAM against the high-flying Memphis Grizzlies. Let’s dive in and take a look at these throwback performances under the fantasy basketball microscope.

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As the wheels continued to fall off the Wizards’ season Wednesday night, Nikola Jokic kept rollin’ in the opposite direction to the tune of 31 points, 12 rebounds, seven assists and three steals in a convincing 118-104 win for Denver. His absolutely insane efficiency continued, as he shot 12-of-16 from the field and 5-of-5 at the charity stripe. This guy fills up the box score and basically doesn’t miss in the process.

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As Adam Schefter and Ian Rapoport fire off one “BREAKING” tweet after another, I just have to be honest: Writing about basketball tonight sort of feels like being the undercard for a Jon Jones fight. Is anyone gonna care about the NBA tonight, while the NFL free agency frenzy carries on deep into the wee hours?

NO? Well, I’ll just go ahead and MAKE you care. Didn’t mean to sound like Tony Soprano, sorry. Let’s get into my NBA Wednesday fantasy basketball notes and analysis.

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If you’ve been reading my NBA Wednesday fantasy recaps throughout the season, then you’ve probably noticed that I like to give a different team the focus each and every week. Gotta keep it fresh for you, right?

Well, this week I’m happy to finally land on the New Orleans Pelicans, one of the most interesting teams in the entire NBA. To me, the Pelicans are the No. 1 what if? team in the league. What if they could ever keep superstar Zion Williamson (hamstring this time) healthy? What if they could ever roll out their optimal starting lineup: C.J. McCollum, Brandon Ingram, Herbert Jones, Zion and Jonas Valanciunas? What if Jones (24 years old), Trey Murphy III (22) and Dyson Daniels (19) all happen to pan out? There are a lot of different ways things could potentially work out for these young Pelicans, but none of those ways have come to fruition just yet.

But Wednesday marked a step in the right direction, as the pesky Pelicans booked a huge 113-106 win over the reeling Dallas Mavericks. With the victory, New Orleans stayed a half-game ahead of the talented young Thunder for the final position in the West’s playoff ladder. Let’s dive in and take a closer look at Wednesday’s performances from a fantasy perspective.

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Fifty percent of Wednesday’s NBA tweets went to Jalen Brunson and his Knicks, but as the old saying goes, “The tie goes to the runner.” Kevin Durant ran away from my Brooklyn Nets as fast as he possibly could, and Wednesday night he finally debuted for the Phoenix Suns in a convincing 105-91 victory over the reeling Charlotte Hornets. Let’s dive in and take a closer look at both Durant and Brunson from a fantasy basketball perspective.

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If you’ve been reading my NBA articles throughout the season – or at any point during the past 20 years or so – then you already know I’m a diehard Brooklyn Nets fan. So, as you can probably imagine, these past few weeks have been particularly difficult for me. I mean seriously, have you ever heard of a team winning 12 games in a row, being the No. 2 seed in the conference… and then dismantling that very same team before the all-star break of the same season? I’ve never, ever heard of such a thing, but I guess Kyrie Irving forced our hand on this one. Once one domino fell, the rest followed suit.

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Wooooooooo, the NBA trade deadline is cookin’ now!

Wednesday night shook up the landscape of the league, as D’Angelo Russell, Malik Beasley, Jarred Vanderbilt are now Lakers, Mike Conley is a Timberwolf, Josh Hart is a Knick and Russell Westbrook is playin’ the blues in Utah (for now). But more on that later. First, let’s get into our regularly scheduled programming: My Wednesday fantasy recap.

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Sometimes you need to stand back and take a good, hard look at your personal biases as a writer.

When I do that while wearing my NBA hat, I can clearly see that I don’t give the Philadelphia 76ers a lot of love. What can I say? I just can’t stand James Harden. A couple years back he came to my Nets amidst hope and big dreams – a “Superteam” with Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving – and left the way he always does: As a loser. Harden is one of the greatest regular season players of all time – a true fantasy basketball god over the course of his career – but he crumbles like no other in the playoffs. And can we really say much better for the veteran combination of Joel Embiid and Tobias Harris? Despite big names and strong stat sheet production, this Philly team hasn’t gotten anywhere with this core over time.

Maybe this season will be different? I doubt it. Yet and still, Harden and Embiid had their patented pick-and-roll rollin’ Wednesday night, on their way to a solid 105-94 victory over the pesky, young Orlando Magic. Let’s dive in and take a closer look from a fantasy perspective.

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The Utah Jazz were really a feel-good story early this season, right? With alpha Donovan Mitchell out of the way – absolutely dominating in Cleveland – the young, hungry Jazz stormed out of the gate to a strong start to their season. Lauri Markkanen continues to be one of the best players in the NBA this season, but things have sort of fallen back to earth for the rest of Will Hardy’s inexperienced squad. And well, Wednesday night was no different in that descent – superstar vet Damian Lillard tore them to pieces in another tough loss in this tumble for the Jazz. Let’s jump in and take a closer look.

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I’ve been covering fantasy basketball throughout this season and well… I haven’t been able to write many nice things about the Charlotte Hornets to date. So when I saw they picked up a rare road victory on Wednesday night – 122-117 over the young, rebuilding Houston Rockets – I thought this is finally the Hornets’ time to shine! But alas, one step forward and one step back for this stumbling squad – despite the victory, the real loss was the apparent ankle injury to franchise superstar LaMelo Ball. Let’s dive a little bit deeper into this game and fantasy-relevant injury.

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