Chief Editor for Razzball Fantasy Basketball. Fantasy Sports Writer for Razzball Football and Razzball Baseball. Co-Host of the Razzball Fantasy Football Podcast. Go Crew, Panthers, Blue, & Heels! Follow me on Twitter @jbgilpin
JB & Slim recap Team Razzball in the Yahoo Friends & Family League, interview Razzball Buy/Sell guru Dan A., get through the big NBA news from the past week, and wrap up the show assessing two more readers’ teams.
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Please, blog, may I have some more? by: JB Gilpin
JB & Slim talk Yahoo’s re-ranks and changes to the FantasyPros consensus, recap preseason action including this morning’s Hornets game, and lay out the rest of Razzball Basketball’s preseason content.
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Please, blog, may I have some more?Well, there’s certainly been no lack of news this past week! No fantasy sport is safe from injuries, even in the preseason! Well, maybe fantasy fishing (yes, I’ve played it!).
As reported everywhere, even on tweens.com (I hope that’s not a real site and/or not an illegal site! Not gonna find out in my web history!), Kevin Durant has a broken bone in his foot, and the initial timetable in 6-8 weeks. But of course given it’s KD, and we’re nearing the home stretch of the fantasy drafting window, there’s all sorts of shrouds of uncertainty. First there’s surgery vs. non-surgery, which I’m guessing the latter involves rum and Jobu, but I’m no voodoo. Despite my limited knowledge on Jones fractures, I am hoping he opts for the surgery. If he doesn’t get it, it seems like Durant is playing with fire. We saw the Thunder bring back Westbrook earlier than expected last year with his knee issues, then he suffered re-injury (of course, causation is merely speculative). Which leads to point number two – either way you look at it surgery vs. non-surgery, Jones fractures are all sorts of tricky. Lingering issues, re-injuring it, it’s all up in the air. My perspective is Durantula has been healthy for virtually his whole career, spanning 7 seasons. So I’m optimistic he can be a fast healer, and splitting the difference of 6-8 weeks to 7 weeks out. Given when news broke, that’s missing just over a month of the regular season.
In my re-ranks I published yesterday, I only moved KD down to 2 with Anthony Davis up to #1 (side note – found this article with NBA MVP odds, how can I hop in on this?! Brow 25/1?! I’ll throw $10 on him to win $250!). In H2H, if you’re a confident manager, you can stream and bear a .500 record for a month. Then you have KD for the playoffs! I think if you try to sell right now in a panic if you’ve already drafted, or let him fall too far in your draft, you’ll be kicking yourself in the postseason. All that said, in Roto, I’m probably letting him fall until at least the middle of the first round. Having by far the best per-game player for the fantasy playoffs weeks obviously doesn’t matter. Hopefully by early next week there’s a little more clarity on Durant, and I’ll have one final rankings revision next Wednesday. Here’s what else has gone down in fantasy hoops since the last wrap-up (which will be daily during the season!):
Please, blog, may I have some more?Slim & JB discuss commenter etiquette, recap a boatload of news since last Wednesday’s Podcast including the Kevin Durant injury, then review commenters’ drafted teams.
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Please, blog, may I have some more? by: JB Gilpin
We’re up to two Pods a week! JB & Slim recap a busy night of NBA preseason including Andrew Wiggins’ huge debut, then talk about the FantasyPros consensus and the players Razzball has ranked the highest.
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Please, blog, may I have some more?Preseason is here! Preseason is here! I’m as giddy as N64 kid on Christmas Day.
But before we got into any action, Nick Young had a rough end of to his week last week, jacking up his thumb on his shooting hand requiring surgery. He’ll be out 8 weeks, which puts him back in Purp-n-Gold mid-to-late November, optimistically. You can drop him off your fantasy teams now! He’s got a plenty big cast to hitchhike his way somewhere else. I would say to “Scrubtown” but if you say that three times fast it starts to sound kinda like Scranton and I don’t want to offend Scrantonites or fans of The Office.
I wasn’t big on Swaggy P anyway, but no reason to touch him except in the very deepest of leagues. Pretty empty scoring. Wesley Johnson gets a minor bump up, and that’s the extent of the impact. Now back to preseason! Of course every performance must be taken with a grain of salt, and this early it’s a friggin’ pillar of salt, but it’s never too early to see how players are doing – especially this year’s ridiculous class of rooks. Here’s what’s gone on across the league:
Please, blog, may I have some more?Slim & JB recap the news including Nick Young’s thumb injury, break down preseason action with K.J. McDaniel’s 4 blocks, and review commenters’ drafted teams.
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Please, blog, may I have some more? by: JB Gilpin
[Reposting to the top! We have many spots open, but more importantly, need more leagues! Plenty of time to launch and commish an RCL league for the season.
I lied. The most important thing is ideas for the YouTube prize! Read below and post your thoughts!]
The time is here. The calling, early. The draft day prep work, extensive. JB’s hair, slowly growing in. Yes, RCL Basketball is back! And we’re as pumped as ever to see who will be the next champion among champions. The smartest in the room amongst the moderately intelligent people in the room.
So I know what you’re all thinking… What is JB going to embarrassingly do this year? If you missed it, I shaved the 13-14 RCL Grand Champion’s team name in my head, and I’m going to do something goofy again. Well, you’re the biggest part of the site (talking to you readers!) and so I think the Youtube video prize should be something suggested in the comments. Something that majestically displays the RCL Winner’s team name that I can spread to the world, but doesn’t involve a big monetary investment. Nothing illegal! Or tattoos, I don’t have Birdman’s budget! Low key, but funny. That would be my tagline if I was single and online dating… Be sure and share your ideas, reply on comments/suggestions you like, and we’ll have another public shaming in 2015!
But you don’t get only the humiliation video; as usual, Razzball loves to pimp out our gear and we have another official 2014-2015 RCL Champion Jumpsuit (branded basketball of course) to tailor to the official winner (cost of tailor not included). Most importantly, an everlasting shrine in the annals of history. Wow, that sentence is fun! And just as fun, we’ll have the weekly updates tracking the standings throughout the season as we did last year.
Please, blog, may I have some more? by: JB Gilpin
JB is finally back from Germany and talks with Slim about Rajon Rondo and Showergate, the Kings signing Ramon Sessions, updating the Official Razzball 200, and review commenters’ drafted teams.
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Please, blog, may I have some more? by: JB Gilpin
Buy low! Sell high! Somehow make millions off frozen orange juice futures by short selling them that still sorta confuses me!
Yessir, auction values are here! And just like how I talked about approaching auctions last year, get your wallets wide open for KD (also look at my blurb for the final $1 pick… Haha – still my thoughts exactly!). First off – unless you are fortunate enough to have Kevin Durant as a keeper or luck into a randomized first overall pick, you’re not going to get him. So in an auction setting, I imagine the bidding to be frantic. However, I think he’s worth the ridiculous premium I have him listed for. Maybe by fortune of having the greatest fantasy editor job in the world, I have done so much work with rankings that I feel I can round out a stars-and-scrubs team spending half my budget on Durant.
As with all fantasy auction drafts, have a few guys on your radar, but have an open mind. Value can come at any time for any player. I also want to note, some of these values mean I’m getting a guy in all auctions, even if it’s at a price much lower than the values I have them listed for. Michael Carter-Williams is the obvious guy there. He’s averaging an $8 buy on Yahoo. I’m not saying “if the bid is at $7, bid $38 on MCW!” It’s just how I would have listed projected auction values using my ranks to give you an idea of how high or how low I would be in an auction setting. So what my $38 is saying is, “buy MCW in all leagues!”
Sorry if I’m a little slow with your awesome comments this week, but I’m back full force this weekend with a new Pod with Slim next week as well.
Values are based on Yahoo standard line-up (PG, SG, G, SF, PF, F, C, C, UTIL, UTIL, BN, BN, BN) and 12-team leagues (RCL size – and we need more leagues! Commish one now!) with a $200 budget:
Please, blog, may I have some more? by: JB Gilpin
Razzball Nation!
If you hadn’t gathered through some comments and a few less articles the past week, I’m back from my adventure in Bavaria and over my Oktoberfest hangover! Geez those Oktoberfest litre (European spelling!) beers were strong! If anyone has had the chance to go, definitely share your stories. Drunk munchies of currywurst and then trying to order steak for some reason (or so I’m told!) was absolutely fantastic.
So indeed I am back, and even though I have a callus on my forefinger from raising my beer glass, my hand is in better shape than Rajon Rondo‘s! Broke his hand in the shower on Friday, and with surgery will miss 6-8 weeks. Let me set up the scene as I pictured this incident: Rondo is on the run after ripping off his bank, pulls into the Olynyk Hotel, he starts to shower and the piercing violin theme sounds – with Kelly Olynyk storming in with a butcher knife! Pretty much Kelly Olynyk anything is scary. “He’s coming at me with a fish stick!” Then all the sudden he turns 5 fish sticks into enough to feed the whole crowd… (Of course, I wrote that whole intro before news came out Rondo was spotted on a trampoline at a park, and that sounds more likely a hand-breaking locale. Maybe he was practicing for a revival of SlamBall!)
I’ve gotten flack for liking Rondo a lot this year, with my rationale him expanding into a perimeter game and likely a career best in points, but as I’ve said before – sometimes injuries can help you from bad ranks! Moving him way down into 50s or so, maybe even later, even though he’ll only miss the first week or two (report surfaced today 10-15 games so more like 3 weeks). Here’s what else has gone down lately in the world of offseason hoops:
Please, blog, may I have some more?JB jacked up the first podcast, but Slim was a trooper and we did a shorter, condensed version due to some tech issues and recap a few pieces of news including Tyreke Evans still ailing from offseason surgery, then recap drafted teams including a commenter’s team in a new segment we’ll be doing through the preseason.
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Please, blog, may I have some more?
