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I’m back after a one-week break due to unavoidable obligations (I know, boring real-life) and a lot happened while I was gone in the fantastic world of the NBA. Giannis and James Harden are literally going head-to-head for the MVP award, the Lakers are in a disarray without Lebron, but the most important news report surfaced yesterday. The Philadelphia 76ers are signing the one, the only, the real fantasy king and Son’s favorite player of this century, Corey Brewer!!

Get up from your chair at work, from your bed, or from your bathroom and run to pick up the player that was projected 91st this summer. Sorry Son, I had to do it. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, acquaint yourselves to our inside joke by searching for the 91st ranked player here and taking a look at the comments…

The only upside to not publishing an article last week is that my suggestions can be judged on a two-week basis, which is a markedly larger sample size, so let’s quickly go through them. Both Tomas Satoransky and Thomas Bryant had great performances and will continue to have solid value without John Wall around. The same cannot be said for Willy Hernangomez, who has so far failed to capitalize on his increased opportunity and is thus a tough hold in standard leagues. But to compensate for this bad suggestion and, if you allow me to toot my own horn, both Derrick White and Austin Rivers have outperformed expectations and possibly have won some matchups with their performance during the last two weeks. Finally, it’s been a rollercoaster ride with Luke Kornet, as he had three awesome games and three bad one. Enes Kanter missed some time but Mitchell Robinson’s potential return could complicate things for Luke. I will have the pleasure to watch him in all his awkwardness live in the London game, so you will have a first-hand report of his performance next week.

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First of all, I want to wish all of you a happy new year with peace, health, and happiness! May 2019 also bring fantasy glory to all your teams. This week was a bit frantic in terms of players for the Buy column, with many injuries creating opportunities, so you will notice a bigger number of proposed players than normal. However, as per usual, let’s first take a look at last week’s suggestions in order to evaluate their performance.

Jeff Green proved to be a productive streamer last week, and may have some more value to give, but watch out for the imminent return of Otto Porter Jr. Marcus Smart was his usual self, racking up steals and missing shots. You know what you are getting out of him, while Javale McGee’s return erased Ivica Zubac, who can be safely dropped. It’s funny that it’s 2019 and I wrote a sentence about McGee returning and making such an impact in fantasy basketball.

Finally, both Dennis Schroder and Terrence Ross continue to be in cold shooting streaks and thus, continue to be high on my Sell list.

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Merry Christmas Razzball readers! I hope you enjoy the holiday season and take advantage of the extra free time to watch more NBA by the fireplace! This year, Christmas coincided with the opening of the All-star voting so, if you haven’t already, give your favorite players the Christmas gift of your vote and drop a comment below on who is the most underrated player that should be an All-star this year!

Taking a look at last week’s suggestions, both Cody Zeller and Nemanja Bjelica had a pretty low-scoring week, but I still like them going forward. The same can be said for Jarrett Allen. Regarding the Sell candidates, Kent Bazemore is still going strong, but Taurean Prince’s return is getting closer, while James Johnson had one great and three mediocre games.

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We know the NBA is a serious business, but even it is not immune to the occasional mix up. Such an occurrence happened last week, sparked by a three-team trade centered around Trevor Ariza. Per reports, part of the deal that Memphis agreed was to send MarShon Brooks to the Phoenix Suns, but Phoenix thought they were getting Dillon Brooks. I guess that’s what happens when you have two players with the same surname on the same team and you are trading with a team whose coach also has the same surname. And with that, the deal was off, only to happen two days later without the involvement of Memphis. Now that I think about it more, maybe the Wizards’ master plan was to trade their head coach, but Memphis found out before it was too late. Imagine a team with all three members of the Holiday family: Jrue, Justin, and Aaron. How about a team with all four members of the Antetokounmpo family: Giannis, Thanasis, Alex, and Kostas? I would pay just to hear trade discussions involving players from those two families.

Taking a look at last week’s suggestions, Wendell Carter Jr. has hit the well-documented “rookie-wall,” but I still think he is an excellent Buy option, as he is too good to struggle for much longer. Nicolas Batum had a breakthrough performance vs the Knicks and I think he can improve more as we approach the second half of the season, while De’Anthony Melton maintained his minutes and production even with Devin Booker back. Finally, Trey Lyles has been underwhelming with his increased opportunity, but has the ability to get hot in a hurry, in contrast to Rodney McGruder, for whom I maintain the opinion that he should be off standard league rosters.

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I have to start this article by saying that I’m a big fan of Stephen Curry, but simultaneously I’m a bigger fan of science. And those two seemed to have a conflict recently with Curry suggesting that the moon landing didn’t happen during a recent podcast. NASA’s response was immediate.

This is the second occurrence of an NBA player making such a comment after Kyrie Irving’s infamous flat earth theory. My humble personal opinion is that these guys are role models for millions of children worldwide and as role models, they ought to have a more well-informed opinion on scientific matters. Their opinions may shape the views of millions that look up to them, so their statements carry a significant weight. I would love to hear your opinion on that matter in the comments. I’m interested to see your point of view. OK, Rant over, let’s review last week’s calls and move on to this week’s suggestions!

Tim Frazier is doing exactly what is expected from him, with elite assists and contributions in steals and triples, and I really like him as long as Elfrid Payton is sidelined. Kevin Huerter has seen his minutes increase and is becoming a deep-league asset, while Marvin Williams returned quicker than expected and somewhat capped Miles Bridges’ upside. Finally, Kevon Looney and Jordan Bell will have low end value until DeMarcus Cousins returns.

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During this past week when I was researching for players to put in the Buy column, I had Tim Frazier as a potential candidate, but in no way was thinking of having him as the highlight of the article. And then he goes and does this (2.17-2.35 in the video)

Tim Frazier is one of us. Tim Frazier cares about us. Instead of getting a turnover in the final possession as the clock runs out, he passes the ball to Wesley Johnson so that the turnover is registered to him. And I doubt Johnson is on any fantasy teams right now… More on Frazier below.

Taking a look at last week’s suggestions, Marvin Williams was bad and eventually got injured so you can safely drop him again. Injury also struck Taurean Prince, but he is a hold as it is not a serious one. The final Buy suggestion was Allen Crabbe who has seen the minutes rise during the last week, and I still like him for the triples and points contributions.

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Taking a different approach than my norm, I would like to dedicate the usual introduction of the article to the Washington Wizards. Boy, has it been an interesting season in the nation’s capital. After an atrocious start to the season, John Wall and Bradley Beal called out their teammates (heavily implying Otto Porter Jr.) for caring only about the number of shot attempts. Meanwhile, their combined shots attempted from the field this season were 34.6. Hmmmmm.

Furthermore, Scott Brooks continues to frustrate with his rotations, Dwight Howard is usually on the sidelines, Beal called out management, and Wall dropped the F bomb on his coach in last week’s practice. So, what is the next logical step? But of course, to come from 20 points behind in last night’s game for a win against the Clippers in LA. I have a feeling that one of Wall, Beal, or Porter is going to be traded away sooner than later. It’s going to be a very interesting season in Washington.

Taking a look at last week’s suggestions, both Mike Muscala and Rondae Hollis-Jefferson are starting to see more opportunities and Jeff Teague had one awful and two good games, but his value will increase with Jimmy Butler in Philadelphia. As for the sell suggestions, both Taj Gibson and Tyreke Evans have done nothing to warrant ownership in standard leagues and Evans particularly was uninspiring with Oladipo missing two games due to injury.

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The whole NBA world held their breath when Caris LeVert suffered a gruesome injury against the Timberwolves on Monday. It looked bad, like the season-ending injuries Gordon Hayward and Jeremy Lin endured. Thankfully, the best-case scenario prevailed and he only suffered a dislocation, meaning he can be back on the court in approximately three months. That’s a long time away, which makes LeVert a luxury stash only.

Taking a look at last week’s suggestions, Eric Bledsoe had a great week and, as I specifically mentioned last week, the steals improved to 2.0 per game (3 games). Pascal Siakam is on fire, averaging 22 points since I mentioned him. He looks like the real deal and has the ability to be a steady fantasy contributor all season long. The rest of the suggested players to Buy were Derrick White, who had a good and an average game as he gets back up to speed from his injury and Mitchell Robinson, who had a 9 block game and potentially carried many H2H teams to victory last week.

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Welcome back Otto, we greatly missed you. After a painfully slow start to the season, and a missed game due to a toe injury, Otto Porter Jr. finally broke out yesterday with a 19/5/6/4/2/2/0 roto gem against the Mavericks. He was featured in the Buy column last week, so I hope you capitalized on the buy-low opportunity and got him at a discount. I have valid hope that he can continue improving due to the attention the P&R between Howard and Wall demands. As for the other suggested players, LaMarcus Aldridge predictably started making more shots and improved his value, Rodney Hood hasn’t really done anything great with his opportunity in Cleveland yet, and Josh Okogie has been OK, but I expect greater things from him with Butler set to miss more games. Finally, regarding the sell candidates, DeAndre Jordan continues making his free throws but I think that will eventually stop, and Wesley Matthews seems determined to prove me wrong because he continues scoring even with Harrison Barnes back. I still believe he is a sell high candidate because Barnes will eventually get back up to speed.

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Perplexed by the title of the article? Wondering what the hell is this guy talking about? Perfect. Continue reading to find out how it is all connected to this week’s player. I shall call this “Titlebait” and it shall be the poor man’s “Clickbait”.

I have made lots of Buy/Sell calls in this column throughout the years. Some good (Butler last year), some bad, and some atrocious (ahem…Jahlil…ahem…Okafor). But no player has ever provided a quicker profit than Klay Thompson, who went completely bonkers on the Bulls with 52 points and a NBA record 14 triples in just 26 minutes, and is someone I just happened to highlight in last week’s Buy/Sell column.

We can safely assume that the buy-low window is shut. Just continue admiring the beauty of the GSW system and how they have perfected the art of off-ball screens and cutting without the basketball.

The other Warrior mentioned in my previous article was Draymond Green, who increased his scoring but still has room for improvement. Danny Green and Bryn Forbes have also helped fantasy owners this past week, with Green having an opportunity to hold his value for the rest of the season. As for the Sell candidates, Blake Griffin predictably slowed down a bit, but can still get you a great player in a potential trade (which I advise you to pursue). Danilo Gallinari has been awesome, but it’s all about health with him. Jordan Bell and Jakob Poeltl have done nothing to warrant ownership, even in deeper formats. I blame Obama and the preseason hype for these two.

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The long wait is finally over. The meaningless preseason games are already behind us and you have drafted your teams that will guide you to fantasy glory. And we here at Razzball are your personal compass to help you get to that glorious destination. Every Wednesday, this article is dedicated to the players that you should consider buying, either straight from the waiver wire or from a frustrated owner, or selling for a profit or outright dropping them for a hot free agent. The first week of the season always provides many players that fit the afforementioned criteria so let’s dive straight in…

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