It’s a more relaxed week for fantasy hoops as games are scarcer due to the NBA cup so today’s introduction will be a homage to the Inside the NBA crew, who thankfully will continue their successful 4-man partnership next year, despite some logistic troubles in contract negotiations to start the year. The arguably most notorious member of the cast, Shaquile O’Neal, was famous during his career for breaking backboards with his thunderous dunks but showed that this can be expanded to other expensive equipment.
His reaction is priceless, like a little kid who knows he made a mischief and is trying to walk away from the consequences.
But the more awesome highlight came yesterday with this quick-witted comment from the other Hall of Famer of the set, Charles Barkley…
You know your comment was great when the usually composed Ernie, as well as the crew behind the cameras cannot contain their laughs. The assist goes to Kenny of course, who knew from the moment that it left his mouth what he did. Let’s hope for many more entertaining seasons from those guys.
Regarding last week’s suggestions, Dejounte Murray enjoyed a better shooting week so his buy low window shrank, while Jeremy Sochan has not wowed but is showing signs of getting back to his pre-injury form. Finally, Payton Pritchard had 2 awesome and one completely dud game as he continues his quest for the 6th man award.
Buy
Yves Missi: Not only do the Pelicans have 2 games remaining this week but also Yves Missi has established himself as their starting center and despite some lackluster performances that are to be expected for a rookie, he has been pretty consistent. More specifically, during the last 2 weeks he is averaging elite rebounds at 11.2 per game along with 1.5 blocks and 54.8% shooting from the field. These are top 100 big man numbers and I see no reason for a drop as the season progresses so this seems like a last call to grab him off the waiver wire (36% owned).
Gradey Dick: Scottie Barnes suffered an unfortunate right ankle injury and despite hopeful updates from the Toronto camp, he will miss time. Enter Gradey Dick, who returned from his injury and will absorb some of the usage Barnes leaves on the table. I really like his ft% impact which is a rarity from the waiver wire and with the Raptors far from competing for a playoff spot there is incentive to give the second-year guard more playing time and opportunities (46% owned).
Sell
Trayce Jackson-Davis: This is more of a wake-up call rather than a suggestion, as I stumbled upon Trayce Jackson Davis’ ownership percentage while I was researching for today’s article. 46% of Yahoo fantasy managers still have him in their roster and he is averaging 17 minutes per game. Do I need to elaborate more? Fine, I will add that he is only a slight positive contributor in fg% and turnovers and has also lost his starting position with the rotational changes Steve Kerr has implemented as of late. It is already past time to cut him loose from your team.
