As the holiday season tips off, I hope your days are filled with joy, your nights are lit like a three-point streak, and your fantasy rosters are as dazzling as the Christmas star on top of the tree! Whether you’re unwrapping gifts or unwrapping a clutch waiver wire steal, may your Christmas be filled with love, family and exquisite homemade food. All the best!
Keeping with the festive mood, here is a clip from the Houston vs Raptors game this past week which will make you replay it again and again to verify if you heard correctly the first time.
If you put it on repeat and kept hearing what is written on top of the video, don’t worry, you are not alone. I needed 5-6 repeats to finally decipher that the announcer said “Add that piece as Shead knocks it down”. Hilarious.
Regarding last week’s suggestions, both Bilal Coulibaly and Fred VanVleet had good weeks, solidifying the former as a standard league piece and closing the buy low window of the latter. Bear in mind that Coulibaly is questionable for tomorrow’s game though with right groin soreness.
Buy
Noah Clowney: Clowney was a popular sleeper pick in this year’s drafts as a late round flier, but his minuscule playing time to start the season quickly brought him to the waiver wire. However, the Dennis Schroder trade and more importantly an injury to Dorian Finney-Smith has given ample opportunity to Clowney during the last week and he has capitalized on it. He has started 2/3 games and averaging 32 minutes with 13 points, 2.7 triples and 6.7 rebounds. In a very limited sample size at the end of last season he provided good fantasy value so give him an opportunity with the Nets again in development mode and with veterans potentially on the trading block (8% owned).
Andrew Nembhard: It has been a relatively slow ramp up for Nembhard after his injury but his minutes are constantly rising, along with his production. The suggestion here is not so much for the rest of the season, but with Indiana having 3 games until the end of this week we can use Nembhard as a streamer and decide on his long term future for out fantasy teams after Sunday (22% owned). If he is not available in your league you can go with Obi Toppin, who has apparently become a steals specialist but offers significantly lower fantasy floor (24% owned).
Sell
Dennis Schroder: His trade to Golden State looks like a nuclear bomb for his fantasy value if the early signs are to be trusted. Lower minutes, lower usage and a significant drop in assists indicate that his standard league value is in jeopardy and if this continues, he is going to become a clear drop. You can stay patient for another week or so, but the depth of the Warriors and the lower minute rotations are bad indicators (69% owned).
