You are here to witness the birth of a meme. I will give you first the context… The Timberwolves were playing the Orlando Magic last night and during the second quarter, Karl Anthony Towns posterized Mo Wagner with a vicious dunk. And then one of the best synchronized taunts I have ever seen happened from the Wolves bench.
It’s beautiful, it’s disrespectful, it’s mockery at its finest, it is meme worthy. I counted at least four guys with pointing hands, including Luka Garza, who you can not convince me is not intentionally making the “U mad Bro?” meme face.
Replay that video with slower speed or check the featured image of the article and you will see it as well. Apparently Mo Wagner is not very popular with opponents due to his trash talking and provocative behavior on court, so the Wolves really let out some steam with this one. Legend says that in his rookie season he also taunted Kevin Durant when he played for Golden State after a foul from KD, saying “You can’t guard me” and then proceeded to make 1/3 free throws from that foul. Legend.
Regarding last week’s suggestions, Jaden Ivey was already improving but the Cade Cunningham injury makes him must roster, so hopefully you got him last week when he was more available. Larry Nance Jr. has also performed as expected, providing top100 value and he remains a great option for the right builds. Finally, Donte DiVincenzo also enjoyed a good week with 12 triples in 4 games and should continue providing solid triples and steals value, even if the minutes are not overwhelming.
Buy
Killian Hayes: The main beneficiary of the Cade Cunningham injury is Jaden Ivey, as mentioned in the introduction, but since I had already suggested him last week, I am including Killian Hayes as an additional option. He is not a high scoring option, especially compared to Ivey, but he provides great value in assists and steals and his minutes are fairly secure now, so give him a look if those sound appealing (13% owned).
Vince Williams: Ja Morant will miss the remainder of the season with a torn labrum so it is officially over for the Memphis Grizzles competitive season. I expect many days off for Marcus Smart and Jaren Jackson Jr moving forward and plenty of opportunities for the younger guys in their roster. One of the most promising of them is Vince Williams, the 47th pick in the 2022 draft, who even before the Morant injury was averaging 28 minutes during the last month. He can contribute across the board and always opportunity is key for fantasy production, so I would give him a look ahead of the silly season that is to come for Memphis (25% owned).
Nick Richards: I have zero clue what is going on with Mark Williams’ back and the weirdness in the updates form Charlotte, but after listing him as doubtful for more than 10 games, he will be reevaluated in 1 week, but it is not looking good. Nick Richards has been starting and despite not wowing he has produced top120 value in the last month with 8.5 rebounds, 1.3 blocks and 66.7% shooting. Traditional big man stats as you can see and those can be valuable off the wire so give him a look as long as Mark Williams is sidelined (37% owned).
Sell
Desmond Bane: It has been another excellent fantasy season for Desmond Bane, who has established himself as a steady top40 fantasy contributor in the last 3 seasons, an impressive feat for a player drafted at pick30. Ja Morant’s season ending injury will give him more usage in the short term but the fear is that Memphis’ competitive season looks to be over. That can bring more blowouts, rest days and ultimately shut down risk when the fantasy playoffs are around the corner. I would wait one or two weeks for Bane to put together some great performances, which he is very capable of especially with the usage spike we saw in his first game without Morant, but then I would be looking to swap him for any top30 player in order to avoid the risk. It will be hard to trade away such a great fantasy player but it might be worth it.
