We knew from the preseason that the Wizards would suck this year. They traded away their best players, kept Kyle Kuzma to have someone score until they trade him to a contender and one brief look on their roster is enough to deduce that their defense would be atrocious. All those assumptions have come to fruition, with the Wizards starting with a 2-11 record, a bottom 5 defense and the worst defensive rebounding percentage in the league. Wes Unseld looks distraught at times, as we predicted with Jesse in the podcast and the tanking has began early, but the arrival of Jordan Poole was supposed to bring an offensive punch, easy points, youthful enthusiasm…
That’s the visualization of this endeavor, as instead for the time being he has assumed the role of tank commander with 16.6 points, on 39.6% shooting, 2.9 turnovers and a level of commitment that is lacking, to put it politely, as indicated by the following:
It would be a smart play to let the clock run on the inbounds play but unfortunately the Wizards were down 10 points at the time and proceeded to eventually lose the game against the Bucks. You can see him yelling at the refs at the end but he has no reason to, as the clock rules are clear and established a long time ago. It will be a long season for fans in DC, that’s for sure.
Regarding last week’s suggestions, Skylar Mays had a very productive week but Malcolm Brogdon’s return definitely hurts him. Use him for today as I predict Brogdon sits on the back to back but then you can probably move on. Zach Lavine apparently listened that he was in the “Buy” column due to his poor percentages and responded by shooting 56.4% from the field. On the other hand, Haywood Highsmith completely flopped and you can safely drop him again. On the “Sell” from it looks like Miles Bridges will indeed eat into PJ Washington’s usage so I hope you followed the advice and moved him because his outlook is not particularly bright moving forward.
Buy
Alex Caruso: With Chicago facing another tough start to the season they decided to shake things up in the starting lineup and have started Alex Caruso in the last 3 games. If you ignore the fact he is constantly making locker room trips and has a probable tag apparently from the day he was born, he has produced admirably with 8 triples, 4 steals and 4 blocks in those starts. His fantasy game is not suited for every team due to his low scoring output, but he is worthy of a roster spot while he remains in the starting lineup (46% owned).
Norman Powell: Another team that decided to change its starting lineup after some tough times is the Clippers and despite not nominating Norman Powell as a starter, the shakeup has resulted in extra minutes and usage for him. He definitely can return to his 25 minute role without notice but as long as he lays 30 minutes he can be used as a good points and triples streamer that is available in most waiver wires (37% owned).
Sell
Jonas Valanciunas: If you take a look at Jonas Valanciunas’ average stats for the season you will see only minor differences compared to last season, with one glaring exception. Almost identical playing time at 25 minutes, slightly reduced shots and thus points, slightly reduced rebounds…However, he is currently ranked 40th in per game value !!
The answer, as it usually is for these instances is defensive stats and in his case blocks, as he is averaging 1.7 for the season, compared to just 0.7, 0.8 and 0.9 in his previous 3 seasons respectively. I have zero confidence that he can keep this block rate up and if you combine the eventual return of Trey Murphy that will squeeze some more minutes from him, there is no better timing to swing for a deal that involves trading him.
Benedict Mathurin: Lost his starting spot to Buddy Hield but the game against Atlanta and the non-existent defenses from both sides (157-152 the final score) helped him score 19 points with 2 triples in 20 minutes. If he stays in a bench role and plays those minutes, he is a clear drop as he has never been a good per game fantasy player and needs minutes to produce at an acceptable level, so use this last performance to try and swing a deal and extract some value from him, before the market reacts to his benching and potentially reduced playing time (61% owned).
