Two things caught my eye from the Association this week, one was great while the other was bad. Ja Morant’s incredible two handed block on poor Avery Bradley was unreal.
He almost grabbed the ball and definitely hit his head on the backboard. From a replay angle, it is also clear that he could have easily gone completely over Bradley on a potential dunk attempt, like Vince Carter did back in the day on Frédéric Weis in the Olympics
The second thing that caught my attention was unfortunately another display of horrible NBA officiating that contains some of the softest soft referees I have ever seen in a basketball court. Just look at this ejection, with a second technical on Kyle Lowry.
My reaction when I was watching this was very similar to Duncan Robinson’s and I will leave it at that.
Regarding last week’s suggestions, Terrence Ross wanted to really make me feel good about suggesting him with a 32-point effort in his last game and the same can be said for Malik Monk, who had 29 points just two days after the suggestion. Maxi Kleber and Brandon Clarke have both been more than usable due to the injuries to their teams, while Trey Lyles offered three solid games in a short period of time but can now be safely dropped for a streamer with more games remaining this week.
Buy
Julius Randle: After an awesome season last year that saw him finish as a top 40 player, many fantasy owners reached in the draft for Randle and have been punished for it. A huge drop in both percentages and subsequently his scoring has Randle ranked 94th in per game value, with the last month being especially dreadful in terms of his shooting. He is not going to return to last year’s numbers, but now is the perfect time to float an offer to his disgruntled owner as he bottomed out with two points in 34 minutes in his last game and bet on a correction to the mean in terms of his stats. Just make sure you are not giving up a top 50 player in return for him.
Gary Harris: Harris is a suggestion partly because of his play and partly because of the schedule. He has been a top 65 player for the last month, reminding us of the elite fantasy player he was up until the 17-18 season and is averaging 17.2 points, 2.8 triples and 1.2 steals in this period. What is maybe even more important in the short term is that Orlando has three more games this week, making Harris an excellent streaming choice (37% owned).
Amir Coffey: While the sample size is really small, one can’t ignore Coffey’s performances in his last two games, with 21 and 18 points scored respectively. Both Luke Kennard and Paul George are currently sidelined, with the former expected back soon, but for now owners in deeper leagues can ride the hot hand and pick Coffey up, with the Clippers playing two more games this week and four more next week (8% owned).
Sell
LeBron James: LeBron having his best fantasy season at age 37 is something that was hard to predict and even more difficult believing it, despite it unfolding before our very eyes. Deciding factors to this no 1 ranking are his major improvement in ft% (career best 78.5%), triples (2.9), and blocks (1.1). At this point of the fantasy season it is always wise to think about the fantasy playoffs and the availability of your star players and LeBron is playing 36.8 minutes per game. Again, he is 37 years old. Personally I would be much more comfortable heading in the fantasy playoffs with another of the top 3 performers, like Jokic or even Curry, or I would entertain the idea of trading LeBron for two top 20 players, just to be safe against the risk of tear and wear from all those minutes.
