Stephen Curry‘s not a selfish basketball player. No one ever accused him of being one, but after Wednesday’s season opener in Golden State, it should have smacked everyone in the face like the hook of a Katy Perry song. Curry is going to hand the ball off more often than he will dribble five steps past the halfcourt line and start chuckin’. None of this is a shock necessarily, but it’s also not something I’ve specifically considered, nor have I heard anyone else talk about what might happen in Golden State: Monta Ellis just catapulted to the top of my shortlist of guys who are going to lead the league in points. He had 27 at the half. Ten more during the third and ended with a colossal 46 points in 40 minutes. What’s more, he wasn’t particularly on and wasn’t surrounded by a bunch of guys who were particularly off. The team executed their offense, only turned the ball over a dozen times (five hurried turnovers in the fourth quarter) and got Ellis into position to shoot 75 percent from the floor. I was only sniffing markers yesterday, not huffing glue so I don’t think Ellis will shoot like that every night. Nor do I think he’ll average 40+ points a night. But 30 ppg on 50 percent shooting is well within M.E.’s m.o.
Here’s what else went down in fantasy basketball yesterday:
Mo Williams – Missed Wednesday’s season opener after spending the preseason mourning the loss of his father-in-law and his sore groin muscle. To be clear, he’s not mourning the loss of his father-in-law’s sore groin muscle. I’m saying in addition to the mourning, Mo’s groin is just another reason he wasn’t in Wednesday’s lineup. Besides, if he were mourning the loss of his sore groin muscle, he’d have a healthy groin muscle.
Daniel Gibson – 16/4/8 in 27 minutes. As thirdly reported here, Mo Williams was out so don’t rush to grab Gibson unless your team is streaming already.
Evan Turner – Remember how confused we all were about how the rotation is going to shake out in Philly? The Sixers bench outscored the starters 57-30. Turner led with 16/7/4 and a block in almost 31 minutes. And you drafted Austin Daye instead, didn’t you?
Gilbert Arenas – Ol’ Gil will miss at least the first two games of the season as he was given a boot to protect the pained right tendon. For those of you who just found us after doing a Google search for “pain,” and “give the boot” … um, well, this is probably exactly what you were searching for.
Wilson Chandler – Yesterday I told you not to drop Chandler just because Landry Fields was named the starter. Fields had 11/4 in 28 minutes. Chandler literally doubled that production (22/8) in the same amount of time.
Ronny Turiaf – Fell hard in the fourth quarter and left the game. He had 8/4 and four boards before Turiaf was hurried off.
Amar’e Stoudemire – STAT almost started the season with a cripple-double. He had 19 points, 10 rebounds and nine turnovers. Yay! But also yuck.
James Jones – Eight threes in two games (27.5 mpg). He won’t keep that pace, but he has averaged 2.5 treys per36 over the last three seasons, so it’s not all fluky either. He’s like Mike Miller if no one was aware Mike Miller was on the court. For those of you who got stuck drafting Miller in early drafts, I present to you: Plan B.
LeBron James – Seventeen turnovers in two games. I just threw up a little in my mouth.
Derrick Favors – Played 20 minutes off the bench and nearly double-doubled (8/10). I’m not convinced Favors is so rough that he won’t have anything to offer fantasy owners at some point this season, especially if Troy Murphy misses a Troy Murphy-sized number of games.
Reggie Evans – Missed the only two shots he took in 33 minutes, but grabbed 16 boards. IYACYOC!
Jose Calderon – Played 18 minutes off the bench (and managed seven quick dimes) as compared to Jarrett Jack‘s 31. That timeshare sounds about as agreeable to Calderon as the one I have in Hawaii from January 2 to January 4 is to me.
Zach Randolph – Left the game early with a back contusion. Which is different than having back confusion, which is when you check out a hot girl’s butt only to find out she’s a man wearing skinny jeans. Darrell Aurthur is your stream if you’re into streaming.
Francisco Garcia – Took over for Tyreke Evans who was serving a one-game suspension and scored 22/3/4 with three steals and a block in 34 minutes. Probably won’t happen again for reasons outlined about 20 words ago.
Al Horford – Zaza Pachulia had 17/11 and two blocks. Horford had 2/7. Hold those lines up to the back of a spoon and it’s exactly as I predicted.
Andrew Bogut – Fifty percent from the floor. Thirty percent from the line. Weak sauce, Bogutron.
Al Jefferson – 6/7 and three blocks in 31 minutes. S’okay. He’s not the first Jefferson slow to get with the program. Thomas Jefferson stalled for six days trying to get free ice cream for every American-born man, woman and child added into the Declaration of Independence. That worked itself out, so will Al.
Arron Afflalo – Three treys went toward his 22 points. Stop making me pimp Afflalo out to you. Pick him up already.
Sheldon Williams – If half of Denver’s bigs are going to be out for a while and you were considering Reggie Evans anyway, why not grab Sheldon instead? His forehead may be bigger than Evans’, but I’m pretty sure he’s never grabbed Chris Kaman‘s junk.
Chris Kaman – Speaking of Chris Kaman’s junk, dude shot 3-for-13 from no farther away from the basket than 14 feet. I’m aware that Blake Griffin can be an intimidating defender, but Christ, they’re on the same team.
