What a return from the break!
It was an exceptional weekend of NBA action after the wayyyyyyy too long layoff for the break, highlighted by a huge upset by the Blazers. Is anyone else getting annoyed by that Damian Lillard commercial on the NBA App?! The one where he semi-raps, then says “thanks for the motivation” when asked about his haters? Well, it’s kinda fitting now, with that performance after that All-Star snubbery! Dame went Insame on the Warriors for a career-high 51 points, going 51/0/7/6/0, shooting 18-28 from the field. But the crazier numbers were 9 treys, and not a single TO. 6 steals and no turnovers?! That’s winning hoops right there! He followed it up with a huge night last night as well, going 24/4/4 through 3 quarters before grandpa JB hit his bedtime. Portland bested Golden State with a crushing 137-105 W in that Friday epic win, solidifying the Blazers as a playoff contender. No one thought they would even be close, and as Slim and I talked on the Pod, Stotts deserves a ton of cred and maybe some Coach of the Year consideration. If you told me in October the Blazers would make the playoffs, I woulda said you’re Insame! Here’s what else went down over an exciting return to hoops over the weekend, plus The 7 Ahead for week 17:
Anthony Davis – Well hello, Shirley! Yesterday afternoon showed why we spent #1 overall picks on the fragile little noodle! 59(!!!!!!!!!)/20/4/0/1. He shot 24-34, hit 2 treys, and 9-10 FT. Pretty much the most epic Goromotaro this side of a 40/40 double-motaro! Remember a few weeks ago when I said everyone’s frustration with the nagging injuries might be overwrought?
Brandon Jennings – Yeahhhhh, I kinda had a feeling a BJ would throw a kink in things… Kinda like the Clinton administration! 18/3/4 then 12/4/7 in his first two games in Orlando, putting the Elfrid on the Shelfrid. Ugh. He’s made them both pretty unusable.
Ersan Ilyasova – The Six-Foot-Turkey scored 16 in his Orlando debut, but only 7 Pts in 18 minutes last night. It hasn’t crushed Aaron Gordon‘s minutes, but it hasn’t helped. Is Skiles the GM of the team too, making moves just to keep his rotations annoying?! SKIIIIIIIIIIILES!
Chandler Parsons – Getting healthy! Full rainbow 24/4/4/2/3 Friday at the Magic, then 15/4/2/1/1 in 27 minutes against the Sixers last night. D stats have come, scoring and 3s are here, patience is indeed a virtue!
Kawhi Leonard – Sat all 3 games out of the break to end the week, GRINDING MY GEARS! MRI on his calf showed a donkey, which was just really weird…
Shelvin Mack – 16/3/6/0/1 in his debut for the Jazz, playing 25 minutes. Led all Utah PG in run, and looked like the best one. It’s almost liked I called it beforehand!
Joffrey Lauvergne – WHY IS MIKE MALONE SO HIGH?! Oh wait, I can guess… King Joffrey comes out of nowhere like a White Walker and goes 22/7 in 25 minutes on Friday, only to play 2 minutes last night. Conversely, Nikola Jokic picks up 4 fouls against the Kings Friday night and plays only 4 minutes. Got Boogied! Then Nikola BRINGS the Boogie, going 23/13/4/2/0 against the Celtics. Well, they still lost, but ya know. And either way, Jusuf Nurkic doesn’t play enough. The Jamba Juice is running out of business!
Archie Goodwin – Benched for Ronnie Price, and not surprisingly, Archie plays more minutes, but not the 30+ we’ve seen. 14/7/1/0/0 for Archie, and it’s already pretty blah for 9-cat anyway before this reduced role. The Price is wrong, bitch!
The Suns Epic Quadmire of Bigs – After a DNP outta nowhere due to a kankle, Alex Len plays his natural position of C last night and goes 23/13 in 24 minutes. Doesn’t contribute anywhere else, but hey, at least he played unlike Tyson Chandler with a shoulder ouchy. At PF, Mirza Teletovic has been the flavor of the week, hitting another 3 treys last night and ThrAGNOFfing it right nice. After playing some really nice minutes, Jon Leuer gets replaced by Kris Humphries in the starting 5, and Humphries brings as much to the table as he did to reality television. What a mess.
JaMychal Green – After a really strong starting effort out of the break (9/11/2/3/3), got into foul trouble last night, playing only 20 minutes of 4/6/0/1/0. We’re seeing very little out of Birdman or Brandan Wright, so JaMychal is the one to own.
Myles Turner – I lovvvvvvvve him! I talked with the makers of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade floats to make a life size Turner blowup doll for me! Dude big! 16/5 with 6 blocks Friday night, including his first career trey with under a minute left in a comeback win at OKC, that made me literally yell, “WOOOOOOOOO!” like Ric Flair. 12/8 with another 3 blocks last night, and becoming a big X-factor on the Pacers who are winning games now. Shocker! You play your awesome rookie, you can win!
Ian Mahinmi – Coming out of the break strong! After Rotoworld crapped all over him for having several minor injuries this year, the Frenchman brought the baguette! 19/11/3/2/2 rainbow in that huge W at OKC, then 6-6 FG 14/9/2/2/1 last night. A combined 67 minutes as well. Nab him where you can.
Courtney Lee – Oh Clifford, you Big Red Putz! After singing his praises, Clifford only played Lee 21 minutes. I still think Lee gets closer to that 30 MPG range of low TO ThrAGNOF, but pretty slow debut.
Doug McDermott – McBuckets, emerge! Career-high 30 Pts Friday against the Raptors, then 16 yesterday hosting the Lakers. Gotta love the 16/0/0/0/0 lines! ThrAGNOF!
Luol Deng – Choo Choo! There’s a SECOND Deng Train! Who woulda thunk?! 30/11 with 4 steals Friday night, followed by 27/10/4 on Saturday. With Chris Bosh a huge question mark and Deng hot, he certainly needs to be owned in all leagues. He won’t hit 11-17 or 11-18 FG most nights, but ya know, shots should be there.
Hassan Whiteside – After getting the one-game timeout in the corner, goes Goromotaro 25/23/0/0/2 in a crushing of the Wiz, making 11-15 from the field. In other news, he didn’t punch Marcin Gortat, so, yeah… progress…
Goran Dragic – Man, the Bosh void is helping out the masses! Bosh is a martyr to fantasy owners of other Miamians! 17/5/10/4/0 and 24/7/8/0/1 lines over the weekend. Better late than never!
Jeff Teague/Dennis Schroder – On top of the bum kankles, now Teague has a bum wrist. Can’t trust any of his joints! With Teague only playing 18 minutes against the Bucks, the Schrodes stepped up for 25/8/10/1/1 in 40 minutes. It’s annoying the trade didn’t happen, but he’s still got value 12ers. I held where I could!
Kentavious Caldwell-Pope – Just like a hardcore drug addiction, after you’re in withdrawal for a while, the first hit back might be a little rough. But once your sea legs are back, you’re good to go! Struggled in his first game back after the groin/core muscle strain – whatever it was – but 14/3/0/4/0 with a couple of treys last night. Still shot only 4-15, but the addiction is only gonna get better from here once your body is used to it!
Tobias Harris – Making quite the impression! For some reason, Scott Skiles keeps getting the text “WHAT KANKLE?!” from a blocked number… Anyway, Tobias has been solid for his new club, going 21/4 in his debut hitting 9-12 FG against the Wiz, then 16/5/2/1/2 yesterday afternoon in that loss to the New Orleans Brows. I love that Anthony Tolliver still started, playing only 7 minutes. At least StanVan is a man of his word, bringing Tobias off the bench his first 3 games!
Markieff Morris – Ewwwwwww. To quote G.O.B., “I think I’ve made a huge mistake…” Consecutive stinkers to start with career in the nation’s capital, shooting a combined 4-15 and committing 8 fouls. It’ll get better, no doubt. Rock steady.
Jabari Parker – Back-to-back big scoring games, culminating in a 28/13/2 Saturday night. It’s still too empty to get too crazy, but scoring and boarding lately has it’s place on the right teams.
Robin Lopez – HE’S SO BAD AT BASKETBALL!!!!!!!!!! I begrudgingly cut him in a league to chase stats that weren’t REB/BLK, and he goes 26/16/0/0/5 at the Wolves. Really, KAT? Couldn’t put a body on this Sideshow Freak?! AHHHHHHH!!!
The 7 Ahead
- 5-game week: n/a
- 4-game weeks: CLE, DET, GSW, IND, MIA, MIN, NY, ORL, PHI, POR, TOR, WAS
- 2-game week: n/a
- Weekly League Streamers (by Y! ownership percent/games this week): Ian Mahinmi (29%/4), Shabazz Muhammad (5%/4), Jerami Grant (15%/4), Gerald Green (15%/4)
- Stream days: Tuesday
Overall Thoughts: Man, we come out of the 2-week ASB matchup to get a spread thin and wide slate for week 17! Every team plays 3 or 4 games, and there’s only one heavy schedule night – Wednesday. It’s going to be tough to keep from streaming too quick in limited-moves RCLs, but with free moves in daily leagues, it’s the week to go nuts and have multiple stream spots! For my weekly plays, Mahinmi is more a hold, but I’m lazy and was shocked he was available in that many leagues. Love Shabazz this week, especially with nice Sat/Sun matchups. Jerami is blocking like a madman out there and is getting enough run for now to get starting consideration, and Green – while off a cold night – is getting run and the Heat are all reaping the fantasy reward of no Bosh.
Monday: Coming off a busy Sunday, it’s not surprising that several teams are wrapping up on back-to-backs, with BOS, CLE, DET, IND, LAL, PHO and TOR all on their second consecutive games. No teams head INTO back-to-backs, so we’re set there, just monitor your vets and bruised up guys from those squads tonight. With 7 games on the slate it might be tempting to start streaming in limited moves leagues, but it’s a really spread out week as mentioned above. I bet Jeff Green at home against the Suns – after the Clips lost a tough one to GSW – gets some blowout run to get adjusted.
Tuesday: Our only “Stream Day” of the week – which I define as 5 or less games on any particular evening – Tuesday has 10 teams in action. DEN, PHI, SAC, and WAS head into back-to-backs, so be sure any moves you make are either with guys for-sure playing or you can benefit from both games. Your Magic at Philly could be interesting, but damn if SKIIIIIIIILES won’t ruin it! Kings @ Nugs should feature virtually no defense, but be careful with Jokic after that foulfest against Boogie when they played only two games ago.
Wednesday: Our biggest slate of the week, 10 games grace our traditionally busy Wednesday. GSW, OKC, and SA are your only b2bers, and of course those are the 3 best teams in the NBA. Sorry, Cavs fans! I’d be very leery of any banged up guys, or any Spur. The Spurs play the Kings in this one, so if we get word of DNPs early enough, deeper leaguers could stream their fill-ins against the league’s best opponent for fantasy streaming.
Thursday: 6 games on Thursday, with only ORL heading into a b2b. In limited-moves leagues like the RCLs, don’t get caught up into too much streaming too early – you’re likely going to need to plug holes in every day of the weekend. GSW on a b2b after playing @MIA on Wednesday might be a little sluggish on Thursday @ORL, so I’m expecting a little bit of a surprise game there.
Friday: The normally busy Friday night only has 8 games on the slate this time out. There are a few Sat/Sun stack teams, but CHI and MEM have a Fri/Sat stack if you’re already in maximization mode. If the Grizz didn’t have only 3 games, I mighta picked a couple of weekly picks from them. Alas, we get Fri/Sat @LAL and @PHO, so I could see big games from JaMychal Green and reserve Mario Chalmers in those. I always look to my Kings, and they host the Clippers. Might be another shot at a Jeff Green surprise in that one. I’m all about the J Greens!
Saturday: Aight, the weekend is here, and we have another 8-game slate. Fortunately for us limited-movers, we have several options for Sat/Sun stacks. DET, MIA, MIN, and POR all have weekend b2bs, so I’ll likely save 2 of my 4 RCL moves to stack these guys up in at least 2 or 3 of my leagues. DET gets @MIL & TOR, and unfortunately there’s no real streaming options on that squad. MIA gets @BOS & @NY. Gerald Green is off a cold game against the Wiz as I mention above, but he and Justise Winslow (who HAS been playing well lately) could both be options. If you need points, Shabazz Muhammad is off a 20-pointer and the Wolves get @NO & @DAL. At 5% owned, he’s a weekly play for me as well. Finally we have POR, who have arguably the best matchups going @CHI & @IND. Moe Harkless is a Hot Topic these days, but you can only play him if your FT% is Spencer’s. Hah, no idea where that was going, Spencer’s=horrible. Gotta factor in his freebie struggles and gauge how many mins he’s played through the week before nabbing him. Maybe a little lower end, but Allen Crabbe could score a few PTS and get 1-2 STL a game in that stack.
Sunday: Wrapping up the week, we get 7 games on Sunday for a weekend 8/8/7 distribution. Somebody wanted to lather it on even this week! CLE, IND, PHI & WAS head into Sun/Mon back-to-backs, so monitor the availability of the streamable guys there. If you’re still alive with some moves, ORL plays PHI a second time this Sunday, so you could risk some fringy Magic in that one. If the Hawks play a lot of Teague/Schroder sets, expect a heavy dose of Jeremy Lin from the Hornets, although he’s been a little iffy lately.
I hope you had a great weekend, Razzball Nation! Hopefully you’re pumped for the second half, as the final playoff push will make or break your squads in week 17. Thanks for dropping by!
