So I’m not a basketball historian, and I’m still a young pup. I barely remember the Bulls glory years – I was in elementary school when they won titles 4-6 (yikes, aging the crap outta myself), but I do vividly remember the Byron Russell push-off and I cherished my Michael Jordan cards. I still have a bunch of em! This one is still in a nice case and one of my favorites… Anyway, when I saw Jimmy Butler go off for 52/12/6/3/1 last night, I was about to make all sorts of tongue-and-cheek MJ parallels…
Got the same reverse layup and everything! But then it dawned on me… Butler is more like Scottie Pippen if there was no Jordan. Pippen’s best season was 93-94, unsurprisingly the year without MJ, and went 22.0/8.7/5.6/2.9/0.8 on 49% shooting with 0.9 treys. So far this year, J Buckets is 25.3/6.8/4.4/1.7/0.3 on 46% shooting with 1.1 treys. While Pippen was obviously one of the best defensive players of his generation, Butler is a much better FT shooter and gets to the line more. But the rest is really close, and I thought kinda interesting food for thought. So the answer for the Bulls is simple – find a Michael Jordan for Buckets to play next to! I’m a problem-solver – if only every team’s issue in the NBA was this easy! Hah! Here’s what else went down last night in fantasy basketball action:
Anthony Davis – Playing the pure C as the Pels go a little smaller and risk his health every night. 40 minutes isn’t helping either! 20/17/2/1/3 yesterday, but a rough one on 10-27 shooting, 0-2 FT, and 3 TO.
Jrue Holiday – Stop being such a sharer! 11/4/13/3/0 on 4-11 FG with 2 treys.
Buddy Hield – Finding his shot lately, Hield was a fairly efficient 20/5/2 with 4 treys, but no D stats and 2 TO. It’s as nutritionally empty as Buddy the Elf’s diet!
Terrence Jones – Bottoming out, which completely correlates with… Dante Cunningham coming back?! 33 minutes last night for Cunningham giving him 32+ mins the past 5 as he worked his way back, and Tjones is 18 mins or under in 3 of the last 4. Tjones is looking like cut bait in most 10/12ers.
Kevin Love – Played through food poisoning last night. As someone who has had food poisoning twice, one time I could’ve played through it, the other time I thought I was going to die, so let’s not give this guy an award for gutting through a 5-19 FG game. Maybe you shoot a little less when you’re sick!
Jordan McRae – Got another start for Kyrie Irving (hamstring), but only 16 minutes of 4/3/0/2/0. Kay Felder got 22 minutes of 12/1/2/0/0 and old man Richard Jefferson chipped in 12/12/2/0/0 in 29 minutes, but there’s no guards/wings you really want on this team while Uncle Drew is out.
Steven Adams – Dayum. What a game. 34 minutes of 20/8/2/1/3 on 9-11 FG, 2-2 FT, and no TO. I watched pretty much this whole game and I didn’t notice anything too different out of him, just the D stats got there and he didn’t make any mistakes. That sounds like I’m still trying to disparage his game, but I’m not! He’s been fantastic this year – really took a nice step forward with the primary big man role.
Victor Oladipo – Second game post-injury, going 18/5/4/1/0 with 4 treys. Looked pretty good! But still not what you drafted…
Semaj Christon – Can feel Cameron Payne behind his back, and looked really sharp in his 12 reserve minutes. 11/1/2 on 5-6 shooting, but really needs to fix his FT to stick around the NBA with a role (0-2 last night – 47.4% FT on the year).
Giannis Antetokounmpo – Sabon on this!
26/10/5/1/1 with a trey and only 1 TO in a dominant game. Stupid 5-10 FT though… Meh, he had been really solid at the stripe lately before this one.
John Henson – Had reallllly tailed off lately, but bounced back with 27 minutes last night of 12/5/1/1/1 with no TO on 6-7 shooting. Hit a key jumper late and avoided the FT line, so a pretty epic game for the Muppet Man! Tough to trust even as a blocks source in 12ers though…
Malcolm Brogdon – As we talked about on the pod this morning, tough to trust even while Matthew Dellavedova is out, going 12/2/5/0/0 on 3-12 shooting with 2 TO last night. That said, with only a 2 point lead and 8ish seconds left, gave the Thunder ice daggers with 2-2 FT to make it a 4 point game. Cool as a cucumber! Which is appropriate given the Bucks wearing their home green!
Gordon Hayward – Trust the Gordon’s Fisherman! Monster game against the Mess, going 30/4/3/2/1 on 9-18 shooting, with 3 treys and 9-9 FT. I’m going to officially ignore any preseason finger injuries just like I did this year, as legal precedence.
Derrick Favors – Yuck. 18 minutes as the starting PF as he’s still working his way back from IT Band issues, for 6/3/0/0/0. As mentioned in M@’s 7 ahead, the Jazz have 5 games this week, so he might have low minutes to make it through all 5 games.
Rudy Gobert – Which means 5 days of The Gobert Report! 15/16/2/1/3 as he continues his monster year, which should’ve been last season! Ugh.
Isaiah Whitehead – Got another start at PG, going 12/6/1/0/1 with a trey. Did have 3 TO, but played 31 minutes and Jeremy Lin is still without a timetable for his hammy. Worth consideration in deepers, if only because his block was this one!
Stifle that, Monsieur Elbow!
Sean Kilpatrick – Rough one for only 8/4/1/0/0 on 2-7 shooting, but #JazzD!
Trevor Booker – Revenge game?! Nah, can’t really be a revenge game if you lose! 17/15/2/0/1 as he FINALLY gets big minutes going for 34:08. Hasn’t gotten that much run since Dec. 7th, and only gone over 30 minutes twice in that span of a month. Smh.
Aaron Gordon – Fantasy’s most inconsistent player (little inside joke for Slim there) went 22/6/6/1/0 with 3 treys against the Poppycockers last night. So frustrating, but due to the frustration I got him for free on a couple of wires before this game and I’m hoping for the best!
Bismack Biyombo – Rainbow alert! But… Whoa, all he needed was one basket! 0/2/3/2/2. Hard to do!
Jodie Meeks – ThrAGNOF – ride em when hot! 7-9 FG with 6 treys for 23/2/2/0/1. It’s like Nick Young, except no one owns him… Why you ThrAGNOF!
Elfrid Payton – Put this ish on ya Shelfrid, NYC! 13/3/14/1/1 off the bench in 31 minutes, as the bench role is reallllly working. Shot 6-12 FG, tallied a trey, and nary a TO. Shabam!
Brandon Jennings – Stupid Courtney Lee returning from injury! I kept streaming the BJ after using him in some leagues against the Rox last week, but only 24 minutes off the bench with Lee back for 12/3/4/0/0 with 3 TO. Did have another 2 treys with that, but bleh, back to the streaming garbage pile.
Carmelo Anthony – Yeah, you’re not even close to being the engine for this team. No Kristaps Porzingis (Achilles soreness) and the PoppyCs lost by 12 at home to the Magic… 19/7/3/3/1 for Melo, but good to see him playing off lingering knee soreness in the same knee that cost him 42 games in 14-15.
Joakim Noah – After a horrible game against the Pels, has had back-to-back usable outings, going 8/10/2/2/2 last night. Rainbow line! No Zinger is forcing him to play a little more – 33 minutes in this one. Not good for his long-term prospects seeing the brittle Noah flooded with minutes!
Michael Kidd-Gilchrist – When you’re guarding Jimmy Buckets and he gets 22 FTA, it’s likely you had foul issues! Fouled out in 27 minutes on a rough 6/3/3/1/0 line. Had his hands on D full though!
Kemba Walker – Tried to match Buckets in a battle of alphas, but 34/11/4/1/1 on 13-19 FG (6-8 3PTM 2-2 FT) came up a bit short. Just needed to get 20 more trips to the stripe!
Jeremy Lamb – Continues his decent little streak of 5 usable games, going 15/6/3/1/0 off the bench with a trey and 6-7 FT. Certainly in the streaming class as an under-the-radar, do-it-all kinda fellah.
Michael Carter-Williams – It’s temporarily official – Rajon Rondo (DNP-CD again) is officially out of the rotation. MCW for 10/9/3/0/1 on 4-12 shooting in 31 minutes is worth a look, as sad as that sounds! You have to be expecting low-ish AST, bad FG shooting, no treys, and bad TO. But if you can bend over and accept most of those negatives, then sure!
Jerian Grant – Wow, got a little run next to MCW… 27 minutes of 9/3/6/4/0 and might be worth equal consideration. If you desperately need a PG in deepers, I might go ahead and give him a spec add.
James Harden – Welcome to the tripdub party! 23/10/10 as the Rockets really turned around this 10-point win against the Wiz after trailing 14-29 through the first quarter. Harden shooting 6-24 certainly didn’t help at the onset.
Montrezl Harrell – Pretty much must-own; as I mentioned yesterday in the notes and this morning on the Pod, running the D’Antoni pick-n-roll with Harden beautifully. 6-11 FG for 14/9/1/0/2.
Trevor Ariza – Rainbow alert! 10/6/5/3/2 with 2 treys and no TO. Got 44 minutes too, mainly because none of the Wizards talked about his wife and kids like Salah Mejri did…
Eric Gordon – Sigh. 6 treys for 31/2/3/0/1 as of course he has his best game to kick off my REL week against him…
John Wall – Against the Rockets – I was expecting more! 18/5/12/2/0. Crazy that it’s an underwhelming line for Wall these days!
Otto Porter – Has his roto-friendly line even on the off nights, going 8/3/1/1/1 with no TO and no treys. Really not too much to talk about with the Wizards.
Draymond Green – Also invited to the tripdub party! 15/10/13/0/0 with a trey. Hate the lack of D stats and 5 TO, but we’ll give him a pass, don’t want him feeling kick-y.
Stephen Curry – Bleh. 22/3/5/0/0 with only 3 treys and 3 TO, it’s just really not enough for where you got him, with or without using my #1 pick call. It’s frustrating, but I feel like a streak of monster games could still be right around the corner.
Jusuf Nurkic – Whoa, the Jamba Jus getting loose in a game I didn’t expect it! Warriors love their smallball, so I wouldn’t have foreseen 21 minutes for Nurkic off the bench, who had a huge 15/6/4/1/1 line on 6-8 shooting and only 1 TO. It’s worth a spec add in anything deeper than 12ers, or if you can afford to burn a stream spot in 12ers. I’m still hesitant to buy back in in RCLs though…
Nikola Jokic – Also frustrating it kicked Joke back to the curb to only 25 minutes, but he was unreal in those 25 minutes! 21/13/5/1/0 with a trey and 4-4 FT.
Gary Harris – Continues to be “fine”. Where’s all the comments slamming me for Gary Harris?! 11/4/3/2/0 with no TO and missed all 3 of his treys. It’s fine! It’s must-own pretty much! but not someone you burn a month of a roster spot for.
Wilson Chandler – Had a few valleys, but 37 starting minutes last night for 21/4/2/2/1 with 3 treys, and has been one of the huge waiver finds this year. He and James Johnson are doing neck tats proud off the wire!
T.J. Warren – There we go! 41 starting minutes, and back to what we saw in the beginning of the year off a rough game. 24/8/2/1/1 on 12-20 shooting.
P.J. Tucker – And the Suns ran the two “J”s next to each other a good bit, with PJ getting a super 36 minutes. 6/12/0/2/0 in his usual boring line, but nice to see these two products are not going to cannibalize each other.
Brandon Knight – Wowwwww. Under 10 minutes again, going only 5/0/3 in 7 minutes. Unbelievable. Needs a trade more than ever.
Tyson Chandler – 12/6/1/1/0 in 23 minutes, but dat efficiency doe! 3-3 FG with 6-6 FT. So un-Tyson like at the stripe! Just trying his best to show one-upmanship over DJ…
Marquese Chriss – Keeps flashing us the potential (2/1/0/1/2), but just no consistency there, and fellow rookie Dragan Bender also got only 5 minutes. Too perilous for redrafters.
J.J. Redick – I don’t watch a ton of Clippers, but he was looking amazing, and it lends itself to only a 22/4/0/0/0 line with 3 treys. Why the shooters can be so alluring, but a mirage in fantasy!
Raymond Felton – When he runs up and down the court, it looks like Violet in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory when she balloons to full blueberry. 16/4/5/1/2 in a fantastic outing. Resurrected his career with Dallas last year – I can’t explain this renaissance lately! Chris Paul with his bad hammy came in doubtful and nothing sounds too optimistic he’ll be back the next game, so give Raymond Fatton a stream!
DeAndre Jordan – Attack that glass! 9/20/2/0/3, but at least Tyson out FT-ed him, haha… 3-8 FT as you’d expect.
Austin Rivers – 37 minutes for daddy’s boy, going 9/4/5/0/0 on only 2-11 shooting. Minutes are there, but game-to-game contribution won’t be.
I hope everyone got off to a great start to their first week in 2017! Enjoy the action tonight, and I’ll catch you again with the daily notes and the Pod Thursday morning!
