The H2H season is in the books! Well, at least if you did a standard format, ain’t no reason to play out games the final week-and-a-half! People getting sat with hangnails! Even James Harden missed a game… Say it ain’t so!
Quick scheduling note for this week. Tomorrow we’ll announce the RCL winner, then Wednesday unveil the REL champ with their gold jersey. We’ll catch up with the Pod either Wednesday or Thursday and some daily notes by the end of the week for you Roto-ers still trucking through to the finish line, and then start up the Way Too Early Ranks for 2017-18! That’s what I’m excited about. Mostly just to never see Chandler Parsons in my ranks ever again…
So who were some unlikely heroes over the championship week? How about stupid, no good, can’t-take-a-shower-without-breaking-his-wrist Rajon Rondo just running game, and knocking me out of my one title-contending RCL. What a joke…. 10/9/9/3/0 last night against the Pels, giving him a 42/29/30/8/1 line over the Thur/Sat/Sun 3-games-in-4 nights stream if you used him in the Finals. Who woulda thought my death knell would’ve been made by Rondo… Eh well, baseball is here at least! Here’s what else went down over the weekend in fantasy basketball action:
Jonas Valanciunas – The Luminescent Lithuanian was very likely addable at the end, going 16/17/1/1/2 then 14/8/1/2/1 over the weekend. Minutes still didn’t touch 30, but went way back up the final week. Stupid Raps, jerking around his mins.
Serge Ibaka – So they CAN co-exist! 15/12/2/0/2, then a monster game against Philly on Sunday – 24/6 with 6 blocks. He eschewed Mutombo and probably won some titles with those pivotal swats!
DeMar DeRozan – One of the studs being studs in the finals, going 40/9/4 and 17/1/9 over the final 3 days. I guess in that Philly win yesterday, he just wanted to facilitate!
Nikola Jokic – Finishing the season strong! 26/13/10 for yet another tripdub against the Hornets on Friday, then 19/10/7/2/0 last night. The jock itch is on fire! Should probably see a doctor for that.
Marvin Williams – Well, Jeremy, he doesn’t do his normal 3s/Pts/Reb, but suddenly became a defensive kingpin his final H2H weekend! 9/8/1/4/3 Friday then 4/6/1/1/3 yesterday afternoon. 5 steals and 6 swats to wrap it up, who does this guy think he is, Hakeem Olajuwon?!
Aaron Gordon – To quote The 5th Element and The Matrix, “whoa!” Too little too late, amiright?! Tried to put the Magic on his back (and no, that’s not the name of a lower back tattoo) Friday against the Celtics, going 32/16/1/1/2 with no TO and 3 treys out of absolutely nowhere. A-Gor going ham! Followed it up with a 22/15/5/2/0 line with 4 treys on Saturday against the Mess including this mammoth alley.
WHERE HAS THIS BEEN ALL YEAR?!
Elfrid Payton – Finishing strong to hopefully put some championship trophies on your Shelfird! 12/9/15/2/0 and 20/11/11/1/0 lines (including that dime above) to accentuate his strong finish. I love him.
Jae Crowder – The Boston Clam Crowder bruised his elbow early yesterday, but it was bad enough to get X-rays. They came up clean, but even though it’s his non-shooting arm, expect him to rest it up for the playoffs.
Shawn Long – Shawnlong finishing strong! Wearing the live strong bracelets! Wait, probably shouldn’t wear those, would imply some added substances… Anywho, 16/4/0/1/1 and 9/5/1/1/2 lines over the weekend, with 4 treys. Hopefully you streamed strong!
DeMarcus Cousins – Yeah, F you Boogie. You cost me a finals appearance in one league, then go 37/13/4/3/2 in a monster rainbow and 26/18/3/0/1 over the weekend. Suck it up and play through all the fantasy playoffs, ya bum!
Derrick Rose – Well, I would say the same for D-Rose, but he’s not on any championship-winning teams, that’s for sure… Tore his meniscus yet again, and will miss the remainder of the season. At this point, he’s a backup somewhere, right? I mean, “super” backup! Ron Baker/Courtney Lee should get a few extra touches, along with Chasson Randle for the super deep Rotos.
Kawhi Leonard – Dude, Doug McDermott, learn how to hard foul!
McDermott growing up in a frat boy, suburban rich neighborhood didn’t get taught how to wrap someone up! Too busy playing polo and not playing football! 28/8/2/3/2 in that crazy comeback win against OKC, then 25/4/7/0/2 to wrap up his Finals-week.
Russell Westbrook – Another monster in the studs-being-studs-to-win-titles category, going 32/15/12 and 40/13/10/3/0 with 7 treys yesterday, to close out the H2H season. He might go on a historic 4 or 5 year stretch that we’ll never see again.
Thon Maker – Thon Maker, the bucket maker! 23/2/0/1/0 outta nowhere on Friday, hitting 9-12 from the field and 4 treys. Coulda scored more if he made more than 1-3 from the freebie line! Follows it up with a massive 20 minutes of 11/1/0/0/0 Sunday… Womp womp… Too raw!
Giannis Antetokounmpo – We probably said the same about Giannis his rookie season – too raw! But look at how cooked the Greek is now! 28/14/9/1/2 then 31/15/9/4/2 to complete the exclamation point on his season. 23.2/8.7/5.4/1.7/1.9 shooting 52.4% from the field right now. Wow.
James Harden – To be fair in my complaints in the open, my opp didn’t have Harden on the last Sunday because he got the sniffies. A good opportunity to rest that wrist too.
David Nwaba – Streaming magic on Saturday! 19/6/1/2/0 hitting 6-9 from the field and 7-10 FT. But streaming dud yesterday! 3/1/0/1/0… Can’t trust any Lakers right now…
Thomas Robinson – Man, I’ve always hoped T-Rob would get an extended look somewhere… Had a fantastic run his last 4 games – especially given low minutes – going 16/9/3/1/0 then 12/10/1/2/0 over the weekend, in only 42 total minutes. But read the final sentence above – it’s tough to rely on these guys.
Larry Nance – Probably sticking with Nance amongst the Lakers streamables, coming off a 12/14/1/3/1 win with a trey in 40 whopping minutes as the starting C. Lakers surprised Memphis too, with a 108-103 win!
LeBron James – As always surrounding LeBron, a media frenzy envelops the Cavs team while they struggled a little lately, so you know he wanted a W last night more than anything. Epic 2OT win against the Pacers, going 41/16/11/2/1 in a great game. Paul George missed a pivotal FT in an otherwise great game, J.R. Smith hit a huge trey… Great finish that really cut into my Opening Day MLB watching! Hah. 41/16/11/2/1 from Bronnie Bron.
Trevor Booker – On fire on Saturday! Legit NBA Jam voice! 11-12 FG for 23/8/1/1/0 then 7/7/1/3/0 Sunday to close out his season. Damn, he coulda had a monster year if he played 30 MPG and there was no Coach Asshat.
Ty Lawson – Dude, can Kris Dunn try to keep up with this old fart already?! Dunn fouled out in 18 minutes, on his way to letting Lawson go 21/2/11/1/0 and take 11-14 FT. Lawson hasn’t taken anything that frequently except sobriety tests…
Marquese Chriss – Hit a couple bad games, but finished strong over the Finals weekend! 19/13/1/1/2 Saturday then 9/6/1/0/4 yesterday to close out the year. Man, it’s gonna be tough to not rank him aggressively for 17-18.
Troy Daniels – Hmmmmm, weird. Helping to fill in some lost offense without Marc Gasol? Back-to-back 30+ minutes games with 20+ points to close out the weekend. Hit a combined 13 treys, so you don’t expect that every outing, but might be a final ThrAGNOF-push guy in Roto.
Rudy Gobert – Had that 0 block game a few games ago which I mentioned in the notes, then he goes out and has a 35/24 weekend with 9 blocks. Love ya, Frenchy!
Emmanuel Mudiay – Whoa, where the F did you come from?! Jameer Nelson sat with an old calf (feels like a lyric to an old farm/country song), giving Mudiay 32 minutes. And he didn’t waste em, going 17/4/9/0/1 with 9-10 FT. Even if Jameer misses more games, it’s tough to trust anything here for the final 10 days though…
Paul Millsap – Too little, too late? Finally returned from his “tight knee” to go 14/4/2 off the bench yesterday. Shot only 4-14, but played 26 minutes, and if you need him these final 10 days, it’s good to have him back.
How’d you all do in your finals?! Hopefully we helped you raise some trophies! Thanks for dropping by, and if your season is over, we’ll be here all offseason with ranks, NBA Draft prep, and everything you need to either win that title next year or defend it. Razz Fa Life!
