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Some NBA GMs had a case of the Mondays, that’s for sure!  “Uhhhh, I’m not ready to be back at work, let’s do something nuts just to make it look like we’re working…”

In a blockbuster three-team trade, the New York Poppycockers salary dumped Iman Shumpert and J.R. Smith to the Cavs.  More pressure on Blatt!  Now he has to win with Knicks Outkasts… “I like the way you move!”  The last NBA coach who said that to Smith was George Karl.  Shumpert is likely going to start at the 2 with Smith becoming a 6th man.  Both of them must have had a redonkulous party to be heading to a winner.  Don’t invite Plaxico or Felton!  Then there’s Dion Waiters to the Thunder.  Meh.  Not like most leagues were using Waiters anyway, but he takes a minor hit in deepers.  Reggie Jackson should still lead the second unit in shots, so I’m not that excited.  The Knicks picked up three guys – Captain Kirk (but not the Hinrich one), some European with a lot of hair, but then an interesting name in Lance Thomas.  I almost made a cracker joke, but we’re gonna gloss right over that and reminiscence in some games he had earlier in the year on a depleted Thunder front line – 12/8/2 (Nov 1), 14/5/1 (Nov 4), the fluky 7/13/6 (Nov 12).  And depleted is baked right into the Knicks funnel cake right now.  The Poppycockers might as well see what they have at some point, so in uber deep leagues if you need someone with any sort of upside, I’d be sure and star LT on your wire.  Here’s what else went down on a crazy Monday for fantasy basketball:

Tony Wroten – Leading the Sixers to a win over mighty Cleveland!  Well they yanked Waiters – yikes if you streamed him like I did in a league – and only had Kevin Love (28/19).  Seriously though – it was 5-on-1.  Murder, She Wroten for 20/1/8 with his usual 5 TO.  But his FT shooting is improving (4-6 last night) and is still useful if you can handle the ratios.

Michael Carter-Williams Stay strong with MCW, you get gems like this!  18/6/13/2/1 with only 1 TO and hitting 8-19 shots.  Even as a MCW apologist, you do have to note this was against Matthew Dellavedova.  No Uncle Drew for you!  If MCW has been a headache for ya – I know that’s a lot of you! – this is a perfect sell-high game.

K.J. McDaniels – A lot of drop KJ comments, but had a solid night last night for 12/3/4/0/2 shooting 5-8 FG & 2-3 3PTM.  He was brutal the previous 4, but I could see some greener pastures ahead.  If there’s grass on the field, play ball!  Oh wait, I don’t think I should use that…

Bismack Biyombo – He’s still pretty far down the totem pole of widely available bigs, but showed a little sign of life for 4/10/0/1/2 in 27 minutes last night.  Plays like a totem pole on offense!  Tries to avoid the fouls/freebie stripe at all costs…

Michael Kidd-Gilchrist – Only 18 minutes whilst battling foul trouble.  He’d been picking it up lately, but there’s a big alarm going off as he had 3 TO again last night – even in the low minutes – and 2+ TO the past 5 games.  I’d still take KJ Micky D’s over him.

Cody Zeller “I’m the best Zeller!  I can’t miss!”  8-8 FG, 4-4 FT, 1-1 in showing up older bro.  20/7/1 with a swat.  Got a little extra run with MKG opening up some extra F minutes, but he’s starting to show a little life with Al Jefferson groining.

Jared Sullinger – Brad Stevens is ridiculous for barely playing him a couple weeks ago!  22/8/1/2/4 shooting 8-16 FG and 6-6 FT.  Brad is a Bully for not playing Sully!

Evan Turner – Remember when I had to constantly remind everyone how bad at basketball he was?

Rajon Rondo “Is this goal regulation size, or WHAT?!”  Shot an atrocious 1-13 FG on top of 0-2 FT, but at least racked up a 2/10/14/2/0 line with only 1 TO.

Jarrett Jack – There we go!  Back on track Jack for 20/4/10, but did make Slim look like Slimadamus as he didn’t hit a trey or log a steal in 44 minutes.  To that hatred I say, “let’s share Jack’s dimebag!”

Brook Lopez Started at the 5 and looked pretty good out there.  22/13/0/1/4 hitting 11-21 shots.  Rendered Mason Plumlee near unusabe, as Prof Plum only put up 7/7/0/0/2 with 3 TO and 3-6 FT.  He still started and played 32 minutes, and Brolo’s feet are still made our of porcelain, so I’m giving the dear ol’ Professor a little more leash.

Tyreke Evans – Ummmm, what?  With Eric Gordon back, Evans came off the bench… What in the world!  He still played 34 minutes and played through being sick, so maybe this was just a temporary reprieve.  Evans did his thing with 21/7/4/1/3 – fluky blocks – shooting 7-14 (good for him) with 6 TO.  He’s a SF MCW!  Notice how I skipped over any Eric Gordon thoughts – my advice is to skip over him yourself.  And if your life is so bad in an uber-deep league that you own Austin Rivers, well he looks like your undercarriage after a night with Amanda Bynes – mostly bumped.

Jimmy Butler He’s really good…  22/5/1/3/1 hitting 7-17 FG (2-4 3PTM) and 6-7 FT.  Everyone on the Bulls had great fantasy outings last night.  Even a…

Nikola Mirotic – …sighting!  27 minutes of 17/8/1/0/2 ball.  Still not much you can do with it in standards except be ready to pounce if a Bulls big goes down.

Josh Smith – What in the Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern is going on out there?!  Smoove is taking 20 shots?!  10-20 FG (yes, 1-5 3PTM to sink it down) for 21/6/2/3/0.  Somehow avoided going to the FT line, but still hurt ya with the 4 TO.

Trevor Ariza Rainbow alert!  7/6/5/3/2 and still giving you solid numbers while he’s been horrifically cold shooting the ball.  9-33 FG the past 4 games, including 2-18 from deep.  When asked about his FG% shrinkage he said HE WAS IN THE POOL!  “Somebody watched Seinfeld last night…”

Jusuf Nurkic Unleash the hounds!  Pounded up on the soft Wolves front line (minus Gorgui) for 14/6/1/2/4.  Hit 7-11 shots and is as smooth as cranberry Jus.  It’s the pickup Nurkic in all 12ers period!  +17 in 22 minutes to Timofey Mozgov‘s horrific -10 in 17 minutes.  “Hey, Cleveland, I see you’re picking up some scrubby dudes, AND you need a big!  Mozgov for… Wild Thing Vaughn!”

J.J. Hickson – Out of nowhere 16/11/1/2/0 line hitting 8-10 FG.  And of course we have to see the Manimal getting kenneled again…  15/7/2/0/0 in only 24 minutes for Kenneth Faried, but this was a mad blowout early that got a little closer in late garbage time.  Either way, somebody call PETA!  Unethical treatment of Manimals!

Arron Afflalo – Scored 34 empty points with 4 treys.  ThrAGNOF!  Well, he’s usually a hold, but he’s mad hot right now for Daily Leagues.

Mo Williams – Started over Zach LaVine for 17/4/7 and 3 treys.  LaVine was latrine.  I’m still lukewarm at best for Mo Will, but if you needed a PG in a 12er, he’s worth a spec medium-term add.

Cleanthony Early – Mr. Clean getting some run!  7/2/4/2/1 in 29 minutes.  Definitely a target in deepers, but even with the Knicks cleaning house, I’d imagine I’d go with other options even in 14ers.

Jose Calderon – Even with all those guys gone, 13/0/6/0/0 with 3 treys is the best he’s got.

Quincy Acy – Solid dubdub for 19/14, with a shocking 2-3 3PTM in there.  He had 3 treys total this season, with 8 in his career heading into last night.  Deep leaguers should keep an eye on Acy, if they wanna House of Cards like Spacey.

Donald Sloan – Wow, rough night for my streamer calls as C.J. Watson returned and Waiters was yanked from the Cavs game mere minutes before tip.  Watson is terrible and made Sloan terrible in reserve minutes.  Lots of terrible.

Dante Exum – TheAGNOF!  And a true ThrAGNOF game!  13/0/0/0/0 with three treys.  And the only guy to handle the ball was…

Joe Ingles …who could be called “Mr. Fundamental”.  8/9/7/2/0 in 37 minutes, as Trey Burke sat with strep throat.  Burke almost played, so I no hablo Ingles for anything other than very deep league short-term production.

Jordan Hill – Rewards benefit the patient man!  Awful fortune cookie advice of the year right there.  23/14/2, no steals or blocks, but 10-15 FG and 3-4 FT.  Whew, glad I held on and recommended Razzball Nation do the same!

Ryan Kelly – The return of R Kelly!  Started at SF for 2/7/3, with a rusty 1-6 FG and 3 TO.  Wes Johnson has a strained hip that seems like a lengthy-ish injury, so R Kelly might get some mad run at the 3.

Chris Kaman – Ohhhhh, NOW the Blazers start Kaman…  27 minutes of 8/11/3/0/3 while Meyers Leonard played 19 for 12/12 and three treys.  Should be a few weeks of a time share between those guys with Joel Freeland‘s shoulder all popped out and Robin Lopez‘s hand all broken.  And Thomas Robinson continues to be shunned.

Damian Lillard What is 39 divisible by?!?!? 13!  It’s an Omen!  39/6/5/2/1 shooting 12-21 FG (4-8 3PTM 11-13 FT).  Slim – would you rather Lillard or John Wall ROS?  I’ll ask ya on the Pod today too.

Serge Ibaka Good buy low window is all the solace I can make out of Ibaka being terrible the past 3 games as a big Ibaka owner…  Why couldn’t I have gotten more #1 picks to get The Brow?!?!

 

Streamers/Cheap Daily League Picks:

John Henson (33% owned) – Wow, I didn’t expect to see Mr. Muppet owned in that many leagues…  Either way, you’ve got a 2/3 shot he’s out there in a Slim Pickens of 2 games tonight.  Off a horrible 5-foul performance last time out, I could see Henson having a nice one against the Sunnies.

Cory Joseph (16% owned) – Tony Parker is questionable, but mainly he’s old with a bad hammy.  Either way I expect Cojo to bring some mojo that you can buylow.

 

I hope everyone got a big start to their weeks, and we’ll catch you tomorrow!