When we finally saw the ultimate joker Jason Kidd put John Henson back into the starting line-up a couple of weeks ago, there was some excitement, except we all foresaw a pretty low-minute role. Go-go Gadget, minutes limits! With Greg Monroe playing pretty much like we expect Moose to play, and Miles Plumlee signed on a $50 million deal (more than Monta Ellis!), it didn’t seem like Henson would get enough of a role to be fantasy-reliable. Then after a few starts, the Bucks go back to DNP-ing Henson and pissing away their best center. They [shocker!] lost that DNP-Henson game against the Raps (but admittedly played em close), and Kidd must’ve finally gotten a divine intervention, and realized he should stick with Mr. Muppet. And the rest, as they say, is history! Go-go Gadget, winning streak! The Bucks have gone 4-0 on 4 straight Henson starts (given two against the Mess, but whatever), and Muppet Man has gone 14.8/7.8/1.5/0.5/3.0 over that stretch in 25.2 minutes, shooting 55% from the field. That line got accentuated by 20/7/2/1/2 on Saturday night against the Mess, thanks to solid post play and some sick-ass Giannis diming!
But the real stand out for me is the 3.8-4.5 FT over these last 4 starts, good for 83.3%. He’s at 72.7% on the year, after being a mid-50ish% FT shooter over his career. The stroke looks pretty clean, and I think this could be fairly legit. Go-go Gadget, FT coaching! At multi-blocks in 5 straight and settling into a 25 MPG start, Henson is a must-add everywhere. Go-go Gadget, waiver gold! Hopefully you heeded our “spec add in 12ers” advice a week ago, and you got a must-own big! All we need now, is The Joker to keep from Kidd-ing around with the line-up! Here’s what else went down over the weekend in Fantasy Basketball action:
Reggie Jackson – Maybe the bigger story of the weekend, but I have REL bias! 23 minutes in his 16-17 debut, going 18/1/4. Shot 7-12 from the field, hit his 2 freebies, and made a couple of treys. Looked pretty good out there! Expect the minutes to climb up from the 23 in this debut, and be happy you stashed a PG 2 or 3 in fantasy leagues!
Ish Smith – Picked the wrong time to have his best two-game stretch (19/8/8 and 11/5/13), getting them right before R-Jax getting back. Then tried to be a little show off last night.
It’s called a left hand, Ish, ever heard of it?! 11/1/2 in 25 minutes, and there’s no reason to expect him to be usable ala Tim Frazier with the starter back…
Aaron Gordon – Ya know, got an and-one to score the game’s first points and I was pumped up, but ends up with a 10/3/0/0/0 line with 2-4 FT. Getting that Skiles residue from the locker room!
Bismack Biyombo – Besides getting twirled around on that Ish drive, put up 4/13/4 and 7/5/4/1/1 lines over the weekend. 4 assists in back-to-back games?! Is their playmaking really that bad?!
Matt Barnes – Whoa, someone box out Matty B! 12/16/5/2/1 against the C’s, but aided by a DeMarcus Cousins absence due to 8 stitches in his face. Boogie was fine and came back in, and as of this writing, Matty B is 0-5 with 1 REB through most of the first half against the Knicks. Bleh.
Al Horford – Big Al went Big Ham on the Kings, going 26/8/3/2/6 in a pretty epic rainbow. Toss in 4 treys with that line, and you’ve got some baby-making music! Except, ya know, just don’t skip a game if you’re making babies playing for the Celtics…
Isaiah Thomas – Then after Big Al’s big game, the C’s struggled against the Sixers, but fear not! IT2/3 to the rescue! 37/4/7 on 11-19 FG and 13-15 FT. It’s not the size of your NBA players, but how you use em!
Kyle O’Quinn – The Irishman got a start with Joakim Noah out (kankle) on Friday night, and shined like a prize-winning potato going 20/13/2/0/2 on 9-11 shooting. Remember when he was a darling waiver add from the Magic days?! Seems so long ago… Noah was back last night, but O’Quinn had 2 blocks in the first half, so maybe he can carve out some usability for streaming/deepers.
Cole Aldrich – Speaking of Knicks centers being darlings, look at this former Knicks C showing the fantasy goods! Suddenly getting huge (for him) minutes, going 10/12/2/2/3 and 4/8/1/2/2 over the weekend in 27 and 22 minutes, respectively. 0 TO in those games as well! Now before we get too crazy, both the Knicks (Poison Goose) and the Hornets (all their PF/C right now) use pretty big lineups where it makes sense to play Cole next to KAT a little. Not adding him in 12ers, but I might take a flier any deeper.
Brandon Ingram – I’ve been hyper-critical of Ingram and couldn’t see him getting a ton of NBA success out of the gate, and after he went 17/6/2 Friday night, there were some “add Ingram?” comments. Glad I threw my cold water on that! Followed it up with a 9/5/1/0/3 line with 5 TO! 3 blocks is nice and all, but we’re obviously not expecting much of that. And the cherry on top – that line was in a whopping 39 minutes!
Lou Williams – Sweet Lou was Memphis-killer Lou on Saturday! Although Memphis still won… Memphis-nuisance Lou? No…? 40/2/1/2/0 Saturday night, shooting 11-20 FG and 14-14 FT. They’re still going to prioritize developing D’Angelo Russell when he’s healthy, so it might be a good time to try and shop him around.
Luol Deng – Choo Choo! The Deng Train! Oh wait… Well, if you own Deng in deep leagues, it’s been more like “Choo Choo! The MotherF Is Terrible Train!” FINALLY did something to prove he was alive, going 18/5/0/4/1 Saturday night. Did that in 36 minutes after averaging 24 MPG most of the year (got a lot of Larry Nance minutes, who missed with a knee bruise), and with Ingram playing his run, it’s tough to see much happen here.
Lucas Nogueira – Hey Bebe! Hey Bebe! Huge weekend for the Brazilian, going 13/3/0/2/2 and 11/8/1/3/2. And you want efficiency?! Shot 10-10 FG and 4-4 FT in those two games. 100% FG and 100% FT! I didn’t even need my fantasy basketball abacus for that!
Pascal Siakam – Both of the young, toolsy Raps bigs had nice weekends, With Pascal going 8/7/1/1/1 and 14/3/0/1/2. More of a deeper league play than Bebe, but Pascal can get some D stats too!
Atlanta Hawks – Ugh, talk about some bad losses! Lost by 36 at home to the Pistons, then by 42 at the Raptors, which was a Toronto winning margin record. Go ahead and give Paul Millsap the MVP, they’re the worst team in the NBA without him! After starting a mad hot 9-2, have gone 1-9 the past 10 games, including their current 6-game losing streak. Coach Butthole might be Coach Buttfired pretty soon! Be like he ate some spicy wings!
Steven Adams – Ugh, picked up a kankle last night. He tried to fight through it, but came out in the 2nd and was ruled out pretty quick. Hopefully the updated timetable today won’t be so bad…
Jimmy Butler – Big win on Saturday night, beating the Cleveland LeBrons. I blame this Cavs bumpy road lately on LeBron paying out his World Series bet and dressing up in Cubs gear! 26/8/6/3/2 on Friday night in a rainbow line for Mr. Buckets, and scored 26 again Saturday. With Butler unable to top 67 games the previous 3 seasons, I would absolutely explore some sell-highs.
Rajon Rondo – Microcosm of Rondo’s career! Tripdub on Friday for 15/11/12/3/1, then horrific on Saturday for 2/2/2/1/0 and 5 TO. He probably took a shower in between the games. Well, let’s hope so!
Marcin Gortat – Remember when SA was your primo matchup for your bigs?! Well, the Ten Foot Pole got a ten foot rainbow against the Spurs on Saturday night, going 21/18/2/2/2. Wiz still lost though, but that’s kinda a given these days…
Danny Green – 3/0/1/1/0 with 3 TO against the Wiz. Yuck. Shouldn’t be on your radar except in the deepers, for some desperation streaming, or Spurs-only leagues.
Sam Dekker – Ya know, I think I almost wrote him up once a few weeks ago saying he was looking better than I expected, but I think I ended up just moving on. Oopsie! Big week from Dekker for the deeper leaguers, with a 17/4/0/1/1 line – career-high scoring – on Friday night. 4 steals and 3 blocks in the last 4 games, and getting 26+ minutes the last 3. I might even throw a flier add on him in a 14er.
Patrick Beverley – 11/3/6/1/2 for PBev against the Nugs. Huzzah D’Antoni system!
Will Barton – Whoa, Will the Thrill shaking off his kankle! So good to see! 17/7/5/1/0 then 20/5/4/2/1 on Fri/Sat, hitting 4 combined treys. Played over 33 minutes in both of them too, on a back-to-back! There’s a big chance he was cut in your league, so be sure he isn’t somehow available. Big hits to Jameer Nelson (moved to the bench, but 13/4/7 last time out, so I might hold him another game or two) and Jamal Murray (can be cut), who was settling into a nice scoring bench role.
Jusuf Nurkic – Battling a little limp wrist, Nikola Jokic sat over the weekend, giving Jamba Jus a solo shot at C! Andddddd, 10/7/0/2/2 with 4 TO and 8/4/1/0/0… At least no TO in that Saturday game! Ugh.
Anthony Bennett – I don’t know what’s worse, Nurk being that bad with a big opportunity, or that I have to bring up Anthony Bennett… 7/14/1/0/0 in a spot start for Trevor Booker out with the sniffies, so not too much to see here.
Joe Harris – 17 points off the bench in that Bucks loss… He does have multi-treys in 5 of 6 and in 4 straight, so he is getting some low-end ThrAGNOF appeal.
Frank Kaminsky – After a solid run over the past few weeks, had an absolute awful pair of games scoring a combined 3 points at the end of last week, but thankfully found his stroke again Saturday for 21/9/5/1/1. Now everyone will want to F Kaminsky again…
Cody Zeller – Took out all his frustration with the injuries he’s fought through early this year with some mad swattage! 6/9/2/1/4 in a near-rainbow Saturday night, and even though he hasn’t scored in double-digits in 4 straight, is still producing a bit. And he has great hands for baller assists!
Dario Saric – Dario has been more like Dariblow in his rookie season, but a nice game on Saturday to build off of, going 21/12/2/1/0 with 3 treys. But he’s shooting 38% on the season, bad D stats… Meh…
Sergio Rodriguez – White chocolate getting me turned on again! 8/3/7 on Friday, then a big 15/5/8/2/0 with 4 treys Saturday night. Jerryd Bayless got some PRP injected into his wrist; he just needs to be thankful he’s got the Sixers med staff and not the Pels – the NOP medical staff woulda mixed up the PRP with PCP.
Troy Daniels – Whoa, what in the world?! As I mentioned late last week, I brought up Daniels in the Grizz team preview as a sneaky, deep-ThrAGNOF target, but obviously didn’t expect THIS! After back-to-back 19 point games, Daniels went OFF for 31/2/4/1/1 against the Lakers on Saturday night. For the love of career-highs! Minutes went 21, 28.5, 34, and the Grizz have won the last two. I don’t know if this is dependable enough as anything beyond a ThrAGNOF though – 13-25 treys in this 3 game run – but if that’s a stat of need in the short-term, go ahead and grab him! But I’m not dropping main assets in a 10/12er for this hot streak.
Wade Baldwin – Putting the WIN in his last name! 8/4/2 with no TO on Friday, then 7/2/9/3/1 Saturday. Andrew Harrison was still OK in that Sat win (6/4/4/1/1), but there’s rumors going around the Grizz will pick up Toney Douglas since they have an injury exception coming, which would make this situation even more annoying…
JaMychal Green – 16/13/1/0/3 in that Lakers win, giving him a long stretch of fantasy goodness. Super Green!
Deron Williams – 15 assists against the Bulls on Saturday night, one for each one of his calf strains over his career. Woo. Hoo.
Dwight Powell – What does it take to get this guy some playing time?! Dirk getting injured?! The fact he’s signed to a long-term deal?! He’s playing well when given a chance?!?!?!?! 17/8/1 in that win against the Bulls, giving him 10 points in 3 of 5 with a handful of D stats in a little more consistent PT. Although getting megged by Batum couldn’t have felt great…
Hassan Whiteside – Whiteside…. STRONG SIDE! Whiteside… STRONG SIDE! Haven’t done that in a while! 28/16/1/0/5 against the Blazers late Saturday night, on 12-16 shooting. Making Plumlee look like Plumplee!
James Johnson – While it looks like he might’ve had a “phased out” game, his 17 minutes last time out were due to a pair of techs. Use those neck tats to keep your head on straight, JJ!
Dragan Bender – I think his first in-season Daily Notes shout! 10/4/1/0/1 in 25 blowout-loss minutes against the Warriors.
Hit a couple treys, shot 4-6, showed a little drive game, didn’t turn it over… Not bad for his first regular season extended look, junk time or not!
I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend, and is looking forward to week 7. Season is already flying by!
