Man, what a World Series! The Cubs win Game 7 – in extra innings no less – to end their century plus drought and have their fans become insufferable, like the Red Sox. Ugh. But congrats to the Cubs, and now we can solely focus on basketball!!! …until the football playoffs take over 45 minutes of every hour of Sportscenter…
Anywho, if it’s not my Brewers in the World Series, I could care less, and I was paying more attention to hoops last night anyway. Very depressing night, but I wanted to start positive! After singing his praises on the Pod Tuesday morning, T.J. Warren had a little bit of a down game on Halloween night, but bounced right back to lead the Suns to their first W in OT. 11-22 FG, love dat FG%, 5-5 FT, ditto, 27/7/0/2/1 with no TO. Dem fighting numbers! That gives him a 22.4/6.2/0.8/1.8/0.4 line on the season, shooting 50.6% from the field on 17.8 shots, 86.4% from the stripe in 4.4 FTA, and averaging only 1.0 TO. This is turning into a fantasy MVP! Of course, of course, of course it’s early, but Devin Booker was back after sitting one game, both Eric Bledsoe (hit the game winner) and Brandon Knight got their run, and I don’t really see any reason this can’t sustain. The Pts probably come down a tad, but he doesn’t shoot 3s so the FG% should be huge, and he doesn’t really facilitate much which will keep his TO mad low. On the Pod I compared him to DeRozan – with maybe even better FG% – and look at these floaters in traffic that are DeRozan-esque:
I’m very actively trying to correct the great injustice – with all my TJ love, I don’t own him on any teams. Hopefully owners think this is a flash in the pan or a sell-high moment. I don’t. So be like Warren, take a trip to Dr. James Andrews, and get yourself a nice year-long TJ! Here’s what else went down last night in fantasy basketball action:
Jae Crowder – I’m more depressed than an Indians fan on this one… Did a jump pass around the perimeter, and landed on the back of Rajon Rondo‘s fat foot. “Your ball struck my foot!” Stevens said Crowder is going to miss at least a week, which seems acceptable especially after having kankle issues to end last year. Fortunately it’s the left ankle this time, last year it was a high ankle sprain to the right. He immediately was in pain, but was able to hop to the locker room and it didn’t seem quite as bad as Will Barton. Hopefully we’re looking at 1.5ish weeks.
Isaiah Thomas – Took some extra onus – at least 2/3 of the Celtics onus – going 23/2/10/3/1 with 4 treys. 4 stocks is the most he’s done on defense since college!
Amir Johnson – Spearheaded the other 1/3 of onus, but going an absurd 23/6/3/3/2 with no TO, and a shocking 4-4 3PTM. Dude’s career high is 20 3PTM in a season! He made 20% of that last night! I’m lazy and not fact-checking, but I think 16 came in the 3rd quarter, which would’ve been after Crowder got hurt. Should get a little extra run/USG for some multi-cat streaming, but be ready for awful FT%.
Taj Gibson – On the flip side of this game at PF, Taj also rainbowed, but it was one of those ugly, gnarly ones after it sleets and turns the roads to sludge or something… Someone isn’t excited for Winter! 8/8/3/2/2, but shot 3-12 FG and committed 4 TO. In only 26 minutes.
Bobby Portis – With Taj giving it away so much, Portis actually closed out the game as the Bulls were trying to come back. 4/7/0/0/1 on 2-2 shooting, so at least it’s nice to see him get a little more run after barely playing and even getting a DNP-CD to start the year.
DeMar DeRozan – Well, it’s gonna be tough for TJ to become the next DeRozan while DeRozan is starting to turn into an absolute alpha on this team! 40/5/5/2/0 on 14-23 shooting, getting his season averages up to 36.3 Pts on 55.4% shooting. He’s a career 44% shooter who doesn’t make a ton of threes. I’ll take the under at where he’s at 🙂 Sell high if you don’t need elite scoring.
Kyle Lowry – Taking a little bit of a back seat while DD is this voluptuous. 18/1/2/4/0, but he’s surprisingly not too far off from his numbers last year. I think he’ll start amping it back up, as DeRozan isn’t going to stay this hot through the Canadian Winter.
Terrence Ross – 15/2/2/2/0 in 18 mad solid bench minutes, shooting 6-8 with a pair of treys. Gives him 7 steals through the first 4 games. StealNOF…?
John Wall – We all knew he’d be better, and we all knew he’d have a ton of TO. All coming together last night! Huge 33/5/11/3/1 line on 13-19 shooting, but with 9 TO. Worth the price of admission of an early 2nd round pick though…
Otto Porter – Yeah, remember when Scott Brooks teased us with saying SF is an open competition? Well it ain’t no mo’! Kelly Oubre gets 7 minutes – Scotty ran his starting 5 to death – with Porter going nuts for 23/13/0/1/0 on 11-13 shooting. Otto was a little bleh his first few games, but now he’s shooting 62.9% with only 0.7 TO a game. Otto the metrics whore!
Ersan Ilyasova – The Six Foot Turkey! Makes his Philly debut, playing 23 minutes and going 14/3/2/0/0 with 2 treys. His 12 shots were second to only Dario Saric. He’s gonna get a chance to score, so I wouldn’t mind spec adding him in 12ers.
Richaun Holmes – With Joel EMBIIIIIIID going flaccid last night on a DNP-rest, it was Richaun on the Viagra! Got the start over Jahlil Okafor, who came off the bench again. Only 11:31 of run for Sherlock (too easy a nickname for Richaun…?), but 11/3/2/0/1 on 4-4 shooting, 1-1 3PTM, and 2-2 FT. He’s looked really good in the spurts of playing time he’s got. Per-36 he’s 18/10.4/2.7/0.0/2.7 shooting 70%.
Michael Kidd-Gilchrist – After adding him game one, I held true despite some lulls, and got rewarded in my RCLs with a 6/13/1/3/1 line. Only 4 shots, but it’s the boards and wing D stats you want from MKG added to your Chinese food! Hungry for more!
D’Angelo Russell – In REL with a tough fight in blocks, I have to go against D Barksdale who gets 3 swats. I’m angrier than when Michael B. Jordan got shot! “Where’s Wallace?!?!??!” Dude had 13 blocks last year TOTAL! All 3 of these blocks were his first swats on the season. Ughghghghghgh! Well, it’s not all about me, thankfully Russell owners got a nice line everywhere else, going 23/4/8/1/3 on 9-19 shooting…
Luol Deng – It isn’t sexy, but after a dud in his debut and an atrocious game against OKC on Oct 30th when they got blown out, his other 3 lines have been fine. 13/11/2/2/1 last night, hitting a trey and making 4-4 FT. Worth your last roster spot or two in 12ers still.
Larry Nance – Wow, did not expect Nance to get much playing time outta the gate. 14/7/1/2/1 on 7-9 shooting, leading the bench in minutes. Look daddy, I can dunk too!
This comes after 11/5/1/6/1 Tuesday night. I still think he’s going to be a streaky player, but he gets steals from the PF position. If you need steals, he’s a must add.
Ivica Zubac – Wooooo, gets a start! 6/3/0/1/0 in 19 minutes for a Summer League darling of mine, butttttttt….
Dwight Howard – Tore him to shreds, going 31/11/0/2/0 on 12-16 shooting, and making Zubac commit 4 fouls in 19 minutes. Don’t worry, Dwight’s fragile body will lose that youthful exuberance soon enough.
Tim Hardaway – I’m sure he was salivating seeing the Lakers on the schedule! Junk time scoring! Well, it turns out they needed him for desperation scoring! 26/0/1/0/1 in an uber-ThrAGNOF showing, hitting 5 treys. Love that 8-10 FG from a ThrAGNOF though!
Marcus Morris – I still can’t believe the hate he got in ranks this year… Not like I was the highest on him, but undrafted in some leagues?! 23/4/2/3/0 with no TO, hitting 3 treys and shooting 8-16 overall. Ugh, don’t worry, we’re getting to the outcome of this game…
Kentavious Caldwell-Pope – KCP addiction! Did his usual KCP things of 15/7/2/4/0, shooting 4-14, and hitting 2 treys. Mmmmm, steals!
Andre Drummond – Didn’t play in the 4th quarter. The Pistons were getting torched by half, and did better in the third/fourth much without Drum, but still couldn’t quite get back into it.
Brook Lopez – Wow, Asshat, look at that! You play your best player 29 minutes (still not enough), and you win an NBA game! It’s like the NBA is rocket science out here! 34/11/1/1/1 for Brolo, hitting 4-8 treys. As I’ve mentioned a few times, Brooklyn is taking an absurd amount of 3s, and they won this game because they made them. 13-27 overall for BKN, with 27 actually pretty low given their trends. Anyway, Brolo is up to 5-15 3PTM on the season, and both are already career highs. Square peg, round hole, but this game it fit! The buy low window might have slammed shut here. Seeing some of the offers people got in the comments, you’re feeling great if you did.
Jeremy Lin – Goddammit. I hate when something I want in the REL is something I have to report about in the daily notes… Somehow Isaiah Whitehead is unowned, and with Crowder going INJ, Whitehead was going to be my add. But Lin pulled a hammy and missed the second half, but maybe it’s more minor. Whitehead is still extremely raw though, and may do more harm than good. 5/4/4/0/0 with 5 TO in 20 minutes last night. Gives him 5 TO in each of the past two games, in 40 combined minutes. No bueno. But he did get good steals and blocks in college, and is a biggggg boy for a PG. Very stocky. Alas, Greivis Vasquez would be the backup PG when healthy, but he’s coming along from a kankle. Not much to do here, except some spec adds in deeper leagues should Lin miss time.
Sean Kilpatrick – Dude, last night was so annoying. Whitehead, Crowder goes down, 3 mother F blocks from Russell… And after talking up Kilpatrick as a nice streamer, I moved on in a few RCLs, then he goes ballistic for 24/10/3/2/0 on 8-13 FG (4-4 3PTM 4-4FT). And you guessed it, against me in REL. I might change the REL league name to JFC. And before anyone gets mad at my cursing these last two blurbs, JFC stands for Jamaican Fried Chicken! It’s so good! Then I can just call all my oppos big jerks. Womp womp… Even though this line was awesome, there’s still no way we’re trusting Asshat. If you have a dead roster spot that you’re not really streaming, sure you can take a stab here.
Clint Capela – 21 minutes, 0-3 FT. 2-11 on the year. Yeah, that’s a problem… Houston…
Montrezl Harrell – The “Thrown in Z” (another nickname idea…?) went 17/10/0/1/3 in 27 minutes, helping to fill out the C minutes with Nene resting his grey dreads. I don’t think Thrown in Z is a particularly good player, and this was only the second game he’s played. Meh, passing on this one.
Courtney Lee – Second 16 point game on the season, after looking horrific in the Knicks debut. Very blah ThrAGNOF, but hopefully you didn’t panic in deepers.
Pelicans Bench – Other than Brow, the Pelicans starters combined for – get this – about 58 minutes. The reserve 5 all played 28+ minutes, accentuated by Lance Stephenson (in a revenge game I guess…?) going 21/4/6/1/1 with 4 TO in 45 preposterous minutes. Did the Pelicans medical staff run the rotations last night?! This was a horrible game, with the Pelicans scoring under 16 points in 3 of the 4 quarters, and still somehow taking this to overtime. Langston Galloway and Buddy Hield both hit 4 treys and scored 18 Pts apiece in easily their best games on the season. NO just went with the second unit, and they’re still 0-5. What a disaster. Stephenson had one good game against the Warriors, but has otherwise been terrible. No reason to add any of these guys.
Jrue Holiday – Thankfully help is coming, as Zach Lowe reported the Pels are hopeful he’ll be back by the middle of the month. That would be HUGE if you’re a Jrue stasher…
Marc Gasol – 3-18 FG. I’ve said multiple times now that his FG% is going to be a trainwreck, as all he’s doing is taking outside jumpers. Pair him with Kristaps Porzingis though, and baby, you got a stew goin’!
JaMychal Green – You’re welcome, Razzball Nation! Ranked him aggressive before we even knew he was starting. 21/6/2/1/0 on 9-12 shooting with 3 treys and only 1 TO.
James Ennis – 16/10/0/2/0 on 5-8 shooting in 38 minutes. Lots of standing around and watching Gasol brick!
Dirk Nowitzki – Pretty brutal coming off “illness” and “Achilles soreness”, going 9/5/0/1/0 on 4-14 shooting. But this was against the Jazz, and he was D-ing up Rudy Gobert a bunch. Pretty exhausting for an old man. He’ll be better, although the 0-4 Mavericks need to start winning, quick.
George Hill – Loving this start, and for some reason was pretty affordable on draft day, ending up on a few of my teams. 25/6/4 last night with 4 treys. But I may start shopping him around as a sell high. Gordon Hayward and his hard part haircut are going to take over some USG from Hill-o-Beans.
Evan Turner – Slowly improving going 11/10/3/0/1 last night, but another 4 TO and I wish he was facilitating more…
Allen Crabbe – Tried to give Phoenix some Crabbes! 37 minutes of 14/1/3/1/0 with 3 treys and no TO. Looks pretty ThrAGNOFfy to me!
Tyson Chandler – 18 rebounds. I don’t even need to cite his other stats. That’s all he’s good for! But if that’s a need, the shoe fits.
Jerami Grant – Speaking of fitting shoes, I was sooooo happy to see this trade. Only 18 minutes in his OKC debut, but 6/2/0/0/2, giving him multi-blocks in every single game this year. Such a weapon to get swats from SF, and he easily could take that starting 4 role from “standing-around Sabonis”.
Russell Westbrook – 14-30 from the field, but 0-7 3PTM?! Know your range, Russ! 35/6/5/3/0 as he continues his elite start, although the line stayed pretty close to the triple-double flirt with the 10 TO. Huge win for OKC though, as they were 3-0 against bad teams, including a struggling win against the Sixers in that opener. Now 4-0 beating the Clip on the road, and this is looking like a better team than I expected.
Victor Oladipo – Hah! 9/5/1/0/0 on 3-11 shooting. Said I didn’t like him off ball, ranked him below virtually everyone else… I feel Smart like my Avatar!
Steven Adams – Hah times two! The great matchups gave Adams a hotter start than I think we should’ve been expecting, and he gets swallowed up by DJ last night, going 2/11/1/1/0 with 3 TO on only 1-3 shooting. Told ya to sell high!
Chris Paul – Even against Westbrook had the line of the game, going 15/11/9/6/0. Thanks for all the giveaways, Russ! I needed a big Paul game here in my struggling RCL team where I went Paul first…
I hope everyone had a great Wednesday night, and is looking forward to a big weekend! Adam has the Daily Notes for tomorrow/Fridays moving forward, but you can always hit me up in comments any time! Plus we got a Pod tomorrow and the first RCL update tomorrow afternoon… You’ll be seeing me around!
