[Editor’s note – We’re going to be having our Podcast out first thing tomorrow morning due to some scheduling stuff. Catch you with our sexy voices then!]
Man, what a night for highlight-reel dunks!
GIFs so nice I had to put up twice! Wait, that didn’t really work… But yeah, telling everyone that Aaron Gordon is cuttable sure made me feel great while writing the notes this morning! Stupid Clippers getting Lob City-ed against them! Taste of their own medicine! Career game for Gordon, going 13-21 FG (4-8 3PTM 3-6 FT) for 33/7/2/0/0. Actually, ya know, that’s not really the best line. 3 turnovers, no D stats, and 50% FT shooting… I feel a little better now re-thinking it, and good thing highlight-reel plays aren’t bonuses! Although I wish they were for my Semaj in REL! Feel free to scoop up Gordon in any leagues as I’m sure he was a popular drop, but I still wouldn’t be losing key assets for him. Let’s see if he can carry this success a few more games, fix the FT issue, and deliver on the D stats we’re know he’s physically capable of. 0.8 STL/0.6 BLK – lower stocks than last year – in an expansion of minutes?! Where’s the beef?! Hopefully I give you more meat to chew on in the notes today! Here’s what else happened last night in Fantasy Basketball action:
Justise Winslow – Justise is spelled with an “S”! That would totally be the tagline of his show if he became an actor. Maybe CSI: Miami or something… Wait, they already did that one! Anywho, returned from his lengthy absence due to lump wrist (hah that was a typo, but was too funny ti fix) to go 2/2/2/1/0 on 1-5 shooting in 21 minutes off the bench. He’s wearing a wrist brace that likely isn’t going to help his FG% drain, but he should be starting again soon and does enough everywhere else to be owned in most leagues.
James Johnson – 14/3/6/0/0 on 6-9 shooting. Love the dimes, but where’s the beef?! Where da D stats?! C’mon guys!
Hassan Whiteside – Goromotaro! 26/22/0/0/2. 6-11 FT is annoying and I still think there’s some “oh well, we suck, I’ma put my windows down and cruise” downside here post-ASB, so do some shopping.
Tyler Johnson – Stole James Johnson’s beef! Meat thief! 15/5/3/0/4. Doubled Hassan’s swats too! It’s just because he’s short and white – no one ever expects the Spanish Inquisition!
Thaddeus Young – 6/7/0/3/0. You like the steals, but yawwwwwn.
Myles Turner – Look, I found more beef! 11/7/2/1/5, but only 5-13 shooting and no treys. Still, he’s amazing.
C.J. Miles – Only 22 minutes and admittedly a little ThrAGNOFfy some games, but 15/2/0/0/0 with 3 treys is still usable enough, and he’s been finding his beef in most games too.
DeAndre Jordan – Hack this! 12-18 FT on the way to a 22/12/2/1/3 line with no TO on 5-6 shooting. Even Mr. Robot couldn’t successfully hack DeAndre!
Austin Rivers – “Daddy, daddy! Let me start! Pick me, pick me!” 38 minutes (led the team) playing “SF”, going 25/4/2/1/0 on 9-12 shooting including an absurd 7-10 3PTM. That said, Luc Richard Mbah a Moute hurt his shoulder when trying to write his name on a chalk board, and as you know from the open, Aaron Gordon went bananas. LRMaM (even the acronym is taxing!) was probable and they need his wing defense, so not much to see here from Doc Jr.
Evan Fournier – It’s probably too late now to swing some buy lows, but he’s got 23+ Pts and 6+ dimes in 3 straight now. The dimes are really interesting after he wasn’t facilitating a ton before this run, but 24/1/8 last night giving him an unreal 20:1 AST:TO the past 3 games. Shooting well over 50% in this run too. If he can somehow keep up 80% of this pace, he’s gonna take off!
Elfrid Payton – Still coming off the bench, but staying very usable going 9/3/9/2/1 last night in only 26 minutes.
Jeff Green – Because of course I’d be up against a scrub like Jeff Green in the REL… 19/3/2/2/0 on 7-11 shooting with 4 treys. He’s on a nice little spurt, but he’s getting a lot more usage with Nikola Vucevic (back) out.
Robert Covington – Lord Covington strikes again! 26/12/2/0/0, in a weird line… The Sixers started Jahlil Okafor (17/4/3/0/2) NEXT to Joel Embiid (9/6/5/1/2), and yet Covington ends up with all the boards… Weird. Anyway, 3 treys on 10-20 for Lord, giving him back-to-back nice games, and 3 of 5 really good lines. I’m looking to scoop him up where I can, but I’m not expecting consistency all the sudden.
Sergio Rodriguez – Got some extra fiber in his system and was able to get back out there, going 16/1/5 with 2 treys.
Jonas Valanciunas – Gotta love when the opposing team has pure big men! 17/10/1/2/1, but gotta love the 34 minutes. Also helped that Lucas Nogueira had to sit with a sore knee.
Cody Zeller – Feels like he needs to get more involved, in a tough loss to the Wizards. 18/2/1/0/2 on 6-7 shooting with 6-8 FT. He’s on fire!
Marco Belinelli – I’m riding him while this hot in a few leagues, as my beck-end ThrAGNOF. 16/1/1/0/0 with 4 treys.
John Wall – Man he’s good! Sure some butterfingers with 8 TO, but 25/6/10/7/0 on 9-19 shooting (7-8 FT). We’ve been keeping him at that swing 1st/2nd round the past few years and we’ve never really been “disappointed”, but this year it’s looking like a home run!
Bradley Beal – 9 assists! Man the guards were dealing in this one for the Wiz…
Kelly Oubre – Got the start at SF due to Markieff Morris sitting with a sore left foot. Playing too much Fifa! Oh, I guess that would give you sore thumbs, but ya know! Oubre actually led the team in minutes with 40, on the way to a 15/6/1/2/0 line on 7-12 shooting. Otto Porter has always seemed like a great fit to me at PF vs. SF, and this line-up beat a pretty decent Hornets team. Maybe Kieff gets moved to a bench role?! I might do some Oubre spec adding, you know I love him!
Larry Nance – Made Brook Lopez live up to his Clownfoot nickname!
Holy schnikey! For the love of hang time! And a great fantasy line to boot! 6/4/2/1/3 on 3-3 shooting with no TO.
Luol Deng – Dude, you’re like a 25 year vet, hit your friggin’ FT! Finally turning into a fantasy asset again going 11/8/2/1/1 with no TO and a trey on 5-12 shooting, but 0-2 FT?! It’s super low volume, but he’s 7 for his last 16. Used to be a 75-80% FT shooter every year!
Trevor Booker – Doesn’t get his steals, but 8/18/2/0/1. That said, modeling his FT shot from Deng, and hit only 1-5 at the stripe.
Jeremy Lin – Well, so much for that! His back flared up coming off the hammy and ended up sitting. I remember from all the baseball injuries I’ve seen that hammy issues can lead to back issues. This is no bueno. If you can convince someone this is just minor, I might ship him off.
Anthony Tolliver – He’s still in the NBA?! With Rudy Gay and Ben McLemore out, plus DeMarcus Cousins resting, the Kings put together a pretty garbage lineup, highlighted by Tolliver going 12/10/0/2/2 in 35 minutes. I guess the line is OK, but this isn’t anything to bat an eye over.
Omri Casspi – I was hoping this could be a “revenge game”, but only 27 minutes of 10/5/1/0/0 and a trey. Bleh.
Garrett Temple – I actually streamed him in a couple RCLs off a hot game! Stayed red hot for 20/2/4/0/1 on 7-13 shooting with 5-9 3PTM, and gets another “of course I’m against him in REL” award. I just need to make all my out-of-nowhere streaming calls based on the scrubs I’m again in REL week-to-week… Look at his game log! Of course this outlier past two games happened when the week started… With Arron Afflalo pretty much out of the rotation and McLemore in no rush to get back from a quad issue, I might take a flier here in heavy streaming leagues.
James Harden – Only 15 points in this triple double… Houston just flat out rocked the putrid Kings though… Wow, Houston on an 8-game winning streak! D’Antoni system working again!
Sam Dekker – Huge 22 bench minutes, going 8-10 FG (2-3 3PTM 1-1 FT) for 19/7/0/0/0. He’s still pretty far off the 12er streaming range, but any deeper in good matchups, it might work!
Cleveland Cavaliers – Benched everyone and unsurprisingly lost at Memphis. All of the lines from this squad last night are irrelevant.
Troy Daniels – Not too much relevancy from the Grizz either in this garbage game, but at least Troy Daniels got hot again if you added him in a deep league. 22 minutes of 20/2/1 with 4 treys.
Toney Douglas – Also worth noting that “Extra E Toney” got 28 minutes of run, for 14/6/5/2/0. After ceding some run, Andrew Harrison was coming in on back-to-back 30+ minute nice lines, but Extra E/Cleveland DNPs crushed that!
Jon Leuer – It took 35 points in the 4th quarter to overtake the awful Mavericks, so good thing the Pistons had strong second unit play! +25 from Leuer as the starters hovered around break-even, going 19/5/2/1/1 on 8-9 shooting (3-3 FT). Strong 31 minutes, and nice to see after he had been fading a tad. I don’t see any way it happens, but he should be in the 6th Man Award convo.
Aron Baynes – 8/10 with a block in 20 minutes, but I’m just mad he’s shed the mask…
Salah Mejri – The Salah bar has extra dressing! 4/8/0/2/3 in 27 minutes, playing super Nogueira-ish. Helpful if you need those D stats from an awkward-looking 7+ footer. He kinda looks like a giraffe, just saying. And if you’ve seen a baby giraffe run, it wouldn’t surprise you that he picked up a kankle late in the game, and might miss a few. Stupid giraffes! Deep leaguers need to add A.J. Hammons, post haste!
Dwight Powell – Sorry Slim. The Mavs hate you just as much as they hate Powell… But with no Salah bar, maybe this finally happens!
Dorian Finney-Smith – Fantasy basketball players are so friggin’ reactionary… Not you, Razzball Nation! But players who don’t read us… 8/5/1/1/0 with 2 treys. I mean, it’s fine! That’s what DFS is. Fine. Which is good for deep leagues. No reason to even be streaming him in 12ers, there are better options. Yet he topped the most-added lists I looked at on Yahoo the past few days. Smh.
Russell Westbrook – Damn, OKC is in a funk… 31 minutes of 27/6/5/1/0 which is fine, but 7-25 shooting and his typical 5 TO. They miss Victor Oladipo…
Semaj Christon – Dude, this should sooooooo count for like 8 points.
#REL bias! Splish, splash, I was taking a bath!
Shelvin Mack – I think the perception was Dante Exum might sit this game, but he played through knee tendinitis for 17 minutes (8/1/3). With George Hill still out, it gave Mack more run, going 15/5/5/1/0 on 5-6 FG (3-3 3PTM 2-2 FT). Did have 5 TO, but man he’s been usable as a streamer/deep league play for a bit.
Derrick Favors – Wow, burying the Jazz lead, JB! 13 minutes off the bench for 4/4/0/1/1. Expect the minutes to stay mad low off the bench for a good bit, but he should be usable every game either way.
Avery Bradley – The rebounding is staying insane! Insane in his rebounding membrane! 25/10/6/3/0 on 10-16 shooting with 3 treys. Man, what a breakout.
Terry Rozier – Yeesh, in every Celtics game I feel like I am blown away with how good he looks out there. Marcus Smart still started and played a boatload of minutes with IT2/3 out, going 11/2/6/3/0, but Rozier still shined in his 25 minutes going 12/3/2/1/1 with 2 treys and no TO. Check out his Razzball player page and look at his per-36 turnovers. 0.6 in the last two weeks! 1.1 on the season! Unreal.
David Lee – Got the start, as your main Spurs bigs go through yet another transition of the 7 layers of Pop’s DNP Hell. LaMarcus Aldridge got the DNP-rest, with Lee going 8/10/3/1/0 in 30 minutes. Argh!
Pau Gasol – At least with the paint mostly to himself, had a prototypical Pau game! 17/13/6/2/1 in 35 minutes. He’s on a nice 6-game stretch; I certainly would look to sell at maybe 80% draft day value. That said, he’s probably going to just be a hold since everyone hates him.
I hope everyone had a nice humpday, and is looking forward to the upcoming holidays! Catch you tomorrow morning with the Podcast!
