Skiles said he’d only play Michael Redd single-digit minutes to work Redd into the swing of things. Then he played him more than 15 in his first game of the season because he realized this is Milwaukee and there is no swing. Redd took three shots, bricked them all and decided he was better off dishing assists and had four of them. I’m not as down on Redd as most other fantasy sites, but that’s because I used up all my down on my sweetass pillows and the rest of Milwaukee’s roster. I wouldn’t grab Redd with your team, but I would watch him over the next couple game with your eyes. ‘Cause, really, what’s one more unreliable field-goal percentage succubus right when you’re at the peak of your fantasy basketball season?
Here’s what else went down last night in fantasy basketball.
John Salmons – Shot 1-for-6 from downtown. Clearly he was shooting in Charlotte because everyone but John Salmons knows there ain’t nothin’ goin’ on in downtown Charlotte. Threejerk!
Carlos Delfino – 5/3/5. He was like a threejerk, but with twos. Some might say that not knowing which Buck will have the big game night in and night out is a team strength. I don’t. And if you played Delfino last night, my guess is, you don’t either.
Drew Gooden – Returned to action for the first time in over two months to go 2/8 in 17 minutes. Call me Danny Downer, but I just hate owning Bucks right now and the more one adds to the mix, the less I want any of them. Sure, Jennings and Bogut combined for 52/18/5 tonight, but they also combined for 21/10/7 on Saturday. And if it wasn’t them, it was someone else. If you own Jennings or Bogut, keep ’em, but understand that any other Buck you roster is a gamble. Also, those two Bucks I just mentioned, they’re lesser gambles. And for my money, now’s not the time to go a-gambling.
Stephen Jackson – I gambled and went with Captain Jack in one of my H2H leagues and he repaid me with 18/5, and a pair of treys. If he averages that for the rest of the week and he can keep from earning that 16th technical or crippling his lower extremities, I’ll tip an ale pint to the pirate gods.
Tyrus Thomas – Hit the starting lineup so Kwame Brown wouldn’t have to, then went 7/6, with a block in 20 minutes and made me kinda miss Kwame. I’ll never forgive Tyrus Thomas for making me kinda miss Kwame.
Tyler Hansbrough – Keeping up the theme of Disappointing Tys; the Psycho-T slowdown is underway, as he’s scored 7, 24, 8, 16 and 5 in his last five games. It’s like your empty gas tank the mile it’s running on fumes and still jerks forward erratically. It keeps sputtering along, but the clock’s ticking.
Rajon Rondo – 22/4/8 in 40 minutes after I told everyone to think about speculating on Del-tone West (3/1/2 in 16 minutes). I asked him not to make me look the fool when we were in public. Can he listen just one time!?! Nope.
Derrick Rose – Lost faith in his teammates and tried to win this game single-handedly. And if they counted turnovers toward double-doubles, Rose would have gone 31/10. But they don’t count turnovers in double-doubles, and Rose still went 31/10.
Landry Fields – 3/4/1, in 26 minutes as he did all the little things that help his team win. Unless helping your team win includes doing the things reflected in box scores. In that case, he did none of that.
Toney Douglas – He’s quietly had his best month of the season so far (14/3.5/5) and is still not as widely owned as he should be.
Gilbert Arenas – 9/10/5, with three steals and five turnovers. Ol’ Gil also shot 2-for-11 from the field in place of the injured Jameer Nelson. Play him if you must, but Nelson will return within the week.
George Hill – Duncan and Ginobili will miss another week, McDyess and Parker both got the night off. If you knew this before your lineup was locked today, you daily fantasy hoopsters (<–Grey’s Mom’s term) and somehow didn’t manage to play Hill, you missed a 27/2/6 game. You also missed October Adam slobbering at the possibilities of an unshackled Hill starting for a team without two premier guards taking precious minutes from him. The drooling continues all week.
Jordan Crawford – 25/5/2, with four steals. He also shot 10 three-pointers and made only one of them. Go ahead and scroll back up to Salmons’ blurb, but swap Charlotte for Utah. Same difference. I’ve always said Salt Lake City was the “Mormon Charlotte.” Anyway, I can’t, for the life of me, figure out where to rank this kid next season.
Earl Watson – Played superduper (13/7/9, with a pair of threes) and should probably get the start in at least one game. That’s all I’ll say about that. This was one of Watson’s better games, one he’s not likely to duplicate consecutively. Then again, I also told you to roster Delonte West today, I told everyone to purchase the “superior Zune mp3 player” instead of the iPod; told McDonalds that no one would notice if they discontinued the McRib and told Justin Bieber that if he and Ellen Page were both wearing hats they’d look exactly the same. Okay, I was dead on about that last one.
