Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. A Priest, a Rabbi, and an Imam walk into a brothel. The Priest says to the Rabbi… Wait, why are you laughing? You’ve heard it before. That’s probably a good thing anyway because I might have been banned from the internet if I repeated it here. Witty punchlines and non sequiturs aside the point remains unchanged. No matter what our age, sex, or religion happens to be, we can’t just hope things are going to get better. We need to prepare for the future. For myself that means maintaining my perfectly quaffed facial hair with treatments of only the finest oils and herbs from the orient. For JB, and he might get mad at me for telling you this, but he has this pink rubber bowl looking thing. It has a wooden handle at the top and after about 5-10 minutes with that in the bathroom I swear he comes out looking taller. Definitely more confident. Still though – even the giants will shrink to the size of us mere mortals one day. In fantasy basketball – as in real life – we can’t sit back and hope we are the next giants to be. In a dynasty league, when our season is lost, that means selling off our older, declining players, and buying stock in the future. Since we here at Razzball endorse insider trading, here is my take on a few future blue chippers:
Shane Larkin – PG – Dal – With Devin Harris now playing behind the aged wonder, Jose Calderon, there aren’t any minutes left for Larkin. What we have seen so far from Larkin is the potential to be a league leader in steals and NBA ready PG skills. The shooting is coming along and he needs to get much stronger but with a top 25 fantasy ceiling and at only 21 years of age it’s tough to find a better long term stock to put your money in.
Dennis Schroder – PG – Atl – As the now 3rd PG on a playoff caliber team Schroder will need help if he’s going to get minutes this year. With the minutes he’s received in both the big leagues D-League we’ve seen high end assist potential and the ability to get to the basket. Also we’ve seen a jump shot that lacks consistency. At only 20 years old and a yet unknown ceiling, shares of Schroder is something to scalp.
C.J. McCollum – PG/SG – Por – You might remember him, I wrote about him a week or 2 ago. 10-15 minutes is probably where he’ll stay baring injury and he hasn’t done much with it. None of this is unexpected due to all of the lost developmental time due to his injury. As a 4-year starter in college and the ability to score from anywhere on the court, he’s a 22 year old who promises quick returns.
Evan Fournier – SG – Den – With Denver struggling across the board due to injuries Fournier was gifted with starters minutes and responded well. With Randy Foye around sucking up all the SG minutes Fournier’s role has become clouded. Fournier showed the ability to be a fantasy asset across the board but at only 21 years old and with a murky future The Virgin is a medium term stock that we might get lucky with quick.
Tony Snell – SG/SF – Chi – I talked about Snell here and I don’t see anything I would change. He’s being blocked for minutes by Mike Dunleavy and Kirk Hinrich. With Chicago in full tank mode those two become prime trade candidates. As a polished 22 year old player he’s a short term buy that could also yield a high level of 3s.
Donatas Motiejunas – PF – Hou – With recent injuries Donatas has played meaningful minutes and responded well. At 23 years old and after making it known that he wants starters minutes his time in Houston could soon be coming to an end. A player capable of shooting 3s and giving a block a game are rare enough to make his short term stock having high yield potential.
Mason Plumlee – PF – Brk – Mason being this good this quick is shocking but maybe there’s something to it. Both Steals and Blocks have been much better than advertised. With the Nets being as terrible as they are and Plumlee soon to turn 24 the time is now, or maybe it’s not till next year. Good luck predicting anyone on the Nets. The talent says he’s a low yield, penny stock. His play says otherwise.
Steven Adams – C – OKC – JB makes it well known that me and Steven Adams have a history. Sadly enough he still hasn’t seen 24 minutes per game and that’s likely to continue as long as Kendrick Perkins has a pulse. His pulse costs $10 million next year. I don’t know how the amnesty thing works, I just hope it means Lurch gets to start. He’s a 20 year old blue chipper with as high a ceiling as any other Center.
Rudy Gobert – C – Uta – Gobert doesn’t have as tough a road ahead of him to become a starter as you might imagine. Enes Kanter has shown good offensive upside and major defensive inefficiencies. Gobert is the polar opposite. At 21 years old he’s a long term piece of the Utah pie that’s going to require patience on our part but it should be worth it in the end.
Alex Len – C – Pho – Finally playing and playing pretty well. Pheonix is making a playoff push and Len isn’t ready to take anyone’s hard earned minutes. Now that he’s healthy we can see why he was drafted so high, by high I mean ahead of Adams. Len doesn’t have the size or athleticism but he looks every bit of the long term, high yield player Pheonix drafted him to be.
