C The J, Be The J!

March 27, 2015 | Fantasy Basketball Daily Notes | 44 Comments

Let’s be honest… We were all watching March Madness! Ugh, I knew going with my heart over my gut for UNC was wrong… They were so close!

But in the NBA’s only game last night, both of the Pacers’ C.J.s went nuts against the Bucks! C.J. Miles at the starting 2 went 26/3/1/1/0 on 7-14 FG (4-8 3PTM 8-10 FT) and C.J. Watson as the combo G 6th man went for 23/7/7/2/0 with a crazy 13-15 FT. Watson’s best game ever! Was even better than that IBM supercomputer on Jeopardy. When it missed one I knew, I was like, “Maybe I’m like Deckard and unknowingly a Replicant!” Rodney Stuckey missed his third straight with a calf strain, and while C.J. Miles has gotten a slight uptick in shots taken, he’s 100% ThrAGNOF and reliant on those treys. So if Stuckey keeps being stucky on the bench, I’m actually pretty interested in Watson as a stream. 23, 11, 23 are his points the last three games with 5, 2, 7 dimes. The Pacers are off until Sunday, but if you need a decent grab to round out your semi-final week, I’d certainly pull a Sherlock Holmes and rely on Watson. Here’s what else went down in last night’s game:

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The Return Of Dwight, Ever So Slight

March 26, 2015 | Fantasy Basketball Daily Notes | 30 Comments

by: JB Gilpin

Well, I can’t say I haven’t been steadfast (double negative police!) about my Dwight Howard hatred… Look at that rock bottom red right there!

And with Dwight coming back from his knee injury and the precursing news of his return, I have said I wouldn’t add him in virtually any 10 or 12ers. I don’t trust the minutes, and after giving Slim a 19 minutes over/under for Dwight’s return on the Pod, he only went for 16:27 putting up 4/7/2/0/1 with a TO. At least he stayed off the FT line! After we had started the Pod, McHale said he was only giving Dwight 16 minutes, just enough to be sure his TO and FT% wouldn’t hurt fantasy teams. I may have been liberal with McHale’s quote for that last part… In 8-cat or non-FT% leagues I guess he probably should be scooped up, but he’ll probably sit back-to-backs and the Rockets have a pair left on the schedule with Sun/Mon and Wed/Thurs games this upcoming week. Get your sales ready, Big & Tall, we got a bigun needing more street clothes! Here’s what else went down last night in fantasy basketball action:

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Thibodeau Is Like A Cranky Billionaire, He Runs His Butler To Death!

March 24, 2015 | Fantasy Basketball Daily Notes | 49 Comments

by: JB Gilpin

Woooo, Jimmy Buckets is back! And Tom Thibodeau does what Tom Thibodeau does… Runs his guys to death.

After missing exactly 3 weeks with his elbow injury, Jimmy Butler returned last night and played a ridiculous 39-and-a-half minutes for 19/9/1/0/0. Almost 40 minutes?! And he shot 6-20!? Sure he’s taken a ton of shots the past week to be sure the elbow is healthy, but the aggression in that 7-10 FT really solidifies he should be 100% the rest of the way. That is, until Tibs plays him 63 minutes in a 3-OT game! Sheesh, I gotta wonder if I’ll ever be huge on Bulls again… Derrick Rose and all-a-dat, Joakim Noah goes through injury spells… And Tibs refuses to run his starters on any sort of minutes limits. I’m more posing the thought than really setting any personal beliefs in my fantasy bedrock, but Rose for sure I could never draft. You can call that Fred Flintstone because it’ll make my Fantasy Bedrock! I don’t think I’m using that lyric right… Here’s what else went down last night in fantasy basketball action:

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Bojan Bogdanovic Welcomes You To The Semis!

March 23, 2015 | Fantasy Basketball Daily Notes | 67 Comments

by: JB Gilpin

You don’t mess with the Bojan!

We’re into week 2 of the standard H2H playoffs, moving into the semis, and the squads with bye weeks are hoping to avoid the layover letdown. It’s like the NCAA Football championship thingy, the playoffs or bracket or 4-team finals or whatnot, who knows anymore?! But they have to wait like 4 months from their final regular season game to the title! That’s how long this week has seemed for my sitting around, lazy, bored bye week teams (speaking vicariously of course, I had zero!). Luckily it’s now how you enter the playoffs but how you exit, and with only two weeks left, you gotta ride the hot ThrAGNOFs! Bojan Bogdanovic fits the bill to a T (did I say that right?) with 12+ points in 4 straight and 17+ in 3 of 4. Also has chipped in multi-treys in the past 3 and if treys or points are a need, it’s time to ThrAGNOF! Why you don’t pay for these guys, as they literally grow on trees. Seriously, Bogdanovic’s great uncle was Groot. Here’s what else went down over the weekend in fantasy basketball action:

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The Battle Of Facial Hair! Beard>Brow

March 20, 2015 | Fantasy Basketball Daily Notes | 74 Comments

by: JB Gilpin

Man, there could not have been a more epic high or more epic low last night comparing our elite facial hair aficionados! Well of course, #1 is Grey, he looks like the worst player at the Saturday afternoon Y pickup game, then goes for 40/15/15 every time!

The tanking Nugs got absolutely bludgeoned by The Beard last night, with James Harden going 50/10/4/1/0 on 12-27 FG (4-12 3PTM 22-25 FT). Lay off the fouls, Denver! Maybe they were like hippie Rastafarians just enamored with his majestic beard, “Oh I must rub your luscious hair, mon!” Most surprising amongst the odd stats (like scoring 50 whilst shooting under 50%, on only 12 makes, etc.) is that Harden had never scored 50 before! And Corey Brewer had! Hah!

Then to the ugly. Skipping the bad. Anthony Davis tweaked his ankle in drills yesterday morning and wasn’t able to play. That might cause some playoff losses this week! All I can say is that I couldn’t get Brow in any leagues after my contrarian #1 overall rank, so he hath not scorned me! Maybe burning all his owners late with this one will help him be a discount for me in 15-16. So what is it, Brow or Beard first in next year’s drafts?! With the ridiculous emergence of Rudy Gobert and Hassan Whiteside, kinda leaning getting one of those bigs later if given the choice and it’s tipping towards Harden. 7 dimes a game! Plus scoring 50 every night! Here’s what else went down last night in fantasy basketball action:

Please, blog, may I have some more?

When Shooters DON’T Shoot, The Pistons Lose To The Sixers!

March 19, 2015 | Fantasy Basketball Daily Notes | 69 Comments

by: JB Gilpin

Man, off an emotional win beating the Gizz (I hope that catches on), the Pistons go back-to-back and lose in Philly. Seems like that kind of emotional high/low happens all the time! Shoulda bet some money on Philly with probably a good betting line against em.

And it was pretty easy to see how Detroit lost with Reggie Jackson (4-17), Jodie Meeks (2-12), and Spencer Dinwiddie (2-11) combining for 7-40 from the field! That FG% isn’t even legal at 17.5%! That shooting percentage is statutory rape! But swooning in all cool and ready to rob the cradle was the 44% from my boy Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, the only shooter who could hit anything going 7-16. Normally the lead for this game would be R-Jax’s trip-dub (11/11/10/0/0), but with 5 TO and that shooting %, he was pretty poopy. KCP isn’t going to suddenly be a multi-cat stud, but it’s back-to-back 20 point games with a 20/8/2/1/0 line last night and a trey. What I really like was his aggressiveness driving to the hole, netting 5-6 FT and he’s 7-9 from the stripe the past two games after a stretch with virtually no freebies. He’s taken 14+ shots in 6 of 7 games and at least 10 shots in 13 of 15 taking a bigger role in the O with R-Jax able to probe (I can only think of South Park every time I hear a broadcast say that…). Of course the FG% will be a struggle, but if your team build can handle it/if it’s a punt, the low TO and decent steals make him a solid add in the stretch run. Here’s what else happened last night in fantasy basketball:

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When Shooters Shoot, Dimers Dime!

March 18, 2015 | Fantasy Basketball Daily Notes | 30 Comments

by: JB Gilpin

Wow, big upset last night as the Pistons beat the Gizz 105-95. I had “Grizz” typoed but laughed too hard to fix it…

And leading the way in running the Gizz out of Detroit was Reggie Jackson‘s Goromotaro! Well, not really, 20/20 in Pts/Dimes doesn’t have an official Razzball name… 20 dimes is a double dimebag though! Wait, no one gets those, it goes up to a quarter… Can’t really complain that R-Jax didn’t get to 25 assists, but yeah, focus JB! I wonder what could’ve flared up my ADD!

With my boyfriend Kentavious Caldwell-Pope hitting so many shots (not doing much else though in a 24/0/1/0/0 line), making 10-16 FG and scoring 16 Pts in the 3rd quarter, R-Jax piled up a ton of dimes on jumpers. In the 3rd alone he had 6 dimes on 20+ foot FGM – 4 to KCP. Helps when your fellow shooters are hot! Just ask Stephen Curry how his season is going… R-Jax has certainly had his ups and downs, and didn’t even have a single assist against the Jazz on Saturday! I wanna say it was all due to Rudy Gobert, but if he was D-ing up R-Jax then Dante Exum would be on Andre Drummond! I’m not depending on high-volume dimes here on out, but when R-Jax is in his lows, remember he was a pickup for a lot of his owners. So just thank your lucky stars for last night and enjoy the wave without putting the R-Jax on the pedestal, the underlining message from The 40-Year-Old Virgin. Or else you let the Gizz win! Here’s what else went down last night in fantasy basketball action:

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DNP Weekend

March 16, 2015 | Fantasy Basketball Daily Notes | 89 Comments

by: JB Gilpin

H2H Playoffs are here! But geez, the amount of DNPs for minor injuries and general soreness (General Soreness!) over the weekend was infuriating! Unless they hit your oppo harder than you, then they were infatuating! I certainly almost lost a playoff spot to the former…

I guess our main stop on the DNP bandwagon would be the Atlanta Hawks and that darned Coach Butthole. I imagine we’ll be using that nickname for Budenholzer a ton down the stretch! The Hawks sat Jeff Teague, DeMarre Carroll and Paul Millsap (who had a nasty 23/9/3/3/3 rainbow Friday) last night, then had Kyle Korver break his nose and have to leave early on top of it. Korver was already set for a DNP tonight, so there’s that, and Al Horford owners will have to start the week with a DNP-rest. What a shizz-show! Which kinda sounds like Szechuan. Which makes me hungry… About as hungry as Dennis Schroder looks when he gets starts, ripping apart the Lakers in a 24/3/10 line hitting 7-16 FG (1-5 3PTM 9-11 FT). Even if you’re not a Teague owner, I think it’s impossible to leave the German on the wire. It would just improve The Lives of Others! And Coach Butthole has learned from Pop himself to sit everyone any chance he gets, with that line of thinking infecting the entire league this weekend. It already feels like the last week of the season, doesn’t it?! Maybe the playoffs need to start in week 10… Sheesh… Here’s what else went down on DNP Weekend in fantasy basketball:

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Rudy Gobert, 2015-16 Fantasy MVP

March 13, 2015 | Fantasy Basketball Daily Notes | 58 Comments

by: JB Gilpin

Man, at this rate Rudy Gobert might cost me a 2nd round pick!

“Rudy Gobert, the interior trance from France, the reason who is Parisian, the… the…” OK I’m out of boxer intro phrases. He’s just really redonk good, going 19/22/2/0/4, just one point from a Goro! And you can’t even say “just one more made FT” as he made all 3 of em! 8-11 FG, 3-3 FT, only one TO, and the Gobi desert has claimed the lives of another opposing frontline!

We all knew he’d be good, but I don’t think too many people thought he’d be this good. Of those waiver-wire-added big men that have found their way to fantasy glory this year, I think it’s easily becoming Gobert as the front runner in 2015-16 Fantasy drafts. You could say, he’s already working his way into my #1 sleeper glory hole. Here’s what else went down last night in fantasy basketball action:

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Kemba Ditches His Walker

March 12, 2015 | Fantasy Basketball Daily Notes | 50 Comments

by: JB Gilpin

The tennis balls are off the legs, the HurryCane back in the closet, the pre-game meal eaten at 5:00 AM at the early bird special – we’ve got Kemba Walker back!

After a month and a half off, Walker came off the bench last night for the Hornets, and looked like Louis C.K.’s nethers. Rusty. 2-9 from the field for 6/1/2/0/1 with a TO in 16 minutes. While there’s no need to be harsh – we expected some rust after knee surgery – but Mo Williams played pretty well with 8 dimes and Gerald Henderson shocked the world with a career-high 11 assists. Ok, “shocked the world” may be a slight overstatement, I could say “it was so shocking it blew all his hair off!” It’s certainly interesting he had a previous career-high 9 dimes just last Sunday, so now there’s two facilitators to battle with. Makes me worried about Kemba’s assists upside, and he’s kinda looking like an Isaiah Canaan clone. Wait, I said I didn’t need to be harsh! That said, Kemba is healthy and has a lot more upside, so obviously worth owning everywhere. I just wouldn’t be shocked (unlike Hendo’s dimebag!) if he’s towards the end of the line if you’re killing Pts/3s and need to stream a stat at the end of week one of the playoffs… Here’s what else went down last night in fantasy basketball action:

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Stuckey Emerging From The Mucky

March 11, 2015 | Fantasy Basketball Daily Notes | 58 Comments

by: JB Gilpin

…It’s like the beginning of a 1950s B&W horror movie. “As I recall it was a horror film!”

“…From the depths of the muck – ya know, that soft clay shizz at the bottom of a lake – comes the waiver-wired, until recently available in a ton of leagues, RODNEY STUCKEY!”

Monster game from R-Stuck, who gets to R-Stick it to a hot Reality-TV show wife, unquestioningly motivating him to a 34/6/7/1/1 line last night with an NBA Jam “he’s on fire!” 13-19 FG and 6 treys. Just a redonk game in 31 bench minutes, especially since the Pacers started Damjan Rudez who couldn’t miss either, hitting 6-8 including 5-7 from deep. It’s like the Pacers were playing on Fisher-Price baskets! Although those “throwback” (well, just older, not too throwback) unis are schweet. While a big game and all, Stuckey was averaging a monstrous 0.6 3PTM a game before last night, so a huge anomaly there. 1,000% more 3s! And the dimes were an outlier as well, with only two games more than 6 before yesterday. Anyone in the NBA can get hot on any given night, and Stuckey is a good low-to-mid-teens scorer ala that creeper who stayed home instead of going to college. He’s fine as a last guy on your bench in 10 or 12ers, but I don’t think he’s someone to drop a stud for. A great comment yesterday was Stuckey or Brandon Knight, who was spotted on crutches yesterday. Yeah, unless you have a H2H week one bye, I’ll probably pick the guy who can currently walk. Here’s what else happened last night in fantasy hoops action:

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Whiteside Embracing The Dark Side

March 10, 2015 | Fantasy Basketball Daily Notes | 67 Comments

by: JB Gilpin

Who knows, maybe devoting his soul to the lord of the Sith is what got Hassan Whiteside to where’s he’s at!

Absolutely terrible flagrant-2 last night to the back of Kelly Olynyk, hit-sticking him into the cameramen. L3, L3! Friend of the Podcast Mike Gallagher from Rotoworld tweeted out a great vine showing the hit from two angles, and I think that’s maybe a judo elbow he learned from Tekken. On top of his lingering kankle issues, now we have to assume a game or two out via suspension. Certainly doesn’t helped he tackled Alex Len a few games ago, with Whiteside’s flagrants turning into an MMA reel. As Slim and I mentioned on the Pod, Whiteside throws his body around willy-nilly and it’s starting to catch up with him with the physical play from oppos. Gotta control those emotions, young padawan! “Concentrate!” Just has to get the last few mental things together to be an elite NBA big. Can you do that, Hassan?! “I’ll try.” “No! There is no try! Do. Or do not.” Here’s what else went down last night in fantasy basketball action:

Please, blog, may I have some more?