The Lengths Blake Griffin Will Go Just To Get A Razzball Mention

December 11, 2015 | Fantasy Basketball Daily Notes | 141 Comments

So I’m watching the Bulls and Clip last night, Blake Griffin starts hot, then sorta melds into his normal role. BORING! Virtually 20/10 every night, and after scoring 6 early, it looked like your typical BG evening – as plain and simple as a Kia. With his line at 18/11/2/0/2, Blake was like, “aight, time to either get a Razzball mention for 5-6 blocks, or swing tryin’!” He became a medieval dentist swinging at Taj Gibson, getting this flagrant 2 for a hit that would make Holly Holm proud. I’m not the biggest Taj fan, but he mouths “I’m OK” even though he easily could’ve lost 4 teeth. Can’t keep him down! Should’ve been cast in Creed… Even with the premature exit, Griffin’s line was solid and we’re seeing some microscopic improvements to his game that could make 2015-16 a career year. But when you’re right at career-norms and performing right at draft day value, it’s tough to get a lot of attention unless you pop someone right in the weasel. And with the comradery helping Taj up and you could make the argument it was a legit block attempt, he’s certainly not missing any games due to a suspension. So ride your boring, reliable ol’ Kia and enjoy consistency. Here’s what else went down last night in fantasy basketball:

Please, blog, may I have some more?

DeRON’s SWANSONg

July 16, 2015 | Fantasy Basketball Daily Notes | 38 Comments

by: JB Gilpin

“Dude, you can’t make a title caps to make the pun work, or else it’s a stupid lazy joke!” Well, ya know I’m pretty effin’ rusty out here catching back up with Summer Ball and this final batch of free agency moves! I’m as old and as rusty as Deron Williams, who completed his buyout with the Nets, turned it into piles of gold he buried in his backyard, and will be eating Mulligan’s steak with Mark Cuban. The rich stay rich, just with the richer! Wait, did that make any sense? While D-Will has just as much risk as an active Claymore mine sitting on your desk (and giving it a fourth grade girl), I think I might actually buy in a bit. He’s in a steady decline, but when looking at his numbers last year, it’s easy to forget he came off the bench for a bit – and his bench numbers were horrific. As a starter he was 14.3/3.6/7.1 with a steal per and only 2.4 TO. And interestingly enough – nearly 33 minutes a game while staying [mostly] healthy! Must be the new bacon and eggs diet. He shot pretty horrible – sub 40% as a starter – but it was 39.6% vs. 32.3% as a sub. Couldn’t figure out how to get it done off the pine! Sounds like a merit badge the Pawnee Rangers would give out. Moving to Dallas, he’s surrounded by SO MUCH better talent that he should have no problem falling into comparable numbers as his starting days in Brooklyn, maybe even with a few more dimes, a few less TO, and playing as the starter all year (if he stays glued together). This is likely D-Will’s final chance to be on a winner, and after a very sub-par 14-15 I think he could be a draft day value. Either that or he’ll be a hot spinning cone of meat! Here’s what else has gone on in the past week of fantasy basketball:

Please, blog, may I have some more?

BUY/SELL: Post Trade Deadline Bugaloo

March 11, 2015 | Fantasy Basketball Buy/Sell | 2 Comments

by: Dan A

If you take the time out of your busy day to read my weekly articles here at Razzball, I am thankful. And to that end, I hoped to give back by informing you in my last week’s piece of the impending trade deadline in fantasy basketball. Armed with this information, I hope you made all the necessary adjustments to your squad, as unless your league has custom settings, the trade winds have blown by. But I give and I give, because you deserve it, beautiful! So if you have a Wesley Mathews, or some such setback, fear not, gentle reader, you have options. I just hope you didn’t blow your waiver on the Javale McGee rumour that he was signing on again. We still can peruse the waiver wire, and hopefully find some waiver wire gold out there in the fantasy panhandle. I had a gander, and this is what I came up with:

Please, blog, may I have some more?

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:

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Five Poppycockers Games = A Henhouse!

March 9, 2015 | Fantasy Basketball Daily Notes | 58 Comments

by: JB Gilpin

So the Daily Notes usually focuses on a short-term look at the past (i.e. the games yesterday!), but we’re going to do something a little different today in the open.

With week 20 abreast (so underused!), in standard H2H scheduling it’s the final week of the regular season. In other leagues it’s the first week of the playoffs or nearing the end in Roto, so any way you slice it, it’s the most important week so far, OK?!

And in this most important week, those ridiculous New York Poppycockers have five games. Five! So all of their not-must-ownable schlubs suddenly have the appeal of Elisabeth Shue in The Saint. Mmmmmmm!

A quick comparison – Langston Galloway since the break (aka Carmelo Anthony shutdown) is 10.8/5.0/2.5/1.3/0.4 with 1.3 3PTM and 1.4 TO. So lets compare that, with say, Bradley Beal. His 14.9/3.8/3.0/1.3/0.3 is a smidge stronger with 1.7 3PTM and 1.9 TO, and Beal is a much, much better player. But his 3 game week you’d get roughly 45/11/9/4/1 with 5 3s and 6 TO, compared to The Harlem Renaissance for 54/25/20/7/2 with 7 treys and 7 TO. In weekly leagues, these horrible Knicks deserve a long hard look.

Tim Hardaway Jr. and Louis Amundson are both questionable with back spasms tonight, so a little risky there. Shane Larkin, Alexey Shved, and Cole Aldrich make interesting streamer options though. And there’s of course Il Diva still out there in 68% of leagues. Andrea Bargnani is tough to ignore, even in the shallowers. Plus I can link this for the third time in the past week or two. “I’m a peacock, Captain, you gotta let me fly!” Here’s what went down over the weekend in fantasy hoops action:

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Sound The Canaans!

March 5, 2015 | Fantasy Basketball Daily Notes | 56 Comments

by: JB Gilpin

Crazy game in OKC last night! It was a crazy night across the board! For a while I thought the Sixers were really going to pull that one out – had the lead most of regulation and then clawed back late – but Russell Westbrook playing like Michael Jordan these days got the Thunder the OT win.

Behind all of RW’s historical hooblah which we’ll go into later, is Isaiah Canaan‘s career game. Career best 31 points on 10-16 FG (8-13 3PTM 3-3 FT) 31/7/6/1/0. And of course he does that right after I said you’d rather own Ish Smith! And Ish did ish in 15 minutes… All that said, Canaan had 29 early in the 4th and the Sixers couldn’t figure out ways to consistently get their hot shooter the rock. The continuity was awful with Philly only staying in the game by taking some horrible deep 3 pointers with no spacing or rebounders. It felt like one of those college intramural games where the much better team was struggling because the other team’s scrubs kept hitting 3s for some reason. Did I say intramural? I meant more like every time Duke beats Chapel Hill! Only because of the 3s… Although Chapel Hill has trouble teaching their players the difference between “2” and “3” so there’s that… I would still Aaron Brooks over Canaan and I’m not dropping a valuable guy just for this hot shooting game. Here’s what else went down last night in fantasy hoops action:

Please, blog, may I have some more?

The Biggest Game-Changer In The Trade Deadline Didn’t Change Teams

March 4, 2015 | Fantasy Basketball Daily Notes | 33 Comments

by: JB Gilpin

Who is the hottest team in the NBA right now? The Pacers are surprisingly playing well and OKC is still winning through injuries, but those Utah Jazz are as tough to score on as the bookish chicks in college!

5-1 since the trade deadline, the Jazz have wins against Portland, San Antonio and now Memphis in that span (their loss was against the Lakers, but we’ll overlook that), and other than that fluke Lakers game, no one has scored over 82 points. And we all know the key to the Jazz D is Rudy Gobert. Moving into the starting line-up, Gobert has been playing unreal with a 15/24/1/0/0 line last night on 6-10 FG and 3-4 FT. He was on a 6-game streak of 3+ blocks, so a random outlier of 0 last night isn’t a biggie especially since Marc Gasol loves his mid-range.

I’ve seen a few comments of owners looking to trade for FG% and a big man boost, and I would be all-in on trying to bring Rudy to those squads. Even his FT% is improving at 11-15 from the stripe the past 3! And the Jazz have that oh so saucy 4/4/4 playoff sched. Yesterday on the Podcast, I asked Slim if he would take Gobert or Hassan Whiteside first in next year’s drafts. It’s really really close and comes down to a points need (Whiteside) vs. steals need (Gobert). It’s crazy that probably the biggest value change during the deadline was just the stubborn Jazz finally unleashing the beast that is Gobert. Here’s what else went down last night in fantasy basketball action:

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Turn The Other Cheek

March 2, 2015 | Fantasy Basketball Daily Notes | 87 Comments

by: JB Gilpin

Oh man, Russell Westbrook has turned into Oscar Robertson meets Michael Jordan! It’s like the first time you heard your favorite off-the-radar album, you’re like, “it sounds like Godspeed You! Black Emperor meets Between the Buried and Me on acid!” And right at the end of yet another tripdub with monster scoring Friday night (40/13/11), Andre Roberson pulled a Van Damme from Kickboxer and kneed the shizz outta RW’s face. Friggin’ Roberson and his fat knees! After the game, the fashion photographers were like, “Russell, show me your good side, no no the other way, give me Le Tigre! Ferrari! MAGNUM!”

Luckily facial reconstruction for face dents doesn’t include a long healing period; maybe they just went in under the skin and used a Pops A Dent! It’s been reported he could’ve even come back yesterday if it were the playoffs. I’d guess he’ll miss another game or two, but looks like we dodged a bullet. More like, Westbrook’s cheek caught the bullet, just it bounced off his Adamantium! Here’s what else went down over the weekend in fantasy basketball action:

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Bledsoe For The WIN

February 28, 2015 | Fantasy Basketball Daily Notes | 8 Comments

by: danb

I really don’t like this 7 game slate on Saturday night. If you want to take the night off or play less volume I wouldn’t argue against it. There isn’t a player over 9k on Draft Kings if that tells you what kind of night it’s going to be.

Point Guards

Ricky Rubio has really been fantastic the past 5 games. His price has come up but still not to the level where his play has been. Memphis gives up the 4th most fantasy points the last three weeks to PG’s. Back on Feb. 6th Rubio had 17-5-5-3 in only 26 minutes against this same Memphis team.

Reggie Jackson has only had 3 games with the Pistons. Yeah it’s a small sample size, but he’s been given the keys to the car and seeing the same workload as D.J. Augustin was. The Wizards have been decent defending against opposing PG’s if you look at their season totals, but the last three weeks they haven’t defended well at all. I think that has to do with all of John Wall’s nagging injuries.

Please, blog, may I have some more?

You Can’t Spell Efficient Without MCW!

February 26, 2015 | Fantasy Basketball Daily Notes | 66 Comments

by: JB Gilpin

Well, one outta three of the letters in MCW is in efficient… That makes sense seeing as he usually shoots 33%!

In his debut for the Bucks, Michael Carter-Williams looked solid against his former Sixers for 7/0/8/2/0 in only 17 and a half minutes. All with only one TO! Shot 3-5 from the field, did split his two FT, but a mad efficient game in his new colors. Off the toe sprain, I’m not surprised his minutes were kept in check as the Bucks unsurprisingly took it to the Sixers. Full tank! Yesterday on the Podcast, Slim said even a great game wouldn’t have him change his MCW valuation too much, and he’s the logical one. But I’m antsy and loved what I saw! I don’t think he’s suddenly the top-50 guy I thought he’d be, but I think he’ll keep the %s in check with that decent MIL supporting cast, and he won’t make you want to kill yourself. And if that isn’t a ringing endorsement, I don’t know what is…. Here’s what else went down last night in fantasy basketball:

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Ello Poppet!

February 12, 2015 | Fantasy Basketball Daily Notes | 42 Comments

by: JB Gilpin

Well Ello there, Poppet! Bootstraps Bill Turner pulled a scoop and squat shot with under a second left to pull off the upset of the century…. It’s only been 15 years this century, it could be true!

Evan Turner put together a solid 12/7/9/1/0 line hitting 4-11 from the field and all 4 freebies with only 2 TO. Ending the first half on a high note! The move back to his more natural SF spot is finally paying off, as he’s averaging at least 6/6/6 (THE NUMBER OF THE BEAST!) the past 4 games. The FG% is terrible, but I guess I have to believe a little in the out-of-position dimes. The greatest trick Miss Turner ever played was convincing me he wasn’t fantasy usable! Well, he still isn’t ever going to be a stalwart on 10 or 12 team squads due to the low %s, TOs, and absence of 3s, but a lot of teams could use his popcorn stats for their build. He’s like Lance Stephenson, but actually worth owning! At least for now, if he sticks with Boston until the end of the year… Here’s what else went down in our last busy slate of NBA games before the All-Star Break:

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Start Up 2015 With A Shut Down!

January 5, 2015 | Fantasy Basketball Daily Notes | 120 Comments

by: JB Gilpin

Happy 2015 Razzball Nation!

I for one am elated the Holidays have wrapped up (big thanks again to Slim for his recap at the end of last week!), and ready to buckle down for the second half of the fantasy regular season in H2H. My new year’s resolutions have been made – use Twitter more, swear a little less, work out a lot more… But this gosh darn knee! Eh, I’m pretty flippin’ flabby anyway… Fiddlesticks! Might as well shut it down…

And the talk for Carmelo Anthony‘s shutdown continually grow like a wave across the second level at Madison Square Garden. Not like they have anything else to do… Next new year’s resolution – less dot dot dots! The 5-31 Knickerbockers (I’m calling them The Poppycockers the rest of the way) have been worse than even Spike Lee could have imagined after reading reviews of his Oldboy remake. “Brooooooo – Liiiinnnnn!” Some dude named Bondy (shakeny, not stirredy) from The New York Daily News reported Melo’s knee will need a minor surgery, so it’s not like Melo is just playing through general oldboy-ness. He’s missed the last few after being awful for two straight to end December, so trading him off in fantasy leagues is redonk tough. Last we checked in (mostly through comments), I’ve maintained I’m not giving him away, but it’s fairly close. He’s about at the “leave on the curb” status rather than “driving him all the way to the dumpster.” My best advice would be to find a need for your team, and go for a guy that hits that need without a huge overall rank – i.e. Trevor Ariza for some steals and treys. Might not get Ariza these days, but yeah, something like that. And I still think you gotta try and hold out until Melo plays a few in a row – he’s traveling with the team for the next two games so he’s likely to suit up at least once. Here’s what else went on in fantasy basketball since we flipped the calendar:

Please, blog, may I have some more?