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With Son on a Bye, Joel flies solo and digs into some offensive numbers from the first fortnight of NBA basketball. After a league-wide overview, the sputtering Kings, the relentless Thunder, and the breakneck Pacers all go under the microscope. Plus, a verdict in the case for Aaron Nesmith and redemption for Jalen Smith? https://api.spreaker.com/v2/episodes/57581471/download.mp3Podcast: […]

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The Bergens are coming, AHHH. The Bergens are coming, AHHH. The Bergens are coming, AHHH. The Bergens are coming, AHHH. 

For those without kids, that’s Branch in “Trolls” overreacting because he’s scared of success (and friendship), just like so many fantasy basketball players will overreact to the first couple games, when regular bench rotations guys will be proclaimed breakouts of the season, and busts will be said to abound as the rust gets knocked off the boots. 

However, while we definitely don’t want to overreact, let’s remember: Branch ended up being right. You don’t want to be caught with that average penny stock and telling yourself, “any day now, it’s gunna go crazy!” [Checks portfolio, sighs with depression, gets back to basketball.] Keep an eye on minutes, rotations and usage more than the general stat lines in these early going. 

And with that piece of nonsensical advice, let’s get on with the show! Here’s what caught my eye in the 12 games of the unofficial official opening night in The Association.

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It was an absolutely wild season for fantasy basketball – one that had more twists and turns than watching Shutter Island backwards – so we’re at the point now where it’s time to clear our heads and unpack some things. Who were the top dogs? Who were the team-crushing disappointments? How about the surprises we could never have seen coming?

Well, this week I’m kicking off our awards season with the point guard position. Let’s look a little closer, dig a little deeper and dish out some well-deserved hardware to some of the NBA’s best floor generals.

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Welcome to your midweek guidance for Week 23!  In this post, I identify widely-available players who can help you win your head-to-head matchup.  This will serve as my final 2022-23 post.  Thank you for your loyalty and engagement throughout the season.  If it weren’t for you, I’d simply be doing this for my health, which consistently plays second fiddle to my dependence on Mountain Dew and California Burritos.  So I guess that means I wouldn’t be doing this at all if it weren’t for you.

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Welcome back to another round of NBA DFS! We have a really different kind of slate this Thursday with only two games. This slate is more similar to a playoff DFS type slate with very few options and lots of duplicate lineups. Odds are, a lot of tournament winnings will be split among multiple people with the top scoring lineup. There are only so many viable combinations you can make with two games. Since there are so few options, I’m going to break this down by price range only and give you a few options I like in each range.

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As the wheels continued to fall off the Wizards’ season Wednesday night, Nikola Jokic kept rollin’ in the opposite direction to the tune of 31 points, 12 rebounds, seven assists and three steals in a convincing 118-104 win for Denver. His absolutely insane efficiency continued, as he shot 12-of-16 from the field and 5-of-5 at the charity stripe. This guy fills up the box score and basically doesn’t miss in the process.

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Welcome to your midweek guidance for Week 21!  In this post, I identify widely-available players who can help you win your head-to-head playoff matchup.  Since we generally know the capabilities of most players at this point, I take on a conservative mindset in the fantasy playoffs.  Every add has the potential to swing a matchup, and there’s no reason to make speculative adds this close to the finish line.  A couple pieces of advice may seem obvious, but are worth repeating: If you’re in a tight one and have a cap on your weekly player acquisitions, I recommend making your adds as close to tip off as possible in order to avoid wasting an add on a late scratch.  This also means that, unless you’re way behind and needing to take a moonshot to catch up, you should wait until an injured player is actually ruled out before adding his replacement.  Give yourself the best chance to win!

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Denver’s post-deadline pickup of Reggie Jackson is an ill omen for Bruce Brown, and that manifested itself on Thursday. With Brown (53 percent rostered in Yahoo! standard leagues) relinquishing backup point guard responsibilities, he struggled to find footing, finishing his night with just two points, two rebounds, two assists, and no threes or defense. I fear he won’t have enough volume moving forward to put up counting stats, or enough time to make for it with defense. I’m ready to cut bait  on him right now.

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Denver made a couple of moves on the margins. One was to shore up their backup center spot with the acquisition of Thomas Bryant. While that may help the Nuggets a smidge, it has no bearing in the fantasy realm. Bryant was a hot pickup when he took over the starting center role for a few weeks in LA, but he won’t get enough clock to matter behind Denver’s two-time MVP. Meanwhile, Denver shipped off a disgruntled Bones Hyland, opening up a backup point guard slot. Ish Smith filled in last night (technically as the backup to the backup with Jamal Murray sidelined) and scored 0 points with five assists. The main beneficiary will probably be Bruce Brown, who has been quite useful in spurts this season. Brown (56 percent rostered in Yahoo! standard leagues) has done a little bit of everything, but may get a couple more shots and assist chances if he gets the ball in his hands a bit more. Sliding into the starting lineup last night, he finished with a quiet seven points, three assists, two steals, and a block. He’s still a solid pickup in the almost half of leagues he’s out there in.

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The Magic have been everyone’s favorite fantasy outlet this season, from Bol Bol Euro-stepping into monster jams to Paolo Banchero compiling historic rookie numbers. The play of Franz Wagner has by no means been lost in all the excitement, but his games of late have been next level good. Over his last six games, he’s averaging 24 points on 55% shooting, 68.3 TS%, pitching in about 4 boards, 3 assists, a steal and 3 threes per game. 

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