Stephen Curry: Greatness On A Cosmic Scale …and the 7 Ahead

February 29, 2016 | Fantasy Basketball Daily Notes | 55 Comments

I love Sports. WORST CLICHE OPEN EVER! But seriously, what makes sports awesome is you can have very little interest in one-particular game, then all the sudden you’re watching something unbelievable. A great example was that 2013 Alabama Auburn game that I flipped on for the 4th quarter then the way short field goal ended up being an Auburn TD. I had no stake in that game! But sooooo glad I just happened to flip to it… Then it happened again on Saturday night.

I know what you’re saying… “But JB, it’s GSW and OKC, you weren’t planning your whole weekend around that matchup?!” Well, I have none of those guys on my favorite teams (who are we kidding, none on my REL team), and was out Saturday night anyway at my buddy’s house. We kinda nonchalantly put it on in the background, then the next thing you know, Stephen Curry is running back out of the tunnel like a gladiator after his injury and we watched one of the best regular-season NBA games I’ve ever seen. If not THE best.

In case you missed it during the depths of the offseason, I wrote a pretty lengthy rant on the awfulness that was Interstellar. At some point during the movie, Anne Goaway says something like “Love is the ONE THING that can transcend time and space” or some crap expository dialogue… Well, Christopher Nolan, looks like you need to do a 4-years-too-late re-write! It should be “Stephen Curry’s jump shot is the ONE THING that can transcend time and space”! I don’t think I need to transpose his numbers ever again; he just is the best at basketball. And the game was a little bit of a microcosm of his career – started fine but not awesome, got a kankle, but persevered and was able to get back into the game, then was the best shooter the NBA has ever seen. Cleaning house of awards and records like Mad Max: Fury Road last night! To think he went to college less than a mile from my childhood house and I sat right behind him once at a Davidson College game! I should’ve tried to nab his mouthguard when it was hanging out on a FT shot… Here’s what else went down over the weekend of fantasy hoops action, plus The 7 Ahead for Week 18:

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Five Names From Five Games

February 10, 2016 | Fantasy Basketball Daily Notes | 34 Comments

by: Matty

The last Tuesday before the All-Star break featured five games spread all over the USA. From South Beach to NYC, Wisconsin to Texas, and finishing up in the Bay Area out west, we had a handful of contests that featured some big fantasy lines.

In lieu of a Thursday night double-header as a result of the abbreviated week, TNT snagged the two marquee games on Tuesday. First up was the Spurs and Heat featuring the Kawhi Leonard show. He served fantasy owners a generous helping of popcorn (23 points, nine boards, four dimes) with just the right amount of butter (three steals, a block, and a trey). Despite a few quiet games recently, you’re not moving Leonard for anyone outside the top-5.

Also jumping at 8pm were tilts between the Wizards and Knicks, and Celtics and Bucks. John Wall put on a show at the Garden, dropping 17 dimes to complement his team-high 28 points. He and backcourt mate, Bradley Beal combined for 54 points, five steals, eight triples, and only three turnovers. The Wizards needed every bit of it as they narrowly escaped New York with a three point win. Meanwhile, in Milwaukee, a wild and foul-filled last few seconds allowed the Bucks to steal one from the visiting Celts. Greg Monroe made his case for 6th Man of the Year as Jason Kidd decided it would be best for him to come off the bench on Tuesday. In 30 reserve minutes, Moose went off for 29/12/3/1/2. He was a team-best +11 and you have to wonder if him being so dominant as a reserve has Coach Kidd considering this as more than just a one game thing? So long as he’s getting the run, owners should continue to bank on the third round value he’s been returning on the season.

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Rising Sun

February 3, 2016 | Fantasy Basketball Daily Notes | 29 Comments

by: Matty

At no point this season did I ever think that Markieff Morris would be getting the lead in an article…unless, maybe, it was because he killed a guy or something (leading victim candidates included a coach, a referee, or a reporter who spoke ill of his twin brother). Well, he got the lead and nobody died…that I’m aware of.

In his first game playing for interim head coach Earl Watson, ‘Kieff showed out to the tune of 30 points, 11 rebounds, six assists, a steal, and a pair of blocks. If that wasn’t worthy of a raised eyebrow or two, Morris also drained a three and shot 13-20 from the field in his 41 minutes. Hot damn.

Whether he’s actually interested in helping the Suns win games or simply trying to improve the value of his stock in an effort to facilitate a move out of the desert, it doesn’t really matter for fantasy purposes. If he’s going to get the run…if he’s going to keep his attitude in check…if he’s going to play with effort and focus…he needs to be on fantasy rosters. Trying to predict what kind of situation he’ll be in this time next month is likely a fool’s errand, but there is big time upside (as we just witnessed) when everything is kosher with Markieff. I wouldn’t give up anything of value or break your free agency bank account because this could be very temporary, but if you have some dead weight to drop, you could do a lot worse than having Morris occupy your last roster spot until the trade deadline.

Let’s take a look at what else shook down on a five-game Tuesday evening in the NBA…

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Frank Vogel, American Hero

January 29, 2016 | Fantasy Basketball Daily Notes | 120 Comments

by: JB Gilpin

We’ve seen so many coaches jack it up before. Year after year, coaches fail to play their best line-ups the most minutes due to “fit” or “rotations” or “Kevin Garnett decides what the Timberwolves do.”

But Frank Vogel is quickly becoming my favorite coach. He kept the Pacers decent last year after a really disheartening second half and playoff exit in 13-14 plus losing Paul George, and last night he did the absolutely unthinkable – he played his best players as the starters. ANTI-SKIIIIIILES! Although Aaron Gordon is getting his run lately… Let’s go ANTI-BICKERSTAFFFFFFF!

Getting his first start at PF (and first start ever!) after playing virtually all his rookie minutes at center, Myles Turner got the nod at the 4 next to Ian Mahinmi and went 20/6/1/0/1 on 9-17 shooting in 26 minutes. And the twin towers rotation worked sooooo well, with the Pacers up virtually the whole game and running away with it late. The Hawks reserves in the early 4th quarter made a nice run to take a 2-point lead with 6 minutes left 90-88, then Vogel went back to the same starting 5 and Indiana ended the game on a crazy hot 23-2 run. What a unit! Coach Butthole is like, “suck my unit!” When I made my original crazy rank for Turner in the pre-season, my love was based around his fit for the run-and-gun offense, and the crazy part is we still haven’t seen the perimeter game yet. He didn’t take any treys in this one, but there’s no reason to think this starting line-up doesn’t stick, which means more minutes for Turner and more opportunities on the perimeter. Hopefully you added him when Mahinmi was out and didn’t let go, because, well, NEVER LET GO JACK! I would totally have Myles take me in the steamy car in the cargo hold… Here’s what else went down in fantasy hoops last night:

Please, blog, may I have some more?

You Know What They Say About Big Hands

January 28, 2016 | Fantasy Basketball Daily Notes | 16 Comments

by: Peter Kap

Monday night’s heavyweight match between the two best teams in the league mostly disappointed. Sure, Stephen Curry and the Warriors were fun to watch, but the Spurs were mostly a no show, losing 120-90.

On Wednesday, the Spurs returned home to host the Rockets. They took all of their rage out on the self-destructing Rockets, destroying them 130-99. Do you think the Spurs were mad about losing by 30 on Monday night?

Scoring only 5 points on Monday, LaMarcus Aldridge rebounded to lead the Spurs with 25 points, 10 rebounds, and 5 assists. Danny Green knocked down 6 threes to post 18 points, 6 rebounds, 3 assists, 3 steals, and 1 block. That’s more like it Aldridge and Green!

Kawhi Leonard (18 points) and Tony Parker (15 points, 7 assists) got in on the fun too, as Tim Duncan sat another game, while the Spurs await the MRI results on his knee. If Duncan misses substantial time, the Spurs will roll with a combo of Kyle Anderson (7/3/1), David West (4/2/2), and Boris Diaw (0/2/3), depending on matchups.

I would really love to see more of Boban Marjanovic, but I think he’s a little too big to see much more than 20 minutes a night. The dude’s 7’3” and weighs 290, with ears that give Barack Obama a run for his money, but his hands are crazy big. They make normal people’s hands look worthless, Ray McCallum’s head small, and a gallon of ice tea look like a juice box. Thanks to the blowout, Marjanovic posted a 13/10 double-double in 17 minutes.

Now onto the other nightly notables:

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Smoove Criminals …and the 7 Ahead

January 25, 2016 | Fantasy Basketball Daily Notes | 103 Comments

by: JB Gilpin

PPPPPAAAANNNNTTTHHHHEEERRRRSSSS!!!!! Aight, aight, this is fantasy hoops, we’ll just leave it at that.

On Friday morning, the Clippers shed one of their % drain players, giving the DNP-king [another] fresh start in Houston. And what does Josh Smith do in his debut?! Goes all J Smoove like you’d expect! Goes 1-10 FG, 0-2 FT, for some reason took 4 treys and missed them all (what did you expect after bricking the first 3, Smoove?!), but still gets a rainbow line for 2/5/6/2/3. Oh yeah, 2 TO in there too. Smoove did bounce back last night after almost single-handedly costing the Rox a W in his debut, going 16/3/2/2/2 yesterday afternoon for back-to-back rainbows. He apparently stole someone else’s talent ala Space Jam alien, because he shot 6-14 FG, 2-2 FT, and had only 1 TO. “Talkin’ bout the Dream Team, we’re the Mean Team!” Josh Smith is not a good 9-cat fantasy asset in any league, and even in 8-cat, he’s probably not ownable in 12ers for me. That mean enough?! But the real criminal aspect of the acquisition is of course their absolute hatred for Terrence Jones. HE’S getting the full Mean Girls treatment – they’re feeding him Swedish weight gaining bars, JB Bickerstaff made out with his boyfriend, they’re turning his best friends against him… That organization is an institutional bully – culminating in a whopping 10 minutes of action last night with Dwight Howard (kankle) still out. I didn’t understand the McHale firing, I don’t understand this trade, I don’t understand the Ty Lawson signing… They’re taking this off the rails faster than Lindsay Lohan’s Prius! Or, well, Lawson’s Prius… Here’s what else went down over the weekend in fantasy hoops action, plus The 7 Ahead for Week 14:

Please, blog, may I have some more?

All I Want For Christmas Is A Little Offense…and the 7 Ahead

December 28, 2015 | Fantasy Basketball Daily Notes | 58 Comments

by: Matty

Earlier in the year when the NBA released its schedule for the 2015/2016 season, one of the very first things I did was flip forward to December 25th. I was really stoked to see five games, neatly stacked one after the other, for our holiday viewing pleasure. The excitement continued to grow right up until the games went live and we quickly learned that putting the ball through the hoop is, apparently, quite a bit more difficult on Christmas.

Anthony Davis in South Beach for a noon eastern tip-off against the Heat. What a great way to kick off the afternoon after tossing back a few coffee & Baileys, scarfing down some cinnamon buns, and opening some presents, right? Yeah… no. They needed overtime and the Pelicans still couldn’t hit the 90-point mark. Brow was nice (29/15/4/4/3), as was Chris Bosh, but the game was not pretty. At all.

So I says to myself, I says: “Self, one stinker does not a bad day make. We just got the ugly one outta the way early. This will not be a harbinger of things to come. No, sir, it will not.” Next up we got the weirdly entertaining (and enigmatic) Bulls visiting the dynamic duo of Russell Westbrook & Kevin Durant in front of an always raucous Oklahoma City crowd. Well, Chicago doubled up OKC in the third quarter (32-16) to quiet the crowd and pulled away as nobody other than the Thunder’s two stars bothered to show up. The league’s second most efficient team on offense couldn’t crack the century mark and fell 105-96.

Please, blog, may I have some more?

RazzWired: A Festus For The Rest Of Us

November 5, 2015 | Fantasy Basketball Daily Notes | 52 Comments

by: Adam

A little over a week has gone by since the beginning of the season, and a lot of rotations still haven’t taken on a definitive shape yet. The good/bad thing is, a few injuries have already occurred, making room for a new set of players to gain some minutes. For those of you that enjoy streaming blocks, Festus Ezeli has become a solid play with the injury to Andrew Bogut (concussion). Bogut injured??? Who woulda thunk it! Bogut will remain a major injury risk the rest of the year, so Ezeli should be rosterable in deeper leagues, and possibly even a blocks deficient 12er or two.

For those of you that didn’t see last week’s edition of RazzWired, here it is. Most of the guys from last week are still relevant pick-ups, and I’ll do my best not to repeat myself.

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Boards-N-Blocks: It Doesn’t Have To Take Two To Make A Thing Go Right

November 3, 2015 | Boards-n-Blocks | 25 Comments

by: Pete Nice

History has its fair share of dynamic duos, whose split left one basking in overwhelming success and the other flying off into oblivion.

Simon and Garfunkel. Bret “The Hitman” Hart and Jim “The Anvil” Neidhart. Richard Gere and the gerbil.

When it comes to famous big man pairs, it’s just as tough to predict how things are going to shake out. Tim Duncan did pretty OK after David Robinson retired. Ralph Sampson after he was separated from Hakeem Olajuwon? Not so much. When the Rockets split up the original “Twin Towers” during the 1987-1988 season, “The Dream” went on to win a couple titles while Sampson – instead of becoming the best pro ever, as predicted – went on to a life on the end of the benches in Oakland and Sacramento. At the time, this was not a good thing.

This past offseason, Detroit decided one big dude was plenty, so they kept Andre Drummond and let Greg Monroe sign with the Bucks.

For now, we can gawk at the big brains (and big shiny dome) on Greg Bower and say the Pistons made a wise choice.

(editor’s note – Daily Notes will be out later this morning!)

Please, blog, may I have some more?

180 Degree Turner

October 30, 2015 | Fantasy Basketball Daily Notes | 228 Comments

by: JB Gilpin

Look, I’m only human. I have urges. I can’t help the way my brain chemistry works. I try my best to fight it, to stay logical, to be sure and stay wrapped up… But I can get caught in the rookie nookie like anyone!

After a DNP-CD on opening night, of course I was a little worried about Myles Turner‘s role with the Pacers moving forward, especially after being so high in the green with his rank that Ruby Rhod was even speechless…. He did have a little bit of a bum ankle Wednesday night, but dressed for the game and didn’t get off the bench. And last night, I had this huge emission of relief when I saw Turner get into the game in the first wave of subs in the 1st quarter. It felt like a sneeze only better! Then that feeling of a sneeze turned into an epic euphoric trip that was slightly reminiscent of a KCP-high. Turner looked absolutely unbelievable, well beyond the numbers on the stat sheet. His line ended up 4-6 FG (0-2 FT) 8/4/0/2/1 in 18 minutes with 4 fouls, so it wasn’t exactly a flashy debut on paper. But he’s a better FT shooter, a few fouls were ticky-tacky as the refs were calling it tight all night, and he is his own offense. Was hitting jumpers from deep mid-range in isolation, had no hesitation, looked 100% confident and in control, and had a second monster block called off due to a baby nudge right before it went up. He was the #1 option with the second unit, and while Ian Mahinmi is playing well (11/9 with a block last night – maintaining usability), I think Turner could easily fit with the starters. They want to push the NBA lead for pace, he can hit quick jumpers, and is big and fundamental enough to man the paint, both on O and D. Dude is biggggggg. Listed at 240, but ain’t no way! I’m 240 and 6’7, and he looks way bigger than me with 4 inches! Jordan Hill started last night for the matchup against the big Grizzlies, but didn’t look special at all. There will still be some easing in, but Turner should leap frog Hill sooner than later, and play C minutes down the stretch if there’s worries about Mahinmi’s FT shooting. The line didn’t jump off the page unlike his play that jumped off the screen, so now is the time to shoot the buy lows and hope Turner’s owners didn’t see the debut. Here’s what else happened last night in fantasy basketball action:

Please, blog, may I have some more?

RazzWired: Wire These Guys On The Wire???

October 29, 2015 | Fantasy Basketball Daily Notes | 86 Comments

by: Adam

Gentleman and Gentleman!! (Who knows, maybe we do have a couple ladies out there!) It’s a glorious day to find some waiver bargains! We had our first full slate of the year last night, and the season is full of promise. The beautiful thing is, all of the awesome pickups that win championships are still out there for us to find. My mission this season, is to help you to be the first one to get them. Unless you happen to be in a league with me…. Then the goal is for you to be the second one to know about them!

Thanks to “A Hill O’ Beans” for the title this week! I’ll be using a few more suggestions in the coming weeks, so yours still might make it! For this series, I’m going to primarily stick with guys that are under 50% owned on Yahoo. If you have questions about much deeper or shallower leagues, feel free to ask them in the comments section. Basically the range is going to be from the competitive 10 teamer, to about 14 team. 12 team is going to be the primary focus though.

Also, there’s going to be a section at the end of each weekly article to feature a couple trades that are in the comments. I’ll be happy to give an opinion on any trades you post, and I’ll do so right away, but this is more for the amusement of everyone else! So possibly one or two solid trades, and I might throw in a rip-off, just so everyone can hate your guts and accuse you of being in a weak league. We’ll see! But yeah, post those below and we’ll have fun with em!

Ok! It’s time to dive in to the first inaugural edition of the RazzWired series! (Thanks to Newman for that name suggestion!)

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Jump Ball: Blake Griffin v Serge Ibaka

October 2, 2015 | Fantasy Basketball Daily Notes | 21 Comments

by: Matty

Previous “Jump Ball” articles:

9/19 – Russell Westbrook v Damian Lillard

9/26 – Kawhi Leonard v Jimmy Butler

TALE OF THE TAPE

BLAKE GRIFFIN		SERGE IBAKA
Los Angeles Clippers	Team	Oklahoma City Thunder
PF, C	Position (Y! Eligibility)	PF, C
	2014 Results
41st	9-Cat Rank (Total Value)	36th
28th	9-Cat Rank (Per Game)	18th
67	Games Played	64
35.2	Minutes Per Game	33.1
27.0 (16th)	Usage Rate (Rank)	17.6 (T-194th)

Please, blog, may I have some more?