A Valentine’s Day Without Love

February 14, 2017 | Fantasy Basketball Daily Notes | 68 Comments

Oh man, super emo title for today! But what kind of irony is it that on Valentine’s Day, we might get some terrible news about Kevin Love‘s knee… After playing a few nights ago, nothing big on the news front until he was ruled out for tonight last Sunday afternoon, then yesterday news broke he’s “seeking a second opinion on his knee”. This coming after an MRI, with results that have not been revealed yet. Ugh! I traded for him a week ago in the REL as all my good injury karma is drastically flipping the past week! And tonight the Cavs go to Minny, in what could’ve been a great “revenge” game. Although, I bet he’s kinda happy he’s on the Cavs instead, hah! Andrew Wiggins is actually playing a little better lately as well, and it would’ve been nice to see them face off again… Alas, be prepared for a lengthy absence from Love, and while he’s having a great season – much better than in 15-16 – thankfully his stats to replace aren’t the tougher-to-find AST-STL-BLK. There have been a lot of bigs to emerge for PTS/REB, and for the treys, we all know you can always ThrAGNOF! So if we get some brutal news today, hop into the comments, and let me be your Love counselor! Here’s what else went down last night in fantasy basketball action:

Please, blog, may I have some more?

#OccupyDStats

February 13, 2017 | Fantasy Basketball Daily Notes | 57 Comments

by: JB Gilpin

For the love of tripdubs! Dayum Draymond Green had a ridiculous Friday night, nay, a legendary Friday night! One of the craziest lines I can remember since helming Razzball hoops, Dray was the one bringing the defense instead of the Grizz, going 4/12/10/10/5.

Well, when Marc Gasol tries a slow-ass, lackluster behind-the-back dribble right in front of you, it’s easy to get 10 steals! I think I coulda stolen that! Speaking of stealing, Andre Iguodala totally stole my dance move at the end of that highlight there… When I go to the club, it’s like I’m walking on hot coals! Anyway, it was the NBA’s first triple-double without scoring 10 points, and Dray couldn’t even get a 5×5 line! Chump. Then #Occupy followed it up Saturday with a 6/8/8/3/1 line, with the weekend boosting his season averages to 2.1 steals and 1.5 blocks per. He’s exactly copying the 7.4 AST which he also had in 15-16, but he’s cut down the TO from 3.2 to 2.4 this year, while averaging career-bests in the stocks. We all expected the scoring to go down, but man, the defense numbers the Dubs crank out is insanity, thanks in part to their pace. If you didn’t win steals and blocks with Dray’s 13 steals and 6 blocks over the weekend, then something went drastically wrong! Would be time to occupy that trading block! Here’s what else went down over a fun weekend of NBA action:

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Do Us A Favors, And Don’t Push Yourself When You’re Hurt!

November 15, 2016 | Fantasy Basketball Daily Notes | 153 Comments

by: JB Gilpin

As I try to do in my opens, I pull in some real-life news or experience to try and humanize the open. No one wants robot reporting! Just ask Mark Cuban. And that whole situation seems like such a cop out, “I’m going to ban reporters, and the reason why is that I want more human reporting!” Something else is going on there…

Anywho, for this open, I actually have relevant life experience! As previously mentioned regarding Derrick Favors, I too have suffered from IT Band Syndrome. It’s an inflammation of a thin band of nerves that connect from your hip bone on the outside of your leg, past your knee, and connected to your lower leg. Sometimes it can manifest itself in a mad sore hip, but usually it impacts the outside of your knee. When it flares up, it feels like a bone-on-bone “catching” on the outer part of your knee, like you have some horrific scar tissue from a torn meniscus (something I’ve also had). The real annoyance of the injury is you can feel awesome for a few days, then it flares up out of nowhere. You’re just walking normal, and all the sudden that “catch” makes your knee feel like you re-tore something. It’s pretty friggin’ frustrating.

So when I heard Favors was starting last night despite a flare up of knee soreness again on Saturday, I wasn’t the most surprised. I bet it felt great in warm-ups! Then at some point, I’m guessing he felt that same nerve irritation, and he ended up leaving early. I know his frustration. As a nerve thing, this isn’t really a consistent pain-tolerance thing, or a sprain to play through. It feels fine, then a sudden flare up makes your knee feel unstable. I didn’t watch any of this game, but he apparently didn’t look right, and went only 6/2/0/2/0 in 21 minutes. As I mentioned on the Pod, I nabbed some shares of Trey Lyles on Sunday given Favors’ knee issues and knowing this could be a long-term thing, getting rewarded with an 18/5/2/2/0 line with a trey. A trey from Trey! With leaving games early a persistent issue now, I wouldn’t be surprised if Favors gets treatment for a few weeks, and I would take the flier on Lyles where I could. It took me about two months of rehab and a session of dry needling to stimulate the nerves to finally shake my IT issues. Don’t watch if you don’t like needles! Here’s what else happened in fantasy hoops action last night:

Please, blog, may I have some more?

#OccupyTripleDoubles! …and the 7 Ahead

November 30, 2015 | Fantasy Basketball Daily Notes | 152 Comments

by: JB Gilpin

Welcome back from Thanksgiving! I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday, with leftovers still to spare to get you through a full work-week back. I even bought a few extra boxes of stuffing since that ran out fast on T-giv day! Got two or three meals left to go… God I love Thanksgiving!

And while I added several inches to my waistline, Draymond Green has been stuffing his stats even more! Back-to-back tripdubs over the weekend for #OccupyDraymondGreen, going 14/10/10/1/2 then 13/11/12/1/4 on Friday and Saturday. The multi-cat phenom hit two treys as well on Friday – averaging a career-best 1.6 3PTM a game on the season – while his FG% has continued to climb all four seasons as a pro, up to 48.2% this year. It’s almost like the Warriors have good players or something! The only knock is his TO are up, but even in standard 9-cat he’s bringing back top-15 value on BBMonster and top-10 on Yahoo. I remain a little incredulous that a lot of people thought 2014-15 was a fluke (I guess?), and I had to defend a “high” rank a few times in the comments. So after this Thanksgiving weekend, I am thankful Dray is helping our Yahoo F&F team be decent this year and that rank is working out… Because trust me, a lot has gone wrong. Friggin’ Rubio… Here’s what else went down over the weekend in fantasy hoops, plus The 7 Ahead for week 6:

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Patience Is A Tjones …and the 7 Ahead

November 16, 2015 | Fantasy Basketball Daily Notes | 135 Comments

by: JB Gilpin

Well, you might lose your patience after I plagiarized last week’s title and didn’t even have a rhyme-y pun in it! I’m like the Robert De Niro of short filmmaking…

But it is interesting that we’ve had back-to-back weekends of patience paying off. It’s like having to hold it in and thinking of baseball to make it last! Although when I think of baseball I think of Grey, so it’s not making anything last! The injuries have been ridiculously frustrating the past two years, but this last one was just a bad cut that Terrence Jones accidentally squeezed lemon juice in when he was making shrimp scampi. At least it wasn’t a leg or body part injury, so I remained firm in my Tjones love. A lot of commenters were asking about selling Tjones away for virtually nothing, and there was even some drop Tjones sentiment. After a pretty lowly return last Wednesday, Jones showed everyone how good he is when his run is normalized, putting up 23 Pts on Friday and Saturday, with 23/7/0/0/4 and 23/6/1/1/3 lines hitting well over 50% from the field with a combined 4 treys. I can’t think of baseball fast enough when seeing those numbers! As I quickly change my pants, it’s probably too late to swing some buy low offers and hopefully you own Tjones in several leagues to ride the wave. If anyone wants to pay top-30 or 40 value (doubtful), Jones does have the inherent risk of more injuries, so I might sell him off at that price. But I’m not looking at this weekend as a fluky, sell-high couple of games. Pateince is a Tjones! Here’s what else went down over the weekend in fantasy hoops action, and The 7 Ahead for week 4:

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Top 100 For 2015-16 Fantasy Basketball

August 12, 2015 | Fantasy Basketball Daily Notes | 93 Comments

by: JB Gilpin

Ugh, things are drying up faster than Tom Selleck’s avocado farm, that’s for sure!

Maybe it’s the shallower draft class… Maybe it’s a really long list of aging vets… Or maybe it’s just that all the guys I like could only fill up my top 65 of so… But eesh, I really don’t want any of the guys ranked 65 and beyond, and rounding out the top 100 was like trying to sit through True Detective season 2. Hah, still haven’t seen it, I’m just applying some groupthink there… Here’s to hoping ESPN and Yahoo botch their pre-ranks and skew some nasty ADPs! And just throwing it out there to astute re-draft commishes – ESPN and Yahoo’s initial ranks always look pretty poopy before a massive re-adjust closer to the season. Maybe you can con your league to draft earlier and dominate the ill-informed, non-Razzball reading scrubbos… Here’s the Top 100 for the 2015-16 Fantasy Basketball Season:

Please, blog, may I have some more?

82 Up, 82 Down

April 16, 2015 | Fantasy Basketball Daily Notes | 13 Comments

by: JB Gilpin

The 2014-15 Fantasy Basketball season is officially in the books! But we won’t be slowing down too much, with a lot of great off-season content planned and my Way Too Early Ranks for 2015-16 coming in a few weeks…

In 14-15 we had ups (#OccupyDraymondGreen baby!), we’ve had downs (cough, MCW, cough), but what matters most is ~~we had fun~~ I finished better than Slim in the REL league!

And one of the highest of highs from last night was James Harden‘s triple double, going 16/11/10/1/1 in only 27 minutes against the Jazz. Only took 8 shots! That’s what Mel Gibson tried to tell the police anyway… 3-8 FG, 2-5 3PTM, and more of that oh-so-sweet FT volume hitting 8-8 freebies. Assists, rebounds and steals all went up this season, along with the obvious scoring and he was at a career best 8.8-10.2 FT a game entering last night. The TO are brutal, but he also chipped in a career best 0.7 blocks in an absolutely elite year. So I can say with pretty good confidence he’ll be my #1 player for the 2015-16 Fantasy Basketball season. Was durable (81 games this season, 73+ the past 3 years), consistent, and I just love mustache rides. Take me to the promised land in 15-16, Mr. Beard! Here’s what else went down on the final night of 2014-15 Fantasy Basketball:

Please, blog, may I have some more?

No Colly Makes Me No Jolly

February 27, 2015 | Fantasy Basketball Daily Notes | 68 Comments

by: JB Gilpin

First off – F this snow! Sorry about the delay with comments yesterday as my power was out almost the whole day and also claimed our Podcast. What did we do in a world without power?! Fantasy basketball would be mad, mad tough. Dr. Naismith’s Fantasy Peach Buckets League! Since we didn’t get to it on the Pod – be sure and check out the SideLeague app in the GooglePlay and App Store to play in their weekend contest starting tonight. Download the app now, and once you’ve set up your account, enter promo code RAZZBALL for $5 free dollars! And friend me “jb@680” so we can smack talk our squads!

Well, the late-season injury bug has become an all-out Mothra, with Darren Corrison having surgery on a core muscle and is likely out for the year with a re-evaluation in 3-6 weeks. With the Kings going nowhere, I highly doubt he comes back this year. Obviously droppable in all redrafts, it opens up monster playing time for Ray McCallum and grandpa Andre Miller. Of course Old Man Karl is keen to his fellow retirees, and has said Miller and Ray Mac will split minutes close to down the middle. Ray in for defense and Andre for O. Miller makes for an interesting add in 14ers if you’re looking for dimes and Ray for overall upside. But neither quite crack the 12er range unless streaming. Still would rather the “unconditioned” Isaiah Canaan or Aaron Brooks. Here’s what else went down last night in fantasy hoops action:

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Trade Deadline LIVE POST!

February 19, 2015 | Fantasy Basketball Daily Notes | 153 Comments

by: JB Gilpin

[We’ve got the Trade Deadline Podcast up! Slim and I react to all this hooblah as this post continues to be updated – you can find the Pod the post below this one as well as that link.]

Razzball Nation!

The Trade Deadline is nigh, which is to say, soon. Can I trade the start of this open with a different one…? “Did you hear the one about how the Hawks got nothing for the broke ass of Josh Smith last trade deadline?!” Imagine the Hawks with a lottery pick as well… I guess as fortune-tellers, they knew they didn’t need anything for Smoove!

The 2015 NBA Trade Deadline will pass at 3:00 PM EST, and up until the closing moments, I’ll be updating this post as each trade moves across my virtual news desk. Fantasy spins galore! That’s the younger sister of Pussy Galore… So be sure to constantly ping that refresh like Goldfinger on Kitco! Here’s what’s gone down so far:

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Trades, Re-Aggravations and Shutdowns – Oh My!

February 19, 2015 | Fantasy Basketball Daily Notes | 50 Comments

by: JB Gilpin

Basketball is back baby! The NBA season returns from the All-Star Break tonight after four-and-a-half months off… Maybe hyperbolic, but certainly feels that way!

And right as games start, we’ve got the NBA Trade Deadline passing this afternoon at 3:00 PM EST. That was fast! We’ve got a big day of trade analysis, with a live post that will go up around 1:00 PM-ish EST and get frequently updated to track all of the last-minute trades as they go down, then a slightly later podcast record time with our special edition Trade Deadline Razzball Basketball Podcast up sometime around 4:00-4:30 PM EST. It’s all hoops all afternoon!

With these big changes about to ripple through the fantasy hoops landscape, the biggest news from over the break is probably the most anti-climatic – Carmelo Anthony has been officially shutdown. “3P0 – Shut down all the garbage smashers on the detention level!” “No! Shut them ALL down, hurry!” Pretty apt to The Poppycockers shituation, amiright?! We’ve known Melo was about to be Melba Toast sometime around the break, and now the swift gavel of realism has hit (huh? weird metaphor day! I’m rusty OK?!). Langston Galloway, who has probably been picked up in most leagues (and subsequently dropped in some after struggling) should likely be scooped up. He’s not going to do anything too special, but his career-high in shots (19) was in a Melo-less game and should give you some low-TO guard stats. Tim Hardaway Jr. also gets a bit of a boost, but he does absolutely nothing beyond score and trey. Would be a nice, high-minute ThrAGNOF! But those ain’t got no face… So I’m not married to Timmy J at all even if he starts hot with Melo now gone. Here’s what else has gone down since we left for the break:

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Wayne Sellington

January 28, 2015 | Fantasy Basketball Daily Notes | 39 Comments

by: JB Gilpin

Ya know, the Lakers deserved to lose like that last night. After building a solid lead against the Wizards, the Purp and Gold collapsed yet again… And they didn’t play my boy or fan-favorite Tarik Black! I find this an atrocity… Gonna be about 30 straight losses at this rate!

But as much as I want to rant about Black, that would be a pretty weak open… So the next best ranty Lakers subject has to be Wayne Ellington‘s crazy game, putting up a 28/3/3/3/0 line on 12-20 FG (3-9 3PTM 1-1 FT). Sell if you can! No Nick Young last night as he’s dealing with a minor ankle injury from practice on top of being in the doghouse. Swaggy Peed on the carpet! We all know Swaggy never touched a basketball he didn’t think he could shoot, and that will sap into Ellington’s future upside. I could see some interesting buzziness floating around Wayne given Kobe Bryant‘s shoulder fell off, so if any deeper league owners are interested and you can get a value, I’m down like ~~Byron Scott~~ a clown. That said, he’s out there in a ton of league fa free (9% owned last night when I grabbed him in an RCL), so maybe you get a couple hot games before you Sellington. Here’s what else went down last night in fantasy hoops action:

Please, blog, may I have some more?

I Thought Basketball Was An Indoor Sport!

January 27, 2015 | Fantasy Basketball Daily Notes | 70 Comments

by: JB Gilpin

What is going on out there?! Stupid Northern teams… I can’t remember Toronto ever canceling games because of snow!

Both Portland at Brooklyn and Sacramento at New York ended up getting postponed as this foreign concept of “snow” began “falling” from the sky. These New Yorkers have no idea what goes on outside of their bubble! Damn, we got snow, we got fires canceling games like in Mexico City last year… Game of Basketball: A Song of Ice and Fire. Well, of course there’s the game missed from all those players, but the blizzard that’s rolling in could cause another postponed game or two. Basketball all the sudden is as dependent on weather as those “other” sports… Once all of the inclement weather has blown over and all the games that need to be cancelled have been nixed, then we’ve got the big variable – rescheduling. And for H2H leagues, that could mean some big changes to the H2H playoff schedule. We already know Kings/Nets will be March 3rd, but Blazers/Nets will be April 6th, the first Monday of week 24 if your playoffs go that deep. Somehow both were scheduled right before and after the standard H2H playoffs! NBA schedule makers are fantasy players… But any further reschedules could become impactful if they happen March 16-April 5 (weeks 21-23). It will throw Slim’s incredibly awesome playoff breakdown for a loop! Seriously though, that shizz is gold… Here’s what else went down last night in fantasy basketball:

Please, blog, may I have some more?