Welcome to your midweek guidance for Week 22! In this post, I identify widely-available players who can help you win your head-to-head matchup. We’re almost at the point when we have to start thinking about life after fantasy hoops. Having just lost in the finals of my Yahoo league (congrats, Kris!), I’m just four days away from defeating Bball Oracle (according to my vision board) and no longer needing to obsessively check injury reports ahead of each night’s action. From Monday, I will be doing this solely for your benefit. That is, for the benefit of anyone crazy enough to play fantasy basketball into April. After that, I have to tend to all the things I’ve neglected in my life for six months.
Please, blog, may I have some more?Matisse Thybulle
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!
Please, blog, may I have some more?If you’re still reading these, and I’m glad you are, as it means one of three things.
You’re still in the playoff race
You love my writing, in which case you’re my mom or you need to read a lot more good articles.
You’re out of it and trying to get a leg up for next year.
As we know, this is the silly season for basketball. Resting, tanking, and weird rotations are the norm in March. It’s March Madness, baby. I’m going to try to focus on the weird rotations thing from each game to see if we can decipher any meaning from said weird rotations.
Please, blog, may I have some more?Regarding last week’s suggestions, Dennis Smith Jr. had a good week and should maintain respectable value for the remainder of the season and the same can be said for Matisse Thybulle, especially on the defensive side of the ball. Finally, Xavier Tillman was another successful suggestion and his value was further enhanced due to the injury to Brandon Clarke, who will remain out for the whole season. As long as he and Steven Adams remain sidelined, Tillman should be a good streamer for standard leagues.
Please, blog, may I have some more?After Julius Randle hit one of the more ridiculous game-winning threes last night to push the Knickerbockers past the Heat, I came up with the above headline. The only problem: I’ve never actually had an Orange Julius – which may be a sin in some cultural circles. Without a frame of reference to consider how Randle may compare the American quencher, I turned to my wife for help:
“It’s like better than an icy.” “I thought it was a smoothy. So it’s like an icy?” “No it’s not an icy.” “So what is it?” “It’s hard to describe. It’s indescribable. It’s like magic.” “So it’s like a mix between an icy and a smoothy?” “No. You’re obviously not getting it. Who are you trying to compare it to?” “It doesn’t matter, I just haven’t had one so just want a description to see if there’s any comparison.” “The most delicious thing I’ve put in my mouth.”
And that was the end of that conversation.
Please, blog, may I have some more?Welcome to your midweek guidance for Week 19! In this post, I identify widely-available players who can help you win your head-to-head matchups. As fantasy hoops playoffs take off, we’re starting to see some significant attrition in the real world. The Lakers, Warriors, and Wolves, in particular, are still dealing with some big-name injuries that are opening up streaming opportunities for some and destroying championship hopes for others. If you’re fighting for your playoff life right now, it’s time to come to terms with the fact that we probably won’t get much – if anything – out of guys who are still recovering from long-term injuries in your IR slots. Streaming is usually the answer in those situations, and I’m here to help!
Please, blog, may I have some more?Dennis Smith Jr: LaMelo Ball is unfortunately out for the rest of the season with a fractured right ankle and the obvious next man up is Dennis Smith Jr. He already filled in his role admirably when Ball was sidelined at the beginning of the season and can provide a substantial boost in perimeter stats and more particularly in assists and steals. He was famous for his athletic ability since his college days and his years in the league have not slowed him down.
Please, blog, may I have some more?After the news that Zion reaggravated his injury and will likely miss more weeks after the All-Star break, it got me thinking how many games Zion actually has managed to play since entering the league. And then I stumbled upon a very interesting statistic that reaffirmed my initial thoughts. Zion has only played in 39.4% of the available games in the last four years and this is a great cause of concern for his career and for the New Orleans Pelicans in general, who are fighting for one of the last playoff spots in the West and could certainly use Zion’s help.
Please, blog, may I have some more?You read that right. Valentine’s Day is an objectively stupid holiday, and after 18 years of marriage the wife and I were good with a nice cup of coffee and takeout for the day. Then I watched the Bucks vs. Celtics game on TNT, and took a huge gamble at that! It paid off though, but please honor my sacrifice for your benefit and click on this article multiple times. I took the huge risk for all of you.
Please, blog, may I have some more?A night after the trade deadline, the NBA turned into the streets of Pamplona (figuratively speaking), as young bulls were released in the fantasy landscape left by an action-packed deadline. And none caused as much carnage as the Piston’s Jalen Duren.
Please, blog, may I have some more?Welcome to the second week of both fantasy action and NBA action. Today, we’ll check up on how my predictions panned out last week, make some new ones that will inevitably be wrong and admire the Utah Jazz for refusing to do anything logical.
Please, blog, may I have some more?On a recent podcast with Son, I let slip, “If you’re a center that doesn’t get blocks, I don’t think I have any use for you.” It was a knee-jerk line, one that I hadn’t much considered before it fell out of my mouth, and I’ve been wrestling with how true that might actually be ever since. For most of the summer, I’ve been vexed by the center position because, outside of the elite guys, the shortcomings of the position are obvious and numerous. For many, their usefulness in category leagues extends only to rebounds, blocks and FG%, and oftentimes those few spoils are sacrificed at the altar of points, dimes, triples, and free-throw percentage. Drafting a center that doesn’t, it’s a steep tradeoff in the best of circumstances, so when looking at someone like Deandre Ayton – a top-50ish, center-eligible player who produced exactly enough swats last year to break even in the category by z-score – I began to wonder what exactly the point was.
Please, blog, may I have some more?