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The poor Brooklyn Nets were swept off the court by a fully formed Sixers squad.  This of course was to be expected after the failed Big 3 was broken up after like 20 games.  The good news for all the Nets fans out there, and I’m taking it on faith that there are some since I’ve never met one, is that they have a really interesting offseason ahead.  But how did this year go?

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Kevin Durant is back!

For what feels like the millionth time. How many times does this guy have to be “back” before it’s not even a story anymore? I guess he gets infinite re-entries on this – ESPN even used the exact headline “KD is back!” It literally never ends, but I guess we gotta talk about his fantasy impact anyway.

Elsewhere on OKC Thunder throwback night, Russell Westbrook went HAM against the high-flying Memphis Grizzlies. Let’s dive in and take a look at these throwback performances under the fantasy basketball microscope.

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20 years ago, UPS had an ad campaign with the slogan, “What can Brown do for you?” 

Brown says: Make your life easier

Brown tells me that you have all the choices you want

Brown says to me: Get your shipments to your customers, when they need it and where they need it

Brown says: Relax, we’ll get it done

Brown says: How about some more pie?

Brown didn’t say that

What a stupid ass commercial but it serves our purpose today because Jaylen Brown freaking delivered the goods on Sunday.

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Most things in life have an ebb and flow to them. Some have steady drumbeats while others are volatile like an illiquid capital market. In order to get to the top of any venture, there is usually a combination of both. At some point, there are breakthroughs and jumps of multiple levels. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was selected by the Clippers with the 11th overall pick in the 2018 NBA Draft. He averaged 26.5 minutes per game as a rookie and showed that he belonged, putting up 10.8 points, 2.8 rebounds, 3.3 assists, 1.2 steals and 0.5 blocks while shooting 47% from the field and 80% from the line. He was the 141st player for fantasy on a per-game basis. He was then traded to the Thunder in the Paul George deal and immediately played 34.7 minutes per contest. He finished as the 53rd player for fantasy, the first significant jump in his career. He improved in each of the next two seasons, but at a pace akin to the sink filling up, drip by drip, finishing 44th then 32nd. Then 2022 happened, and Shai rocketed up to where he is now, as a top 5 player. Yesterday, he continued to show that he is now one of the best and most well-rounded players in the NBA:

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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.

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Welcome to the final installment of WYT for the ‘22-’23 season, where I’ll be sharing some of my random thoughts, opinions, and questions about the NBA landscape as it pertains to fantasy basketball. Feel free to drop your comments and questions below! Let’s get started.

Even though it may be uncomfortable to look several months into the future, since many of you are in the midst of your playoff weeks, I thought it’d be appropriate to end this season with a prospective for next year’s fantasy draft. Here are a few players who are sure to see their spots move up.

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It’s playoff season, and in standard head-to-head leagues like the Razzball Writers’ League, every waiver wire pickup is critical at this point. Facing Beats By Dray in the first round,  I head into the weekend hoping I didn’t chum the waters on (as in, threw up all over) my chances to advance. 

All week, San Antonio second-year big man, Charles Bassey, has been discussed as a hot wire add for the tanking Spurs. Bassey has been a borderline standard league over the last few weeks, averaging about 8 points, 7 boards, 2 assists a steal and a block a game in 17.5 minutes. 

I’ve been trolling around the Bassey interest all season, which he spent much of tearing up the G League. In 14 games in the minors, he was 3rd in fantasy points (yes, G League keeps track of fantasy points per game leaders on its stats page), averaging about 23-10-2-1-2 on 67% shooting. The Spurs saw enough positives in his development to fully guarantee the former Western Kentucky Hilltopper’s contract for its first two years. With that vote of confidence, and the tank rolling, it makes sense to believe Bassey could be a strong asset for fantasy playoffs. 

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Welcome to your midweek guidance for Week 20!  In this post, I identify widely-available players who can help you win your head-to-head matchup.  Hopefully, you were able to add Mr. (W)Right last week and benefit from a top-25 run of games.  There are a number of other players whose names I constantly promote as streamers who can still be found on waiver wires – Donte DiVincenzo, Killian Hayes, Dennis Smith Jr., Kyle Anderson, Daniel Gafford.  They’re not perfect (Exhibits A and B: Gafford’s terrible Wednesday night and Hayes’ missed games), but their ceilings are high in categories that you might need.  I recommend looking their way first before reading down the rest of this list.

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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. 

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The Bulls lose and refuse to play Patrick Williams and Coby White in an effort to make the play in.  Noble goal, but I was hoping to see more minutes go to these guys.  Nikola Vucevic ruined a 4 three-pointer evening with 6 turnovers.  Zach LaVine and DeMar DeRozan both disappointed with less than 20 points.  The Bulls really aren’t interesting, but keep an eye on them if they tank and go to young guys at the end of the season.  Keep in mind though that Williams and White aren’t actually very good.

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Over the summer, I sauntered….No, I ran to the NFBKC lobby room like a ravenous wild boar, gorging and feasting on draft after draft after draft. I have a couple of teams in contention, but most of them are S. H. I. T. T. Y. The reason? Probably because I suck, but another reason was that I completely faded Brook Lopez. I’m a stupid, stupid man. He was so cheap in drafts (124th player in NFBKC drafts), and those require two centers. There were good reasons, though. He’s 34 years old and was coming off a season in which he played only 13 games due to a back injury. I thought the end was nigh. He did have two seasons early in his career when he played 5 and 17 games, but outside of that, he’s been a relative iron man. This season, he’s played 59 games and put up top 25-ish numbers. On Sunday, he twisted the knife once again to remind me of my stupidity with cannon ball after cannon ball, as I stand sheepishly on the Brook taking the splashes in the face like a man.

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