With Luka Doncic sitting one out, Dallas’ offense flowed through Tim Hardaway Jr., and boy did he have himself a night. Hardaway dropped a career-best 42 points on just 23 shots, drilling six of his 10 triple tries and sinking all 10 of his attempts from the stripe. THJ (57 percent owned in Yahoo!) is as streaky as they come, but if Doncic misses any more time the opportunity will be there for oodles of points and treys.
Please, blog, may I have some more?Ricky Rubio
It’s been just over a week since a friend of mine pointed me toward the Kevin Durant/Michael Rapaport beef that had bubbled up on social media. At the time, I somewhat gleefully read through their back and forth until I felt my emotions start to turn. KD, from all the stories I’ve heard and books that I’ve read, does not strike me as a happy man. The texts he sent to Rapaport support this. Then I saw the follow-up video that Rapaport put out that provide additional context for his spicy IG chat with Durant and I felt even worse. KD might be unhappy, but Rapaport strikes me as something far more distasteful than the aloof ennui of the unfathomably talented. After eating my fill of online garbage, I sent the following text to my buddy:
I wish I could get that time back.
I can’t, obviously. None of us can. But what we can do is make up for the time lost, and Durant did just that in his return to NBA action on Wednesday night. All told, the Nets played 23 games since KD was last in uniform, but you wouldn’t have known that by watching him.
Please, blog, may I have some more?
Hangin’ with Mr. Hooper: Life in the Cellar
March 30, 2021 | Fantasy Basketball Daily Notes | 6 Commentsby: Mr. Hooper
It’s about that time again, isn’t it? The trade deadline has come and gone, the sun is starting to peek out with some regularity, and teams who have had long, dark, unsuccessful winters are beginning to look ahead to a little summer vacay. Even with the expanded playoff format for this season, there are still a handful of teams that are done. We haven’t gotten to “Cancun on three” yet, but if you’re in Orlando or Oklahoma City you can start thinking about it.
For this week’s Hangin’, I looked at a couple of these lost causes and the opportunities for fantasy help that exist there. It’s not an exhaustive list, but all of the teams featured are 12th or worse in their conference and have gestured toward giving up. But just because they’re done with the year does not mean that the year is done with them. Every game needs to have 240 minutes of statistics accounted for, and we’re in the interest of compiling numbers.
This is a bigger one, so let’s get to it.
Please, blog, may I have some more?
The Cork Report: Shutdown Candidates
March 29, 2021 | Fantasy Basketball Daily Notes | 1 Commentby: Keith
Down goes Horford. We all lamented at the recent news of Al Horford getting shut down for the rest of the season, but it came as no surprise to some who have been playing fantasy basketball for going on two decades. The Oklahoma City Thunder have zero incentive to attempt to win basketball games as they try to squeeze the most value of their million draft picks.
The reality of this season is that COVID-19 continues to screw everything up. The second half of the season for every single NBA team this season is BRUTAL, with things like three games in four nights, and multiple back-to-backs. We are about to see a bunch of people sit out games they may have otherwise played.
In that same vein, we will likely see more shutdowns this season than ever before, as teams decide that playing for that playoff play-in isn’t as important as developing pieces for the future. We saw it with Al Horford, and we will see it again with other players.
But who will they be? Here is my best speculation:
*PLEASE NOTE: RECORDS AND STATS TAKEN BEFORE THE GAMES ON 3/28*
Please, blog, may I have some more? The Cork Report: A 9-Cat, 12-Team League Breakdown
February 22, 2021 | Fantasy Basketball Daily Notes | 3 Commentsby: Keith
Yep, I’m going to subject you all to my friends and family league yet again. We’re at the midway point of our regular season after today, so I wanted to go back and see where my predictions from the preseason were right and wrong, and which fantasy players are performing better or worse than their average draft position (ADP).
What I hope you can take from this is how to better formulate your strategy in your own leagues, and what seems to work best for people in a relatively average league. Our league is listed as a “silver” league on Yahoo!, which isn’t really scientific but indicates our team levels combined are slightly below the average of “gold.” We have two platinum, one gold, four silver, and five bronze managers. It’s a top-heavy league, which is the case in most scenarios as the people who run the league seem to be far more invested.
Anyways, the below records and rankings are based on if the scores stay the same as they are at the writing of this article. Those are subject to change, but not by much.
Please, blog, may I have some more?
Andre Drummond, Stockbroker Extraordinaire
February 9, 2021 | Fantasy Basketball Daily Notes | 4 Commentsby: Nic
As usual, with the trade window opening, Drummond has been involved in a flurry of trade rumors, most recently with him projected to go to Toronto. I don’t know much about the Canadian market, but I do know if that trade goes through, stocks are going through the roof.
Please, blog, may I have some more?
Under Performer of the Week: Ricky Rubio
February 3, 2021 | Fantasy Basketball Daily Notes |by: Joe Bernard
When this life makes you mad enough to kill
That’s rock bottom.
When you want something bad enough to steal
That’s rock bottom.
When you feel you have had it up to here
Cause you mad enough to scream but you sad enough to tear.
That’s rock bottom.
Slim Shady has come a long way from his first album when he was using his pen to escape the feelings associated with hitting rock bottom. It has been nothing but platinum status since 1999 for the Detroit wordsmith and miles away from where we find our feature player’s performance to date.
I am not sure what the complete opposite of a diamond plaque would be, maybe gravel? Pebble? Pellet? Who knows, but what is certain is that this player finds himself in the running for that unappealing designation.
We can talk about the Flintstones in length to offer up variant rock formations that best describe granule offerings this player has provided in fantasy. This player has cobbled together a disappointing season so far for his owners and it has been nothing but debris in his wake.
Presenting: RICKY RUBIO
Please, blog, may I have some more?Patient owners are being rewarded with Mr. Wright. This line is extraordinary, but there’s really no reason Wright can’t put up a nightly 12/4/4 with a smattering of defensive stats. Of course, Rose was out for this one.
Please, blog, may I have some more? The Cork Report: Statistical Scarcity Deep Dive
January 11, 2021 | Fantasy Basketball Daily Notes |by: Keith
If you haven’t heard of statistical scarcity before, it’s a pretty simple concept. Basically, the less of a statistic available in the pool of rostered fantasy players, the more valuable it is. It’s important to keep in mind that this is comparative scarcity as well. So even while league wide there may be rebounds being grabbed, we’re going to look at the top 188 players in 9-cat according to Basketball Monster and see where their production lands.
Sure, Dwight Howard has grabbed 6.8 rebounds per game this season, but he doesn’t do enough to warrant being in the top 188 for fantasy value and he’s only rostered in 12% of Yahoo! leagues as of the writing of this article, so he’s probably not producing that for many teams. Make sense?
Please, blog, may I have some more?
Those of you who have been with me for the last four years know of my love for Nikola Jokic. I was rooting for him from the moment he entered the league because I had been watching him from his days playing for Mega Basket in the Adriatic League and his steady rise to superstardom has been a pleasure to behold. Centers were pretty dominant earlier in basketball but the super teams during the last decade in Miami (Lebron, Wade, Bosh) and Golden State pushed the sport toward small-ball lineups, evident by the fact that Shaq was the last center to win the MVP award in 2000. Jokic looks like the only center from his generation that can be as effective in his team’s play and a candidate to win that award again for centers. But I’m personally in love with his passing and court awareness.
Please, blog, may I have some more?