The Numbers Game – Trades, Waives, And …

February 24, 2017 | Fantasy Basketball Daily Notes | 12 Comments

by: JG

… A Long Ass post trade deadline analysis (couldn’t come up with a word that rhymes with automobiles). I’ll dive deep into a couple of trades (Boogie and Nerlens Noel). I’ll also cover the much hyped but somewhat boring (thanks to Boston, Indiana & Chicago!) trade deadline that has come and gone.

Oh and by the way, if you’d rather just listen to an analysis instead of read and see some copy/pasted stats from NBA.COM, just go ahead and listen to JB’s podcast.

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Jimmy Butler Trying To Be MJ In Scottie Pippen’s Body

January 3, 2017 | Fantasy Basketball Daily Notes | 39 Comments

by: JB Gilpin

So I’m not a basketball historian, and I’m still a young pup. I barely remember the Bulls glory years – I was in elementary school when they won titles 4-6 (yikes, aging the crap outta myself), but I do vividly remember the Byron Russell push-off and I cherished my Michael Jordan cards. I still have a bunch of em! This one is still in a nice case and one of my favorites… Anyway, when I saw Jimmy Butler go off for 52/12/6/3/1 last night, I was about to make all sorts of tongue-and-cheek MJ parallels…

Got the same reverse layup and everything! But then it dawned on me… Butler is more like Scottie Pippen if there was no Jordan. Pippen’s best season was 93-94, unsurprisingly the year without MJ, and went 22.0/8.7/5.6/2.9/0.8 on 49% shooting with 0.9 treys. So far this year, J Buckets is 25.3/6.8/4.4/1.7/0.3 on 46% shooting with 1.1 treys. While Pippen was obviously one of the best defensive players of his generation, Butler is a much better FT shooter and gets to the line more. But the rest is really close, and I thought kinda interesting food for thought. So the answer for the Bulls is simple – find a Michael Jordan for Buckets to play next to! I’m a problem-solver – if only every team’s issue in the NBA was this easy! Hah! Here’s what else went down last night in fantasy basketball action:

Please, blog, may I have some more?

On A Night Of Dunking, Aaron Gordon Was The Dunk-A-Roo!

December 15, 2016 | Fantasy Basketball Daily Notes | 76 Comments

by: JB Gilpin

[Editor’s note – We’re going to be having our Podcast out first thing tomorrow morning due to some scheduling stuff. Catch you with our sexy voices then!]

Man, what a night for highlight-reel dunks!

GIFs so nice I had to put up twice! Wait, that didn’t really work… But yeah, telling everyone that Gordon is cuttable sure made me feel great while writing the notes this morning! Stupid Clippers getting Lob City-ed against them! Taste of their own medicine! Career game for Gordon, going 13-21 FG (4-8 3PTM 3-6 FT) for 33/7/2/0/0. Actually, ya know, that’s not really the best line. 3 turnovers, no D stats, and 50% FT shooting… I feel a little better now re-thinking it, and good thing highlight-reel plays aren’t bonuses! Although I wish they were for my Semaj in REL! Feel free to scoop up Gordon in any leagues as I’m sure he was a popular drop, but I still wouldn’t be losing key assets for him. Let’s see if he can carry this success a few more games, fix the FT issue, and deliver on the D stats we’re know he’s physically capable of. 0.8 STL/0.6 BLK – lower stocks than last year – in an expansion of minutes?! Where’s the beef?! Hopefully I give you more meat to chew on in the notes today! Here’s what else happened last night in Fantasy Basketball action:

Please, blog, may I have some more?

The Numbers Game – 3D Part 1

November 17, 2016 | Fantasy Basketball Daily Notes | 6 Comments

by: JG

Here’s the matchup grid updated prior to the 1030 ET time games last night.

I don’t want to go in depth on this today as I’d like to spend some time talking about a specific player below. The next in-depth discussion will be in a couple of weeks when we have a nice full month of data. Just wanted to point out that GSW remains near the top of teams to target, albeit they seem to have tightened it up a bit on the rebounding category compared to last week.

Some names to target for the rest of the week:

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?

Dynasty Deep Dive: Getting Down With The D

November 12, 2016 | Dynasty Deep Dive | 9 Comments

by: Craig Bozic

nba_development_league_logo-svg How is it going Razzball Nation? Another week down and what a week it has been both in and out of the NBA. The nation voted, The world waited and BOOM!!………………But let us take a break from politics and let your good buddy Craig guide you through some more NBA development news.

The season is just a few weeks old but boy do I need to take stock and catch breath. We saw it rain 3’s for Stephen Curry against the Pelicans; We saw it rain assists for James Harden, putting up 72 in his last 5 games,;We have seen it rain blocks for Anthony Davis, putting up 3 or more blocks in 7 of his first 9 games; and seen the Hornets reign the East in the early part of the season with an impressive 6-1 record.

So where do we start today? Well with the D-League having started last nigh,t what better way than to highlight a few guys whose progress I will be tracking throughout the season. The D-League may seem like a glass ceiling of a graveyard for some, but often presents opportunity for players to showcase their talents in the hope of impressing for that elusive rotational run in the NBA. Back in 2014 we came across a guy called Hassan Whiteside, whom after being drafted back in 2010 by the Sacramento Kings with the 33rd overall pick, got signed with the Miami Heat after 3 seasons in the D-League……………The rest is history.

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Summer League Special!

July 20, 2015 | Fantasy Basketball Daily Notes | 20 Comments

by: JB Gilpin

Summer is here! And what else do you think about during summer than campy dancing shark mascots? Or Sharks trying to dance campy? Or campy shark movies!? “Tequila’s on you guys, and I’m super thirsty!” Maybe that should be the tagline for my new donate button…

While it’s way too friggin’ hot to do anything constructive outside, we get to go the great indoors to get our first look at NBA rookies in Summer League! And there’s almost always one surpriser, one Shyamalan twist… Except, well, in a good way. Myles Turner already had the ingredients to be a fantasy beast heading into the draft (which we mentioned in our mock a month earlier), then he landed in one of the most ideal situations to a team needing a big man contributor right away. On top of his already fantasy-friendly skill set, Turner murdered it in summer ball for a 18.7/8.3/0/0.7/4.3 slash line over three games, hitting 8-10 from the stripe and 2-3 treys. Ibaka-lite might actually be more fitting than I jokingly quipped! Even Larry Bird has chimed in saying Turner is better than they thought, and his only real competition for minutes is Jordan Hill. While Turner did have an 8 foul game in there (it’s comical it takes 10 to foul out), it’s about the only knock on a guy who took 11+ shots every game and made at least half of them every time, averaging over 60% from the field. Plus only 3 total TO. It’s easy to dismiss popcorn stats like that in Summer League, but the opportunity is there and I think he might be the #1 rookie big off the draft board in 9-cat leagues, as crazy as that sounds. If Jahlil could just make an effin’ FT! Where’s a good FT coach like Andris Biedrins when you need them… Here’s what else went down through Summer League action, which wrapped up over the weekend:

Please, blog, may I have some more?