Tobias & Me: Life And Love With The East’s Most Interesting Forward

February 23, 2016 | Fantasy Basketball Daily Notes | 10 Comments

[Editor’s Note – No podcast today due to a funny story of JB having to go to the ER, he’s fine though! We’ll be back with the Pod on Thursday]

As the biggest and most surprising player dealt before the Trade Deadline, Tobias Harris arguably has more eyes on him now in Detroit than ever before in Orlando. Brought in to fill the Rashard Lewis role of playmaking 4 in Stan Van Gundy’s quest to reincarnate the 2010 Magic, Harris development with the Pistons will be one of the most intriguing story lines over the rest of the season.

With 16 and 21 points respectively in his previous two outings, Harris has flashed potential in his roll off the bench as a playmaker capable of finding his own shot. Due to any injury to Anthony Tolliver, Harris found himself in the starting lineup at power forward, a potential glimpse into Detroit’s long-term future.

Scoring 14 points to compliment 5 rebounds, 3 assists, and 3 steals, his debut may have lacked a flashy statline to pair with his status as one of Pistons new core pieces. However, Harris is undoubtedly in a better situation right now than his previous tenure in Orlando.

As a result, fantasy owners should be monitoring his value accordingly. While Detroit is in win-now mode to secure a playoff birth, Harris will be acclimating to his new role and teammates for the rest of the year. Not to temper expectations, but I don’t view his multi-cat impact materializing over the last 30 games.

There may be flashes of his potential, but the Harris move is about 2016 and beyond, not just the last two months of the season.

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?

Fantasy Basketball Infirmary: Week 19 Injury Analysis

March 6, 2015 | Fantasy Basketball Daily Notes | 4 Comments

by: Peter Kap

For one week this season, it feels like there are more stars returning from injury than ones getting hurt. However, that won’t console those who saw their players were added to the injury list. So we’ll start with the bad news first.

All-Star Jimmy Butler suffered an elbow sprain in Sunday’s game and will miss the next 3-6 weeks. Fortunately the injury will not require surgery, but that still puts him out for most, if not all of March.

Joining Derrick Rose and Butler on the sideline, Taj Gibson is out with another ankle injury. Out since suffering the injury in Friday’s game, he’s no longer wearing a walking boot. Gibson has a history of ankle injuries so the Bulls’ may want to be extra cautious with him, but Gibson should be considered day-to-day going forward.

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Stotts Takes Five Shots, Then Decides Who To Start At PF

January 23, 2015 | Fantasy Basketball Daily Notes | 73 Comments

by: JB Gilpin

I know, I know. Much bigger headlines on the injury front, but it’s Injury Friday with Pete’s Fantasy Basketball Infirmary coming out in a few hours, so I’m not gonna steal his spotlight!

With LaMarcus Aldridge out 6-8 weeks with a hitchhiking injury, on top of Robin Lopez still a few weeks out, there’s a ton of PF/C minutes to fill your Blazing hole. After Dorell Wright had a very solid 15/3/5/2/0 line with three treys on Wednesday, it kinda felt like Wright could’ve run away with the gig. But Stotts was like “I want someone else with Ciroc!” and put Thomas Robinson in the PF spot for 28 minutes last night. Almost rainbowed too! I’ve always thought T-Rob could turn into something, and 9/12/1/2/2 was mighty solid. Can’t hit a FT, but who can these days?! By tomorrow night, Stotts could pound a few more Jamesons and be like “F it, we’ve lost two in a row, it’s Meyers Leonard time!” All that said, Nicolas Batum also hopped into the Fantasy Basketball Infirmary leaving early with a wrist injury, so maybe Wright will HAVE to play some starting F. Stotts will take another 5-6 shots of, I dunno, something so low shelf it’s ridiculous – let’s go Popov – to get over last night’s crushing loss and start Steve Blake at PF tomorrow night. At pressers tomorrow he’s going to be lit like Drunk Uncle! Here’s what else went down last night in fantasy basketball action:

Please, blog, may I have some more?

One, Is The Loneliest Number You’ll Ever Do…

December 4, 2014 | Fantasy Basketball Daily Notes | 73 Comments

by: JB Gilpin

… especially since the Sixers are probably going to stay with that one in the win column for a good while!

One… The number of restarts to the Sixers game… What, was Tim Donaghy reffing and have odds on the Wolves scoring first?! Seriously, the Sixers couldn’t win a game without controversy?! Then again there was that Bucks game, sheesh (more below).

One… The number of TOs Michael Carter-Williams will never have in a game… Only one game under three TO this year, but hey, everything else is pretty sexy out there! Near tripdub last night in the Sixers W for 20/9/9 and three steals. Finally putting the W in MCW! Shot 9-20 from the field, but when he’s at the FT line it still gives him delirium triggers like a recovering alcoholic! It’s actually “delirium tremens”, but man I love that old Coheed song! 2-7 from the stripe last night with the whopping 6 giveaways, and it’s what you bargain for as an MCW owner. It’s almost like he sold his soul to the efficiency gods just to put up sexy triple-double stats. Maybe when Tony Wroten comes back, he can just be MCW’s TO-surrogate. “Tony, just turn it over a few times, and it’ll get em out of my system.” I feel like trading away/for MCW has been the most frequently asked comment… I was huge on him heading into the year, and even though his FT/TO drain hurt him in the metrics, I think if you can build around that – even in 9-cat – he’s probably worth more than most owners think. While those 9-cat metrics that rate everything equally are how they should work, remember it’s a team game and strengths/weaknesses play off each other. All you really want is one! One more win than the other team in the fantasy championship. Of course in Roto, you can’t handle those ones! So I would be selling in those formats. Here’s what else went down last night in fantasy action:

Please, blog, may I have some more?

More Like A Six Foot Turkey

November 26, 2014 | Fantasy Basketball Daily Notes | 138 Comments

by: JB Gilpin

Happy Thanksgiving Razzball Nation! This is my last daily recap for the week, so wishing everyone a happy Turkey Day where we can take a day off hoops, watch football, then shame eat pounds of leftovers while watching Goran Dragic standing idly by as he gets no usage for the Suns this weekend…

But what better way to sendoff into the Holiday weekend with the Six-Foot-Turkey himself, Dr. Ersan Ilyasova. While he’s averaging under 21 minutes a game in the past five games (That doesn’t look very scary!), the consistency is kinda preposterous right now. Is exactly in 20-21 minutes in five straight as Kidd apparently knows Ersan’s optimal usage, and has scored 13+ points in all of them. Multi-3PTM in three of those five, grabbing a few boards, and actually a semi-usable player right now off 13/9/0/1/0 and two treys last night. It’s bottom-end 12er worthy, but in limited-move RCLs, I grabbed him Monday to use for a four-game week and like him for matchups play. A low-end ThrAGNOF with some boards! What the wire is for, and even though he’s owned in 44% of Yahoo leagues, it’s a little inflated by dead/auto-draft teams given his silly pre-draft ranks by a lot of experts. I’m keeping that Turkey fresh and might even hold on through next week as well, and then gobbling down the rest of my leftovers before week 7 and the Bucks’ two-game week. Threes ain’t got no face! And I’d be just plain sick of all the Turkey leftovers at that point… Here’s what else went down last night in fantasy hoops action:

Please, blog, may I have some more?

The Sorcerer’s Sloan

November 25, 2014 | Fantasy Basketball Daily Notes | 91 Comments

by: JB Gilpin

If you’re a Harry Potter fan, then you’re in the wrong place. Gave me a punny title! All you’re good for, Rowling… Some friends tried to get me into that noise and there’s like these whore-cruxes hidden around the world or some crap?! Made no sense at all. Get enough whore-cruxes in half the reality shows out there…

Through a few comments over the last couple weeks, I feel like I’ve had to fight for Donald Sloan as a guy to hold onto and not give up for a peanut shell and ABC gum. The sell-high label still applies, but sometimes you gotta just ride the broom like a whore-crux! No idea what that means. Huge night from Sloan in a shocking win at Dallas going 10-14 FG (3-5 3PTM 6-9 FT) 29/2/5/1/0 all with only one turnover. It’s been a little under the radar since he’s not a huge dimer, but has 2 TO or fewer in 9 straight games. Somebody get Michael Carter-Williams some Sloan tape for the film room! Despite a little bit of a struggle at the stripe last night, is well over 80% on freebies this year. Really his only knocks are low steals and FG%, but if I’m getting mad at MCW (which is tough to do after last night!), all the sudden Sloan’s numbers are looking mighty tasty. I still think whatever you get in a trade won’t be worth just riding Sloan another month, as George Hill‘s knee is rumored to keep him out until the latter part of December now. And Sloan’s big play should have him above C.J. Watson, who is also lingering into December with trench foot. Who knows, maybe the Pacers go crazy and start Hill and Sloan when Hill is back anyway, and play Stuckey as a 6th man. Sloan’s been a big part of any success the Pacers have had, so he’ll certainly remain in the rotation. I’ve written Sloan’s name enough for the open here, let’s start gushing over some more of JB’s favs who did well last night:

Please, blog, may I have some more?

The Return Of Swaggy, Lin Gets A Dime Baggy

November 19, 2014 | Fantasy Basketball Daily Notes | 117 Comments

by: JB Gilpin

The Lakers Win, The Lakers Win! Down Goes Frazier! Titanic Sinks! All usable newspaper headlines for rare events.

The Purp & Gold surprised the Left-Facing Pacmen last night, as the Lakers are now an undefeated team when Nick Young plays! Just oh so Swaggy… 28 minutes off the bench notching a really solid line, shooting 6-10 (2-4 3PTM 3-5 FT) for 17/5/0/1/0. Swaggy bein’ ThrAGNOFfy! It’s hard to imagine him getting to 18 points and 14 shots a game like last year with Mamba ultra-hot doggin’ it (nice one JashFath!), but looked pretty good out there. I’m a little biased since I’m not a big Young fan – not enough of a contributor in any stats except contested fadeaway shots – but worth some 3PTM streaming while the gettin’ is good! The Lakers will need his O to keep pressure off Bryant, and Wesley Johnson had an uber-schlubby 32 minutes of nothingball starting at SF. Young will probably continue to come off the bench, but that shouldn’t deter you from some 12-team streaming. Here’s what else went down last night in NBA action:

Please, blog, may I have some more?

If You Had Beef With Markieff Before Last Night, Where’s The Beef?!

November 18, 2014 | Fantasy Basketball Daily Notes | 184 Comments

by: JB Gilpin

A popular sleeper on draft day (well, made more popular by us!), Markieff Morris had been driving fantasy owners crazier than Joaquin Phoenix in The Master.

Through the first 10 games, Markieff had numbers eerily identical to what he did last year despite four more MPG. His engine is on hybrid! But for as atrocious as his previous 4 games were, broke out in a big way against the Celtics for 30/7/5/4/0 hitting 14-21 shots including a trey. And only 1 TO! Career-high scoring for Kieff, after four games in a row under 12 and three of those scoring single-digits. “I found the beef, it’s Jeff Green‘s terrible D!” While my Kieff teams are loaded with swagger after this big Monday, there is something slightly concerning with his stats. Only 1-1 FT last night, and now is under half as many FT makes a game compared to last year, in nearly 5 more minutes a game (playing 39 bumped up his minutes finally!). In 13-14, Kieff-er Sutherland was at 3.2-4.0 at the charity stripe, but is suddenly more like Donald Sutherland and not attacking the cup. Less driving means fewer OREB (down from last year sinking his REB per-36), and his dimes have fallen a smidge as well. None of these stats are major, but it seems he’s not creating and the Suns G-rotation is handling all the rock. Another week of big stats with weak FT numbers and low-ish dimes – on top of Hornacek’s tendency to roll the hot hand, even the starters – and I’d actually sell high. The steals and handful of blocks are nice, but not loving the lack of aggression and new role as more a spot-shooter, which could make him benchable to Horny a lot of games if he’s cold, something we’ve already seen a little of with the waffley minutes. Where’s the beef?! Let’s hope not in the waffles, but ya never know, that could be good! Fried chicken n waffles is out of this world. Here’s what else happened on an unusually busy Monday night of action:

Please, blog, may I have some more?

How Many Shots Could A Kobe Chuck, If A Kobe Could Chuck Wood

November 17, 2014 | Fantasy Basketball Daily Notes | 149 Comments

by: JB Gilpin

“Hey Kobe, I’m open, I’m open!” That’s every Laker…

Despite the plausibility that the Lakers are a real NBA team, they once again proved the contrary with yet another blowout loss. Well, I guess they’ve been in some games, but c’mon! Kobe Bryant is trying to do everything himself, like an asexual chronic masturbator. 15-34 FG last night (3-12 3PTM 11-16 FT) for 44/5/3/0/0. After a 1-14 brickhouse Friday night, that’s a 16-48 weekend (33%). At least Sunday was good! Ish. Most concerning are those treys, going 3-17 from deep in both games. He’s never been a good three-point shooter, especially the past four years. Glasses anyone? Russell Westbrook has got a guy…

As I’m sure Kobe would appreciate to no end, I have a comp for him. Dwight Howard. Hah! Mostly kidding, but Kobe is Dwight-ing (new adjective) your FG%. In H2H it’s not a paramount concern, but in Roto it’s getting scary. I don’t know what you do about it except try to trade Kobe high to a team at the top of your FG% standings. Then let Kobe and that ridiculous volume sink them like the whole Purple and Gold franchise. I keed of course! There’s just nothing there. Like hairs on Carlos Boozers‘ head or anatomy on Ken’s crotch. Kobe vs. NO tonight, 5-on-1! Here’s what else went down over the weekend in fantasy basketball action:

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Nuggets Get Blazed In Denver

November 13, 2014 | Fantasy Basketball Daily Notes | 122 Comments

by: JB Gilpin

No Nicolas Batum, no problem!

The Blazers went nuts in the first half last night, putting up 84 on the hapless Nuggets through 24 minutes. Indiana won last night at Miami scoring 81! All your usual suspects had some good games, but who was the Keyser Soze? The greatest trick bench players have ever pulled was convincing the fantasy basketball world they don’t matter! But Chris Kaman is off yet another brilliant game, putting up 16/7/2/1/2 on 6-8 shooting (4-5 FT), and needs to be owned in virtually all leagues. Was a little in junk time? Sure. Is he better than Robin Lopez? Who isn’t?! Will he start any time soon? Well, no, but dude has grabbed at least 5 boards in every game and averaging over a block and a half a night. The minutes are going to be there all year, as several NBA teams needing a starting big man have got to be mad they didn’t float Kaman a little offerewski. And he’s a must add for RoLo fantasy owners, as while he had a good game last night scoring 19, zero blocks, only 5 boards, and most importantly only 21 minutes. Blowout induced, yes, but topped 30 minutes only twice this year after averaging 32 a game last year. He’s down 4 MPG from 2013-14 as Terry Stotts is utilizing the Blazers’ vastly improved bench, but thus far RoLo’s numbers are nearly identical from last year, and I don’t see that continuing with such lower PT. So sell RoLo high! And when other owners try to figure out why, tell em because you got high. Here’s what else went down in fantasy action last night:

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Nicolas Batum Out With Crabbes

November 12, 2014 | Fantasy Basketball Daily Notes | 98 Comments

by: JB Gilpin

After getting down as much as 23 points, I was going to pose the question – is Nicolas Batum the glue for the Blazers?

But then the Charlotte Hornets looked like the Kelly Tripucka Charlotte Hornets, hiked up their shorts, and got run out of Portland in the second half. This is Damian Lillard‘s show! 29/4/7/2/0 hitting 5 treys and 12 of 21 shots for The Omen.

With Batum out last night (and is hopeful to miss only two more and returning next Monday – he likes the weekly league fantasy players!), a lot of minutes opened up for Blazers SF. And of all the options, I don’t think anyone would’ve projected Allen Crabbe as the starter! Play Chris Kaman at the 3! I actually remember watching a few of Crabbe’s games at Cal when they were in the NCAA tourney and thought he was a good little player. But dude had 4 combined minutes on the season! And even the starting role did nothing for him, going 2/2/2/0/0 in 22 minutes shooting 1-4. Allen Crabby, want more rock! Crabbe has virtually no value, and Batum’s injury just means a few stats will trickle down through the Blazers starters and role players.

The under-the-radar winner is Steve Blake, who nearly rainbowed for 5/4/2/2/1. Season-high 25 minutes and he’s averaging over 3 dimes a game this year. Your line-up is probably filled out tomorrow and Saturday for the next two Blazers games, but hey, if you have one streaming spot open and need a little PG love, don’t be afraid to turn to grown-up Dewey for help. Here’s what else went down in fantasy hoops last night:

Please, blog, may I have some more?