Yikes. After an injury-plagued 14-15 season where virtually every starter missed a good chunk of time, the injury bug hath reared it’s ugly head yet again for the Pelicans. I need comfort! Time to shame eat 50 beignets!
After Jrue Holiday‘s slow recovery from another stress reaction in his leg, the Pelicans plan to limit him to 15 minutes a game until January and sit him on back-to-backs. Then Norris Cole suffered a high-ankle sprain a little over a week ago, and given an “up to 6 weeks” timetable. And right when the Tyreke Evans buzz couldn’t get louder, we get hit with news on The Blindside (starring Sandra Bullock) that he had arthroscopic knee surgery and will be out 6-8 weeks. The Pelicans need a new conditioning staff! Hopefully this gets all the injuries out of the team’s system and we see 82 games of Brow… Anyway, the Pelicans signed Nate Robinson late last week, and all the sudden he’s looking at starting minutes to open the season – starting when Jrue sits and playing a ton off the bench after Jrue’s 15 allotted minutes. Lord help me, but I actually drafted him in the JB vs. Slim RCL last night… All he needs to do is put it within 15 feet of Brow and he could fall into 5 assists with the upside for a few 3s and some points with low TO (18 Pts last night, but 0 AST and 4 TO – had 9 dimes previous 2 games with only 3 TO, TO isn’t usually an issue). It’s like Jose Calderon, but with a few more minutes. Ugh, I just threw up in my mouth a little with that comp though… Here’s what else has gone down over the past few days in preseason action:
Tristan Thompson – CHANGE EVERYTHING, CHANGE YOU DRAFT STRATEGY, BLOW ALL YOUR FAAB!!!!! Gets the 5-year, $82 million deal he was hoping for AND IT”S ALMOST DOUBLE WHAT MONTA ELLIS GOT!!!! WHAT IN THE HELL IS GOING ON?!?!?!?! Geez, something is wrong with my caps lock there, I’m actually pretty tepid about this… About as tepid as Thompson is for fantasy; still not 12er worthy for me. On that contract. Eesh… It’s almost like Cavs management doesn’t pay attention to fantasy metrics!
Hassan Whiteside – After I steadfastly defended his FT stroke, he goes out and bricks an 0-9 in his preseason debut. Followed it up with an 0-1 last night for a grand total of 0-10 this preseason. That’s 0%! I do math! I still think he can be a 60-65% guy, and at least other than the FT, he’s looked unreal. 12/9 6 blocks int hat debut then 10/8 4 blocks in under 20 mins last night.
Gerald Green – Did his thang and got hot off the bench. 28/9/1/1/0 on 8-14 FG (3-5 3PTM 9-12 FT). He’s going to be too inconsistent for 12ers, but any deeper he’s worth a hold. He’ll be a great ThrAGNOF streamer on the Dwyane Wade bridge club nights.
Rudy Gobert – A lot of concern in the comments for his slow start in preseason. Luckily that sentence ended with preseason, and shizz don’t count! He said he was a little exhausted from international play, and I think is just coasting a bit; Monsieur Elbow has nothing to prove right now in terms of needed to lock down his role. He’s gonna be a beast. And if anyone is worried, shoot dem buy lows!
Isaiah Thomas – Has knee tendinitis, but luckily his knees are only 2/3 the size of a normal NBA player’s knees. He should be fine.
Kent Bazemore – Played the starting 3 with the other four usual starters, and put up 18/2/2 on a hot 7-10 shooting (2-3 3PTM) last night. He usually nabs a few steals as well, and with Thabo Sefolosha barely easing back in and as we’ve mentioned on the Pod, Baze should get some good run in Tuesday’s opener if you want some early streaming minutes.
Nicolas Batum – Had a pretty solid preseason, putting a 18/10/6 cherry on top last night. If he’s healthy and shoots a decent %, he’ll end up being a mid-round steal.
Jeremy Lin – Continued his solid fake game play as well, helping the Hornets to a fake 7-0 record with his fake, ummmm, mohawk thing… Anyway, 18/5/5 last night, started at PG with Kemba sitting, and I think is ownable out of the gate for combo guard stats.
Jeremy Lamb – Sprained his ankle Monday night, but it isn’t too serious. Do lambs have ankles? I thought they had like, hooves… Anyway, I don’t really want Lamb or P.J. Hairston except in the deepers.
Kentavious Caldwell-Pope – NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Exited early with some foot pain last night, but X-rays were negative. Hopefully it was something fluky that goes away, if it lingers until this morning he’s likely headed for an MRI. I wrote that, then an hour later they say he’s getting one. Scurry. Although they did say “precautionary”. I love me some KCP, but if anything lengthy comes out of this, the Stanley Johnson hype train will be about as out of control as Snowpiercer.
Anthony Davis – 33/16/0/2/5 last night, with 17-19 FT. Dear god.
John Jenkins – Physically impossible for him to score under 16 Pts. The universe would implode! Kept it going for 22/4/2 last night, salvaging a bad game from deep (1-7 3PTM) with nice mid-range (9-20 FG overall). Might get a few starts early on with Wesley Matthews recovering, but not a long-term hold in 12ers. Love streaming him next Thursday on a lighter slate.
Raymond Felton – Looked shockingly not fat last night. 17/1/3 on 8-12 shooting, getting some good penetration. Ohhhh, I said penetration, I’m aroused! Did have 5 TO though… Meh, now I’m back to half-mast. I could pretty much make any joke about Felton right now; if he was reading he would’ve stopped at beignets in the open and gotten food…
Gerald Henderson – Hip is still bothering him, and is still not taking contact. Might as well get that AARP card with symptoms like that! C.J. McCollum is going to get a lot of rock, but buyer beware that FG% and as I mentioned on the Pod, through 6 preseason games only 3 steals. Playing about 30 MPG too. Small sample, but I think he’s going to get mad overdrafted.
Ian Mahinmi – Back-to-back 6 for 9s! Hey, he’s French, he’s probably into some weird stuff! I probably would shoot my future self if a month ago I traveled back in time and told myself I would finish a draft with Nate Robinson and Mahimi as my final two picks in a 12er like my RCL last night… But hey, he’s gonna play, getting swats and boards (14/7/2/0/4 last night), and just as you’d expect, draining FT% with a 2-6 yesterday. Also only 4 TO in 5 games. I think I like Mahinmi over Jahlil Okafor these days – will out-block and have a lot less TO. Well, the risk is Myles Turner is as legit as I hope and they start him at the 5 and phase Mahnimi out… I’m in a weird love triangle with Pacers big men right now…
Clint Capela – A little Mahinmi-esque with a 10/12/1/1/3 line last night with 2-6 FT. Dwight Howard “may or may not have practiced” in one of the weirdest reporting that happened yesterday due to his back, but regardless Dwight is already a little dinged up and I think Capela is worth rostering in virtually all 12ers.
Zach LaVine – Awful preseason and likely played his way out of a starting SG spot. Had a nice dunk the last game though! Tough to remember anything about the Wolves playing the Bucks at the University of Wisconsin other than the fans booing Tyus Jones every time he touched the rock. Hilarious. “Boooooo, you beat our team!” Cry me a river, Badgers fans!
T.J. Warren – We know he can score (albeit without shooting 3s), but multi-steals in the past 4 preseason games now. TJ could muscle out PJ if he’s gonna play D! …J
Steven Adams – Speaking of playing D …J, 14/10/3/0/2 against Utah and should be fringe usable as a final big. It was between him and Mahinmi for my final big man spot in the RCL last night, I went Mahinmi… More minutes should be there.
Russell Westbrook – Tripdub alert! 21/10/10 Tuesday night against the Jazz, but 3-7 FT?! You’re not MCW, get that together Rdub!
Ryan Anderson – After three straight good games, 11/6/1/1/0 last night with 5 TO and fouled out in 26 minutes. He probably got flustered because he has a clone on the Blazers named Meyers Leonard who is trying to be as good as the original…
LeBron James – Got an injection in his back, but should be ready to suit up for the opener. Damn, I had a #6 pick last night in that RCL draft, and I didn’t feel great getting BronBron even though I have him ranked 5. The Playoff sched and inevitable benchings are pretty scary, and it doesn’t help he’s already getting injections for shizz…
Deron Williams – This “minor” calf thing has cost all preseason and he’s questionable for the opener already. Not boding well for a hopefully bounce back season from Mr. Kankles…
Terrence Jones – Sustained a concussion, but sounds like he’s progressing nicely. Hopefully he doesn’t miss the opener, but doesn’t seem like he’d miss much more time if he does.
Thoughts on preseason so far? Nothing too crazy going on and luckily only a handful of injuries to worry about. I’m glad there wasn’t a repeat of last year with Durant’s foot blowin’ up! Thanks for dropping by, Razzball Nation, t-minus 5 days!
