We’re down to the wire now. Toss your burners, Marlowe. With just 10 days left, it’s time to erase the history of what got you here and look only in your immediate future. Unless you’re planning to keep Rudy Gay for next year, dump him. Hoping Rodrigue Beaubois will come around in the final week? Let someone else waste games finding out. Will Kevin Love miss a couple more games? Will a couple turn to three? Bench him for someone like Chuck Hayes. A low impact player likely to get minutes, unlikely to get hurt and who’ll give you more than 60 percent of what a healthy Love will give you and 100 percent more than a hurt one will. Same goes for Devin Harris, Andrea Bargnani, Stephen Jackson and so-on. If you have just table scraps waiting to replace Steve Nash, then start Steve Nash this week. But if you have Darren Collison and Steve Nash and you can only play one, play the lesser player more assured of playing all the games. And for those ins daily transaction leagues, keep doing that until your guy returns instead of plugging him in, hoping it’ll happen. Your opponent isn’t doing that. He’s earning points. Don’t get risky now, get points. And good luck.
Here’s how the weekend went in fantasy basketball:
Jared Dudley – In the five games since taking over for Vincanity in the starting lineup, he’s averaged 17 pts/6.2 rbd/3.4 ast aling with 2.4 steals. That’s slightly more than I imagined he produced when the switch happened, slightly more than I assumed the smelly Vincense would produce for the Suns when he was traded and way more than you would expect someone owned in less than half of fantasy leagues would be producing.
Aaron Brooks – 14/0/6 in place of the flu-ridden Steve Nash. Not a bad game, but not what you hoped for when you drafted him in the middle rounds. And this was in the upper-half of the games he played this season. It’s going to be a heckuva offseason. If Brooks becomes a starter again, he can score and will. If he stays someone’s backup *pinkie to mouth* Aar’on the side of caution.
George Hill – Here’s everything you need to know about George Hill’s season right here: In three of his last five games, he’s averaged 28.7/1/3.7. In the other two, he averaged 5.5/1/1.5. Yeah, I’m not burning a top 100 draft pick on him again until he moves to the starting lineup.
Gary Neal – He hit three 3-pointers in San Antonio’s drubbing of Phoenix. Neal doesn’t offer much, but he has hit at least one three in 11 of his 12 games. He also offers a second review of your tax return before April 15 if you roster him before Wednesday.
Gordon Hayward – Career-high 19 points along with three rebounds, four assists and two treys in nearly 41 starter’s minutes. This was among Hayward’s better games and it’s a good sign that he started. With Price, Bell and Kirilenko all out for at least another game (maybe more) and with Utah eliminated from the playoffs, grab Hayward if you’ve got dead weight dragging down your roster.
Kyle Weaver – 19/2/3, with a steal, two blocks and a pair of threes. Kyle Weaver only has games like this when a) there’s no one else on the roster to have them, b) he’s desperately trying to avoid being sent to the D-League, or c) no, wait. A and B about covered it.
Tyreke Evans – 24/4/10 as he’s back to being a starter. I’m putting the over/under of the percentage of Evans owners who missed the playoffs because of his plantar fasciitis and are now calculating how easily they could have won their head-to-head matchups had he been healthy all along at about, oh, 77.5 percent.
DeMarcus Cousins – 17/9/6, with five steals, five turnovers and six fouls. DeMarCo leads the league in personal fouls by a large margin. Even if he decreases that number by 10 percent next season, the amount of court time that will equate to next year is enough to make him a top 50 pick.
Kris Humphries – Missed out on Sunday’s mess, with a lingering ankle injury. It doesn’t sound serious, but as the Hump’s strength lies mainly in rebounding, it’s better to start a safer rebounding option rather than allow your team’s fate to ride on the strength of one ankle. Really, Kim is the only thing that should ever ride of Kris Humphries. Side question: Does the Kardashian family approve of Humphries because his name, like Kim, Kloe, Kylie and Kourtney, starts with a K or is he swimming against the tide here because he shares the same name as Kim’s mother?
Travis Outlaw – Came off the bench to back up Brandan Wright, who was only starting because Humphries was out. Then Wright went down in less than four minutes and Outlaw went 17/9, with three steals. If streaming injured Nets is wrong, I don’t want B. Wright. I want T. Outlaw.
Anthony Morrow – The man with the NBA’s most buttery jump shot this side of Boston is shooting .452 from the field this season. I’m surprised it’s this low. I can’t believe it’s not butter. I can believe that I’ll not be valuing him any higher next season than I did this season.
Pau Gasol – Limped off the court, then limped back on the court. Later decided he should not have limped back on the court as his knee is filled with fluid and his next appearance on Tuesday is questionable. You know, a fluid-filled knee is pretty soft I hear. If Lamar Odom is available, it’s weird that you think you need my advice on what to do next.
Ty Lawson – Didn’t escape single-digit scoring in either game over the weekend. His assists have been a little uninspiring this week too (6, 3, 4, 8). Also, Jeremiah Weed Roadhouse Tea doesn’t seem like something I could even be paid to drink. What do these three things have in common? Nothing. Why must everything be connected?
Wilson Chandler – 7/3/3, and has scored a total of 25 points in his the last four games. Wilson’s doing a fine job tanking the end of his season just enough so that next year’s owners will forget how solid the first 5½ months of his season were.
Jerryd Bayless – Averaged 24.5/3/8.5 in Jose Calderon‘s place over the weekend. He does this. Jordan Farmar does this. Ty Lawson did it. Aaron Brooks did it on two teams. Jarrett Jack too. So go do it.
Emeka Okafor – Grabbed a season-high 17 rebounds. And here’s the funny thing about fantasy basketball. If you were watching his halftime stats and saw he already had 13 boards, you’re probably a little disappointed Big ‘Mek only grabbed 17.
Roy Hibbert – 10/5 at halftime, 10/6 at game’s end. (R)Oy!
Tyler Hansbrough – After scorning 20+ in 6-of-7 games two weeks ago, Psycho T has scored in double-digits twice in the last six games. It’s like making partner in a law firm only to realize you’ll be stuck lawyer-ing the rest of your life. Yeah. practicing law can be turned into a one-word verb. You bet it can.
Chuck Hayes – Double-doubled last night (19/12), his ninth of the season and fifth in 11 games. Jrue story.
Stephen Jackson – Didn’t play Sunday due to lingering hamstring woes. Silas says he might play Tuesday. Ain’t no might about it. Leave him on your bench unless you’re so far ahead that you’re just trying not to run up the score. In which case I’d like to quote John Kreese, “mercy is for the weak.” Sweep the leg.
Kwame Brown – Shot 0-for-2 and ended with a 0/3/2 line. I feel like Scout Finch recognizing Boo Radley in the corner of the room. Hey, Kwame.
Matt Carroll – Scored a season-high 26 points. Look, I know you’re desperate. We all get desperate from time-to-time, but grabbing Carroll to finish out your season is like bringing home a suspected tranny with the intention to just make out and cuddle so you don’t have to find out for sure. But you’ll find out. And you’ll be horrified.
Andray Blatche – The only Andray in NBA history has averaged .470% FG/ 25 pts/ 14.7 rbds in the three games since his shoulder furlough. If he was dropped, or if you benched him, make sure those wrongs are righted now.
Shaquille O’Neal – See Shaq sign with the C’s. Sign Shaq, sign. See Shaq injured. Ouch Shaq, ouch. See Shaq recover and play fewer than six minutes before injuring himself again. F.U. Shaq, F.U.
Will Bynum – Started for the second consecutive game in place of the punished Stuckey and scored 20 points. This might only last a few games, as most things with Kuester seem to, but there’s only a few games left so if you need a scorer, you could do worse. Being any guard on the Detroit Pistons is an example of you doing worse.
Dwyane Wade – Hurt his quad, played on it, then said he might have to miss a game this week because of it. Then Chris Bosh shook his head, mumbled something about Wade being a sissy and pretty much solidified that Wade will play exactly one more game than Bosh for the rest of their careers.
