“Microphone checka, swingin’ sword lecture. Closing down the sector, supreme neck protector”
Welcome in all my people new and old to our midweek dissection of a player in the NBA landscape that has provided you with just enough evidence to “keep it moving” and slide on to a better option for the back nine of the season. As I said last week, no longer will this be a column where I suggest trade options as we are past that deadline in almost all leagues. Instead, I am suggesting you bench or drop this week’s underperformer and I will give you a name or two that I hope you can scoop up off your wire. It is imperative that you are not wasting a roster spot on a player who simply is not delivering the goodies. You will be better served to optimize each game moving forward and in order to do so, you must be strategic in who you play moving forward. Only the strong survive and I like to think of myself as your fantasy basketball personal trainer, providing you the diet and the workout needed to achieve the results you desire.
“I came to bring the pain hardcore from the brain. Let’s go inside my astral plane…”
Moses Brown
Lonzo Ball
We have ourselves another two for one special of players you should be strongly considering dropping in the case of Brown and keeping a close eye on benching in the case of Ball.
“Cause there ain’t no need for that, hustlers and hardcores, raw to the floor raw like resovoir dogs”.
I will start with Brown because it was not that long ago when he was one of the hottest pick-ups across the fantasy basketball landscape. Oh my, how the mighty have fallen. Ok, I agree, calling him mighty might be a stretch with such a small sample size to pull from but there were high hopes that he could turn into a late-season savior much like Christian Wood did last year before Covid collapsed all sports and life as we once knew it.
Unfortunately, this version of Moses will not be doing anything close to as spectacular as another with the same name. No, my friends, it is time to drop this Moses as he has squandered an opportunity on an OKC team trying desperately to not win another game this season. Brown has gone scoreless in his last two outings with a total of 10 rebounds, one steal, and one block as the only stats accumulated in that span. That should tell you everything you need to know about why it is time to move on “while the planets and the stars and the moons collapse”.
Looking at Lonzo Ball, the deficiencies are not quite as obvious. Last night he put up a respectable 15 points, four rebounds, three assists, two steals, and three treys on 54.5% from the field. However, the two games prior to that he shot 22 and 20% from the field with a combined nine points, nine rebounds, and six assists. The three steals and two blocks combined in that time are nice but it is a tough sell when you have to take on the horrible shooting and low-end production everywhere else to get it.
I am not suggesting you outright drop Ball today but consider the fact that the Pelicans are not very good and could fall out of contention sooner than later. Also, his hip injury that kept him out for an extended period of time is likely still lingering, and would not be shocking to see him hit the sidelines again because hips don’t lie.
A player like Kira Lewis Jr. should be firmly on your radar if you own Ball but even if you do not own Ball, KL Jr is someone to watch as the season moves forward.
Another player to consider picking up is Xavier Tillman. The Grizzlies are currently in the play-in hunt but that could change in the blink of an eye out West meaning more playing time for a player like Tillman as the season winds down. In addition to the fact that I am losing faith in the idea that Jaren Jackson Jr. will be walking onto the court anytime soon, there seems to be a path to minutes and thus production from the X-man.
La, la, la, la, la, la, la, la.
Hit me up in the comments and good luck.
Peace.
