I have grown to become quite tired of the All star break and frankly this year I saw the least amount of it since I remember myself, so the only content I can give you is this awesome interaction between Jokic and Wemby, during the all star pregame and a mix of other Jokic related incidents around the All star weekend.
Besides that, the major news for fantasy, but for next season, came from reports that the NBA will try to further combat tanking by implementing some major changes that will be announced later on. I say anything that helps is appreciated, as we have seen tanking start from December this season and this is a n obvious bad look for the association.
Regarding last week’s suggestions, Isaiah Collier has been awesome and will continue to be must own as long as Keyonte George is sidelined, while Maxime Reynaud has also become a must as he is the last big man standing in Sacramento because of Dylan Cardwell’s untimely injury. Furthermore, Tristan Vukcevic continues to start for the Wizards, albeit with a bit reduced minutes than we would have liked. Finally, on the Sell front, DeMar Derozan proved me wrong by having a good week, while Jusuf Nurkic proved me right by getting shut down for the season due to a nose surgery.
Buy
Moussa Diabate: The mini brawl that broke out in the Hornets – Pistons game resulted in a 4 game suspension for Diabate, but he returned yesterday and immediately reclaimed his starting spot. Charlotte is a much better team with him on the floor and if you are ok with his nonexistent points, he can be a great rebounding source, with some blocks added on top (23% owned).
Kyle Filipowski: I have been preaching this for weeks and in a lot of comments but Jusuf Nurkic being out for the season is the last domino to fall and make Filipowski a clear must own player. If Isaiah Collier is the tank commander this year for the Jazz, Filipowski is at least the tank lieutenant and he is already a top100 player for the last month, so go get him (37% owned)!
Jonathan Kuminga: Do I trust his 27 point explosion last game, mainly because Jalen Johnson left the game with a hip injury ? Not at all. But if you look at Atlanta’s roster, there is a path for Kuminga to carve a 28 minute role and have back-end value in standard leagues. The only red flag is that Atlanta’s schedule is bad for the next 2 weeks so if you are fighting for a playoff spot, you can safely skip him (28% owned).
Sell
Kristaps Porzingis: He is owned in 91% of yahoo fantasy leagues. Don’t care. When he plays he can be a real fantasy unicorn. Don’t care. What I and we should care about as we come closer to the fantasy playoffs is actual and not potential value and it is becoming increasingly obvious that the Unicorn can not get through a full week of basketball, even coming from the bench. The last time he played a full week of basketball without sitting any games was between 27/10 and 7/11. Yes that was last year. I know you might used a high draft pick to get him, but the drop is the right move here (91% owned).
Streaming points and decent FG % today. Please rank top two:
Strawther vs Celts
B Brown vs Celts
Tyson at Bucks
Keldon at Raptors
Cam Thomas vs Cavs
If fg% are not super critical to the decimal, I would take Cam’s points upside followed by Tyson.
Keldon is a more secure fg% option but the Raptors are not a good match up usually for opponent forwards.
Donovan Mitchell out today and Harden questionable so Tyson jumps first I think.
Fully into silly season I fear. What a mess the NBA has on its hands.
One more week of regular season to go for my main league. 1/2 game out of first, 6 games ahead of third place so a bye looks secure.
I goofed on Kuminga. Held him for quite a while but dropped him for Precious when the Hawks did not play him right after the break. I needed bodies! But lamenting it now. Such is fantasy. I only lost twice this year – both times to the third place team 5-4. Of course, I will likely see him come the week March 16th. My team is below and I am not thrilled despite my standing.
Gobert, Mobley, Filipowski
Jalen Johnson, Siakam (ugh), McDaniel, Miles Bridges,Bey, Oubre, Eason, Precious, Jarace
Maxey, Quickley
No guards!
WW: Schroeder, Dunn, Merrill, Sexton, Davion, Huff, YaBu, da Silva
Any swaps or just ride it out?
Silly season has been extra silly and extra early this season unfortunately. I don’t see a swap right now so I think you ride it out my friend.
Let’s hope Siakam plays some more games than we anticipate, not gonna lie the team does not look like a league winner but I’ve seen far worse teams win it all
Agree. Shocked at my results. More luck and solid WW use during the year to squeak out wins. Come playoff time, things change. League is really balanced as any of the top six could win it. Thanks for all your comments during the year. Been a grind!
Let’s pretend you are bored or get paid by how many irritating commenter questions you answer! Which of these teams wins our 9 cat league?
A. Reeves, Hart, Jaylen, Bam, Joker, KPJ,
Tobias, Garland, Hartenstein, Pippen, Jerome, Larsson, Cason
B. Rollins, K George, DeRozan, OG, Zingus, Riley, LeBron, Deni, Durant, Shai, Kuminga, Duren, Andrew Wiggins, Embiid
C. D White, Wells, Ausar, Buzelis, Wemby, B Miller, Cam Johnson, Christie, Murphy, Queta, Jabari, Poeltl, S Barnes, Maxime, Tatum
Being a software engineer and a fantasy basketball geek certainly helps in those kind of questions to run the simulations.
Assuming a matchup week with equal games played, no streaming and all players performing to their season averages with no injuries the results are:
Team A vs Team B 5-4
Team A vs Team C 5-4
Team B vs Team C 6-3
Team B is dominant in points, Team A in assists and steals and Team C is a classic big man team that needs to stream aggressively 3pointers to win the matchups 5-4.
If you gave me a choice, I would take Team A and stream triples or take Team C and aggressively take triples while trying to win my fg%, which is harder. Those are my 2 cents.
That is a great analysis. Thank you. What is fascinating is that Team B has led the league all year although I beat him 5-4 in our only match up. My son is Team A and is in 6th place having had injury issues (some self induced) but is getting healthy now and dropped some of his other guys that he hung on to like J Green. Team C is in third place and beat me both times 5-4. Gonna be a dogfight. My team that includes six guys off the WW doesn’t look very good and plays fewer games than the 3rd and 6th place team the week I will play them. So more work and luck is needed. I did not have a good draft with Trae, Butler and LaVine being who they are so that is on me obviously. Maxey and Jalen Johnson helped. The teams listed above had the first three picks in the draft which I find interesting too.
Best to you…, doing mock baseball drafts this morning with the #10 pick – same as basketball
Interestingly enough, if I run the same simulation for your team against them the results are:
You vs Team A 4-5
You vs Team B 4-5
You vs Team C 5-4
So it is a very close battle, even though obviously the prediction method is not perfect.
Having the top3 picks this season has been a game changer since the difference of the top3 guys is much clearer and it is not made up by selecting high on the second round.
Good luck in baseball, I will spare you my expertise since I don’t even know the rules.
Thanks! It has been an ongoing joke. I have had the #10 pick in three straight sports. #9 and # 12 before that. But I won baseball last year from the 12 spot. Basketball, as you mentioned, is harder. I had a good run getting Harden in b2b years when he was a super stud, then got Jokic twice – once with the #3 pick which was crazy.
Back to this year, I have to hope the model gets me closer based on recency not YTD stats. Precious, Filipowski, Jarace to the rescue lol.
Yep. At least all 3 as smashing their season averages in the last month.