I could not dedicate this introduction to anything else but the Nikola Jokic – Lu Dort incident this week, with Dort sticking his hip and leg to make contact with Jokic before he even crosses half court and with the Joker going absolutely crazy, as you can see in the home picture of this article. Let’s play the video
Bonus points for acting all innocent when he obviously committed the intentional foul. I have also never seen Jokic look so much like his brothers and thankfully for OKC they were not present in the arena. This resulted in a Dort ejection which I think is more than fair for an attempt to injure a player and frankly Dort has already gotten away with a lot throughout the years. There are a few relevant compilations like the one below, but the most egregious ones are the ones trying to position his feet on the landing spot of players as they are coming down from a shot or a rebound.
Regarding last week’s suggestions, Moussa Diabate reclaimed his starting spot and should have no trouble averaging 30 minutes and standard league value for the rest of the way, while Kyle Filipowski is finally repaying the faith and patience shown by owners, as he has started the last 6 games and is providing solid value. Finally, in a weird twist of fate in the Kuminga – Porzingis trade, the former that was a Buy suggestion is having an awesome start to his Atlanta career, while the latter has only played a single game with the Warriors and his return is constantly postponed, making his Sell designation last week a solid one in my opinion.
Buy
Precious Achiuwa: Who would have thought at the start of the season in Sacramento that Precious Achiuwa was going to be a starter and average 31 minutes in the last 2 weeks. More importantly than just the minutes he is producing great traditional big man stats and is bringing also the defense with 1.6 steals so despite a 28% ownership he is a must add (28% owned).
Tre Jones: Started the last 2 games for Chicago as they have run out of guards, despite collecting 100 of them in the trade deadline and is a solid contributor. His role can further expand if Josh Giddey misses any games with his latest ankle injury so an add seems like a fine play with Jones until/if the Bulls get healthy (15% owned).
Sell
Mark Williams: He does have a 5 game week in week 21 and he has been playing back to backs, but his production and minutes have been trending in the wrong direction for quite a while. If you forget the name value, would you be happy to roster a player averaging 22 minutes, 9.5 points, 8 rebounds, 0.5 blocks and virtually no other stat? Because this is exactly his line for the last month and is thus ranked 239th in per game value (85% owned).
Should I be trying to sell hard on Julius Randle and or Donte for MIN heading into the playoffs in a points league as MIN only plays 2 games during the semi finals? I’ve already been able to move Julius and Podz in a 9 CAT league for Trey Murphy.
First of all, that’s a win trade you did for Murphy, kudos to you.
I think you are right to think about moving them , schedule can be a league winner in the playoffs.
With Week 22 being your semi finals though, expect a lot of silly season shenanigans.
For sure, appreciate your writing and the fact that you take the time to talk with your readers.
I’ll see what I can do in regards to Randle and Donte, have trades floating out there but manager are slow to respond, trade deadline is tomorrow so will have to push it!
Thank you for your kind words. Best of luck finding a trade !