So the Pistons were looking like a playoff contending team with all their offseason acquisitions, but after a 2-1 record with the only loss a close one on the road to Memphis, the Pistons have dropped 4 straight to fall to 2-5. Plus Memphis looks god awful after that looking like a “good” loss. The Pistons aren’t very good. Hire Jim Leyland! The culmination of the four-game skid climaxed in an ugly 18- point loss to the Warriors last night that sent a few fantasy shockwaves down our fantasy spine. First Josh Smith was benched before playing 19 minutes and shot 1-6 for 2 Pts and no boards. That’s like a Robin Lopez line! He reportedly took some bad three-pointers. Those familiar with Josh Smith are like, “aren’t they all bad three pointers coming from him?!” Still think Smith will be fine and this could actually help him from killing your FG% on his off nights. The biggest benefactor to the J Smoove benching was my boyfriend (!) Kentavious Caldwell-Pope getting 24 minutes and going 9/3/1 with a trey and two steals playing a small (literally) forward role at times. Now I didn’t watch this game, so if he was matched up on Andre Iguodala who isn’t exactly a domineering 3, that makes sense. Then to top off a terrible night for Pistons fans, Razzball commenter favorite Andre Drummond went down with an ankle injury, playing way too late in the game that was a blowout. It was like a Booby Miles injury. He walked off the court under his own power, but ankle injuries are like the fantasy grim reaper’s wheel of fortune. Sometimes a terrible looking one turns into nothing, and sometimes you’re Tobias Harris. Hell Tyson Chandler walked off the court with a broken leg! You just never know… Keep your eye out for updates during the day. Hey, at least Drummond put up 16/14/0/3/3 for ya! Here’s what else I saw across the NBA last night:
Jordan Hill – El Burro had like 9 tequila shooters after watching this game, as he hath proclaimed the arrived of Jordan Hill in this game. 7-12 21/11/2/2/1 in a near rainbow line in the start. Whew-eeee! Few things – Anthony Davis absolutely murdered the Lakers last Friday for his best career game, so I’m not surprised Hill got the start. Davis got into foul trouble last night, and got a few of his 27 minutes late in junk time. Then the Pelicans’ best defensive big Greg Stiemsma hurt his knee and had to leave. So that meant a combination of Jeff Withey (posterized by Wheels!) and Lou Amundson had to play PF minutes, and Amundson who had signed yesterday literally didn’t have a name on his jersey. That said, I like Hill just fine to be decent (obviously not getting lines like this often), and he’s worth a speculative add if you have someone to drop in deep 12 leagues to deeper.
Tyreke Evans – After getting just over 7 minutes last game, got 31 off the bench last night in the blowout, getting a decent 11/4/6/1/0 but shooting an atrocious 4-13 and 3-7 FT. As I said after that 7 minute game, his multi-cat keeps him relevant, but he’s droppable if you need stats.
Nick Young – His haircut makes him look like “The NBA Player with the Dragon Tattoo”, but when he’s not hacking and being all goth-y, went 7-11 for 17 points, but only 1 assist and 1 trey as any other stats. Meh.
Jodie Meeks – Another 3 threes. ThrAGNOF!
Steve Blake – Only the 5 points but 10 dimes. A full dollar from the young kid in Malcolm in the MIddle. Worth the add looking for dimes and threes.
Chris Kaman – Lost in the Hill breakout will be Kaman’s really good line of 8/9/6 and a steal.
Jordan Farmar – Also had a solid multi-cat line off the bench of 9/7/8.
Xavier Henry – Wheels shot well (6-8), scored well (15), made the dunk of the night, hit three treys, but had 5 TOs in just over 22 minutes. So many people on this Lakers team flash something here and there. It’s like going to a recovering nudist convention.
Dwyane Wade – The 8 Pts is bad, the 6 TOs is worse, but you like the 8/8/5/2/2 rainbow line slash. Dicing up the Bucks like an inuit tribe.
Michael Beasley – Nearly 20 minutes in very junkish time shooting 8-12 for 19 Pts. Only 1-4 FT though. At least he didn’t hit himself in the head…
Ersan Ilyasova – Ankle is still bothering the Turk. Why I moved him down so far in the rankings, I just don’t trust ankle sprains, especially for bigs. Hopefully the man from Turkey can be back by Thanksgiving.
John Henson – Didn’t start in favor of Khris Middleton. I’m loving the Middleton REL pickup! Henson went 7-10 for 18 Pts, but only 3 boards and no blocks. Shockingly 4-4 from the stripe. Still worth keeping your eye on as the Bucks bigs are dropping like flies.
Brandon Knight – Built up from the 15 minutes to 24 last night in his second game back, and has admitted he’s not really 100%. Hopefully he feels good this morning and has more confident. 6 Pts and 6 dimes but 4 TOs. Should be starting and getting the big minutes soon.
Zaza Pachulia – Only 18 minutes, 3/5, but this was a blowout and he’s dealing with an iffy foot. No reason to run him heavy in a blowout. He’ll be decent tonight as they’ll need a big physical big against Nikola Vucevic in what should be a close contest.
Trevor Ariza – Showing he can just go nuts when he’s hot. He’s always getting the minutes, so when he’s on, lines like last night’s 10-17 (5-11 3PTM) 27/7/0/4/0 are gonna happen. Nothing you can always depend on, but the volume of minutes will always be there making him valuable.
Bradley Beal – Took the flip side of the hot Ariza, with a cold 2-10 9/3/7 game. He’ll be fine.
Al Harrington – Can’t believe he’s still making it rain! Plus dos mas treys. ThrAGNOF!
DeJuan Blair – Another double-digit rebounding game going 9/11. He’s 2013-14’s Reggie Evans. I think a commenter suggested that, not stealing your thunder!
Toney Douglas – Out at least two weeks with a leg injury. Hey, Douglas matters to my REL team! All the sudden my REL depth guys are dropping like Ariza threes… My big take away is it’ll mean Andre Iguodala will get run at point guard at times and more minutes for Harrison Barnes while Iggy dribbles it up.
Klay Thompson – 6-9 (2-4 3PTM) 14/2/3. Glorified ThrAGNOF!
Chauncey Billups – Played 5:40 as a starter. I feel like talking to Mo Cheeks like Happy Gilmore talked to the IRS guy. “You can’t make Chauncey Billups start, he’s too old, I mean, look at him! He’s too old!”
Derrick Rose – Day-to-day with the hammy. Ugh, he better not miss any time I don’t want to suffer with more Rose injury speculations!
James Harden – Said he’s going to sit one of the Rockets back-to-backs this week. How can you be dealing with so many injuries after flopping! Might be some huge games for the Jeremy Lin/Patrick Beverley dual PG backcourt. Then everyone can be happy!
Tobias Harris – Harris – “If I had to paint a picture right now, it’d be about a couple weeks [before returning].” How is that painting a picture? No reason to act like John Turturro!
Next Game: Former Bullets at the Spurs. Pumped for this one. You never know if Ariza could stay hot, Beal could get hot, and watching John Wall play any night is awesome. Then going to be cheering for a big Kawhi Leonard breakout. The Wiz would need to bring their A game to be in this game though…
