or: Timing is Everything and My Timing Sucks
or: Attack of the Big Men
Line of the Night: Andrea Bargnani (3.17) played 42 minutes in his first game back and proved why he is one of the greatest Small Ball Centers ever to have played the game of fantasy basketball (because you know that’s what the players are all really thinking about when they’re out there). Bargnani had 36 points on 4 threes, and 12-12 from the line, to go with 6 rebounds, 2 steals, and 1 block. The subtitle of the post refers to the fact that I left Derrick Rose and Andrea Bargnani on my bench this week in favor of Nate Robinson and Channing Frye. Do remember that Nels is the Conservative One (at least when it comes to fantasy basketball). I’m tying to be more aggressive this year with swapping free agents, but when it came to starting guys, I had to go with the sure thing over guys who hadn’t played in a week (I had Rose in my lineup all last week). Of course, the most painful part is that I left Luol Deng and MarShon Brooks in my lineup because I didn’t think their injuries were going to be that bad. Hopefully I’m right on one of those.
Honorable Mentions: I’m not sure why Chris Bosh (2.55) was so far behind Bargnani in WARP because their lines are very similar except for the threes and steals. Bosh had 35 points (10-16 from the field, 14-14 from the line), 7 rebounds, and 1 block. Ryan Anderson (2.23) bounced back from one of the worst games of any player ever to give his owners 24 points, 5 threes, and 8 rebounds. Classic Ryan Anderson. (Yes, I intended that to be ironic) Next up are a bunch of your more traditional big men: Tyson Chandler (1.88) had 20 points (9-10 from the field), and 17 rebounds; Marcin Gortat (1.41) is setting leagues that count double-doubles on fire with another 21 points, 12 rebounds, and 2 blocks; and Amare Stoudemire (1.41) had his best game in a while with 18 points (7-12 from the floor, 4-4 from the line), and 8 rebounds.
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Waiver Wire Line of the Night: Landry Fields (2.14) has been playing 36 minutes per game in the last 4 for the Knicks. Only 29 last night, but he scored 18 points to go with 5 assists, 2 steals, and 2 blocks (39% owned). Classic Landry Fields. Of course, Baron Davis is expected to start playing this week, so I’m going to have have to where B-Diddy’s minutes come from before I can recommend picking Fields back up (at least in the 61% of leagues where he was dropped). Fields has been playing well, but so has Iman Shumpert (Shumpert is 65 on the Player Rater over the last 4 games versus Fields at 71). It does give New York the chance to ease Baron into the rotation, but it makes it hard for fantasy owners to know who to hang onto…
Pick Up Lines: Marcus Camby (1.82) returned to form (and more) with 3 points, 22 rebounds, 2 steals, and 5 blocks (40% owned). I’m not sure how he turned the ball over 4 times, considering he only took 2 shots, but he played almost 32 minutes, which is his most in a while. Since he’s probably already owned in all the snatch-n-grab leagues, you can probably give him one more game before making a decision.
Leandro Barbosa (1.34) is definitely the best guy on the Raptors bench, and last night he was their second best player (9th overall on the night) with 19 points (7-14 from the field, 3 threes) with a steal and a block (26% owned).
The Magic were smart and actually rested their starters in a blowout win (Tom Thibodeau, are you paying attention?) so Chris Duhon (1.17) go some extra run and ended up with 8 points, 4 assists, and 3 steals (1% owned).
Derrick Brown (1.05) started at PF for the Bobcats and played 33 minutes against the Knicks. Brown had 15 points, 4 rebounds, and 2 steals (1% owned). I’ve picked him up in a 14-team league (dropped Courtney Lee), so hopefully that gives you some sort of guide about how I feel about Brown. With the fading Boris Diaw and the still up-and-coming Bismack Biyombo behind him, Brown seems like he could be in for some significant minutes if he can play well consistently.
James Johnson (0.99) is another nominee for an award I just made up called The Streaker. The statue will feature a nude man running. No one wants to win that award, but Johnson certainly appears to be trying with his 18 points (4-4 from the line), 10 rebounds, and maddening inconsistency. Two games ago, he had 23 points (10-17 FG shooting) with 6 rebounds and 2 steals, but then followed that up with 7 points on 3-8 with 2 rebounds. There is a reason he is only 20% owned. That reason is Inconsistency.
Go ahead and post your NBA Betting Predictions in the comments with other nominations for this prestigious award.
Here’s a name you haven’t heard in a while: Quentin Richardson (0.76) (8 points, 2 steals, 1% owned). That’s all.
Biggest Loser: Raymond Felton (-0.94) managed 10 points and no one expects big rebounds or good shooting from him (0 rebounds, 2-6 from the field), but 2 assists and 6 turnovers in combination with no rebounds and bad shooting is just not going to get it done.
If you hadn’t already figured this one out, it’s officially time to give up on Amir Johnson (-0.73) who only had 5 points and 3 rebounds, as well as Boris Diaw (-0.57), who turned in another 4 points, 6 rebounds, 1 assist and 1-6 from the field. How you like Diaw niow?
Finally, a tough night for the (to this point) surging Marc Gasol (-0.51). Gasol only came up with 7 points, 4 rebounds, and 3 assists while going 2-7 from the field.
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Daily rankings and stats come from the GMTR H2H Player Rater (beta version). They are based on the stat Wins Above Replacement Player (WARP) an estimate of the number of wins a player produces per week in H2H leagues over a replacement (waiver wire) player.
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