Give Me The Rock
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Line of the Night: While Dwyane Wade (1.40) had an outstanding Line of the Night, his poor Heat still lost to the talent rich Magic (they did get into overtime, though, which certainly helped Wade’s stats). D-Dub finished with 36 points (3 threes), 10 rebounds, 7 assists and a steal and block.
Honorable Mentions: Nene Hilario’s (0.95) defense was a catalyst for the Nuggets win last night – he had 5 steals and 3 blocks to go along with 20 points, 6 rebounds, and 5 assists.
Rashard Lewis (0.87) took advantage of the overtime game, making 4 threes and to get up to 24 points with 11 rebounds and 2 blocks.
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Line of the Night/Waiver Wire Line of the Night : Anthony Tolliver (1.41) is currently owned in 21% of fantasy leagues. That number should get a boost as Tolliver finished with 30 points for the Warriors, going 4-8 from three with 6 rebounds and 4 steals. If you’re looking for consistency, Tolliver ain’t your guy, but he can shoot the three as good as any center this side of Channing Frye if you happen swing that way with your center.
Honorable Mentions: Monta Ellis (1.15) had 28 points, 13 assists, and 4 steals while playing all 48 minutes against New Orleans; David Lee (1.12) had an impressive 29/9/7 against the Celtics in a loss; Aaron Brooks (1.02) was a perfect 7-7 from three on the night, finishing with 31 points in a win over the Grizzlies; and Lebron James (1.00) celebrated the Cavs’ clinching the Central Division with 32 points, 9 rebounds and 9 assists.
Don’t Forget: Today is the day to play! GMTR’s Weekly Fantasy Game @ 365 Fantasy Sports. You can find more details about taking on me, Patrick, and Erik every week right here.
Waiver Wire Line of the Night: Okay, so when Kirk Hinrich returns from his one game suspension, the Benchabulls won’t be giving Flip Murray (0.96) another 38 minutes. That said, they’re taking it slow with Derrick Rose’s wrist injury, so if you’ve got daily lineup changes, consider putting Murray in there for one more game. Then flip him.
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Time for another edition of the sort-of-maybe-weekly Fantasy Basketball Roundtable.
If you need help, you need help now, so let’s get right to it:
With team schedules over the last 4 weeks of the season in mind, what likely free agent player would you recommend fantasy owners pick up for a playoff run?
Ryan Lester of Lester’s Legends:
Over four weeks schedules will balance out so I wouldn’t really factor that in. I’d simply roll with guys who could get opportunities down the stretch.
Jrue Holiday, Philadelphia 76ers
The Sixers are toast. Holiday is getting the experience he needs as the Sixers build for the future. He’ll have his ups and downs, but is a decent option going forward.Anthony Morrow, C.J. Watson, & Reggie Williams, Golden State Warriors
Marrow and Williams have been huge for the last few weeks. As long as they are healthy and in the rotation, they will produce. In deeper leagues Reggie Williams could be a nice find down the stretch.Darren Collison & Marcus Thornton, New Orleans Hornets
The longer Chris Paul remains out, the likelihood of his return decreases. If there are only a handful of games left and the Hornets are out of it, why risk further injury. If that’s the case Collison and Thornton will continue their furious finish. Even if CP3 does come back, the talented duo should still be fantasy factors down the stretch.Drew Gooden, Los Angeles Clippers
The Clippers are a sorry bunch. Fortunately, those who were able to gobble up Drew Gooden should get solid scoring and rebounding down the stretch.
Jeff Andriesse, from Damn Lies and Statistics:
Sometimes team schedules don’t fall the way you want during playoff time in fantasy hoops. With free agents, you’d hate to let this deter you from picking up someone who could really help you. For me, Toney Douglas is the most intriguing waiver wire claim right now despite the Knicks playing just two games next week. If you can afford to stash him, or get just two games out of him next week, he plays juicy four-game slates Mar. 29-Apr. 4 and Apr. 5-11. Not only that, but the Knicks have remaining games against Phoenix, Golden State, the Clippers, Indiana and Toronto, all at Madison Square Garden. The chance that Douglas could be the Knick point guard supersedes any hesitation about his team’s two-game slate next week. I’m picking him up.
Tom Lorenzo, also from Damn Lies and Statistics:
I know everyone is talking about Geroge Hill (and rightfully so) due to the Tony Parker injury and the Spurs 16-game playoff schedule, but I’m also intrigued by DeJuan Blair and his prospects the rest of the way. Consistency — in both minutes and actual numbers — have been a bit of a problem for the rookie, but there is one thing working in his favor: the schedule. The Spurs play five back-to-backs the rest of the way. And as we know, Coach Pop is not going to have the burden of patrolling the paint rest heavily on Tim Duncan’s shoulders. In fact, he’s alluded to the notion that he was going to sit Timmy in back-to-back scenarios.
The frontcourt in San Antonio is a little thin and a little banged up. Antonio McDyess is not ready to play much more than 25 minutes per game and Matt Bonner isn’t what you would call an “interior presence.” Again, Blair needs to get some sort of consistency going. But at the very least I am going to pick him up and plug him in when the situation is right. Say, like when Duncan sits. If I can get a guy whose per-36 numbers are 15.0 points, 12.2 rebounds, 1.2 steals, 1.0 blocks and a 55 FG% in a starter’s role then I’m rolling that dice.
Brian from Empty The Bench:
Though we’re still unsure how long Rodney Stuckey will be out, Detroit Pistons PG Will Bynum has proved to be a spectacular waiver-wire pickup over the past week or so, especially considering the slim free-agent pickings in most leagues.
Stuckey could return as early as later this week, but even if he does, it wouldn’t be surprising to see his minutes limited to far fewer than the 35+ he’s averaged thus far. Bynum has proved he can take advantage of even the slightest uptick in minutes, and when let loose like he has been since Stuckey’s unfortunate dizziness spell, he can help owners more than you might think.
Heading into Monday’s night matchup with the Boston Celtics, Bynum had averaged incredible pers of 11.7 points (51% FG), 10 assists, 2.7 boards, and 1.5 steals over his last four games. Granted, that assists average was greatly helped by his 20-feed performance last Friday against the hapless Washington Wizards, but if anything, this just shows you what he’s capable of against lesser opponent.s
And finally, GMTR’s contribution from Patrick:
The roundtable question this week was actually a lot more difficult than I was expecting when Nels and I were kicking it around. Unless I’m missing someone, out of the teams that play 12 games over the next 3 weeks (Houston, Milwaukee, Oklahoma City, San Antonio, Toronto and Washington) none have a player that immediately jumps out as a must have addition to any fantasy team.
Carlos Delfino was my man until I saw that he is currently owned in 53% of fantasy leagues, above an arbitrary and self-imposed 50% ownership cut-off for this question. If Delfino is available in your league, he is definitely worth a look. The guy is starting for the Bucks and getting a consistent 37-40 minutes a game, averaging 13.5 points, 7.7 rebounds and a crazy 2.8 threes for the month of March.
Among players who are owned in less than half the leagues out there and have great schedules the rest of the season, the pickings are slim. In theory, Thabo Sefolosha is a guy who should be in for a bump in value with James Harden expected to miss the next 2-4 weeks with a strained hamstring. In reality, he’s done almost nothing in a starting role all year and has been nearly the same black hole of minutes in the 2 games that Harden has missed. DeJuan Blair COULD become a monster again if the Spurs decide to sit Duncan for the playoffs, but unlike past years, they don’t really have the luxury as they hold on to the 7th seed in the West. Wesley Matthews is seeing a nice bump in value starting for the Jazz, but all in all, he’s a shooting guard who averages 12 points and a three a game without much else.
In the end, I’ve got to roll the dice with a couple Wizards. JaVale McGee has been a disappointment to anyone who picked him up after Brendan Haywood got traded expecting a double-double machine over the last third of the season. Instead, he’s been wildly inconsistent and has trouble putting the ball in the basket unless it’s on a dunk. But if your team is in desperate need of blocks (and there are plenty of teams out there like that), McGee can provide that in bunches. Even with the inconsistency, McGee is still averaging 10 points, 6.3 rebounds and 2.1 blocks per game in March. Over a 12 game span, expect McGee to haul in somewhere around 25 blocks.
And for those of you in deep leagues, Shaun Livingston (remember him?) just got put into the starting lineup for the Wizards on Monday. Granted, he didn’t do much in the start (6 points, 3 rebounds) but he did have an 18 point, 8 assist game off the bench on the 13th. The Wizards have nothing to play for the rest of the year, so expect to see a heavy dose of Livingston over the next month or at least until he gets hurt again.
Line of the Night: I’m beginning to think that Basketball Monster is just crushing on Stephen Curry (1.22). Carmelo Anthony (1.08) may have thrown down 45 points on the Rockets, but it’s actually Curry with 29 points, 5 boards, 9 assists and 5 threes who had a better overall fantasy line. Curry currently sits on #16 on the GMTR player rater. Compare that to some of the other rookies – Tyreke Evans is at 50, Brandon Jennings 88, and of course Hasheem Thabeet is at 292 – and at least the fantasy ROY appears to be an obvious choice.
Honorable Mentions: We already mentioned Melo and his 45 points, but he also contributed 10 rebounds and was 3-5 from three; and Baron Davis (0.93) had an 18 point, 17 assist double-double in a loss to the Hornets. Poor Darren Collison (0.4) could only manage 18 points and 14 assists in that game; and hopefully you managed to grab Toney Douglas (0.6) after his breakout performance and didn’t wait for the 20 point, 7 assist encore to see if he was available.
I say that because this season’s playoff race is already re-diggity-donkulous. I also say that because in my leagues – where I’m the commissioner – the playoffs start this week, and thus end on April 4th, thereby avoiding that annoying last Week-And-A-Couple-Days at the end of the season. This is also good for the people in those leagues (those being mine) who own LeBron James because the LeBron Jameses clinched a playoff spot yesterday with a big win over Patrick’s non-one-name-team, the Boston Celtics. James was not the best fantasy player yesterday, though.
Line of the Night: Dwyane Wade (1.30) scored 38 points in a win over Philadelphia. I think Wade is going to be huge for the next couple weeks at the Dwyane Wades try to keep their lead over the Raptors and beat out the Bobcats so they don’t have to play the LeBron Jameses. Of course, watching those two go at it for a 7-game first round match-up would be nothing short Legend… wait for it…
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