Give Me The Rock
this is fantasy basketball
Line of the Night: As usual, the Knicks’ game was full of fantasy goodness, starting with Al Harrington (1.36). Harrington dropped 41 points on the Nuggets off the bench for the Knicks, adding 10 boards, 4 threes, 2 steals and 2 blocks in 38 minutes. It’s amazing that – through 16 games at least – Harrington is putting up almost EXACTLY the same line as last season (really it’s kind of scary how similar they are) all while coming off the bench and averaging about 4 minutes a game less than last year. It’s also an indication he might be in for a downturn sometime soon.
Line of the Night: Carlos Boozer (1.27) was a one-man stampede against the Bulls. Or, maybe it would have to be that he went all Miles Davis on the Bulls? Whatever the case, he had 28 points, 8 rebounds, 5 assists, and 3 blocks while shooting 86% from the floor. Looks like it’s time to break out the old adage: If you have a big man playing against the Bulls, get him in your lineup. Joakim Noah and Taj Gibson aren’t stopping anyone. And even when T-Squared gets back, the on-the-ball defense doesn’t get any better. But, whatever you say about the Bulls front line, Boozer is now the 6th player to have 2 Lines of the Night.
Honorable Mentions: Luol Deng (1.05) – here we go – was a one-man stampede against the Jazz. But, now picture Luol Deng actually trying to stampede through the entire Jazz team. Given that, it’s impressive that he was able to come away with 26 points, 8 rebounds, and 4 steals.
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Line of the Night/Waiver Wire Line of the Night: With Beno Udrih out of this game because of a virus, the Kings shifted Tyreke Evans to the point, Andres Nocioni to SG, and started Donte Greene (1.95) at SF. The changed worked for at least one night against the Knicks, as the Kings won 111-97 and Donte Greene registered career highs across the board: 24 points, 6-7 from three, with 6 blocked shots. Greene is uber athletic and can be a great defensive stopper type, but I order you to officially temper your expectations. One, Udrih should be back any day now, likely pushing Greene back to the bench. Two, the game came against the Knicks. Three, Greene shot 26% from three last season, so he’s not going to be taking or (especially) making that many threes again any time soon.
The rest of Greene’s game, however? That is legit.
Nels are I are participating in a weekly fantasy hoops roundtable organized by Lester’s Legends. This week, we pull a seat up to the table to discuss the year’s biggest surprises so far and the one or two players we feel will continue to put up big fantasy numbers this year.
You can check out the full discussion at Lester’s Legends, but here is our response to that question:
Marc Gasol: He may lack the shock and awe of someone like Andrew Bynum, the natural fanboy appeal of someone like David Lee, and the national attention of someone playing in a city other than Memphis, but you can’t argue with the stats Gasol has been putting up so far this year: 15.2 points on 61% shooting, 11.1 rebounds and 1.7 blocks per game. We had Gasol ranked at #107 going into the year and through 13 games he’s ranked at #14 on the GMTR player rater. While Gasol is not going to keep up that insane pace overall, the scoring and block numbers he’s been putting up are legit. Over the last two months of the 2008-09 season, Gasol averaged 14.3 points and 1.3 blocks while shooting 55% from the field. So, it’s not a stretch to think that his stats this year are following a natural sophomore progression, with the possible exception of his rebounding numbers, which are likely to see a small regression from the 11 a game he’s averaging so far this year. Bonus points for the fact that Gasol is one of the only people to have ever benefited from Zach Randolph’s presence down in the paint. The Grizzlies may have drafted Hasheem Thabeet to be their center of the future, but they overlooked the fact that they already had one in Gasol.
Joakim Noah: If Hustle were a fantasy category, Noah would be a first round pick because he’d win you that category by himself. Of course, it’s not, but the end result of Noah’s hustle is that he gets Points, Rebounds, and Blocks like he drinks water. And since most of his buckets come from Derrick Rose passes or offensive rebounds, he’s always getting high percentage shots around the basket (except when he uses his Ugly Stick form shot from the free throw line extended). He’s sitting pretty at #29 on the GMTR player rater, and should end up Top 50 because he is not going to stop. Ever.
***
The Other Panelists:
Alex of BleacherCreatureRotoTalk.com
Ryan of LestersLegends.com
Brian of EmptyTheBench.com
Erik of PointsInThePaint.com
Tommy of HoopsWorld.com
* For the record, I actually think there are about 5-6 surprise players who will continue to play at a high level this year, but since the question only asked for two, we had to make a tough choice and cut a bunch of guys out. Before you yell at me, I also like Brandon Jennings, Danilo Gallinari and Jason Thompson to continue to play above expectations, but each have a little more uncertainly around them than Gasol and Noah, who are almost guaranteed to be good. – Patrick
Yes, I know it’s a lame title, but look! Cheerleader!
Line of the Night: The internets are abuzz today and the name on the tip of everyone’s tongue is Anthony Morrow (1.28). Morrow and his band of might Warriors took down the streaking Mavericks as though there were a new deputy in town. Morrow made 6 threes en route to 27 points, adding 9 rebounds, 5 assists and 3 steals in the process.
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Line of the Night: Matt Bonner (1.13). Life is kinda like a box of chocolates; you’re trying to figure out what the hell is inside them and then Matt Bonner shows up to your house and starts bombing three pointers all over the place. Ok, it’s been a while since I’ve seen that movie, that quote might be a little off… Getting 25 minutes off the bench for the Spurs, Bonner hit 6-8 threes and was 7-10 overall and finished with 23 points and 6 boards in the Spurs win.
Matt Bonner looking comfortable with the rock… kinda
I’m afraid this is just too awesome not to post.
First, please go to this post from 2 seasons ago. The immediately relevant part is the first A-Town Dancer you see there.
Okay, back? If you didn’t bother looking, let me just tell you there was a picture of (now former) Hawks A-Town Dancer. Why is that relevant?
Said, Hawks dancer, who’s real name is Briana, is now making money entertaining men in a different sort of way. And she’s probably getting a lot more of said money than she did as a dancer. She is making porn. Well, she’s not really the one making it, but she’s starring in it.
I almost laughed out loud when I first read this, but then I turned off SafeSearch and did a Google Image Search for Brandy Blair.
Line of the Night: Paul Pierce (1.61) had a what they refer to in Track and Field as “wind-aided” game – using not just a game against the Knicks, but going to overtime to drop 6 threes while grabbing 9 boards, dropping 6 dimes, and block 2 shots. Some good percentages in there too. And as a reward for his performance to your, dear reader, I’ve included not just one, but two (!) cheerleader pictures today. (This is actually a reward for putting up with the 48 hours of down time we had last week while we upgraded to a new server. And yes, those up there do get bigger. I mean, the picture gets bigger.)
Honorable Mentions: Al Harrington (1.00) had the wind at his back as well last night, leading him to 30 points (5 threes) and 9 rebounds.
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Line of the Night: Carmelo Anthony (0.97). When you looked at Anthony before the start of the season, you saw player now in his mid-20’s who had seen his shot attempts and scoring decline over the past three years. I’m not sure how anyone could have predicted he’d put up line and line like this one against the Bulls: 30 points, 11 rebounds and 7 assists. He’s now averaging 30.5 points a game on the season and has increased his production across the board (with the exception of rebounding) compared to last year. JR Smith’s return from suspension has not effected Melo’s offensive production at all, and the kid seems poised to take a run at his career high in PPG.
That’s right, Carmelo is number 1 in PPG right now
Line of the Night: Louis Williams (1.36). Williams is not your prototypical PG, but the dude can score and score well. Just look at last night’s game against the Grizzlies: 31 points on 12-16 shooting, 5 assists, 4 threes and 6 steals. Williams led the team in scoring, while Andre Iguodala led the team in assists with 9. Like Mo Williams, from a fantasy perspective, Sweet Lou is more of a shooting guard with above average assists than anything, but as long as you know what you’re getting from him, there’s nothing wrong with what he can give you.
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