Give Me The Rock
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Oh dear. Turns out someone wanted him. I’m sure we all know by now, and some of us even expect some sort of analysis from their fantasy experts.
Here’s what Patrick said:
My half-assed prediction? About 30-33 minutes a game while Lou Williams is out – 15 points, 42% shooting percentage, 6.5 – 7 assists, 0.8 threes, and 1.5 steals . That does make him well worth owning in fantasy leagues in the short-term, however, I do think things will get ugly fast when Williams is set to return. Maybe the Sixers continue to start Iverson when Williams gets back, I guess it depends on how he performs over the next few weeks.
Here’s what I say: I was planning on being less generous than Patrick, but then I read what he actually wrote. And here’s what I really say: Allen Iverson should give half (or maybe more) of his paycheck to Louis Williams for getting injured right when he quit the Grizzlies.
Okay, really…
I’m giving Iverson 17 points, but still at 42%, which actually means he’ll hurt you a bit more than what Patrick was thinking. Unfortunately, Patrick ignored the fact that Iverson shoots quite a few free throws at only about 78%. That’s probably enough to get you through, but since Iverson’s other strengths are Points, Assists, and Threes (sort of), he’s definitely a Small Ball type guard. And so, that FT% might come back to haunt you when you’re going against that team in your league with the 81% team percentage, and Iverson brings your 82% down to an 80%…
Of course, he’s probably already been picked up (or perhaps was never dropped) in anything but really shallow leagues, so this advice should probably be more of a “trade him or trade for him” scenario.
Unfortunately for me, I think Iverson will probably be about as good on the 76ers as he’s been his entire career. So, if you want that and realize that you’re basically renting him for 8 weeks (maybe less, maybe more), then go ahead and go for it. He’s got 8 weeks to play whatever fantasy basketball-ishly relevant kind of ball he’s going to play. At least I hope the Sixers plan on letting the Ghost of Sixers Past go his own way once the future of the team is back.
In the mean time, Iverson is an almost perfect stand in (somehow) for Baby Lou, so I actually don’t think that the rest of the teams stats will be affected.
(Courtesy of Seal.com)
Line of the Night: Jason Kidd (1.38). No, we’re not just recycling Day 35 from Tuesday. The ageless Kidd notches his second line of the night in three days with 16 points, 10 assists, 8 rebounds and 5 steals in a win over the officially historically inept 0-18 New Jersey Nets. The Mavs shot 80% from the field in the first half of this game and 59% overall, compared to 44% from the Nets (and that’s a good day of shooting for the Nets). I think at this point the Nets’ roster might as well pull a Ron Artest and start drinking during games.
Line of the Night: I’m sure Patrick was happy with Boston’s 18-point beat down on Charlotte last night, led by Ray Allen’s (1.40) 5 threes, 5 rebounds, and 5 assists. (I know, I’m kind of pushing the 5 thing here, but it’s all I got. My alternate title was: Daniloooooooooooooooo. Okay, yeah, maybe that was better.)
Honorable Mentions: Danilo Gallinari (1.22) had 6 threes (take that, Ray Allen!) along with 10 boards and 2 blocks. Both he and Allen scored 27 points, but (as would be expected) Allen was more efficient.
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Line of the Night: It wasn’t quite a triple-double, but the ageless Jason Kidd (1.54) filled up the stat line as only he can do with 22 points, 6 rebounds, 11 assists, 5 threes, 4 steals and 3 blocks as the Mavs edged out the Sixers 104-102. Kidd is putting up very similar numbers compared to last year, which has got to make those people who drafted him (often at a discount) very, very happy.
“The beauty of the world, which is so soon to perish, has two edges, one of laughter, one of anguish, cutting the heart asunder.”
– Virginia Woolf
I am completely stunned. I mean, there was no way the Nets would be as good as last year, but at no time did I ever think they could lose 17 games in a row to tie the worst start ever.
Line of the Night: Josh Smith (1.24) had a very Josh Smithy-esque-ish line: 23 points, 7 rebounds, 2 steals, and 5 blocks. He’s up to #10 on the Player Rater. I am very sorry for having him ranked so low prior to the start of the season. If he can play another 52 games this season, he will have earned more than an apology. He’ll have my trust.
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Line of the Night: The 9-7 Jazz haven’t had a lot to be thankful about recently, but Deron Williams (1.35) helped the Jazz to a much needed win over the Blazers with 24 points, 15 assists and 3 steals. Deron has been just about everything he was drafted to be so far this season and unlike his counterpart Chris Paul, at least he’s healthy and putting up consistently good lines.
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
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