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Day 19 of 170: Just Give Brandon Jennings the ROY Already

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Categorized as: Author: Patrick, Fantasy Basketball
Posted on: November 15th, 2009

Line of the Night: Brandon Jennings (1.42). One of my rules to live by – if a rookie point guard drops 55 points in any one game, I am giving him the LotN no matter what anyone else does on the court. Jennings, who has already surpassed just about everyone’s expectations to start the year, took things to another stratosphere against (you guessed it) the Golden State Warriors. Jennings was 21-34 from the floor and 7-8 from three to finish with 55 points, 5 boards and 5 assists. And the window of opportunity to trade for Jennings if you didn’t own him already has just slammed shut.

Warriors Bucks Basketball

Honorable Mentions: Indiana handed Boston their second loss in a row and Danny Granger (1.59) was the main reason why. The Celtics had no one who could stop him and the result was 29 points, 6 rebounds, 6 threes and 3 steals for Granger in the 113-104 win; Dwyane Wade (1.19) “only” had 22 points, but added 6 steals and one three with 0.1 seconds left to stick a dagger through the hearts of the winless Nets; and Josh Smith (0.99) helped the Hawks roll the Hornets with 17 points and 17 boards.

Waiver Wire Line of the Night: Since Corey Maggette (0.94) is currently owned in 57% of leagues, I guess it has to be Earl Watson (0.64), who is owned in a much less impressive 6% of leagues. Watson – who finished with 12 points and 7 assists – started at point for Indiana because TJ Ford was having back spasms before the game. With Ford currently day-to-day, Watson is a risky add who could get pushed back to the bench at any time. I’d stay away.

The return of Tony Parker pushed George Hill (0.49) back to the bench. But Hill still got a good 31 minutes on the court for the Spurs and scored 18 points with 3 steals. You could do worse if you’re in a deep league; and Ryan Hollins (0.41) has been starting in place of Al Jefferson. He finished with 15 points and 8 boards in 30 minutes against the Grizzlies.

The Biggest Loser: Other than Kwame Brown (-0.65)? Well, Kelenna Azubuike (-0.54) got injured and left the Warriors game after 3 minutes. Unfortunately, that still counts as a game in the world of fantasy. And Jonny Flynn (-0.54) had another 6 turnovers and the 5-14 shooting didn’t help much either.

All Eyez on Me: Four games tonight, including:

Houston (5-4) at Los Angeles Lakers (7-2) – Who’s roster would you want if you were a general manager – the 5-4 Rockets or the 0-10 Nets? And let’s see if Shane Battier can follow up his 23 point explosion with anything resembling offense in this one. My guess is no. Pau Gasol may or may not be back for this game, the Lakers aren’t really saying.

Los Angeles Clippers (3-7) at Oklahoma City (5-4) – A sign that Baron Davis is a little rejuvenated this season – he’s actually dunking the ball again. Hey, Clippers fans will take what they can get. Expect Chris Kaman to have a huge game in this one against the undersized OKC lineup.

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  • Bidiot
    For a Blog that focuses on value per BM you guys sure are hard on Shane Battier. Currently in a standard Yahoo 9 Cat, 12 team league, Battier has produced +0.13 in value. His positive contributions in 3's, Stls, Blks, FT% and TO's are only partially offset by his poor scoring and rebounding. Battier is the type of guy you should be touting as his value is mostly unrecognized and he can be had cheaply (or freely) in most leagues. Additionally, I would say his performance to start the year has been less than expected given his starters minutes. I think you're currently looking at the absolute floor of his performance and if his shot starts falling he's got additionl upside. Battier is currently one of the best BUY LOW opportunities you're going to find!
  • While we are a blog that focuses on BM value on a daily basis, we also tend to look at things from more of a Head-to-Head perspective because that seems to be the preference for the majority of fantasy basketballers. As such, Battier provides significantly less value to owners since he's really only useful to owners who are running a traditional Small Ball team. As you pointed out, he does well in 3's, Steals, Blocks, FT%, and TOs. But only the 3's, Steals, and FT% fit with a Small Ball team, while the Blocks and low TOs would be more appropriate for a Big Ball team. His FG% will do nothing but hurt a Big Ball team, and his rebounds are only slightly above average for a Guard and well below average for a Forward, so he's probably going to hurt a Big Ball team there as well. In fact, if you put only the Big Ball categories in to Basketball Monster, Battier drops from 63 to 101. If you do the same with Small Ball he actually climbs up to 51, so I guess if you're running a Small Ball team and need a SF, then he is a good Buy Low candidate. Too bad he lost his GF elibility this year, so you can't play him at F for a Small Ball team.
  • Bidiot
    Interesting. I only play HTH Yahoo and I don't restrict myself to big or small ball teams. I focus on maximizing value first and foremost and then, using an excel worksheet that interfaces with BM , I measure my team against each team in the league in every category. I can then see where I rank in each category and determine where I can pick up the most wins based upon the unique composition of every league. I think going with a strict "big" or "small" team is much too constraining and doesn't take advantage of one's ability to maximize value based upon the makeup of teams within a given league. another confounding factor is that most of the leagues I play in offer a bigger prize for first place in the regular season and a smaller prize for the winner of the crapshoot known as the Playoffs thus it makes sense to make a team that will finish well each week rather than a team that is dominant in only 5 of the 9 categories.

    Regardless, I stand by my assertion that Battier is criminally undervalued!

    P.S.
    Great Blog. I look forward to reading it daily.
  • For a guy currently ranked 55 on our player rater, yeah, I’m probably being a little harsh on Battier. I personally find him a maddening player to own (as witnessed by his 18 minute performance against the Lakers), but he does a lot of little things well and it’s not like the Rockets have many other options for this season. Battier is definitely one of those guys who continually gets underrated because he's not a scorer.
  • Brandon MIller
    Brandon Jennings is a balla!!!!
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