Day 5 of 170: Where the Young Guns are Scary Good

Categorized as: Author: Patrick, Fantasy Basketball
Posted on: October 31st, 2010

Line of the Night: OJ Mayo (1.3). The Memphis guard scored 29 points, with 7 rebounds, 5 assists and 5 threes as the Grizzlies destroyed the Timberwolves, 109-89. Mayo is on fire to start the season – averaging 20 points, 3.3 threes and 2 steals per game over the first three games – meaning that owners should be shopping him around like Ron Artest’s championship ring.

Honorable Mentions: DJ Augustin (1.21) exploded for 26 points and 5 assists, shooting 5-6 from three and 9-13 overall. The 5 assists seem like his ceiling, which means he’s basically Mo Williams 2.0.

Brandon Jennings (1.04) had a rare near perfect shooting game on his way to a 20-10-10 triple double, going 6-8 from the floor and 3-3 from behind the arc.

Danilo Gallinari only played 15 minutes last night due to his sprained wrist, which meant Wilson Chandler (1.03) got 38 minutes off the bench for the Knicks and had another huge game – 22 points, 16 rebounds, 2 steals and 3 blocks. He did shoot a Chandler-esque 8-22 from the field.

Derrick Rose (1.01) led the Bulls to a 101-91 win over the Pistons by filling up the box score with 39 points, 7 assists, 6 rebounds, 3 threes, 2 steals and 2 blocks. Unfortunately, he also filled up the box score with 7 turnovers. Rose has taken 11 threes through the Bulls first 2 games, and while he’s only made 3 of those shots, if he keeps it up his fantasy value is bound to rise slightly (unless you happen to play in a league that counts 3P%).

Finally, Luis Scola (1.01) had a 28 and 10 for the Rockets while getting 38 minutes of run. Scola is going to be playing big minutes this year covering for Yao Ming and his 24 minute a game limit. Completely off topic, I was watching the Nuggets/Rockets game last night when my wife came into the room. The first thing she said, “That guy needs to cut his hair. Or put it in a ponytail or something. He’s disgusting.”

***

Waiver Wire Line of the Night: Omri Casspi (0.93) – currently owned in 19% of Yahoo leagues – got the start for the Kings at SF over Donte Greene. He made the most of the opportunity, playing 42 minutes scoring 20 points on 6-7 from three. Meanwhile Greene got a whopping 2 seconds on the court. Casspi was shuffled in and out of the starting lineup last season by Paul Westphal, so enjoy the production from Casspi until Westphal changes his mind.

Carlos Delfino (0.86) is not only starting for the Bucks, he got 42 minutes in last night’s game, hitting 5-11 threes and scoring 23 points. He’s only owned in 42% of leagues out there and he’s not just a three point specialist – Delfino is also averaging 2 steals and nearly 5 boards a game to start the season.

Daniel Gibson (0.72) – with 20 points and 7 assists in 31 minutes – has benefited from Mo Williams absence to start the season. Williams is probable for the Cavs next game on Tuesday, meaning Gibson will lose any fantasy value he briefly had.

The Biggest Loser: A lot of frightening performances yesterday, led by Michael Beasley (-0.89), who had the worst line out of all 196 guys who played. The Beas was 2-6 from the field and 2-6 from the line, scoring 6 points, with 5 boards and 6 turnovers. Beasley is averaging over 3 turnovers per game so far this year, an indication that he’s struggling learning the intricacies of the triangle offense.

Andre Iguodala (-0.77) wasn’t much better than Beasley. He was 4-10 from the field and 3-8 from the line, finishing with 12 points and 5 turnovers; Danilo Gallinari (-0.58), whose swears his wrist is not affecting his shot, only played 15 minutes and is now 2-11 from three over 3 games. If I were him, I’d be throwing out every excuse I could think of… “shit, the sun was in my eyes on that shot.” Gerald Wallace (-0.59) was 3-9 from the field and led the team in one stat: he had 6 turnovers.

On Tap:

Four games on Halloween, including the 0-2 Jazz facing off against the 2-0 Thunder. Russell Westbrook has gone nuclear for OKC, averaging 22.5 points and 8 assists over the team’s first two games. Also, the Warriors face off against the Lakers. Stephen Curry will miss the game with a right ankle injury and could be a risky play for next week for those of you in weekly leagues (although the team doesn’t play until Wednesday, giving him a good amount of time to rest). In the meantime, Reggie Williams will probably get the start at SG (with Monta Ellis at PG) and looks to recover from a glacial start to the season.

***

Don’t miss a day of the Fantasy NBA. Subscribe to Give Me The Rock  right now. You can also get bonus (and easily digestible) content by following GMTR on Twitter, or become a fan of GMTR on Facebook! We’re so social!

Other Stuff Like This:

• Fantasy Basketball Player Tiers: Small Forwards (3)
• A New Year has Arrived… Time to Look at the Future (7)
• Day 119 of 124: Where the Miami Heat Declare the Regular Season to be Over (4)
• Day 79 of 124: You’ve Just Been Bismacked (8)
• Day 46 of 124: Bad Girlfriend Syndrome (74)
• Day 120 of 170: I’m Not Sayin’, I’m Just Sayin’ (8)
• Day 101 of 170: Anything Durant Can Do, LeBron Can Do Better (3)

Tags: Andre Iguodala, Brandon Jennings, Carlos Delfino, Daniel Gibson, Danilo Gallinar, Derrick Rose, DJ Augustin, Michael Beasley, OJ Mayo, Omri Casspi