Day 16 of 170: NBA Hands John Wall Rookie of the Year Now to Save Time

Categorized as: Author: Patrick, Fantasy Basketball
Posted on: November 11th, 2010

Line of the Night: John Wall (1.61). There is no doubt that the Wizards are John Wall’s team, but beyond that, the NBA might already be John Wall’s league. Wall played all 42 minutes against Houston, pulling down his first career triple-double that included 19 points, 10 boards and 13 assists. He also added 6 steals, 2 threes a block and only 1 turnover.

Honorable Mentions: We say it over and over on GMTR (because it’s true): Fantasy player raters love efficiency, especially when it comes in the form of Kevin Durant (1.12). Durant was 16-16 from the free throw line on his way to 31 points and a win over the Sixers. The FT% category is pretty much a lock for any team with Durant.

The Knicks/Warriors matchup was about explosive as we expected (no more explosive, no less). Amare Stoudemire (1.07) led the way fantasy-wise with 33 points, 10 boards and 3 steals. For the Warriors, David Lee had a 28 and 10 with 4 steals in his return to New York and Stephen Curry had a 25/6/8.

Deron Williams (0.94) – with 30 points and 14 assists – led the Jazz to yet another comeback, this time against the Magic 104-94. No Paul Millsap three pointers in this game, though.

Richard Jefferson (0.91) continues to party like its 2005. He had 22 points against the Clippers, going 4-7 from three, and is now scoring close to 19 points a game for the Spurs; Gerald Wallace’s (0.85) 19 point, 14 rebound game is good news for any owner concerned about his mildly disappointing start to the season; and Michael Beasley (0.68) dropped a career-high 42 points on the Kings, willing the Wolves to only their second win of the year.

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Waiver Wire Line of the Night: We’ve got to go deep down into the list today before we find someone available in more than 50% of Yahoo leagues. And that someone is Kris Humphries (0.53), currently owned in only 2% of leagues because up to last night he had been averaging less than 15 minutes a game for the Nets. But with Troy Murphy out with a foot injury, Humphries started and responded with 13 points and 18 rebounds in 40 minutes. Murphy is day-to-day and his injury doesn’t sound serious, but it’s Troy Murphy we’re talking about here. Keep an eye on Murph’s fragile body and consider Humphries if Murphy were to miss an extended period of time.

Kris Humphries Using the Old Smell-My-Armpit Offensive Maneuver

Pick Up Lines: Jodie Meeks (0.49). Lou Williams left last night’s Sixers game with an injury, so Meeks got some extended run and scored 17 points. Both Williams and Andre Iguodala would have to remain out for Meeks to have any fantasy value, but that actually could happen for Meeks depending on how injured Williams is.

Ersan Ilyasova (0.44) got more minutes (27) than both Drew Gooden and Mbah a Moute and finished with a double-double (17 points, 10 boards). Still, with those three guys plus Carlos Delfino and Corey Maggette, that’s a lot of bodies to throw at the Bucks forward positions. Consistency will not by Ilyasova’s friend this year.

Amir Johnson (0.37) continues to see his minutes creep up for the Raptors. Against the Bobcats, Johnson got 27 minutes off the bench and put up 16 points with 9 rebounds and a couple blocks. It’s his fourth straight game of 20+ minutes and you might want to preemptively pull the trigger on him if he’s available in your league before someone else does.

Kyle Lowry (-0.55) returned from a back injury for the Rockets, but it was Ishmael Smith (0.3) who got the start in place of Aaron Brooks. Smith was also the better fantasy player on the night, scoring 12 points with 2 threes and 5 boards, while Lowry shot 2-11 from the field on his way to 4 points. Expect Smith to start at PG for the immediate future as Lowry works himself back into shape.

Injury of the Night: Mo Williams is hurt… again. Last night, he reaggravated the groin injury that kept him out the Cavs first three games. Mo might be ok to go on Saturday… or not… it doesn’t matter to him, but it sounds like Daniel Gibson and Ramon Sessions should definitely be on fantasy owners’ radars right now.

The Biggest Loser: OJ Mayo (-0.49). A 1-8 shooting night for Mayo thanks to some strong perimeter defense for Dallas. Mayo finished with 4 points, 3 rebounds and 3 assists in a 106-91 loss.

On Tap:

Three games tonight, led off by a rematch of Boston (6-2) at Miami (5-3). Boston’s game plan should include a barrage of threes from Kevin Garnett in the last 30 seconds of the game. Both O’Neals are 50/50 for this game, so if the odds hold, at least we won’t be O’Neal-less in this one.

Golden State (6-2) at Chicago (3-3): Derrick Rose recently said he’s had turf toe since the end of last season. But since Rose still has been a slice of awesome on awesome bread, fantasy owners shouldn’t worry. And speaking of awesome, how about Joakim Noah, who has double-doubled in every since game so far this season? I guess that’s supposed to be a rhetorical question…

LA Lakers (8-0) at Denver (4-4) – I can’t think of many things that pain me more than a Lakers team that just won’t lose. Question of the Day: how good is Pau Gasol right now? Please use the official GMTR scale of “He’s so bad he makes Eddy Curry look like Moses Malone” to “He’s tastier than a Derrick Rose sandwich”.

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Tags: Amare Stoudemire, Amir Johnson, Deron Williams, Ersan Ilyasova, Ishmael Smith, John Wall, Kevin Durant, Kris Humphries, OJ Mayo