Day 35 of 170: Antoine Walker to the Heat: I’m Available

Categorized as: Author: Patrick, Fantasy Basketball
Posted on: November 30th, 2010

Line of the Night: It got a little scary for Dwyane Wade (2.53) owners the past couple of weeks. An illness plus a wrist injury plus a lack of happy-happy time caused Wade to score less than 20 points in 5 straight Heat games, capped off by a 1-13 shooting performance on Nov 22. And while someone forgot to pave the road to global domination for team Wade, LeBron and Bosh, at least Wade owners can breathe again after three straight strong games from him. Last night against the Wizards, Wade continued to roll with 26 points, 8 boards and 6 assists in 35 minutes on the court. He also added 4 steals and was 10-10 from the free throw line.

Honorable Mentions: When there are only four games on the night and Chris Paul (2.27) is involved in one of them, you can guarantee that he’s going to at least get an honorable mention. Paul only scored 17 points, but also had 14 assists and 5 steals in a loss to the Thunder. Russell Westbrook (1.70) led a fourth quarter charge for OKC as they rallied for the win with 25 points, 11 assists and 5 steals.

Maybe Bron and Bosh should take a page out of Al Jefferson’s (1.82) book on how to fit in with your new team. Jefferson scored 22 points, adding 11 rebounds and 4 blocks as the Jazz beat down the Bogut-less Bucks. Welcome to the NBA, Larry Sanders. Deron Williams (1.54) was also feeling it against Milwaukee with 22 points and 10 assists. The Jazz shot 55% from the floor as a team, with Jefferson and Williams shooting a combined 19-26.

Who is the one guy not missing John Wall? Yep, Gilbert Arenas (1.59) continues to resemble the player he has always said he was. Last night’s 23 points, 5 rebounds and 7 assists wasn’t enough to prevent the Wiz from losing their 11th game, but it does mean that Arenas is sitting at #24 on the GMTR player rater. I’d recommend selling Arenas, but that’s probably like trying to move a vacation home in central Florida right now.

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Waiver Wire Line of the Night: Technically, Chuck Hayes is starting at center with Yao Ming out, but Brad Miller (1.69) is the guy worth owning because of Ming’s absence. In 24 minutes off the bench, Miller scored 11 points, with 6 rebounds, 5 assists and 2 blocks. He is currently owned in 24% of leagues compared to 61% for Ming. Call me crazy, but I think everyone who owns Ming should think about finding a place on their team for Miller, especially when the Rockets announce they are shutting down Ming for the season (coming in 5, 4, 3, 2…).

Deep League Specials: Nels’ boy Ersan Ilyasova (1.13) is currently owned in 11% of leagues, but he’s going to get plenty of play as long as Carlos Delfino and Drew Gooden are out. In 40 minutes of run last night, Ilyasova scored 18 points, with 6 rebounds and 3 steals. He makes a great short-term play in daily leagues.

Thabo Sefolosha (1.31) did his best Pau Gasol impression (ok, that’s a bit of a stretch) by not missing a shot against the Hornets – he was 4-4 from the field (2-2 from three) and 3-3 from the line. He tied his season high with 13 points (yep, season high) adding a couple steals and a block. Defense typically doesn’t win fantasy championships, but Thabo is starting and provides a weird combination of steals, rebounds, threes and intangibles. It’s not big ball or small ball, so we’ll just label it Thabo ball. He’s owned in less than 10% of leagues, so there’s that too.

Courtney Lee’s (0.96) minutes are all over the place, but if he can eventually carve out a good 20-25 minute role, he’ll be worth an add in most leagues. In last night’s loss to the Mavs, Lee got decent run and finished with 13 points, 6 rebounds, 3 threes, 2 steals. It was a blowout, so wait for the inevitable Kevin Martin injury before adding Lee.

Worst Comeback of the Night: Antoine Walker, who was unable to get a tryout with an NBA team this off season, is apparently planning on joining the D-League’s Idaho Stampede, presumably to earn a little scratch to play off his 822k gambling debt. And since the minimum salary is the D-League is $25,500, Walker should only have to play until his mid-60′s to get that paid off.

Biggest Loser: The Mavs were firing on nearly all cylinders against the Rockets. However, Jason Terry (-0.68) refused to get caught up in all the shenanigans and instead went 2-7 from the field, scoring 6 points, with no boards or assists. Terry is shooting 30% from the floor over the Mavs last 4 games, which I believe is the textbook definition of a shooting slump.

On Tap: San Antonio (14-2) plays at Golden State (8-9), which can only mean good things for the slumping Tim Duncan. Duncan is only averaging 14 points and 9 rebounds a game so far this year, down from 18 and 10 in 2009-10. Getting old is a bitch.

Indiana (8-7) at Sacramento (4-11) – Strangely, Indiana has been one of the better defensive teams in the league this season, holding their opponents to 96 points a game. If we look at points per possession while a player is on the court, the two players with the best defensive numbers for the Pacers so far are James Posey and… any guesses? It’s not Brandon Rush or Roy Hibbert, but actually TJ Ford, which ain’t good news for Darren Collison.

Detroit (6-11) at Orlando (12-4) – If you’ve been anxiously awaiting the return of Vince Carter like Black Friday at Target Stores, then you’ll be relieved to hear that he’s expected to make his return against the Pistons tonight. Carter is only averaging 14 points a game this season, which sadly makes his disappointing 2009-10 look good by comparison.

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Daily rankings and stats come from the GMTR H2H Player Rater (beta version).

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Tags: Antoine Walker, Brad Miller, Chris Paul, Courtney Lee, Dwyane Wade, Ersan Ilyasova, Gilbert arenas, Jason Terry, Thabo Sefolosha