Day 50 of 170: Bynum Is Back

Categorized as: Author: Nels, Detroit Pistons, Fantasy Basketball, LA Lakers
Posted on: December 15th, 2010

Sorry, but when the Warriors are able to hold Kevin Love (-0.15) to 13 points and 14 rebounds on 6-18 shooting, thus leaving Charlie Villanueva with the Line of the Night, the biggest news has to be the return of Andrew Bynum (and not just because I have him in the GMTR Keeper League).

Welcome Back: Andrew Bynum (-0.52) took it easy in his return for the Lakers. Luckily for him, LA was up 22 points after the 3rd quarter, so taking it easy was A-Okay. Nice to see those 2 blocks, though, that’s for sure. Shouldn’t be long before they’re looking like the good old Kotter crew up there.

And since we’re still talking about Charlie Villanueva as the Line of the Night, I feel obliged to mention that there was also a trade that went down. The underperforming (for an NBA player, at least) Terrence Williams was sent to the Houston Rockets while Sasha Vujacic heads to New Jersey and Joe Smith ends up on the Lakers. There were also some draft picks involved in this attempt to strengthen Brooklyn New Jersey’s hand in dealing for Carmelo. Since Williams is really the only guy who might have some fantasy value, he is obviously the one that people are asking about. Well, Jason Lee, T-Will seems like a good enough pick up to me. I’m not sure what Rick Adelman (he still coaches the Rockets, right?) will think if Williams is late to practice and whatever else he was doing in NJ to get demoted to the D League. But, it’s not like the Rockets have a lot of awesome Guard-Forwards on their roster. I mean, Shane Battier is still playing 30 minutes a game for Houston. If Williams can behave like a professional, he will definitely be valuable. He was actually picked up 3 days ago in the GMTR Keeper League, and a week ago in the GMTR Fantasy Standard League. So there you go.

Line of the Night: Charlie Villanueva (2.33) put up 23 points, 11 rebounds, 3 threes, and 3 steals. It did come against the Hawks, who aren’t terrible, but the Pistons destroyed them last night, thanks to Villanueva.

Honorable Mentions: Tracy McGrady (1.62) came off the bench, just like Villanueva, and put up a very efficient 16 points and 6 rebounds with 4 threes. I’m not going to pick him up, though, hence his appearance here instead of under the Pickup Lines section. Lamar Odom (1.26) had a double-double with 18 points and 10 rebounds. JaVale McGee (1.24) only scored 12 points, but added 9 rebounds, 3 steals, and 2 blocks to fill up the box score.

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Waiver Wire Line of the Night: Is J.J. Redick (1.92) the missing scorer for the Magic? Who needs Carmelo when Redick can put up 29 points, 5 rebounds, and 6 threes on 9-12 from the field? Even though he shot 75% from the field (which tends to indicate a fluke night for a waiver wire player), I’m going to give it to him because Quentin Richardson is day-to-day, Mickael Pietrus has an injury of undetermined severity, and Rashard Lewis has forgotten how to play the game of basketball – a costly mistake. For the Magic, of course; Rashard probably just laughs as he suffers paper cuts while swimming in his pool of dollar bills (it’s slightly smaller than Scrooge McDuck’s pool, more like one of those endless pools). I’m not sure where Redick’s 37 minutes came from, but as long as Q-Rich and M-Piet are out, Redick will probably continue to see those 30+ minutes.

Pickup Lines: Spencer Hawes (1.32) actually looks like he might be worth owning in deeper leagues if you’re looking for a Center. Sure his 18 points, 5 rebounds, 4 assists and 2 blocks were his best performance in a long time, but he’s averaging 10 and 7.5 with 1.2 blocks in the last 14 days.

He’s probably only available in small leagues now, but if no one has picked up Reggie Williams (1.18) in your league, then I’m sorry but your league is not very competitive. Boom, roasted. Williams had another 26 points, 5 rebounds, and 4 threes in place of (basically) the injured Stephen Curry.

Biggest Loser: The snarky side of me wants to go with Louis Williams (-0.94) and the 41% of leagues where he’s still owned. I guess those are the deeper leagues. Really, though, it was Jamal Crawford (-1.41) and his 2 points, 0 rebounds, and 5 turnovers (also, the 1-6 from the field) that helped Atlanta drop one to the Pistons.

On Tap: Boston heads to Madison Square Garden, and while the Knicks might only be 6-5 at home, their overall 16-9 is probably a lot better than anyone expected from them this year. Cleveland plays in Miami, but I’m pretty sure the air has let out of that match-up. There’s plenty of other games, but not a lot that won’t be pretty lopsided.

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

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Tags: Andrew Bynum, Charlie Villanueva, Terrence Williams