Day 121 of 170: Empire State of Mind

Categorized as: Author: Patrick, Fantasy Basketball, New York Knicks
Posted on: February 24th, 2011

Carmelo Anthony was really the domino that set it all in motion. We’ll talk about the additional trades that went down yesterday in a separate post; for now lets focus on the stuff that happened on the court last night.

Line of the Night: Dwight Howard’s (2.05) rare strong performance from the free throw line (he was 11-12) helped him lead the way with 31 points, 17 rebounds and a couple blocks against the Kings. DH is now averaging 26 points and 15 rebounds a game in February and is arguably the best fantasy player in the league when his free throws are falling.

Honorable Mentions: In the same Orlando/Sacramento game, Hedo Turkoglu (1.57) finished with 19 and 8 (assists) adding 4 threes. It’s a nice bounce back game after Hedo sort of limped into the break.

Fresh off his All-Star MVP performance, Kobe Bryant (1.92) kept the good times rolling by dropping 37 points on the Blazers in an overtime game. He added 9 boards and 6 assists in the win. Ron Artest (1.71) also went nuclear in the game, scoring 24 points and hitting 5 threes. Unfortunately, it’s Ron’s first good game in a couple of weeks. Not surprisingly, the Blazers were led by LaMarcus Aldridge (1.50), who scored 29 points, grabbed 14 rebounds, and had 4 steals.

How is life for the Jazz post-Deron Williams? Not bad for Al Jefferson (1.85), who scored 30 points on 11-14 shooting with 8 boards against the Mavs. Earl Watson was the temporary starter at PG, so we will see if Jefferson keeps up the scoring once Devin Harris arrives. My guess is yes.

And Amir Johnson (1.46) had a 17 point, 3 block game against the Bulls, hitting all 8 shots he took.

Welcome to New York: Carmelo Anthony’s (0.78) debut for the Knicks was a success, both in terms of real life where New York beat Milwaukee 114-108, but also in the realm of fantasy thanks to a 27 point, 10 board 2 steal performance in 39 minutes on the court. Chauncey Billups (1.37) was even better than Melo fantasy-wise, shaking off a 4-12 shooting game by going 12-12 from the line to finish with 21 points, 8 assists and 6 boards. As usual, the D’Antoni fantasy dust means an increase in value for both Anthony and Billups in regular fantasy leagues as well as a big increase in stock price on a site like MVPExchange.com.

I predicted that one of the Knicks’ bench guys would see an increase in fantasy value thanks to the departure of a bunch of Knicks’ regulars, but I didn’t think it’d be Toney Douglas (1.26), who scored 23 points on 10-12 shooting with 3 threes. He probably won’t be able to keep that up that once Corey Brewer works his way into the rotation, but for now Douglas is available in 85% of leagues and is worth a look if you need a scoring guard type.

Amar’e Stoudemire (0.28) owners shouldn’t panic just yet, but he was definitely second banana to Melo in this game. Amar’e finished with 19 points and 5 boards and only took 13 shots in the game before he fouled out.

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Waiver Wire Line of the Night: He may not carry the same excitement as someone like Ty Lawson, but Chase Budinger (1.78) exploded for the Rockets with 30 points, going 4-8 from three, with 8 rebounds in 29 minutes off the bench. Shane Battier is a guy who keeps popping up in trade rumors because of his expiring contract and if he were to get moved before the deadline, Budinger could gain some real value. As it stands, he’s too streaky and inconsistent to be worth picking up.

Pick Up Lines: Anthony Parker (1.52) is putting on a show for any NBA team that may want to trade for him before the deadline (what do you think Chicago?). Against the Rockets, Parker scored 19 points on 7-10 shooting, hitting 4 threes while adding 5 rebounds and 5 assists. He’s scored in double-digits in each of the last three games and is worth a look in deeper fantasy leagues if he stays with the Cavs.

Peja Stojakovic (1.30) had his second strong shooting performance (in 7 games) since joining the Mavs, scoring 18 points, while going 4-5 from three and 7-9 overall. I’m not sure how many more times I can say I like Peja before it gets weird between us.

In one of the greatest per minute shows of production this season, Wizards’ PF Trevor Booker (1.26) scored 21 points in 18 minutes on the court, shooting 9-10 from the field. I’m impressed, but leave him on the wire as long as Andray Blatche is healthy.

Biggest Loser: Honestly, if you still own Gilbert Arenas (-1.09) – and he’s currently owned in an amazing 71% of Yahoo leagues – it’s time to take a long, hard look at your fantasy team. You two should really sit down and hash some things out. Arenas’ latest line included 6 points on 3-11 shooting, with no boards and 2 assists in 22 minutes.

Tayshaun Prince (-1.37) left last night’s game against the Pacers due to a back injury and finished with the dreaded 0 point, 0 rebound, 0 assist line. That’s pretty much the exact opposite of what you want to do to showcase your talent to other teams right before the trade deadline.

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

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Tags: Amare Stoudemire, Anthony Parker, Carmelo Anthony, Chase Budinger, Chauncey Billups, Dwight Howard, Gilbert arenas