Day 8 of 124: Love and Cousins

Categorized as: Author: Erik, Fantasy Basketball
Posted on: January 2nd, 2012

Happy New Year, everyone! The new year started with a lot of “LOVE” in fantasy to cap off week #1, but a few bits of news made the morning headlines and added a little bit more bang.

News:

Congratulations to Mr. LeBron James and his recently announced engagement. What a way to kick off 2012! That and the fact that your Miami Heat remain undefeated must be quite awesome as well.

In other news, DeMarcus Cousins allegedly demanded to be traded and was promptly asked by Coach Paul Westphal not to join the team against New Orleans. Cousins, known throughout his one-year (and change) NBA career for his lack of maturity has spurned the ire of Kings fans and fantasy owners alike. For a meatier and more detailed account of what transpired check out Sam Amick of SI.com’s report. It appears that Kings’ President, Geoff Petrie, will be speaking to Cousins today.

Recommendation: Owners should hold on to Cousins until more news come out of the Kings’ and Cousins’ respective camps. For now, J.J. Hickson can be considered a speculative add, but only if your team really has Andrei-Kirilenko-type of FA fodder.

Line of the Night: It’s best to start the new year with wishes of prosperity, health, and some Kevin Love (3.09) who led the Timberwolves in an impressive win against the hapless defending champions (Dallas) with 25 points (5 threes), and 17 rebounds. Love is good. Love is great. Love is gonna keep pouring on such performances throughout the season. Kudos to everyone who owns him.

Honorable Mentions:

Jose Calderon (2.57) made the most of Jerryd Bayless‘ absence and Jameer Nelson‘s needing extra time to recover from a strained neck. He led all Raptors in fantasy performance with 18 points (3 threes, 6-9 from the field), and 13 assists. His owners should enjoy it while it lasts. Once Bayless is back splitting time with Calderon, these lines won’t come around as often.

Instead of advancing his calendar by another year Antawn Jamison (2.45) instead opted to turn back the clock and showed us some vintage, Washington Wizards Jamison. He lit up the stat sheet with 23 points (3 threes, 10-15 from the field), 5 rebounds, 3 steals, and 2 blocks. The Cavs can’t live off Kyrie Irving alone. Jamison will occasionally deliver nights like these throughout the season, but don’t expect it to be a common habit.
Once again Marcus Thornton (2.05) has shown that he’s the best player on the Kings’ roster, for fantasy basketball purposes at least. It appeared that Thornton was a beneficiary of the “In your face old team! Trade this!” effect. He just bullied Marco Bellinelli, you know, the guy who used to start ahead of him on the Hornets’ depth chart. Thornton finished the game with 25 points (1 Trey), 6 rebounds, and 5 steals. I suspect the five steals were his way of showing former coach Monty Williams that he can play some D.

I don’t think I’m going to be surprised to see Ryan Anderson (1.92) as a mainstay among the NBA’s top fantasy performers every time Orlando has a game. He’s clearly on track (so far) to be this year’s “uber-sleeper”. This time, he’s gifted his proud owners with 24 points (5 threes), and 5 rebounds. Don’t even try to “buy” him right now, as he’ll likely cost you your third or fourth round draft pick, and no not the Tim Duncan in the fourth-round variety.
JaVale McGee (1.79) welcomed the new year with a block party! Five shots were invited, all were swatted away. He added 16 points and 14 rebounds to with the 5 blocks, just to keep the party nice and festive!

And just because I know some reader out there’s going to complain and say “Hey Rajon Rondo (1.64) got a triple-double! Why isn’t he even in your honorable mentions?” There. Mentioned.  You know how there’s that superstition on how you start the year is how the rest of the year will follow? Well having Rondo as my main keeper in the GMTR Keeper league, I wouldn’t mind seeing more lines from him that look like 18 points (7-10 from the field), 11 rebounds, and 14 assists.

Waiver Wire Line of the Night: D.J. White (1.74) who was defended, or should I say “undefended” by Chris Bosh proved to be the lone bright spot in fantasy for the Charlotte Bobcats. 21 points (10-12 from the field) and 2 steals were the sweet points of his nights. He’s 3% owned but should be on the watch lists of everyone who’s in a deep league. It appears that Bismark Biyombo is far too raw and Tyrus Thomas is taking a long time to get healthy.

Pick Up Lines: Daniel Gibson (1.62) is a prime candidate for three-point shot streaming if you’re in daily changes leagues. He may be the fourth guard in Cleveland’s rotation but he’s a far superior offensive threat compared to Anthony Parker. Gibson led the Cavs’ bench with 19 points (5 threes) and is 9% owned.
Norris Cole (1.48), (15% owned) and Mario Chalmers (1.36), (17% owned) seem to be dueling for that starting PG job over at Miami. While most of the “smart money” has been laying their bets on Cole who finished Miami’s game with 16 points (6-8 from the field), 9 assists, and 3 steals; the fantasy public shouldn’t discount Chalmer’s effort with 16 points (4 threes, 6-7 from the field), and 5 assists.

Mehmet Okur (1.30) had his second start at center for the Nets and it’s absurd that he’s only owned in  19% of Yahoo leagues. He was solid with 10 points, 8 rebounds, and 2 steals. Not bad at all considering all this value and production came from nowhere.

Biggest Loser:

Kobe Bryant (-1.30) missed 22 shots and totally lit a firecracker up his owners’ butts as he destroyed any hopes they had of winning FG% this week. It was an awful night as he only managed to bring 16 points, 2 rebounds, and  4 assists to compensate for his 6 turnovers.
Another bitter pill to swallow from the second round of most drafts was Rudy Gay (-0.98) was just atrocious all around and appeared lost for most of the game with only 5 points (2-12 from the field), 3 rebounds, 1 assists to show for his efforts.

***

Daily rankings and stats come from the GMTR H2H Player Rater (beta version). They are based on the stat Wins Above Replacement Player (WARP) an estimate of the number of wins a player produces per week in H2H leagues over a replacement (waiver wire) player.

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Tags: Antawn Jamison, DeMarcus Cousins, JaVale McGee, Jose Calderon, Kevin Love, Kobe Bryant, LeBron James Engaged, Marcus Thornton, Mehmet Okur, Rudy Gay, Ryan Anderson