Day 55 of 124: Can’t Win ‘Em All

Categorized as: Author: Nels, Fantasy Basketball, Utah Jazz
Posted on: February 18th, 2012

Line of the Night: Al Jefferson (2.95) must have been lying in wait like a lion, ready to attack the next team that strayed near his den. He tore apart the Wizards – JaVale McGee or no – for 34 points (16-23 from the field), 12 rebounds, 3 steals, 1 block, and 0 turnovers. It’s kind of ironic, because I just saw this article in a Google Alert today about how Greg Monroe is a better value pick than Al Jefferson in daily fantasy leagues. That’s probably true in general, but you would have been very disappointed if you’d made that decision last night, with Jefferson’s line vs. Greg Monroe who wasn’t quite a biggest loser with his -0.60 WARP, going 1-7 for 3 points with 8 rebounds, 1 steal, and 2 turnovers. Can’t win ‘em all.

Speaking of not wining them all… I picked up J.R. Smith instead of Wilson Chandler because I wanted the extra steals instead of the boost in blocks, and then I read things like this:

“He’s not stopping the ball, that’s for sure,” coach Mike D’Antoni joked, flicking his hand as if we he were taking a shot.

and from one of my most trusted sources, this:

And after hearing Mike D’Antoni calling him “a hurdle you get over,” we’re no longer expecting huge things out of Smith initially. And if D’Antoni really feels that way, it makes the Knicks’ strong recruitment of him even more curious.

So I guess we’ll have to see how that goes… I still can’t see how D’Antoni can not give Smith big minutes after the Knicks waived Renaldo Balkman (and had to eat his contract) to sign J.R.

And even more speaking of not winning them all, the Knicks finally lost (Jeremy Lin had 9 turnovers), but I still have to get in my requisite Jeremy Lin section of the post with this site: http://www.linterest17.com/. I just found out about this “Pinterest” thing recently (I know, I’m showing my age), so I think it’s pretty funny that someone came up with Linterest (plus I love a good pun and there are so many of them when your name is “Lin”).

Honorable Mentions: Kobe Bryant (2.71) scored 36 points with 9 rebounds, 6 assists, and 4 steals in the Lakers win. Kevin Love (2.55) only had 17 rebounds to go with his 33 points (11-16 from the field, 9-10 from the line) and 2 blocks. Trevor Ariza (2.45) had 25 points (4 threes), 8 rebounds, 3 steals, and 2 blocks in the Hornets win over Jeremy Lin. Meanwhile, LeBron James (2.16) played only 30 minutes as the Heat pounded his former team. James scored 28 points (3 threes) with 5 rebounds, and 5 assists while being booed.

S_854 wanted me to call his post KNEEEEEEEE-COLA, which would have made it easy to post a picture of some Ricola cough drops and had the image part done… And while I think Nikola Pekovic (2.07) is making his first appearance in the Honorable Mentions section (at 60% ownership now, and ranked #114 on the Player Rater for the season; let’s all remember that Jeremy Lin is t 90% owned even though he’s worked his to only #152 on the Player Rater), his 30 points (13-20 from the field), 12 rebounds, 3 steals, and 3 blocks were somehow only good enough for the 7th best line of the night. Once again: can’t win ‘em all.

I bet Nikola’s quads were burning after that game

And speaking of can’t win ‘em all (it seems I can apply this phrase to just about anything), two guys I’ve owned and dropped this year: Rodney Stuckey (1.98) and Brandon Knight (1.94) went off last night. Stuckey went for 36 points (12-20 from the field, 11-12 from the line) while Knight had 23 points (4 threes), 6 rebounds, and 10 assists (probably most of the them to Stuckey).

Finally, I did win one, picking up Ryan Anderson (1.83) and riding him like the poor man’s Andrea Bargnani for another 23 points (4 threes) and 9 rebounds.

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Waiver Wire Line of the Night: If you guessed Rudy Fernandez in the Who Will Benefit From Danilo’s Injury Contesnt, well, you didn’t win that one. Corey Brewer (2.08) is averaging 33 minutes over the last 4 games and came up with 26 points (5 threes, 10-14 from the field) and 5 rebounds last night (7% owned).

Pick Up Lines: I’m not sure what got into the marginally fantasy-relevant Pistons players yesterday, but maybe it was Greg Monroe’s poor performance that forced some other guys to step up. Tayshaun Prince (1.92) had his best game in 2 weeks with 22 points, 10 rebounds, 5 assists, 2 steals, and 2 blocks (46% owned). Since he’s probably owned in most leagues where he could be valuable, even though he’s had a couple good games recently, I can’t recommend more than just taking a look due to his inconsistency.

Same thing with Matt Barnes (1.69) and his 17 points (6-7 from the field, 4-4 from the line), 7 rebounds, and 2 steals (7% owned). He’s only at #151 on the Player Rater… so if you’re in a deep league, then take a look, because he’s one of those guys who doesn’t score a lot, but he will consistently give you a three, a steal, and 4-5 rebounds.

Markieff Morris (1.45) is one of the hottest-then-coldest guys on the wire right now. His averages speak to something like he had last night: 14 points, 3 steals, and 2 blocks (10% owned), but averages don’t show you that he’ll go 1-7, then 7-13, then 4-11… Still, he is at #133 on the Player Rater, so theoretically, he should be owned in more than 10% of leagues.

Bismack Biyombo (1.28) continues to show flashes of his potential every 5 or 6 games… this time h put up 8 points, 13 rebounds, and 7 blocks (5% owned), though it came against a Raptors front line of Aaron Gray, Amir Johnson, and James Johnson. Something to keep in mind for next season, though.

Courtney Lee (1.24) always seems just on the verge of breaking out, with games like: 17 points (4 threes) and 2 steals (7% owned), and like Markieff Morris, he is rated high enough (115) that he should be owned in more than 7% of leagues. I guess his problem is that he’ll have 2-3 good games (sometimes even 4 or 5) and then 1 bad one. And his good games aren’t all that good, so when owners see that one bad game, they decide to cut him loose. At least, that’s my hypothesis. He seems like a great guy for a daily changes league where you can play as many guys as you can. If you have to decide between him and another guy because your schedule is full for a given day, then just choose the other guy.

Everybody’s favorite pick up (or at least 34% of owners favorite) Greivis Vasquez (1.16) had another 15 points, 11 assists, and 2 steals. He’s still out there in 66% of leagues, and that’s kind of a lot… definitely worth a look to see if you can get him in any of your leagues.

Biggest Loser: Stephen Jackson (-1.10) owners have to just keep hanging on through the 2 point (1-6 from the field), 4 rebound games until Jackson gets traded to somewhere that he can start putting up points in the high teens with another half a three and a rebound per game.

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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: Al Jefferson, Corey Brewer, J. R. Smith, Jodie Meeks, Nikola Pekovic, Tayshaun Prince