It’s sad to see solid vets go down to such injuries. Speaking of solid vets, Line of the Night: Tim Duncan (2.80) took a sip from Fountain of Youth and took out a line from one of his days during his prime. Still remember those days?  Let him refresh your memory to the tune of 19 points and 17 rebounds, while two steals and five blocked shots. Duncan’s performance proved too much for the Memphis Grizzlies to handle as the Spurs defeated them 89 to 84.

Honorable Mentions:

Chris Paul (2.76) led the LA Clippers to victory over the Orlando Magic with his 29 points (3 threes, 8-8 from the line), seven rebounds, eight dimes, and two steals. CP3 has been superb lately and should continue to deliver consistently from here on out.

DeMarcus Cousins (2.39) was a board shy of achieving a 20-20 performance with 28 points, 19 rebounds, and three rejections as he easily made short work of the New Orleans Hornets’ thin frontcourt.

As a Serge Ibaka (2.14) owner in at least two leagues this season, I was beaming with joy to see him log yet another (and hopefully more often) 30+ minute game for the OKC Thunder. Mr. Brooks, please give Serge more minutes. Pretty please? Free Ibakaaaaa! Ee-Ba-Ka! Ee-Ba-Ka! Ee-Ba-Ka! Come on people join in! THIS was the kind of line I was projecting Serge to grow into this season and exactly why I picked him in the third round of a couple of drafts. Hey if 12 points (5-8 from the field), 13 rebounds, two steals, and four blocks isn’t third-round-value material, I don’t know what is.

Marc Gasol (2.12)  had yet another spectacular fantasy line with 22 points (6-6 from the line), nine boards, two steals, two blocks. I doubt Marc will retain this pace when Zach Randolph returns to action (March-ish). He’s sharing the paint duties with “Mr. non-factor,” Marresse Speights. Go figure. With Z-Bo in the paint, its going to be a whole different story, so savor this run while it lasts folks.

What would a night of Tim Duncan playing like a youngster be without a PG getting his own serving of youth sauce? Steve Nash (2.10) was like a finely aged wine, vintage 2006-2007. Ah, a fine year for Steve Nash indeed. Those were the days when 24 points (4 threes, 9-12 from the field) and 11 assists were more common place.

If LaMarcus Aldridge (1.88) doesn’t make the all-star team, I’m going to boycott watching the NBA! Fine, maybe I can’t do that, I’d be really, really disappointed. Outraged even! How can anyone not credit him with a spot after dropping 39 points (11-11 from the line) on the Thunder, no less, and even pushing Kevin Durant to the limit? How? If Aldridge gets snubbed again it would be a true travesty of epic proportions. What say you, readers? Aldridge for All-Star in 2012, “Yay or Nay?”

***

I own/owned Chauncey Billups in a couple of leagues. When news broke that his injury “didn’t look good”, I quickly grabbed either Randy Foye or this guy, ourWaiver Wire Line of the Night: Jerryd Bayless (2.15) (25% owned). We saw his under utilized potential way back in when he was with the Portland Trail Blazers. We knew coming into this season that he would be pushing Jose Calderon for at least a time-split at the point for Toronto. As a natural scorer,  it appears that JB found his true fantasy calling playing alongside Calderon. He’s now one of the Raptors’ go-to guys for offense while Andrea Bargnani is still hurt. Bayless exploded for 30 points (6 threes, 6-6 from the line) and two steals. While obviously don’t expect this to BE his average moving forward. We do project more consistent and fantasy-valuable from this point onwards. Points, Threes, FT%, and Steals – that’s the key to how you’re going to “win more, with Bayless”

Pick Up Lines: C.J. Watson (1.94) was always a solid player. We knew he just needed minutes in order for him to truly shine in fantasy basketball. The dilemma is that it’s hard for anyone to get a ton of playing time when you’re backing up a Derrick Rose. Rose barely played more than 10 minutes as he was plagued with back spasms. He’s currently listed as day-to-day and likely just needs some rest and rehab for his back. Meanwhile Watson took care of business with a sweet double-double performance, logging 14 points, and 11 assists,  with seven rebounds and two steals (6% owned)

Trevor Booker (1.81) outperformed Javale McGee last night with 19 points, three steals, three blocks. I wasn’t too impressed with Booker the first time around he filled in for Andray Blatche. Nights like this are slowly allowing Trevor’s potential to grow on me. If he keeps this up, we doubt he will remain 15% owned for very long.

Chase Budinger (1.50) had a good night as Chandler Parsons didn’t. It’s difficult to recommend grabbing him off your FA pool right now as it seems that Kevin McHale seems to be applying the “play whoever has the hot hand rule” when it comes to the timeshare between Chase, Chandler and Courtney (Lee). This happened to be Budinger’s night. He chipped in 16 points with four treys, and five rebounds (35% owned).

Linas Kleiza (1.41) joined Jerryd Bayless’ scoring extravaganza with his own superb performance off the bench. Kleiza poured on the fantasy goodness with 30 points (4 threes, 11-16 from the field) (10% owned). Games like that make his occasional “knee soreness” scares and DNPs worth the risk.

Biggest Loser:

It’s mildly mind-boggling to see Al Harrington (-0.93) who actually double-doubled, as our biggest loser for the evening. Apparently his 12 points and 15 rebounds were not enough to offset his zero assists and four turnovers, that were accompanied with horrible shooting from both the field (5-16) and from the line (2-6) .

Derrick Rose (-0.87) is an understandable disappointment as he had to leave the game due to back spasms. So I’m sure his owners in the rotisserie format will just have to suck it up and end up using the four points, zero rebounds, zero assists D-Rose locked into his fantasy roster slot.

Kevin Martin (-0.86) had an off night, to put it mildly, and was an appalling fraction of his normal self as he delivered eight points and one assist for the night.

***

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.

Do not miss a day of the Fantasy NBA. Subscribe to Give Me The Rock right now. You can also get bonus (and easily digestible) content by following GMTR on Twitter, or become a fan of GMTR on Facebook! We are so social!

If you like what you read here, come back every day for new content! And if you come back every day, please consider donating…

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Yes, even I couldn’t survive the grind of the condensed season. Erik and I had picked a great topic for the week (trading), prepped for it, and then I started to come down with the flu. So instead of me sleepwalking through an episode, we decided to push it back a few days until I was feeling better. So as long as everything goes to plan, there be a new podcast later this week.

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(H/T: Michael Gluckstadt)

In case you haven’t heard, it looks like Mike D’Antoni is likely going to go with Jeremy Lin as the team’s starting PG against the Utah Jazz tonight. D’Antoni is apparently impressed with the way Lin attacked the basket and ran the Knicks’ offense during Saturday’s game against the Nets (and equally unimpressed with the pathetic job Toney Douglas has done). Can Lin repeat his 25 point and 7 assist performance against the Jazz? I highly doubt it, but Lin is an absolute must grab in any league he’s available in just to see if he can.

Also, because David Sterns requires by penalty of death that it is mentioned in any post about Lin, he graduated from Harvard.

Carry on.

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oh wait, wrong sport.

Line of the Night: There was no way that the NBA was going to compete head-to-head with the Super Bowl, so yesterday’s slate consisted of only two early games. That means Rudy Gay’s (1.64) relatively modest 21 points and 7 rebounds in a 98-80 lost to the Celtics was the best fantasy line of the day. It’s four straight 20+ point games for Gay after that disastrous 1 point game on Jan 30.

Honorable Mentions: Kevin Garnett (1.63) channeled young KG yesterday and led the Celtics with 24 points (on 9-12 from the field) and 9 rebounds. He also hit a three for his third game in a row and is shooting 100% from behind the arc this season. Who needs Ray Allen when you’ve got KG? Paul Pierce (1.61) also chipped in 21 points (going 10-10 from the line), with 6 rebounds and 6 assists.

In the day’s other game, Mario Chalmers (1.19) actually had the Heat’s best fantasy line with a boxscore filling 11 points, 3 threes, 4 assists, and 2 steals as Miami held off a Raptors’ fourth quarter comeback to win 95-89. Although right behind him on today’s list are LeBron James (1.02) with 30 points and 9 rebounds, and Dwyane Wade (1.00) with 25 points and a couple blocks. For the Raptors, DeMar DeRozan (0.97) bounced back from three horrible shooting games to score 25 points, adding 2 steals.

***

Waiver Wire Line of the Night: Jerryd Bayless (1.50) got his fourth start in the Raptors’ last five games and made the most of it, scoring 17 points, with 4 threes and 2 steals. Even coming off the bench, Bayless is getting over 25 minutes a game and should be own in most league formats at this point, especially given the 23-year old’s upside.

Pick Up Lines: Ed Davis (1.07) is owned in 39% of leagues, but he’s a decent short-term play if still hanging out on free agency if you need boards and blocks as long as Bargnani is out. Against the Heat, Davis chipped in 8 points, 8 rebounds and 2 blocks off the bench.

With the Celtics’ Brandon Bass out with a swelling in his knee, Chris Wilcox (0.80) somehow managed to score 12 points and grab 5 rebounds in 11 minutes, while rookie PF JaJuan Johnson (0.73) got 22 minutes off the bench and chipped in 10 points with 2 blocks . Both I’d consider for deeeeep leagues only as Bass’ injury doesn’t sound serious.

Jermaine O’Neal (0.15) is also someone to take a look at in deep leagues if you need blocks – his 4 points, 7 rebounds and 2 blocks against the Grizzlies is about the best you can expect from him these days.

I’m not the biggest fan of inefficient scorers on my fantasy teams, but Linas Kleiza (0.02) has been getting some decent run lately, including 24 minutes off the bench against the Heat. Kleiza finished with 17 points and 5 boards, although he was also 5-13 from the floor. He’s inconsistent and inefficient, but he will score, hit threes and grab some boards.

Biggest Loser: Gay may have had the line of the night, but he didn’t get much help from his teammates. This included Marc Gasol (-1.91), who was 3-14 from the floor against Boston and finished with 7 points, 6 rebounds and 7 turnovers in 34 minutes on the court. Consider it a one-off bad game for Gasol who must have had his mind on other things.

In addition, Mike Conley (-0.53) had a quiet 4 points, 3 rebounds and 4 assists while shooting 2-8 from the field against the Celtics.

Finally, the usually non-error prone Jose Calderon (-0.92) had 5 turnovers to only three assists against the Heat and was thoroughly outplayed by both his opponent and his backcourt mate Bayless.

***

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.

Do not miss a day of the Fantasy NBA. Subscribe to Give Me The Rock right now. You can also get bonus (and easily digestible) content by following GMTR on Twitter, or become a fan of GMTR on Facebook! We are so social!

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Line of the Night: Nicolas Batum (2.94) was a game time decision against Denver with a bruised knee that had already kept him out two games. Well, the knee is apparently fine as Batum hit a franchise record 9 threes on his way to a career-high 33 points and adding 3 steals for good measure. If you had stashed Batum on your bench until you were sure he was back on the court (like me), then it’s time to get Batum back in your lineup without getting too pissed you missed this game from him.

Honorable Mentions: Tony Parker (2.90) loses out on the line of night by the smallest margin thanks to a season-high 42 points, with 9 assists and 2 steals in a win over the Thunder. Enjoy the run if you own Parker, the numbers won’t be so gaudy once Manu returns in a couple weeks.

The Bulls cruised to an easy win over the Bucks thanks to Derrick Rose’s (2.64) 26 points, 7 rebounds and 13 assists. Luol Deng (1.26) also came back from a wrist injury which kept him out seven games to score 21 points with 3 threes. Time to get him back in your lineup. Drew Gooden had the Bucks’ best fantasy line with a season-high 24 points, but he only grabbed 3 boards on the night. Wah-waah.

Someone who did grab a bunch of rebounds was Kris Humphries (2.57), who scored 20 points, filing up the box score with 12 rebounds, 2 steals and 4 blocks in a loss to the Knicks. Deron Williams (2.12) chipped in 21 points, 11 assists and 3 steals. Ten guesses on which Knick had the team’s best performance?

From the doghouse to a deluxe apartment in the sky: A game after Trevor Ariza (2.32) played so badly he was biggest loser material, Ariza bounced back against the Pistons to score 26 points on 9-12 shooting, adding 7 rebounds, 4 assists and 3 steals. Got to love Ariza’s consistency. The NBA’s hottest waiver wire pickup, Greivis Vasquez (1.23), added 14 points, 6 boards and 9 assists in another start for the injured Jarrett Jack. Vasquez makes a very good add if he’s available in your league, even after Jack returns to the lineup.

Greg Monroe (1.24) led the Pistons with 24 and 16 for his 13th double-double of the year.

Batum may have stolen the spotlight in the Blazers game, but LaMarcus Aldridge (2.23) put up a strong 29 points, 9 rebounds and 5 assists, while Marcus Camby (1.37) grabbed 20 boards. Camby now has three 20 rebound games and three 5 block games with big patches of nothing in between.

Sacramento and Golden State went into overtime, which of course meant some nice stat lines for Tyreke Evans (2.23) – with 26 points and 9 assists – DeMarcus Cousins (1.51) – with 21 points and 20 boards – and Marcus Thornton (1.40) with 28 points and 4 threes. The shots weren’t falling for either Monta Ellis or Stephen Curry in the game, so Dorell Wright (2.02) actually had the best fantasy line for the Warriors with 24 points and 4 threes.

After a bad run of games, Kyle Lowry (1.85) owners must be happy to see this line: 24 points, 11 assists and a couple steals, even if it did come against the porous Wolves’ defense. Also a good sign: Lowry shot 50% from the field in this game. For Minnesota, Kevin Love (1.24) had 25 and 18, but also turned the ball over 6 times.

***

Waiver Wire Line of the Night: Interested in another run with Kawhi Leonard (2.18)? No? After losing his starting job to Gary Neal for one game, Leonard was back in the starting lineup against the Thunder and finished with 15 points, 3 threes, 6 rebounds, 5 assists. His minutes and production have been all over the map lately (as Popovich also has Neal and Danny Green to throw at that spot depending on how the winds blow that day). With Manu expected back in a few weeks, leave Leonard on waivers for now.

Pick Up Lines: Reggie Williams (1.78) is back for the Bobcats after missing the first 21 games of the season with a knee injury. And his arrival couldn’t have come soon enough for the hurting Bobcats. In his third game back, Williams was inserted into the starting lineup and finished with 21 points, 7 rebounds and 6 assists in 39 minutes. Williams gives the team a legitimate scoring option and three point threat in addition to Kemba Walker and he should make a great add while Gerald Henderson is sidelined with a hamstring injury. We’ll see if he can maintain fantasy value longer term, but he could easily become the team’s sixth man and get decent minutes off the bench.

There was a brief time when John Salmons (1.69) was a top-50 fantasy player. This season he’s barely been a top-50 player on the Kings. But Salmons is still starting for Sactown, has put together two good games in a row, including yesterday’s 14 points, 3 threes, 6 assists, and 5 steals, and is available in two-thirds of leagues. Salmons is a career 44% shooter, so he should be able to improve on his 38% shooting from the field so far this season. Consider him an ever so mild recommendation.

Jeremy Lin (1.40) came off the bench for the Knicks and scored a career-high 25 points, adding 5 boards and 7 assists in nearly 36 minutes on the court. Lin is averaging 9 minutes a game so far this season, so don’t expect this type of game to happen with any type of regularity. His extra playing time came as the result of the Knicks being on the third game of a back-to-back-to-back. Still, with Baron Davis stuck in practice purgatory, it could be worth taking a flyer on Lin in deeper leagues to see if he can carve out some more consistent minutes off the bench for New York. I just wouldn’t count on it.

Quick Hits: Klay Thompson (1.67) was 4-5 from three for the Warriors and finished with 16 points in an overtime game against the Kings. He’s minutes bounce all over the place from game-to-game and isn’t consistent enough to be worth picking up.

The Jazz backup PG, Earl Watson (1.49) finished with 8 points, 11 assists, and 2 steals in 26 minutes off the bench. For reasons that we’ll get into shortly, I think he makes a great add in deeper leagues.

Kosta Koufos (1.16) got the start for Denver because Timofey Mozgov is out with a sprained left ankle and responded with easily his best game of the season – 16 points and 12 rebounds in 34 minutes. Considering that Mozgov had to be helped off the court on Friday because he couldn’t put weight on his foot, I’d guess that he’s going to be out for at least a couple weeks, making Koufos a nice short-term add in the meantime. If he can carve out 25 minutes, Koufos will be a double-double threat with good percentages (although he won’t do much else).

With Richard Hamilton constantly injuring and reinjuring himself, it’s finally time I give due respect to Kyle Korver (1.38), who is playing well for the Bulls whether he’s been asked to start or now come off the bench with Deng back. Korver was 4-8 from three against the Bucks and finished with 18 points. If you’re on the hunt for threes, Korver is one of the best out there.

Jordan Farmar (1.08) had another nice game off the bench for the Nets with 19 points and 3 threes. Take a look at him if you need some scoring and assists.

Biggest Loser: At this point, we’re going to have to stage an intervention for everyone who still owns Devin Harris (-1.13) (and he’s still owned in 56% of Yahoo leagues). Harris returned to the court after missing one game with a hamstring injury and scored 1 point on 0-6 shooting, with no rebounds and 3 assists. He’s ranked 176 on the GMTR player rater for the season and despite the hopes of many a Devin Harris owner out there, he’s not been getting any better in recent games.

***

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.

Do not miss a day of the Fantasy NBA. Subscribe to Give Me The Rock right now. You can also get bonus (and easily digestible) content by following GMTR on Twitter, or become a fan of GMTR on Facebook! We are so social!

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We had a little bit of a conversation going last night on Twitter about which three-point bomber would get the Line of the Night:. Well, despite Anthony Morrow‘s (2.97) 8 threes on 13-20 from the field and 8-8 from the line to end up with 42 points, his lack of peripheral stats means that Erik was right in calling Paul George (4.29) as the winner of the three-point fantasy basketball player rater shootout. George ended up with 30 points (7 threes, 11-19 from the field, 1-1 free throws), 9 rebounds, 5 assists, and the stat that gave him the highest WARP score we’ve seen so far this year: 5 steals. George is the only player to go over 4 on the WARP scale.

Honorable Mentions: Kevin Durant (2.91) probably would have been first on any other night with his 36 points, 10 rebounds, 2 steals, and 3 blocks, but that just looks downright ordinary compared to the two guys above… Joining Durant was teammate James Harden (2.15) who scored 24 points (4 threes, 8-13 from the field, 4-4 from the line), with 2 steals to help OKC beat Memphis in spite of Marc Gasol (1.94)’s best efforts. Gasol’s best efforts look something like: 24 points (9-12 from the field, 6-6 from the line), 8 rebounds, and 2 blocks.

Despite shooting 3-8 from the floor, Ricky Rubio (2.15) made the Player Rater blush with 10 points (2 threes), 10 assists, and beating out Paul George with his 6 steals.

Paul Pierce (1.85) continues to deliver for fantasy owners, putting up another 30 points (4 threes), 7 rebounds, and 5 assists. Behind Kevin Durant, he might be the best Small Ball SF out there.

Anderson Varejao (1.57) continued a run of strong games with 12 points, 15 rebounds, and 3 steals.

And Good On You to the 60% of people who held on to Brandon Knight (1.55) (despite our best efforts to convince everyone to drop him). Knight scored a season-high 26 points (3 threes), along with 7 assists and 3 rebounds. Apparently Yahoo had already thought he would be out of the league already and replaced him with a Piston logo…

Finally, Kevin Love (1.51) may not be able to get a double-double in every game this season (he’s had 2 games of single digit rebounds) but that doesn’t mean he’s going to stop putting them up: 20 points (10-10 from the line!), 10 rebounds, and 5 assists.

***

Waiver Wire Line of the Night: I’m going to have to keep driving this Apology Train until it runs off a cliff. We’ve been telling people for a while that Amir Johnson (2.02) was dunzo… so of course he comes back with 18 points (8-13 from the field), 13 rebounds, and 3 blocks (42% owned). Because that 42% ownership shows that a bunch of people already let him go, you now have the choice of whether or not to pick him back up. After the previous 9 games, I’m going to give him another chance to soar or flop. If you’re in a deeper or more competitive league, you probably don’t have that luxury, so I’m going to stick with what I said and say that it’s better to leave him be.

Pick Up Lines: Someone you should not agonize over is Nikola Pekovic (1.41). Somehow he’s only owned in 6% of leagues, but he’s already been picked up in all of mine… I knew it would happen if he showed any sign of repeating what he’d done the game before… but he did even better, going for 27 points (11-14 from the field), and 11 rebounds, so even though he violates the 70% shooting rule, he is a MUST ADD at this point, so stop reading and go get him already (or at least see if he’s still available – and you’re still reading this, what are you doing?)

Vince Carter (1.35) score 14 points on 6-10 from the field, with 5 assists, and 2 steals. He is 49% owned, and after his four most recent games, that number will probably edge over 50%… I have to admit, he’s starting to look a like a poor man’s vintage Vince Carter.

From once and former to current Raptors: Leandro Barbosa (1.19) might be back….? After missing a game, it seems like maybe he just needed to work his way back into thing before getting back to scoring 19 points, and adding the little bonus defense numbers with 3 steals, and 2 blocks (29% owned).

And speaking of Raptors who missed a game: Linas Kleiza (0.98) came back after missing one to score 15 points (3 threes, 6-8 from the field) (7% owned).
Patrick Patterson (0.80) 12 points, 7 rebounds, 2 blocks (2% owned)
Alonzo Gee (0.80) 20 points (3 threes), 5 rebounds (5% owned)

Biggest Loser: O.J. Mayo (-0.74) didn’t have all that bad of night with 13 points, 4 rebounds, and 2 assists if you’re in a points league where missed shots don’t count. His efficiency was terrible with 5-16 from the field and 3-7 from the line. Rajon Rondo (-0.64) didn’t fare much better, again, putting up a decent line for points league teams: 7 points, 5 rebounds, 7 assists, but he also turned it over 5 times while going 3-8 from the field and 1-4 from the line.

In The Bonus: FakeTeams does a midseason fantasy basketball mock draft.

***

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.

Do not miss a day of the Fantasy NBA. Subscribe to Give Me The Rock right now. You can also get bonus (and easily digestible) content by following GMTR on Twitter, or become a fan of GMTR on Facebook! We are so social!

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Line of the Night: It took a little while for Stephen Curry (2.90) to get past the whole Fragile Ankle Syndrome (which could of course reoccur at any time), but he’s finally playing like a second round pick (or first round last night) with 29 points (10-14 from the field, 2 threes), 5 rebounds, 12 assists, and 3 steals. Curry’s teammate Monta Ellis (1.99) had 33 points (3 threes, 13-21 from the field), and 3 steals.

Honorable Mentions: Sleeping Giant #2: The Denver Nuggets. With Danilo Gallinari (1.99) leading the way, the whole season, but also last night with 21 points (5 threes, 7-10 from the field), 6 rebounds, and 4 assists, the Nuggets have the second best record in the West.

Tim Duncan (1.85) is definitely a giant, and from his play earlier this season, it sure seemed like he was sleeping, but last night her woke up to score 19 points (6-8 from the field, 7-7 from the line(!)), to go with 9 rebounds, and 2 steals.

Amare Stoudemire (1.68) scored 34 points, and grabbed 11 rebounds, but fell prey to Derrick Rose (1.66) who was just pretending to sleep against Philadelphia in order to give more false hope to the 76ers. Rose scored 32 points (2 threes) against the Knicks to go with 13 assists (2 turnovers).

Since he’s been called out a couple times in The Biggest Loser, I felt it only right to mention that Raymond Felton (1.41) had 15 points, 10 assists, and 3 steals last night (pun intended).

***

Waiver Wire Line of the Night: Randy Foye (1.83) got some extra time because Chauncey Billups was struggling with his shot. Foye scored 17 points (7-11 from the field), with 3 steals (3% owned). He passes the 70% rule, but 63% shooting is still pretty hard to keep for any period of time. And so is 27 minutes a game when you’re on a team with Chris Paul, Billups, and Mo Williams.

Pick Up Lines: Having just picked him up before writing this sentence, I am going to declare Gordon Hayward (1.75) an official Good Pick Up. Hayward scored 21 points (8-8 from the line), with 4 assists, and 2 steals (22% owned) for his 4th good-for-a-free-agent game in a row. With all the injuries going around, you might need someone who can play SG or SF (perhaps to replace Gerald Henderson who strained his hamstring and will be out at least 2 weeks).

I have to admit, I did not know which team Jamaal Tinsley (1.22) was playing for. Turns out, it’s Gordon Hayward’s Utah Jazz (yes, that was intended to be some mix of ironic and sarcastic). Tinsley got the start as the Jazz finally decided that Devin Harris had injured his brain (though they claim it’s his hamstring). JT played 34 minutes even in a lopsided loss to Stephen Curry and Monta Ellis (I don’t think anyone else on the Warriors really needs to play when those two are healthy) and he ended up with 9 points, 6 rebounds, 13 assists, and 2 steals (1% owned). If you’re in a deep league or a competitive league (or heaven forbid, both) then you probably want to snap him up on the off-chance that he continues getting those kind of minutes even when Harris returns.

(Image: Dustin Curtis)

Swimming upstream once again is John Salmons (1.21) with 19 points (3 threes), and 8 rebounds (31% owned) (pun intended). I would err on the side of “he’s already owned in every league where he should be” (and probably more than that) on this one.

Kyle Korver (1.20) did that thing he does wherein he makes threes and then you think about picking him up. To get to 16 points (3 threes) he added 5-5 from the line (13% owned), and it probably doesn’t bear repeating, but Results Not Typical.

Besides Hayward and the riskier Tinsley, I’d say a couple guys worth taking a look at are: Dante Cunningham (1.03), who had 8 points, and 12 rebounds (1% owned), and Josh Howard (0.92), who I even picked up and dropped at one point so far this year. Howard had 19 points (7-10 from the field), and 4 assists (7% owned), so while he doesn’t actually qualify as a legit pick up due to the 70% rule, I still say take a look just because when he gets the time, he can put up numbers. If anything, at least click the little flag button (or whatever you do in your league to add someone to your watch list) and keep him on your radar. Cunningham is more inconsistent with a much lower upside, but for deep league managers who need some blocks and boards, he might still have value for another month or more until Zach Randolph returns.

Biggest Loser: Of course… I/We have been telling people to keep C.J. Miles, so it would stand to reason that he go and shit a brick on the court. C.J. Miles (-1.62) had 3 points, 2 rebounds, 0 assists, and was 1-6 from the field last night.

I think it’s time to call it quits on the DeJuan Blair Experiment (-0.89). Blair managed just 3 points, 6 rebounds, and 1 assist, going 1-6 from the field. He’s already a pretty bad FT shooter, so when he shoots like that from the field, you have to worry.

For anyone (because there was at least one person) thinking about picking up Trevor Ariza (-0.62), you have been warned: 5 points, 3 rebounds, 2 assists, 4 turnovers, and 2-10 from the field. It better be a deep league.

***

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.

Do not miss a day of the Fantasy NBA. Subscribe to Give Me The Rock right now. You can also get bonus (and easily digestible) content by following GMTR on Twitter, or become a fan of GMTR on Facebook! We are so social!

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Line of the Night: In a year where just about all PGs are struggling (especially with their shots), Brandon Jennings (2.96 WARP) has somehow found a way to improve his FG% from 39% last season to 44% so far this season. Of course, maybe none of that really matters, as Jennings shot just 9-25 from the floor against the Heat, and yet led all fantasy lines last night thanks to 31 points (going 7-14 from three), with 8 assists and 4 steals. Jennings is going to continue to score in bunches in a Bogut-less Bucks’ rotation, just prepare for the inevitable Kyle Lowry-like 25% shooting run that is eventually going to come. I still consider him a sell high candidate.

Honorable Mentions: The Heat lost to Milwaukee, but don’t blame LeBron James (2.21) (ok, blame him a little) who scored a season high 40 points, hitting 4 threes, with 8 rebounds, 5 assists and 2 steals. Dwyane Wade (1.34) chipped in 23, 8 and 6.

Another PG who has been defying the odds (and father time) is Steve Nash (2.81), who scored 30 points on an incredible 13-16 from the field, with 10 assists against the Hornets. And he did all that in only 29 minutes on the court! Nash is now shooting 55% from the floor this season, which is not just tops among PGs, but is actually fifth in the league overall behind 3 centers and LeBron.

The tandem of Chris Paul (2.68) – 34 points, 5 rebounds, 11 assists and 3 steals – and Blake Griffin (2.47) – 31 points, 14 rebounds and 3 blocks – was so huge against the Jazz that the rest of the Clippers’ starting lineup scored a combined 16 points and they still won. Al Jefferson (1.31) was back in the lineup for the Jazz after missing a game with some ankle swelling and had 27 and 12 in this game.

***

The Pacers beat the Wolves thanks to Danny Granger’s (2.15) first 30+ point game this season. He finished with 36 points, 5 threes and 7 rebounds and was 13-15 from the line. The scoring has definitely come around for Granger after a bit of a slow start to the season and those who were able to buy low on Granger seem to have been rewarded. Darren Collison (2.00) added 20 points, 6 rebounds and 9 assists in the game, while on the other side of the ball Kevin Love (1.03) finished with 21 and 17, but also shot 6-16 from the field.

Kevin Martin’s (2.07) 29 points, 6 threes and 9 rebounds weren’t enough to hold off Tim Duncan (0.83) and the Spurs from a comeback win. Duncan had 25 and 7 boards in the game, while Tony Parker (1.06) chipped in 24 points.

The Blazers dismantled the Bobcats 112-68 and their best fantasy performance actually came from Jamal Crawford (1.98), who scored 24 points and hit 4 threes in 21 minutes off the bench. Gerald Wallace (1.92) and LaMarcus Aldridge (0.73) also had nice games scoring 23 and 22 points, respectively. The Bobcats leading scorer in this game was Gerald Henderson (-0.50) who finished with 16 points and was ranked 173 out of 230 players in terms of his fantasy WARP score. Whoooo, Bobcats basketball!

Dwight Howard (1.62) had 23 and 18 as the Magic hung on for a win against the Wizards. Ryan Anderson (1.81) was 6-9 from three, while J.J. Redick (1.31) scored 21 points and hit 3 threes. More on the Wizards’ best performances below.

And OKC beat the Mavs 95-86; Russell Westbrook (1.64) handed the offense with 33 points and Serge Ibaka (1.87) was all over the D. Ibaka was only 2 of 8 from the floor, but his owners’ will gladly take it as Ibaka blocked 10 shots on the night. Thanks in part to that performance, Ibaka is now blocking 2.8 shots a game and his only behind Jordan and McGee in terms of blocks per game this year.

Waiver Wire Line of the Night: Greivis Vasquez (2.12), yes the Greivis Vasquez, had a career high 20 points and 12 assists for the Hornets coming off the bench behind Jarrett Jack and DaJuan Summers (yes, the DaJuan Summers). Vasquez is both a) not going have this type of game again this season, and b) still looking like a sneaky good pickup while Eric Gordon is out if you need assists in a deep league. He’s gotten 25+ minutes in each of the Hornets last four games and has 28 assists over that span. Add him while he’s hot.

Pick Up Lines: On the opposite end of the spectrum from Vasquez is Rashard Lewis (1.52), who scored a season-high 20 points, adding 3 threes, 8 rebounds and a couple steals in the Wizards’ loss to the Magic. When Lewis’ shot is falling, he can still put up a pretty decent looking line., Unfortunately, like a full moon, his shot only makes an appearance once a month for so. The last thing any fantasy team needs is a shooter who can’t shoot. All you Jason Richardson owners know what I’m talking about.

The Bulls got some smack handed to them by the Sixers, and as a result C.J. Watson (1.30) got a little extra run, scoring 20 points (to D-Rose’s 18) and hitting 4 threes in 27 minutes. Watson makes a nice handcuff for any Rose owners, but otherwise on most nights he’s only going to see 10-20 minutes on the court.

Ahoy, Lavoy!!! Lavoy Allen (0.90) – a 6-9 PF for the Sixers – has played himself into some minutes for the Sixers off the bench recently. Last’s night blowout of the Bulls gave him some extra run and he finished with 15 points (on 7-10 from the field), with 6 rebounds. I love hustle guys as much as the next person, but this gives me the opportunity to break out one of my general guidelines for waiver wire pickups. If a guy comes out of nowhere and shoots 70%+ from the field on any given night, don’t pick him up off waivers because he’s not going to shoot that well again. Plus, Allen is currently the 9th guy deep for the Sixers, making his minutes going forward really spotty.

Ten starts in a row for the Hornets’ Jason Smith (0.89) at PF, three half-decent lines during that time. Ok, make that four. Against the Suns, Smith saw a season high 34 minutes, shot 8-9 from the field and finished with 16 points and 3 blocks. See my 70% rule above and apply that to Smith.

Trevor Booker (0.89) remains a low upside option (not that there is anything wrong with that) with Andray Blatche is out for the next few weeks. Booker finished with 8 points, 9 rebounds and 2 blocks in 21 minutes off the bench against the Magic. He’s behind Jan Vesely on the depth chart, but makes a much better fantasy play than Vesely as a guy who can board and put up some decent defensive numbers.

Booker’s teammate Jordan Crawford (0.89) scored 19 points with 3 threes and 6 assists off the bench. If you could care less about your team’s FG% and need a scorer, Crawford just might be your guy.

Quick Hits: Ersan Ilyasova (0.32) continues to do nothing but grab rebounds for the Bucks, and I mean that in both a good and bad way. Despite Darko being back in the lineup and starting for the Wolves, backup Nikola Pekovic (-0.41) saw more minutes off the bench and double-doubled 13 points and 12 rebounds. Don’t be surprised if he takes over the starting job eventually, so keep him on your watch lists. Ed Davis (0.23) also double-doubled against Boston with 10 points and 12 boards and is worth owning in most leagues while Andrea Bargnani is out.

And thanks to a crazy number of injuries for the Nets, Jordan Farmar (0.68) got the start alongside Deron Williams in the Nets backcourt. He scored 15 points in 31 minutes and makes a good short term play while MarShon Brooks is out and Anthony Morrow remains sidelined with a sore left ankle. Shawne Williams (0.89) also got the start at SF for the Nets and scored 11 points and grabbed 5 boards in 38 minutes. Given the choice between the two, I’d rather own Farmar, who has shown he can put up consistent numbers when getting minutes in the past.

Biggest Loser: The Raptors lost to the Celtics 100-64, so it’s really not a surprise that DeMar DeRozan (-1.98) had the 230th best fantasy line out of 230 players who stepped on the court last night. The Celtics’ did what they do and basically assaulted DeRozan every time he touched the ball. The result was 8 points, 0 rebounds, 0 assists and a 3-12 shooting performance.

You’ve just been Scoled! After what looked like a semi-promising run last week of games where Luis Scola (-1.46) was actually grabbing more than 5 boards a game, the bad Scola is back and killing your fantasy team by not doing much of anything. Scola scored 4 points and grabbed 3 rebounds in 24 minutes against the Spurs, adding 5 turnovers for good measure. Hey, at least last night was an improvement over his 1 rebound game on Monday.

And in case you wondering about Dirk Nowitzki (0.20) and his very un-Dirk-like 2-15 shooting performance against the Thunder. His 8 boards, 2 steals and 4-4 from the line were at least enough to make his WARP score not an embarrassment. Not that’s going to make Dirk owners feel any better about this game.

***

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.

Do not miss a day of the Fantasy NBA. Subscribe to Give Me The Rock right now. You can also get bonus (and easily digestible) content by following GMTR on Twitter, or become a fan of GMTR on Facebook! We are so social!

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Line of the Night:/Waiver Wire Line of the Night: Carmelo Anythony returned for the Knicks after missing two games, but it was Landry Fields (3.04) continuing his recent string of strong performances who took both the overall LotN and by virtue of his 43% ownership, the WWLotN. Fields had 18 points (4 threes, 7-10 from the field, 0-0 from the line), 5 rebounds, 5 steals, and 0 turnovers. The Give Me The Rock fantasy basketball player rater always loves it when a guy can make a few threes, get a huge defensive number like 5 steals, and not turn the ball over. That said, the only other really guady (ie: non-efficiency type line) last night came from Anderson Varejao (1.27) and his 20 points and 20 rebounds. But when Ryan Anderson can get 20 rebounds in a game… well, it almost makes Kevin Love look like just an average guy.

Honorable Mentions:
Paul George (2.53) led Indiana over New Jersey with a very efficient 24 points (4 threes, 8-11 from the field, 4-4 from the line), and 2 steals. And since fantasy owners don’t care that the Nets lost, let’s mention Anthony Morrow (1.86) with 28 points (5 threes), and Deron Williams (1.63) (who of course I’m playing against this week) with 34 points (4 threes) and 7 assists. I’m sure those people with “Team Wins” as a category are frustrated by the loss, but you kind of have to take it with performances like those. You also have to tell your Commissioner that if they’re going to include a “bonus” or “fun” or just “extra” category, Team Wins is, in my opinion, the dumbest one you could add. The whole point is that it’s fantasy basketball, where you try to get a team of the best players from around the league and it doesn’t matter who they play for as long as they put up huge numbers.

Speaking of teams that lost, Al Harrington (1.85) put up 23 points (3 threes, 4-4 from the line), 10 rebounds, 4 assists, and 2 steals in the loss to Memphis. Across the court Rudy Gay (1.75) rebounded (pun intended) from No Field Goal game with 20 points (4-4 from the line), 13 rebounds, 5 assists, 2 steals, and 2 blocks while Marc Gasol (1.57) had another strong game putting up 20 points, 13 rebounds, 2 steals, and 3 blocks.

I’m not sure why coaches play their starters when they’re up by 24 at half time… I mean, I guess you have to play somebody, but to give the notoriously unhealthy Andrew Bynum (1.82) 32 minutes of playing time in a season like this one, I have to question if Mike Brown is actually capable of coaching an NBA team. I’m sure fantasy owners won’t complain about the 20 points (8-11 from the field, 4-4 from the line), 11 rebounds, and 2 blocks (at least if Bynum isn’t injured at the end of the week). I mean, the Knicks were only up by 14 at half time, so I can understand the starters there playing 30+ minutes because they pushed the lead in the 3rd quarter and won by 27… but when you’re already up 24? At least Brown managed to keep Bryant and Gasol in for only 27 and 29 minutes respectively (much to the disappointment of fantasy owners – don’t worry guys, it’s a long season – you’ll need those two to be rested when the Lakers are fighting for playoff position during the fantasy basketball playoffs).

Joe Johnson (1.78) continued to his renaissance of racking up stats with Al Horford out: 30 points (3 threes, 13-18 from the field), and 4 assists. Nothing to it.

Tyreke Evans (1.62) had a near triple-double with 22 points, 10 rebounds, and 9 assists, adding 3 steals just for good measure.

***

Pick Up Lines: Stephen Curry (0.27) had 8 assists but went 1-7 from the field and played a few less minutes due to that struggle with shooting, which allowed Brandon Rush (1.46) to put up 20 points (4 threes, 6-10 from the field, 4-4 from the line), and 6 rebounds (22% owned). Rush has been pretty decent all season, and sits at #96 on the Player Rater. Even with his minutes capped at about 27 max, I would think he’d be owned in more leagues than 22% simply due to the fact that there are a lot of leagues with more than 12 teams (though, at 96, he should be owned in 12 teams leagues, too).

Troy Murphy (1.40) played nearly a season-high 27 minutes for the Lakers (because of the blowout) and ended up with 12 points (4 threes), 6 rebounds, and 4 assists (6% owned). His minutes are still very inconsistent and he’s only averaging 18 on the year, so leave him for deep leagues.

Alonzo Gee (1.09) was part of a furious 4th quarter comeback for the Cavs that just fell short. He put up 11 points, but it was the 4 steals that really drew the Player Rater in (4% owned). Gee is up to 25 minutes per game and averaging 1.6 steals in that time. He’s not a great fantasy asset, but it seems like he should be owned in more than 4% of leagues. (Especially when teammate Ramon Sessions is owned in 31% of leagues and only ranked 200 compared to Gee sitting at 164)

Jermaine O’Neal (1.05) returned from a bruised left knee to score 12 points (5-7 from the field), with 2 blocks (5% owned). Give him a couple games to see if he can keep getting 25+ minutes and if he does, then don’t hesitate. He can put up big boards and blocks for you when he starts for the Celtics.

If you’re looking for a short (or possibly long) term fill-in at Center and don’t trust Jermain O’Neal, then perhaps Ed Davis will be more to your liking. Davis had 11 and 11, making all 3 of his free throws and blocking a shot. Even though Amir Johnson is starting in place of Andrea Bargnani, it looks like the Raptors still don’t trust him to really get the job done. Davis has played more minutes of the bench the last two games, and while he’s not going to win anything by himself, his contributions in rebounds, steals, and blocks are better than nothing.

Biggest Loser: Still owned in 62% of leagues, that might not last long if Brandon Knight (-1.04) keeps this up. After coming in second (to last) last night, Knight managed just 9 points on 38% shooting with 1 rebound, 1 assist, and 3 turnovers.

It wasn’t a great night from DeMar DeRozan (-0.70), but that seems to be about how his lines go these days. After scoring 27 in the Raptors last game, DeMar had only 9 points (3-9 from the floor, 3-4 free throws) with 4 rebounds, 2 assists, and 4 turnovers.

***

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.

Do not miss a day of the Fantasy NBA. Subscribe to Give Me The Rock right now. You can also get bonus (and easily digestible) content by following GMTR on Twitter, or become a fan of GMTR on Facebook! We are so social!

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Honorable Mentions: Add one part Chris Paul (2.65) and one part ego-destroying rim destruction by Blake Griffin (1.07) and you’ve got the recipe for the how to stop the Thunder’s four game winning streak. Paul had 26 points (on 12-16 from the field), adding 14 assists, while Griffin did this to Kendrick Perkins:

Griffin finished with 22 and 7, but doubt anyone is talking about his stat line today. For the Thunder, Kevin Durant (2.49) scored 36 points, with 13 rebounds and 3 blocks, while Russell Westbrook (1.67) dropped 31 and added 5 steals. Kendrick Perkins finished with the need for a lifetime of therapy.

One reason I hate owning Michael Beasley (2.39) is because of the occasional 30+ point games he puts up, which teases you just enough to keep him around through all the bad times. Last night was one of those nights for the Beas who helped spark a huge third quarter run for the Wolves and finished the game 34 points on 10-14 from the floor and 12-12 from the line in a win over the Rockets. If you’ve never had the pleasure of owning Beasley before, you will get these 30 point games from time to time spread out over the year. It is not the start of something special.

The Wolves – who scored 120 points on the night – were far from a one man show. Kevin Love (2.23) chipped in 29 points (on 10-15 from the field), with a measly 7 rebounds; while Ricky Rubio (2.12) nearly triple-doubled with 18 points, 8 rebounds, and 11 assists.

The Rockets’ best line actually came from Kevin Martin (1.46), who was back in the lineup after missing two games. Martin hit 4-6 from three and finished with 29 points in the game. This meant that Courtney Lee was pushed back to the bench (and didn’t do much in 22 minutes), while Chase Budinger managed to still score 13 points in 21 minutes. Both take a hit in their fantasy value with Martin back. And just a note to all Kyle Lowry (0.51) owners – he continues to slide down the GMTR player rater thanks to recent games like this one last night – 11 points and 3 assists. You may want to quickly sell high on him if you still can.

Big men of the world unite! Paul Millsap (1.73) continues to play like a first round fantasy draft pick with 19 points and 15 rebounds in a win over the Blazers. Al Jefferson missed the game with an ankle injury – and the injury sounds pretty bad despite Jefferson’s insistence that he’s going to be back on the court soon – so keep an eye on that situation Jefferson owners.

Ryan Anderson (0.58) may be known more for his three point prowess than his boarding, but thanks to a truly horrific shooting game between the Magic and Sixers (more on that below) he grabbed 20 boards on the night. The downside is that he was 0-4 from three.

And Joakim Noah (1.43) – who was in a funk at the start of the season – nearly had a triple-double against the Wizards with 14 points, 13 boards and 7 assists. With 5 double-doubles in a row now, I think it’s safe to say that Noah is back.

The Suns got destroyed by the Mavs 122-99, but Marcin Gortat (1.85) had the best fantasy line in the game with 17 points, 10 rebounds and 4 blocks against one of the more invisible 7-footers in the league, Brendan Haywood. And with all the talk about Rodrigue Beaubois (0.77) – who finished with 8 points and 7 assists in the start – the Mavs’ best line actually came from…

***

Waiver Wire Line of the Night: Delonte West (2.60). West may have lost his starting job to Beaubois, but with Kidd out he got 28 minutes off the Dallas’ bench and scored 25 points on 9-12 shooting, adding 5 threes and 6 assists. Whether he is starting or coming off the bench, West will get minutes with Kidd out of the lineup and makes an ok add in deeper leagues, but his scoring in this game is a total aberration. He’s much more likely to be around the 10-12 point mark in most games. I’d guess that West’s big fantasy contribution will most likely be as spoil to any breakout potential that Beaubois has currently.

Pick Up Lines: Yesterday’s waiver wire guy, Vince Carter (2.41), chipped in another 21 points and was 5-7 from three in 29 minutes. I echo Erik’s comments from yesterday – I can’t say that I’m running out to grab Carter in any leagues – but as long as his shot is falling like it has been recently, he should get a small bump in minutes and value while Kidd is out.

Earl Watson (2.05) – our deep league special from two podcasts ago – filled up the box score with 6 points, 5 rebounds, 4 assists, 5 steals and 2 blocks in 25 minutes for the Jazz. He’s still coming off the bench behind Devin Harris, so he only really makes sense in deep leagues at the moment or maybe as a handcuff if you happen to still be a Harris owner (again, probably in a deep league).

With Andray Blatche out of the Wizards’ lineup for a month or so (more on that below) Trevor Booker (2.03) got extra run off the bench against the Bulls (Jan Vesely started at PF and did absolutely nothing). Meanwhile, Brooker and had his best game of the season – 14 points (7-9 from the field), 9 rebounds, 3 steals and 2 blocks. His line as a starter earlier in the year when Blatche was out – 6.6 points, 6.4 rebounds, 0.6 blocks – doesn’t exactly inspire confidence, but if you’re desperate for a big or are a Blatche owner, you may want to take a chance on Booker.

Mike Dunleavy (1.68) wants some love, dammit. Lately, we’ve been dismissing Dunleavy on GMTR (as well as the entire Bucks SG through PF positions), but he continues to put up nice scoring numbers off the bench for Milwaukee. And against the Pistons, Dunleavy scored 20 points and hit 2 threes in 26 minutes. It’s his fourth double-digit scoring game out of his last 5 games and he’s finally wore me down enough that I’ll say he is worth a look if you need a scorer as long as he’s getting a consistent 25+ minutes off the bench.

If you love Ryan Anderson but can’t afford his price tag, check out Matt Bonner (1.40), PF/C for the Spurs who is basically a 6-foot 10-inch three-point specialist. Bonner scored 15 points on 5-9 from three against the Grizzlies and has now hit 15 threes in the Spurs last 4 games.

Speaking of three point specialists, Kyle Korver (1.20) got the start, played 44 minutes and hit 5 threes of his own on the way to 17 points and 5 rebounds for the Bulls. The absence of both Luol Deng and Richard Hamilton helped Korver get that burn. He makes a good short-term play while those two guys are out, although both Deng and Hamilton are day-to-day and will probably be back sometime this week.

And with Thabo Sefolosha out with a right foot injury, Daequan Cook (0.90) saw 32 minutes off the bench for the Thunder and had a pretty empty 12 points. But he’s currently available in 99% of leagues, so if you happen to play in a 16+ team league and need some scoring for the week, he could be worth a play while Sefolosha is out.

Injury of the Night: The Wizards announced yesterday that Andray Blatche is expected to miss the next 3-5 weeks with a strained calf muscle. According to interim head coach Randy Wittman:

“He’s probably looking at, after the doctors looked at an MRI, maybe 3-5 weeks with a strain,” Wittman said. “He tweaked it pretty good in Charlotte, and obviously there’s a lot of bleeding in there, which leads to the inflammation in the calf. We’ve got to get that out of there first, and then we’ll have a better idea what we’re looking at.”

As mentioned above, Jan Vesely (-0.45) got the start in Blatche’s place last night, but only played 15 minutes. Trevor Booker is the guy to look at picking up, especially if you’re a Blatche owner. I’ve already dropped Blatche in the one daily changes league I had him in.

Possible Injury Rumor of the Night: So in an article about Rudy Gay, Yahoo Sports’ Marc Spears just casually threw out that Coach Lionel Hollins doesn’t think that Zach Randolph will be back on the court this season. What? How about a little elaboration please? Spears seems to be making a habit out of burying these gossipy tidbits in articles about other stuff (I noticed he did a similar thing earlier this year, although I forget about what at the moment). If you’ve held on to Z-Bo for this long, wait for confirmation from some other source before dropping Randolph.

[UPDATE: Thanks to a little detective work by Nels (check out the comments), it looks like Spears misquoted Hollins about Z-Bo in his article. Everything is still on track for Z-Bo.]

Biggest Loser: The Magic appear to be doing everything in their power to actually drive Dwight Howard away from the team. In their latest 74-69 loss to the Sixers, Hedo Turkoglu (-1.32) finished with 3 points and 3 rebounds while shooting 1-9 from the field. Hedo has shot 12-48 over his last six games and appears to have already run out of steam on the season. Don’t be surprised if he pulls a Dirk or Melo sometime soon and takes some time off to get right.

And has Brandon Knight (-1.16) already hit the rookie wall? It’s a little early to proclaim that after two bad games, but Knight didn’t score on the night, finishing with 1 rebound, 2 assists and 4 turnovers in 24 minutes.

***

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.

Do not miss a day of the Fantasy NBA. Subscribe to Give Me The Rock right now. You can also get bonus (and easily digestible) content by following GMTR on Twitter, or become a fan of GMTR on Facebook! We are so social!

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