Posts Tagged Courtney Lee
Week 16 Pickups
Posted by fantasy hoopster in Fantasy Basketball, Fantasy Basketball Injuries, Fantasy Basketball Pickups, Fantasy Basketball Strategy on February 6, 2010
George Hill plays on Monday and Thursday this week. If that's important to you, then congratulations. You're a fantasy nerd. (AP)
Because Week 16 is a short week (4 days), pickups are that much more important in H2H leagues. So, in order to give you guys some more time to make those make-or-break pickups, I’m skipping the Week 15 Recap (Noah and the Foot Arch) in favor of posting this a day earlier than usual. First, some logistics:
Mabye the most important thing to note: ORL has 3 games.
Most teams have two games, but SA has two games and plays on both Monday and Thursday (where there are only a total of 5 games going on). This is important because it allows you to maximize (if your league doesn’t have a cap) the number of games you can get in for this week.
Think about it: If you’re only able to start 6 or 8 players per night, for example, you can maximize your games played (and minimize your games wasted on the bench) by picking up players that play on Monday and/or Thursday (or what I call “Off-Days” because most teams have those days off). ORL and SA both play on both of the Off-Days for this week. The following teams have 2 games this week, 1 of which occurs on an Off-Day: NO, GS, DAL, LAK, SA, DEN, and CLE. In other words, if you have limited pickups, target players on ORL, SA, or these squads. Now onto the pickups (by team, with all/most guys available in 50+% of Yahoo leagues):
Orlando
J.J. Redick and Jason Williams are both decent bets for 3’s, as they’re getting solid minutes off the bench. Matt Barnes has slowed of late, but he provides across the board production (and 3 games from him might be worth more than 1 game by a better player).
San Antonio
The best potentially available option out of SA is George Hill. I’ve already written enough about him the past couple weeks so I won’t add too much more. DeJuan Blair and Antonio McDyess could be helpful if you’re looking for boards.
Guys with 2 games (1 on an Off-Day)
The guys above are nice from a “quantity” perspective. These guys might provide better quality: Darren Collison (if he’s available in your league, but if you’re reading fantasy basketball blogs, he’s probably not), Marcus Thornton (missed last two games, check status), Drew Gooden and Rodrigue Beaubois (esepcially on Monday vs GS), Shannon Brown, Arron Afflalo, Daniel Gibson/Delonte West (check West’s status)
And if you don’t care about schedules…
Courtney Lee (heating up again), Brad Miller and Taj Gibson (with Joakim Noah out until the All Star break), Rudy Fernandez (with Roy out next week as well), Brandon Rush (only 1 game)
Week 6 Recap (Starring Kevin Love as Troy Murphy) and Week 7 Pickups
Posted by fantasy hoopster in Fantasy Basketball, Fantasy Basketball Pickups, Fantasy Basketball Strategy on December 6, 2009
I'm so sad I can't even make fun of Oden's 58-yr-old face. Oops I did it again. (Getty Images)
Week 6 featured the return of Chris Paul and Troy Murphy Kevin Love, although the “return” on everyone’s minds doesn’t come until tomorrow night in Philadelphia. It also featured the fall of one of my favorite sleepers on the year. Greg “Sigh” Oden.
Chris Paul
In case anyone forgot, Paul returned to the lineup earlier than expected to remind everyone why he’s the most valuable player in fantasy with a near triple-double (the CP3 way): 16 pts, 15 ast, and 8 stl.
Some other immediate ramifications: Peja Stojakovic’s shot attempts sunk to 10 after enjoying about 13 per game during Paul’s absence (although in Peja’s defense he was returning from a minor injury). Emeka Okafor saw an immediate boost in productivity, and I expect David West to follow shortly, in case you were looking to BUY LOW on either. And Devin Brown (2% owned in Yahoo leagues) is emerging as a fantasy-viable player as the starting SG, totaling 11 treys in Paul’s last 4 (complete) healthy games.
Kevin Love (and Al Jefferson)
Love did his best impersonation of Troy Murphy in his first two games of action, averaging 14.5 pts and 10.5 reb to go with 2.0 3pg. The 3’s were a pleasant surprise and after hitting only 2 all of last year, it looks like he’ll take at least 1 or 2 attempts per game this year.
Meanwhile, Al Jefferson enjoyed his two best rebounding games in a while, totaling 25 in Love’s first two games back. It might seem a little counter-intuitive, but I like this trend to continue, even when Love is inserted into the starting lineup. As I mentioned back when Love got injured, Jefferson doesn’t have to shoulder the entire rebounding load anymore, as the other team will actually have to box out another legitimate rebounder now. The other contributing factor? Jefferson has looked lackadaisical at times this year, but not the last two games. Energy is contagious around Love, and even though the Wolves won’t be fighting for a playoff spot anytime soon, I like Jefferson to play with a little more fire now that their squad has a legit chance to win every most some nights.
If you can convince Big Al’s owner that Love will actually eat into his stats, he could still be a nice BUY LOW option if you can get him at a reasonable price. Read the rest of this entry »
Fantasy Basketball Strategy: Eye-Opening Lines from Sunday night
Posted by fantasy hoopster in Fantasy Basketball, Fantasy Basketball Rankings, Fantasy Basketball Strategy on November 1, 2009
Like Danilo Gallinari, Channing Frye is offically "en fuego". (P.A. Molumby/NBAE/Getty Images)
Again, in the first couple weeks of the season, sometimes it’s all about being the first in line. I’ll do this more regularly (probably every Sunday/Wednesday) during the season, but I just wanted to point out a few impressive lines so you can snatch these guys while they’re still around (especially if there’s an “again” next to their name).
Note: Danilo Gallinari and Brandon Jennings are not on this list because they didn’t play Sunday.
Channing Frye
A day after dropping 6 threes against the Warriors — yes, even though it’s against GS, the stats still count — Frye dropped 6 more on the T-Wolves. (Yes, even though it’s against MIN, the stats still count.) Frye was a popular item in many drafts after a solid pre-season, and even though his production will likely take a (small?) hit when Robin Lopez returns, Frye has clearly earned a place in the rotation. And he’s only owned in 52% of Yahoo leagues right now.
Ryan Gomes
Gomes finally had a big game, putting up 23 and 15 with 2 threes/steals. Sure it was against the Suns, and the Wolves are of course without Kevin Love, but sometimes we all just need a running head start to get going, right? (Currently owned in 29% of Yahoo leagues.)
Grant Hill (again)
Even with Jason Richardson returning from a 2-game suspension, Hill put up 23 and 10 with 1/1/1. Again, he should be rostered in most league formats. (Currently owned in 66% of Yahoo leagues.)
Marc Gasol (again)
Okay, so he’s already owned in 78% of Yahoo leagues, but he’s playing like he should be owned in all of them right now. He put up 20 and 11 in his last game.
Peja Stojakovic
Peja had his biggest game of the season, knocking down 6 treys against the Celtics Sunday night. I personally think there are better options out there (like anyone above), but if you need 3’s you could do worse. (Currently owned in 60% of Yahoo leagues.)
J.J. Redick
I really don’t feel like checking all of his career game logs, but Redick may have had the best game of his career on Sunday, posting 27, 6, and 5 with 5 threes in Vince Carter’s absence. If Carter’s injury lingers, Reddick is definitely worth a short term rental if you don’t have to sacrifice too much. Yes, there are a lot of “if’s” in that sentence. (Currently owned in 6% of Yahoo leagues.)
Ryan Anderson
And speaking of short term rentals filling in for injured/suspended Magic with long term potential, Anderson had his third consecutive solid game on Sunday, chipping in 5 threes against the Raptors. Plus, he’s C-eligible in Yahoo leagues. (Currently owned in 15% of Yahoo leagues.)
Other guys to keep an eye on (that may not have played Sunday):
Marreese Speights, Courtney Lee, Corey Brewer, Larry Hughes, DeJuan Blair, Erick Dampier
Fantasy Basketball Draft Rankings: 126-150
Posted by fantasy hoopster in Fantasy Basketball, Fantasy Basketball Draft, Fantasy Basketball Rankings on October 6, 2009
I’ve finished updating my draft rankings from 101-150. I’ll post it in two different entries, to make it a little more readable. Be sure to check out the complete list from 1-150 on the Draft Rankings tab, complete with one-liners.
Draft Strategy: Don’t hate the player, hate the team
Posted by fantasy hoopster in Fantasy Basketball, Fantasy Basketball Draft, Fantasy Basketball Draft Strategy, Fantasy Basketball Rankings on October 1, 2009
Note: Since you can find some good links to fantasy basketball draft strategy here, I’ll try to focus on a few areas often overlooked.
Don't hate Devin Harris. Hate the Nets. (Marc Rasbury/Icon SMI)
Team schedule. It might sound like the most boring part of playing fantasy basketball, but sometimes it makes a world of difference, especially in H2H leagues (note: this article is mainly intended for H2H players). There are two crucial parts of team schedule:
a) How many times a team plays per week.
b) How many “Off-Days” a team plays.
As I was gearing up to write this, I came across a pretty great analysis of the former at Basketball Free For All via another site, FourPointPlay. I was planning to do something similar but they’ve already done a great job analyzing the NBA schedule on a play-per-week basis. So I’ll focus on the latter.
What exactly do I mean by Off-Days? The days where almost every team gets a day off. Your Thanksgivings, Christmases, and New Years, to name a few. But there are always some teams playing on those days, and since they’re often big primetime TV days, the teams are usually the superstar-led ones, like the Cavaliers, Lakers, and Celtics. But not always.
In H2H leagues it’s especially useful to own players on these teams (it doesn’t always have to be the superstar, mind you) because it often adds to your TOTAL GAME count for that week (assuming you don’t have a weekly cap on games). Even if you do have a cap on games, when your best players play on these Off-Days, it frees you up to use your most efficient combination of players on the days where everyone seems to be playing. Here’s an example:
Rotoworld- DeSagana Diop a healthy scratch from lineup - DeSagana Diop (F/C) Charlotte Bobcats
- Larry Brown believes Iverson will return - Allen Iverson (G) Philadelphia 76ers
- Scalabrine inactive due to Finley addition - Brian Scalabrine (F/C) Boston Celtics
- Aaron Gray returns from stomach infection - Aaron Gray (C) New Orleans Hornets
- Ellington returns after three game absence - Wayne Ellington (G) Minnesota Timberwolves
- Thompson scores 10 in win - Jason Thompson (F/C) Sacramento Kings
- Tyreke Evans gets first triple-double in win - Tyreke Evans (G) Sacramento Kings
- Beno big again in Kings win - Beno Udrih (G) Sacramento Kings
- Bargnani lone bright spot for Raptors - Andrea Bargnani (F/C) Toronto Raptors
- Walker donezo - Bill Walker (G/F) New York Knicks
- Adrian Wojnarowski
- WojYahooNBA: RT @DanWetzel: I'm giddy over this Tiger-Ari Fleischer deal. A sure-to-be disastrous PR campaign is always good for a columnist
- WojYahooNBA: Column: Donald Sterling has big plans for the Clippers now. Next, he should fire himself. http://tinyurl.com/yhbokyp
- WojYahooNBA: RT @jimrome: You know you're having a bad day if Lester Munson is on tv talking about you.
- WojYahooNBA: Gonzo took Times vaccine at Duane Reade RT @PeteThamelNYT: When asked his reaction toTimes story, Gonzo said, "I’m immune to those things."
- WojYahooNBA: Larry Brown had been pushing for Sixers job too, but hard to believe MJ will let him out of contract to leave for Philly or Clips.
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