Day 90: Oh No! No More Rondo!
Bad News of the Night: Rajon Rondo is out for the season with a torn ACL.
Fantasy Fallout:
- For obvious reasons, drop Rondo. Suck it up and hold onto him if he’s a keeper.
- Add Avery Bradley, Courtney Lee. Leandro Barbosa, Jason Terry – Most likely in that order of priority.
- Vets like Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett will step up their production. They’re going to try and show the world what a “Big 2″ can do.
Injury of the Night: Mike Conley sprained his ankle and is now in a walking boot. He left the game early, did not return and ended up with 0 points, 0 rebounds, 1 assists (-0.52 WARP)
*Add Jerryd Bayless (2% owned) 14 points, 5 assists, 3 steals (0.88 WARP). He will likely take Conley’s minutes tonight and possibly a game or two… or more… Well hopefully not “more”
On to some “happy news”…
Line of the Night: LeBron James killed it, big time, with an awesome line. But his 34 points, 3 threes, 16 rebounds, 7 assists, and 3 steals weren’t enough to lift the Heat against the motivated Celtics in double overtime. (2.50 WARP)
Honorable Mentions: Kevin Garnett flipped his “Game on!” switch and decided that his team was not going to go gentle into that good night in the wake of the loss of his team’s star PG. Expect similar lines like his 24 points, 11 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 steals, 3 blocks every now and then until the end of the season, or until his knees give out… whichever comes first. (2.18 WARP)
Carmelo Anthony (2.14 WARP) and J.J. Redick (1.97 WARP) decided drop bombs on their respective opponents like it was Operation Arclight and they just loved “the smell of napalm in the morning…” Melo had 42 points, 9 threes, 5 rebounds in a tight win against the Atlanta Hawks, while Reddick had a career night for the Magic with 31 points, 8 threes, 6 rebounds, 3 steals as Orlando fell to Detroit.
Meanwhile in Tinseltown, Kobe Bryant channeled his inner Steve Nash and came up with an impassioned victory against the Oklahoma City Thunder. We’d love to see more of his 21 points, 8-12 from the field, 9 rebounds, 14 assists as he and the Lakers sort themselves out. (1.96 WARP)
Brandon Knight led the Detroit Pistons to victory through his 31 points, 12-16 from the field, 5 threes. This was arguably his best performance of the season so far and a Rodney Stuckey DNP-CD on served to help his cause. At the end of the day though, Brandon Knight’s worst enemy this season has been Brandon Knight. Let’s hope that this will lead to the one true thing owners want out of him… Consistency (1.82 WARP)
Jeff Teague did his darn best to give the Hawks a W against this season’s new and improved New York Knicks, but alas his 27 points, 9-15 from the field, 7-7 from the line, 5 rebounds, 6 assists, and 2 steals were not enough to outclass Carmelo Anthony’s above-mentioned performance. (1.77 WARP)
Waiver Wire Line of the Night: DeShawn Stevenson (1% owned) is back from injury and jumped into “productive mode” right away. While we can’t and shouldn’t expect him to do 15 points, 5-7 from the field, 4 threes on a nightly basis. But assuming he is now 100%, there should be enough touches and minutes to go around for him to improve prior to Lou Williams’ injury. (0.97 WARP)
Pick Up Lines: Kyle Singler (12% owned) appears to be also another fantasy beneficiary of the absence of Rodney Stuckey. Keep him on your watch lists as we might see him do a comeback surge and do even better than 10 points, 2 steals (0.90 WARP)
In an odd game where Arron Afflalo was the only starter who didn’t hit double figures, it was E’Twaun Moore (4% owned) who stepped up and scored 18 points, and collected 2 steals off the bench. (0.87 WARP)
P.J. Tucker (0% owned) is showing signs of life and a pretty decent game with 12 points, 4-4 from the line, 5 rebounds, 5 assists. (0.82 WARP) He won’t shoot threes. He won’t wow you with huge games. But if you’re playing a percentages-specialized or efficiency-oriented team in a DEEP league, he is worth considering.
Jason Smith (2% owned) in a scary way, is just adding to the woes of Robin Lopez owners out there. Yes all 13 of them. Smith out performed his starting counterpart, again, with 16 points, 5-7 from the field, 5 rebounds, 2 blocks. And yes, that’s exactly the kind of line Lopez owners were expecting him to maintain throughout, what we thought was, his (hopefully not) failed attempt at a break out season. (0.77 WARP) I’m sorry, was I a little bit too harsh and heavy handed? If I was, I apologize to the 13 people who own him.
Biggest Loser: Considering that the Celtics were WITHOUT Rajon Rondo, I find it unforgivable that Mario Chalmers would produce a line like 0 points, 1 rebounds, 2 assists. Ugh! … make that “double Ugh!”(-1.19 WARP)
Dwight Howard, who apparently should be traded, for apparently the someone as good as Jason Smith, was no real help to the Lakers and his fantasy owners as he put up a lousy line with 8 points (2-10 from the line), 10 rebounds, and 1 assists. (-1.16 WARP) #WTF? #OMGTRADEHIMALREADYPLS!
Greivis Vasquez had an off night with 5 points (2-16 from the field), 2 rebounds, 11 assists, 4 turnovers. He should bounce back soon enough. Uh well, at least his assists, and uh, his turnovers are still there… (-0.87 WARP)
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Daily rankings and stats come from the FBC 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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