RADIO
Welcome to the RotoBaller NBA Recap. In this feature, we will highlight a few key fantasy basketball takeaways from the games played during last night's slate. These viewpoints can be both positive and negative and will hopefully help to provide insight into different roster moves you should consider making based on trends and statistical nuggets from around the Association.
Fantasy basketball has a lot of moving pieces with all the different scoring settings that are possible to play under, so I will always do my best to spotlight where players gain or lose value in certain game types. For the sake of simplicity and consistency, every time I mention Fantasy Points in these articles I will be using DraftKings' scoring system, which goes as follows: 1*PTS, 0.5*3PM, 1.25*RBD, 1.5*AST, 2*STL, 2*BLK, -0.5*TO. On top of that, bonus points are awarded for Double-Doubles (+1.5) and Triple-Doubles (+3), only one per player at a time.
Without further ado, let's get right into the latest slate of games from the 2021 season and try to figure out how to take advantage of what we saw transpire.
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Tuesday, November 2
Chris Paul reaches No. 3 in the all-time assists leaderboard while the Bucks have a night full of contrasting emotions with a victory over Detroit but the news of Khris Middleton testing positive for COVID-19
Another day, another loss for the lowly Pels... This time, it was last season's runner-up Phoenix which got the better of New Orleans in the game that saw CP3 reach 10,346 dimes over his pro career, sitting third in the all-time list and now only behind the marvelous John Stockton and current Mavs HC Jason Kidd. Paul finished the day with a slate-high (with no one even remotely close) 18 dimes and added 14 pops, 7 boards, one steal, and one to that in a fantastic and historic performance.
As for the Bucks, well, they finally broke their ongoing losing streak and got the W against the rebuilding Pistons... only to lose Khris Middleton for COVID-related issues, namely a positive test. Giannis was incredible even on super-limited time (the game had not much competitiveness...) and was the best fantasy player of DK's slate with a fantastic 28-8-9 line and 4 blocks to spare in just 27 minutes of playing time (yes, that yields a silly 2.20 FP/min production that is absolutely crazy to think about).
- Shouts out to both Jazz Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert, whose 36-8-6-1 (with 5 treys) and 12-20-1-1-4 (on a low 12.7 USG%) respectively helped them reach top-10 finishes yesterday while defeating Sacto. Gobert is keeping up a ridiculous 15-17 average on the year, something never achieved in recent NBA history. The last player to grab as many rebounds per game was Dennis Rodman (three times) but he never paired that rebounding with more than 10 PPG.
- Christian Wood (26-16-3-1 on a 57.9% shooting night) and the Rockets came out of left field and posed a tough matchup for the Lakers, who needed the best LeBron James (30-4-10-2 shooting an incredible 61.9% on 21 FGA) to top Houston. Sad day in Houston with the Rockets eating the L and the Astros losing the MLB World Series to Atlanta.
- Janel Brunson started at SG for the Mavs. You read that right, and that's not even the best news coming from Dallas. Not only did Brunson start, but he was magnificent next to Luka and finished with an impressive top-15 performance translated from a 25-7-3 line and shooting 76.9% from the field on a healthy 13 FGA (26.5% usage rate) while turning the ball over some "low" three times. If Brunson starts getting into starting lineups, forget about him being a perennial WW target. If you can still find him sitting there, though, you better rush to add him to your squad.
- Phoenix beat New Orleans and Frank Kaminsky turned out to be the best value-play of the day thanks to his well-sized 29 minutes of playing time off the pine: 17-3-3-4-1 contribution with numbers all across the board and just one turnover on the day helped him reach those heights.
- A couple of Bucks, Brother Thanasis (who started at PF) and Justin Robinson had good games on low volume and dropped 9-8-1-2 and 11-3-4 lines respectively, becoming nice values yesterday.
- Kings rookie Davion Mitchell was the best freshman of the slate on a fantasy ROI basis thanks to a neat 18-4-2 effort (with one block added to that line) in Sacramento's loss to Utah.
- Speaking of rookies... a stinky performance by no. 1 pick Cade Cunningham who could only shoot a stupid 14.3% from the floor on 14 FGA and finished with a measly 6-2-3 line and 2 TOs even though playing 29 minutes and getting a 23.1 USG%. Cade is having a rough start to his career after putting up another dud in his debut a few days ago. It should get better, but there are plenty of rookies balling out there while Cade... well, is not there yet.
- De'Aaron Fox can't get out of his early-season slump to save his life. Another game logging ample minutes (36 yesterday) but another subpar performance with a 13-2-9-3-1 line that while not bad, is way below this man's upside. The 26.7% shooting didn't help, nor did the 3 TOs and 6 PFs on the day.
- Deandre Ayton missed yesterday's matchup with a lower leg contusion so JaVale McGee got the starting nod... LeBron was questionable before tip-off but you saw what he went on to do... Richaun Holmes and Donovan Mitchell left the game for a bit but both returned... and Buddy Hield got ejected Tuesday missing the last 0.4 seconds of the game. LOL.
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