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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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Friday, February 12
Luka and Zion showcase the power of youth with mighty offensive performances
It can't be argued that Luka Doncic has disappointed a bit this season after getting labeled "the next MVP" no more than two months ago before things got underway in the L. Both the Mavs underperforming and Luka not quite reaching his peak-levels earlier this year contributed to that narrative, but judging by yesterday it's hard to argue against Luka's abilities. The Mav put up a 46-8-12-1-1 line against New Orleans in 40 minutes and an incredible 43% usage rate even with Porzingis active and playing 32 minutes himself.
Oh, and at the other end of the court and playing for the Pelicans, Zion Williamson put on a show himself scoring 36 points on a night in which he was able to shoot 93.3 percent from the floor on 15 FGA while contributing a 2-4-2 rest of line. Zion also hit 8 of his 11 attempted freebies, with just one TO on the game. Neither Zion nor Luka is yet 21 years old. Just imagine building a squad around these two.
- While Zion didn't score a three-pointer yesterday, he was still able to finish with the highest TS% of the slate among players with 15+ FGA thanks to a 90.7% mark. Vucevic was second at 90.1%, though he needed 6 triples to reach that mark.
- Another game for the Lakers, another win for the Lake Show and LeBron. Most importantly, Anthony Davis returned from injury and already played 35 minutes, which is going to cut the minutes of the secondary/role-players of the team going forward as it happened not long ago.
- The Hornets backcourt is a little bit clogged with all of Devonte' Graham, Terry Rozier, and LaMelo Ball getting starts daily (barring injuries). It was Rozier's turn yesterday as he finished with 41 (!!!) pops and 6 treys to his name (with 7 boards, 3 dimes, and 1 block). P.J. Washington was out due to safe and healthy protocols, so if he misses a few games going forward all of the aforementioned three should keep racking up minutes.
- Pistons' rookie Saddiq Bey had a career night (I know, it's not that he has a long career, but still) against Boston, reaching 50 FP in just 28 minutes of playing time to post an average of 1.79 FP/min thanks to his 30-12 performance shooting 83% from the field and scoring 7 (!) triples and 3-of-3 FTs. Nice flyer for those in deeper formats.
- With Mitchell Robinson forced out of yesterday's game with a fractured right hand, the Knicks will need to give more minutes to all of Nerlens Noel/Obi Toppin/Taj Gibson/Kevin Knox. Keep an eye on this and score yourself some shares of those players as they will turn into playing assets at least for the upcoming days/weeks depending on how bad that injury is.
- The Celtics seem to be on the trade market looking for help at the point guard and wing positions. It looked like Payton Pritchard could be an in-house solution for the former need, and he played great two days ago (20-5-1, 30 FP) but came back to earth yesterday starting at the point with 7 FP in 29 minutes... Definitely not a sound play come playoffs time.
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