RADIO
Welcome to the RotoBaller NBA Recap. In this feature, we highlight three fantasy basketball takeaways from last night's slate of NBA games. Friday featured many blowouts and a couple of shocking results during the slate. The Washington Wizards continued their early-season struggles, falling to the Sacramento Kings on the road by four. Nemanja Bjelica led the way for the Kings with 26 points and 12 rebounds. His steady production to begin the year has made him a top-25 player in nine-category leagues. The Serbian is worth a waiver wire add in all formats, but Marvin Bagley does continue to show his immense upside, and there is a chance that Bjelica turns out to be nothing more than a streaming option for the time being.
The New Orleans Pelicans kept their undefeated record alive, barely surviving the Brooklyn Nets by two points. Jrue Holiday had a magnificent game, offering up 26 points on 9-of-19 shooting, which included the game-winner with two seconds left. Holiday's 39.7 percent shooting from the field and 14.6 points per game average could still potentially provide a buy-low window for you. Tonight's performance will not help in acquiring him, but owners can sometimes be fickle from day-to-day.
And the most shocking performance of the night had to belong to the Houston Rockets. With James Harden unavailable due to a hamstring injury, the Rockets were demolished at home by the Los Angelas Clippers by 20 points. Montrezl Harrell scored a career-high 30 points and added in six rebounds, one assist, two steals and two blocks against his former Rockets team. Harrell may not start for the Clippers, but he is a must-add in all formats. He has recorded at least two blocks in every game this season and is earning extra playing time with his stellar performances. There is still plenty more pertinent fantasy information to go around, so without further ado, let's get into our three main takeaways of the night.
DeAndre Jordan: The Greatest Transformation In NBA History?
On Friday night against the Toronto Raptors, DeAndre Jordan posted his fifth straight double-double to begin the season. The 6-foot-11, 265-pound center contributed an impressive line of 18 points, 15 rebounds, five assists and one block, making him the first Maverick with a 15-point, 15-rebound and five-assist game since Jason Kidd in 2010.
Jordan, who is in his 11th season in the NBA, has always been known to be a better player in points leagues than category leagues because of his significant inefficiencies in multiple categories. The 30-year-old doesn't contribute in most of the offensive statistics the way you would like to see, but his impressive rebounding numbers, stellar field goal percentage and high block rate have always made him a specialist in category leagues if you were planning on tanking threes and free throw percentage.
Through Jordan's first 10 seasons with the Los Angeles Clippers, he shot a repulsive 44.6 percent from the line, consisting of 4.1 attempts per contest. Jordan has a small offensive usage rate, so his tries from the charity stripe were never enough to discredit him from fantasy lineups entirely. But he was a liability for the Clippers late in games and could plummet your fantasy team's percentage when he played three or more times in a week.
2018 appears to be different though. Whether it is a change of scenery or perhaps just hard work in the gym, Jordan has produced an early season transformation for the ages. The Texas A&M product has now made 22-of-26 free throws through his first five games of the year, which includes an impressive 8-of-9 against the Raptors on Friday.
Jordan shot a career-high free throw percentage last season of 58 percent, so it might be a little silly to expect this trend to continue all season. However, the former second-round pick in the 2008 draft has a chance this year to reach fantasy heights he has never experienced. If Jordan could conclude the season around 70 percent, he would blow away his average draft position of 41.7 on the three main sites of ESPN, Yahoo and CBS.
The one-time NBA All-Star is an extremely polarizing figure on the trade market and doesn't have a ton of natural swaps that would make sense. His rebounding and block numbers can create such an advantage that unless I am oversaturated in those two statistics, it may not make sense to trade him for another position. If I owned him in a category league, I think I would try to acquire a player like Rudy Gobert instead. Gobert can give you the same rebounding and block upside but might add a steadier presence in other categories. At the very least, I would try to swing a 2-for-2 deal with the Gobert owner and see if I couldn't upgrade slightly somewhere else. In a points league, I would stand pat and enjoy the benefits of his early-season production.
Carmelo Anthony: Houston, Do We No Longer Have A Problem?
For the second consecutive game, Carmelo Anthony contributed over 20 points for the Houston Rockets, this time scoring 24 points against the Los Angelas Clippers on 8-of-18 shooting. Melo added in two rebounds, two blocks, one steal and an impressive six three-point baskets on what can be chalked up as a successful night for the aging star.
However, before we reclaim Anthony as being fantasy relevant again, let's evaluate the situation in front of us. For starters, James Harden sat out tonight's game due to a hamstring injury, and someone on Houston inevitably had to take on the majority of his 32.3 percent usage rate. The Syracuse product was always going to be locked in for double-digit shot attempts without Harden available, but in fairness to Anthony, he did fill in nicely from a statistical standpoint, even if the Rockets were blown out at home by a score of 133 to 113.
Anthony deserves to be rostered in deeper leagues but should be viewed as nothing more than a borderline waiver wire player in standard leagues. He will contribute some random offensive explosions throughout the season but won't be steady enough to warrant a consistent insertion into your lineup. Players like Anthony will always carry more value than they should because of their name recognition. Someone out there will want the 10-time All-Star, so if you own him, this is your warning to move him for a player that can provide fantasy production night in and night out. And I would do it as soon as possible!
Karl-Anthony Towns: Playing Timid As A Kat
Karl-Anthony Towns scored 16 points on 7-for-16 shooting on Friday in an embarrassing 125 to 95 loss to the Milwaukee Bucks. Towns' seven rebounds, one assist, one steal and two blocks across 27 minutes concluded a rather pedestrian night for the seven-foot prodigy.
Outside of blocks and free throw percentage, Towns' numbers are way down across the board. He is averaging nearly five points less per game this season while producing almost 3.5 fewer rebounds per contest. The scariest part of the whole situation is that the Kentucky product looks unenergized and has been exhibiting minimal effort throughout the first six games.
Unfortunately, this is a situation that is just going to have to play itself out. Jimmy Butler will eventually be traded, and once he does get dealt, it should allow Towns to start thriving again. Selling Towns off for cheap would be the worst thing you could do right now, be patient and let the chips fall as they will. You could be doing a lot worse than Towns' averages of 16.3 points, 8.8 rebounds, 1.5 assists, 1.8 threes and 2.0 blocks per contest. Patience is a virtue in this situation.
