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Kev Mahserejian highlights three fantasy basketball takeaways from the NBA's March 7th slate. This recap focuses on Damian Lillard, Myles Turner, and Nikola Mirotic.
Welcome to the RotoBaller NBA Recap. In this feature, we highlight three fantasy basketball takeaways from last night's slate of NBA games.
As the NBA regular season winds down, games start to matter less in real life. Rest days become commonplace for stars on top seeds and tanking teams, and a chunk of the league floats in purgatory, playing for positioning or fan appeasement. Regardless, all that matters here is fantasy performance. Thursday night only provided only a handful of uncommon lines to run through. Luckily, it was enough to make sure that Khem Birch was not a featured player.
Anyway, let's take it away with the Thursday, March 7th recap with these fantasy highlights!
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Buddy Hield: Not Your Friend
Woooo buddy, what a night for Hield! The former Sooner scored 34 points against a stout Celtics' defense and shot as efficiently as possible from the field. Hield scored 18 of is 34 from three as his fantasy line ended with six three, seven assists, four rebounds, and just one turnover. While there were no stocks to sprinkle in, owners probably stopped expecting those a while ago. Hield's season has been fantastic as his scoring, rebounds, assists, and threes are all at career-high marks.
Unfortunately, his steals have dropped in half from last season. It's a fair trade-off for a player likely drafted as late as he was. Hield has provided an incredible return on investment for owners, and with Sacramento's elite 4-4-4 playoff schedule, he should be expected to end up on plenty of championship rosters.
Buddy's value has skyrocketed thanks to this season. He will be a top 40 pick come October.
Paul Millsap: Trillsap Takeover
Not many folks expect Paul Millsap to score a third of his own team's points on any given night. Thursday was a pleasant surprise for owners of the veteran big man. Millsap scored 33 points, grabbed eight boards, and racked up three assists, one three and a steal. The uncommon line is highlighted by Millsap's season-high in scoring. To the chagrin of owners, he had not cracked the 30-point mark at all this season but certainly came through against Dallas weak interior defense.
Millsap has been relatively quiet this season due to various factors. His aging game and skillset definitely play a role in his downturn in production, as well as the Nuggets' unselfish style of basketball limiting most players' shots. Luckily, Millsap's still around that coveted 1/1/1 threshold where a player provides one three, one steal, and one block per game. His field goal percentage remains positive, while his free throws are tolerable.
Millsap has been a mediocre fantasy player all season. Frustrating, but never too bad to drop. He probably slips a ton in next season's fantasy drafts.
Marcus Morris: DD for MM
Marcus Morris is a frustrating player for Celtics fans and fantasy players. Thursday night, he scored 20 points for the first time in two months and notched his third triple-double of the season. Morris line ended up with 23 points, 13 rebounds, two assists, three threes, and two steals on solid efficiency from the field. Morris takes his shots when they come given that coach Brad Stevens' egalitarian system does not guarantee anyone volume on any given night.
Morris's game-to-game shooting inconsistency tears fans and owners apart. He began the season shooting over 40 percent from three but has failed to crack 30 percent for a month since January. His three-point shooting has progressively declined and caused a dilemma for any fantasy owners still holding him. Nights like Thursday are reminders that it just may be worth it. Morris has nights where he takes three shots and nights where he takes over 15. The end result is a 13 point, six rebound average with ratios that don't affect you. The stocks may be few and far between, but the threes provide a nice bonus.
Morris is just a guy for the rest of the season, despite Thursday night's line. Feel free to drop him for a streamer with a better schedule in the coming weeks if need be.
