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| DAVID COOPER / TORONTO STAR |
A review of action in the fantasy basketball league dubbed "Homan League". May include free agent pick-ups, trades, DNP's because someone forgot to set their lineup for the early morning Pacific time game. Also other shenanigans worth mentioning in the league. All opinions are exactly that, opinions. So don't take them too personally, and they are mostly mine.
The Kings-Raptors trade that went down this week should have vast impact fantasy-wise as guys like Rudy Gay should actually produce more although you could argue he has a smaller role with the Kings and less is expected out of him. Felt like Gay was pressured into taking too much of the playmaking skills onto himself in Toronto; with Isaiah Thomas handling the ball and Demarcus Cousins gettin touches in the post, Gay will have more of a niche role which I think is good for his fantasy value. Specifically Gay should be counted on for steady scoring he as plays on the wing off of Cousins and also contribute solid numbers in the defense categories. His old Raptor teammates, Derozan - AmirJohnson - Lowry, should continue to rise in their fantasy production as they have already shown in the two games Gay has been gone (TEAMS: Jae's Dazzling Team, Pres(i)ton, David Stern)
The plot for the rookie of the year award is thickening as Trey Burke has been consistently putting up solid numbers. With Gordan Hayward struggling for the most part, Burke should continue to get the green light from the perimeter. He still has plenty of options on the front court to dish out assists to and for a point guard he has had one of the lowest turnover averages at less than one and a half per game (TEAM: Mark Cuban, Just Jrue It)
Some guys cooled off a lot from last week including John Henson who was averaging over 13 rebounds in week 6 but for the week is just around 9. He did tie his season high in blocks on Tuesday with 6, and is filling in nicely until Timon gets Marc Gasol back (TEAM: S7VenbyVII).
Stars of the Week
For our current #1 Seed of the Top 4, Clipper Nation, and #2 Seed of our Bottom four, Sasquatch, they have had great weeks from their number one overall picks, the Kevins. Love and Durant.
Love was straight dominant this week, as he averaged 5 threes along with over 15 rebounds and 31 points per game. Durant is averaging just about 30 points with 9 boards, 5 assists, 2 steals and a block for the week. He's shooting a ridiculous 57% from the field and also pulling away with the free throw makes for the season at 201, almost 50 more than the next player (James Harden - 153).
In previous years, Lamarcus Aldridge has been kind of a below average rebounder like his 6 rebound effort against the Jazz on Monday. But this year he's had some epic games to offset his more anemic rebounding days like Thursday night's 25 rebound game (TEAM: David Stern).
Kind of difficult to imagine that the Knicks or any player much less the star player on the Knicks, not getting enough attention, but its true when it comes to the fantasy year Carmelo's had. On the season, he's second in field goals made, fourth in free throws made, second in points and has more total rebounds than Greg Monroe and Roy Hibbert. But because of the team's struggles, those statistics have been overlooked. On the week, Melo averaged over 31 points while averaging close to 3 threes per game. Jae will need Melo to keep up this production as his team tries to climb out of the bottom four of the League (TEAM: Jae's Dazzling Team).
Russell Westbrook almost hit a triple-double twice this week with his 19-12-8 against the Lakers on Friday night and also his 14-11-9 against the Hawks. His shooting percentage is still lower than it has been in seasons past, but he seems to be making an upward trend considering he missed all of training camp this season (TEAM: Clipper Nation).
Neat Pick-Ups
The plot for the rookie of the year award is thickening as Trey Burke has been consistently putting up solid numbers. With Gordan Hayward struggling for the most part, Burke should continue to get the green light from the perimeter. He still has plenty of options on the front court to dish out assists to and for a point guard he has had one of the lowest turnover averages at less than one and a half per game (TEAM: Mark Cuban, Just Jrue It)
Some guys cooled off a lot from last week including John Henson who was averaging over 13 rebounds in week 6 but for the week is just around 9. He did tie his season high in blocks on Tuesday with 6, and is filling in nicely until Timon gets Marc Gasol back (TEAM: S7VenbyVII).
Stars of the Week
For our current #1 Seed of the Top 4, Clipper Nation, and #2 Seed of our Bottom four, Sasquatch, they have had great weeks from their number one overall picks, the Kevins. Love and Durant.
Love was straight dominant this week, as he averaged 5 threes along with over 15 rebounds and 31 points per game. Durant is averaging just about 30 points with 9 boards, 5 assists, 2 steals and a block for the week. He's shooting a ridiculous 57% from the field and also pulling away with the free throw makes for the season at 201, almost 50 more than the next player (James Harden - 153).
In previous years, Lamarcus Aldridge has been kind of a below average rebounder like his 6 rebound effort against the Jazz on Monday. But this year he's had some epic games to offset his more anemic rebounding days like Thursday night's 25 rebound game (TEAM: David Stern).
Kind of difficult to imagine that the Knicks or any player much less the star player on the Knicks, not getting enough attention, but its true when it comes to the fantasy year Carmelo's had. On the season, he's second in field goals made, fourth in free throws made, second in points and has more total rebounds than Greg Monroe and Roy Hibbert. But because of the team's struggles, those statistics have been overlooked. On the week, Melo averaged over 31 points while averaging close to 3 threes per game. Jae will need Melo to keep up this production as his team tries to climb out of the bottom four of the League (TEAM: Jae's Dazzling Team).
Russell Westbrook almost hit a triple-double twice this week with his 19-12-8 against the Lakers on Friday night and also his 14-11-9 against the Hawks. His shooting percentage is still lower than it has been in seasons past, but he seems to be making an upward trend considering he missed all of training camp this season (TEAM: Clipper Nation).
Neat Pick-Ups
Picked up in week 6, week 7's breakout star has got to be Amir Johnson as he has averaged 23 points and just about 10 boards with about 2 blocks per game. For the week he's shooting at basically 80% from field and actually a pretty good free throw shooter for a bruising big man at 77% for the season (TEAM: Pres(i)ton).
With Michael Carter-Williams out, Tony Wroten was a smart pick-up as he had a 10 rebound game and two 20 point games including Friday night's 5 threes (TEAM: Sasquatch).
If this had been a couple years ago, no way Amar'e would be a free agent this late in the season. But he is, and after getting picked up on Wednesday, he had his third straight game with over 15 points and at least 5 rebounds. Looks like Mike Woodson is extending his minutes, so this might turn out to be an even better pick up as we go into week 8 (TEAM: David Stern).
Tough
After picking up Wroten, JJ only played him for one of the three games he registered this week, meaning he missed out on the two 20+ efforts mentioned above. Pretty sure he has finals this week so that explains him not updating his squad but whatevs cause he's up 9-1 on James as of Saturday afternoon (TEAM: David Stern, Sasquatch).
Kirk, Dirk and Brook. All missed games this week, but based on the reports don't seem to be too serious of injuries (TEAM: Adam Silver)
Quietly one of the top 5 fantasy point guards this season, Ty Lawson hit a snag his campaign for making the all-star team when he hurt his hamstring last week. He made his return this Friday against Utah but had a terrible night going 0-6. Although Ray's team is sitting in 3rd place, he also saw Nene Hilario go down to injury on Monday and Luol Deng hasn't played in over a week with his achilles injury (TEAM: Swagger).
Much better than his current 9th place seeding, Oliver had some inexplicable DNP's from Monday. Maybe he's trying to lull us to sleep but don't be fooled guys, he's got the top guard options in fantasy this season with James Harden and Eric Bledsoe. With his guard dominant team, he can easily win 5-6 categories while punting the traditional big man categories and make a deep playoff run on us. Also, if John Wall replicates his week 5 statistics and Kyle Lowry plays better now that ball-dominant Rudy Gay is in Sacramento, then we better hope he keeps leaving some of his guys on the bench when we are matched up against him (TEAM: League Champion).
With Michael Carter-Williams out, Tony Wroten was a smart pick-up as he had a 10 rebound game and two 20 point games including Friday night's 5 threes (TEAM: Sasquatch).
If this had been a couple years ago, no way Amar'e would be a free agent this late in the season. But he is, and after getting picked up on Wednesday, he had his third straight game with over 15 points and at least 5 rebounds. Looks like Mike Woodson is extending his minutes, so this might turn out to be an even better pick up as we go into week 8 (TEAM: David Stern).
Tough
After picking up Wroten, JJ only played him for one of the three games he registered this week, meaning he missed out on the two 20+ efforts mentioned above. Pretty sure he has finals this week so that explains him not updating his squad but whatevs cause he's up 9-1 on James as of Saturday afternoon (TEAM: David Stern, Sasquatch).
Kirk, Dirk and Brook. All missed games this week, but based on the reports don't seem to be too serious of injuries (TEAM: Adam Silver)
Quietly one of the top 5 fantasy point guards this season, Ty Lawson hit a snag his campaign for making the all-star team when he hurt his hamstring last week. He made his return this Friday against Utah but had a terrible night going 0-6. Although Ray's team is sitting in 3rd place, he also saw Nene Hilario go down to injury on Monday and Luol Deng hasn't played in over a week with his achilles injury (TEAM: Swagger).
Much better than his current 9th place seeding, Oliver had some inexplicable DNP's from Monday. Maybe he's trying to lull us to sleep but don't be fooled guys, he's got the top guard options in fantasy this season with James Harden and Eric Bledsoe. With his guard dominant team, he can easily win 5-6 categories while punting the traditional big man categories and make a deep playoff run on us. Also, if John Wall replicates his week 5 statistics and Kyle Lowry plays better now that ball-dominant Rudy Gay is in Sacramento, then we better hope he keeps leaving some of his guys on the bench when we are matched up against him (TEAM: League Champion).
