NBA Fantasy Basketball: Harden's Vintage Show & Warriors' Youth Shift

Name: NBA Fantasy Basketball: Harden's Vintage Show & Warriors' Youth Shift
Uploaded: 2023-12-15T12:41:02.834Z
Duration: 47 min 38 s
Channel: Sports Zone
Description: Dive into the action-packed NBA Thursday with Josh Lloyd as he breaks down James Harden's spectacular performance, showcasing that he's still a force to be reckoned with. Witness Scoot Henderson's rise and Brandin Podziemski's starting role. Get all the details on the thrilling performances and strategic team changes. #NBAFantasy #FantasyBasketball

Sports Zone

Dec 15, 2023 #NBAFantasy #FantasyBasketball

Dive into the action-packed NBA Thursday with Josh Lloyd as he breaks down James Harden's spectacular performance, showcasing that he's still a force to be reckoned with. Witness Scoot Henderson's rise and Brandin Podziemski's starting role. Get all the details on the thrilling performances and strategic team changes. #NBAFantasy #FantasyBasketball

Thursday's games, seven on in the NBA, the Warriors. They make a change to their starting lineup that doesn't just include replacing Draymond Green. We're gonna cover all of that Waver wire trends. It's all coming up along with Michael Bolton. Thanks, Josh. It's Michael Bolton here, and it's time for another episode of the Locked On Fantasy Basketball Podcast. Let's get to it. Indeed. You are locked on fantasy basketball. Your daily fantasy basketball podcast, part of the Locked On Podcast Network. Hello and welcome to the Locked On Fantasy Basketball Podcast brought to you by Basketball Monster. My name is Josh Lloyd, and the show is like Jaws, if everyone in Jaws worked for Jaws. I'm also the lead fantasy analyst at basketballmonster.com, and you can find me on Twitter as always, at redrock underscore b-ball, on TikTok at redrock underscore b-ball, and on Instagram at lockedonfantasybasketball. Today's episode is brought to you by Pricepix, the easiest and most exciting way to play daily fantasy sports. Go to pricepix.com slash lockedonNBA and use the code, all lowercase, lockedonNBA, for a first deposit match up to $100. Thank you also for making Locked On Fantasy Basketball your first listen every day. We are free, and we are available on all platforms. Slightly busy Thursday, and we got some answers to the Draymond Green Golden State Warriors situation. We got some other big and surprising performances. A lot for us to talk about. Oh yeah, and what would you know that Ty Lue and Paul George are liars? What a shock. We're gonna talk about all of that in this recap. We will start just by looking at a little bit of news across the NBA. They were some roster moves, relatively insignificant, but worth talking about anyway. The Hornets, the Spurs, and the Kings all made moves. We saw Sacramento sign Juan Toscano Anderson to a regular contract. I don't think it's gonna have any impact in fantasy. The Spurs waived Serge Barry Rice. He was a two-way, and they brought back, let's burn in cross his legend, David Duke Jr. He's back. Again, not gonna make too much of a difference. The Hornets made one that does probably make a difference. The Salt Flake, Theo Maldon, he's out. They cut him. The big fella's gone. And what this move does, well, I'll tell you who they signed. Nate Mensah is the guy they signed, who's a big guy. Them waiving a point guard, Maldon, who had been relatively useful for them this season and last season at times. And signing a big man in Mensah gives me two things. It means they're not that worried about Lamello Ball, and he will return. But is there an extra worry there with either Mark Williams or P.J. Washington? Because at the moment, there's only JT Thor and Big Dick Nick Richards as the big men. So is Williams is back, and he is doubtful for tomorrow. And Washington's shoulder, his question, well, obviously there's not anything massively long-term with Washington, but the thing you've got to worry about with Charlotte is the doubtful tags, is they will list guys doubtful for weeks and weeks on end. And that is what is happening to Mark Williams here. I am getting concerned now. And for some reason, it didn't really click to me that the doubtful tag was getting slapped on Williams every day. They did this with Rogier, with Martin, with Heywood, with someone else at the start of this season, and they just ruled them out for weeks and weeks and weeks, doubtful every time. And that's what we're getting with Williams. And now they cut a point guard and signed a big man in Nate Mensah. Not saying that Nate Mensah is going to be this guy that's a savior and they're going to use him all the time, nothing like that. But it's like, ooh, is there a little bit more of a worry paired with the dubious injury reporting of the Hornets? I am a little concerned. The good news on the injury front was the speaker, Keynote George. It looks like everything's all right. He's going to miss at least two games. Maybe it's a week. Colin Sexton told us this yesterday, the Padawan, giving us information. So yeah, it's fine. You got some good news. And then we're like, yeah, I don't know. We'll see. Turns out it was okay. Looks like there's nothing seriously wrong. And you can slide him into your injured spot. If you actually do need that spot, I get it. You could drop, I probably would hold, considering it's only a short-term thing. But it looks like we've got some positive news there on Keynote George. And there is some positive news also on Tyler Hero, who's going to be back Monday or Wednesday, next week. So that'll really shake things up in terms of the millions of millions, which is an exaggeration, of heat streamers that we've been able to use over the past couple of weeks, while he has been out. Still no full update on Bam Bam at Abayo, but just some good news in general. Let's look at some waiver-wire trends. Who's been added, who's been dropped? Not gigantic surprises here. The most added player over the last 24 hours is Brandon Podjemski, up 48%. Second is Tari this season, up 36%. And third is Jonathan Kaminga, up 36%. They were the three guys that we really talked about as guys to add with opportunities rising. We're going to focus on the Warriors guys when we talk about the Warriors game later on. But suffice to say, both Podjemski and Kaminga did start today. So we'll talk about how that all looked later on in the show. Colin Sexton, with the injury to George and the injury to Clarkson. I don't mind adding Sexton. I think he's actually pretty much worthwhile. And the other two adds there were Dario Saric and other Warriors ones to talk about. And then Dante Exum, up 10%, who continues to play pretty well. And we'll talk about that when we get to the Mavericks game also later on. Who are the most dropped players? Number one was Draymond Green. Get that guy! Number two was Eric Gordon, down 28%. Three, Obert Toppen. Yeah, very, very clear 12 team drop. Aldama down 13. Hunter down, DeAndre Hunter down 12. And Orlando Robinson down 12. Now I've got absolutely no problem with Orlando Robinson being dropped. A little curious that he would have been dropped on the second half of a back-to-back. Not that it was the wrong decision, because he was shit full today. Absolutely terrible. And you can go and move on from him. But usually when you're making waiver moves, unless it's for a real long-term thing, and it could have been. They could have been dropping a Robinson to grab a Podjemski or an Eason or a Kaminga or whoever. But usually it'd be like, I'd just like to be able to get an extra game or two out of this waiver move. And dropping someone playing on a back-to-back usually isn't the way to go. But again, sometimes you sacrifice the short-term gain in order to get something which you hope turns into some long-term value. That's the aim. That's where we look to go to. It doesn't always work, but sometimes it does. Let's go to the first game of the day. The Cleveland Cavaliers. They took on the old mate Boston Celtics, won 16, Boston won 07, Cleveland. Still no Evan Mobley. Yeah, we continue to be really a little bit concerned about how long this is going to take for him to come back. We've got Don Mitchell playing 40 minutes. David Wittgenstaff, jeez. How do you reckon Evan Mobley developed knee soreness? I don't know. Do you reckon eight-man rotations and 36 minutes a night for a big man? Maybe, I don't know. Speculating. Don Mitchell, 31-8-6 was great. Garland wasn't quite as good, 19-2-3, but we finally got a big Dracarys Levert game. 35 minutes, 26-3-5, three steals and a block. Now, it's very, very important not to overreact to this. He's still 143rd over the last two weeks. He's been bad in basically every game for the last three weeks or so when he's missed a bunch of time. This is super encouraging. He shot well from the field. He took a ton of shots. He got to the line a lot. I don't fully buy it, but if you wanted to have a look at it, go for it. All right, but don't have super high hopes. On the flip side, I am a little worried about the Winter Soldier, Max Struess. Not that I think that Struess is losing his starting spot, but he now is 234th over his last five games. Five points. And the most important thing here is no defensive stats, four rebounds, two assists, and two of five shooting. We saw him do this again for 15, 16 games. Oh, wow. Didn't know Struter had that in him. And now he just goes back to the guy that we saw in Miami. The reality is probably somewhere in the middle. I am still holding, but my projections are dropping a little bit. And I think when I do a next update run on the Cavs in the next few days, he might end up pushing outside the top 100, maybe, rest of the season. Not looking great. Jarrett Allen played 39 minutes. Speaking of not looking great, eight and 10 with no blocks. We thought maybe we saw a turnaround last game, but apparently not. He continues to be annoying while Isaac Okoro started the second half instead of Dean Wade. And neither of those guys combined for anything useful. They even combined. They give us completely nothing. Now the Celtics are on the first game of a back-to-back. Christos Porzingis and Jalen Brown were both on the injury report heading into this game. They were limping around a little bit during it. I would not be shocked if Horford, Porzingis, and Brown all sit tomorrow. I don't know that. There was a Celtics reporter who said, hmm, maybe they're going to sit. Horford's almost definitely going to be out. And he had seven and 10 in 24 minutes, which is totally reasonable. But they've got a lot of back-to-backs coming up in the next three weeks. I think they've got one each week for the next three weeks, which is going to reduce Horford's output. And even at his best, he's not a great option anyway. So I don't think we need to be holding onto Al. Tatum dropped in 27 and 11 with three blocks. Jalen had 22, five and five. Well, maximum Derek White, only the 14 points. We saw his usage had spiked a little bit. Good to see. It's sort of not good to see, but it's more in line with what we expect when it pushes down like this. He had three steals again with two threes. He'd been obviously dominating. He was on the Sal High Show. I do think there's going to be some pullback from him. While Porzingis had 18 and six at holiday, 15, three and four. Good shooting from Drew, but just lacking a little bit in the peripherals. Sammy Hauser did his thing, nine points, three threes. That's what he does. You get nothing else. Might be a bigger opportunity for him tomorrow with me expecting that Al is out. Maybe Kristaps is out. Maybe Jalen is out. And then you look at a bunch of other guys. Luke Cornett was actually a weird late scratch in this one. So they went with Lamar Stephens. I would guess they would have gone with Namius Keita, but he was inactive. He could have been an option there. And if Horford and Porzingis are out, they'll have no centers. So that'll mean Cornett and it'll mean Keita, and it might mean Stephens to be able to get those minutes. There's also Ashae Brissett who could slide in there and all of them, depending on the status of Cornett and Porzingis, of course, all of them could end up as stream options in this scenario. Today's episode is brought to you by Dave. Finances can be intimidating. That is why you need Dave. 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Eligibility criteria and instant transfer fees apply. Banking services provided by Evolve. Member FDIC. Should we go into the next game? Yeah, we probably should. That's game one done. We've got six more to go. Let's talk about my Chicago Bulls who's put the smack down on the Miami Heat. They got out to a huge start. It was like 20 to two or something at one point. Maybe that was the other game. There was two really big quick starts in these games. I don't remember the exact scores, but anyway, Chicago wins at 124, 118. No Zach Levine and we are seeing a big, big boost for Nikola Vucevic. The usage is up for him. He took 21 shots. He had 24, 12 and seven, three steals, two threes. I would say it's a little bit of a sell high for Vuc, but I don't know if Levine's ever playing again for this squad. Part of the reason I was down on Vuc, age, outlier shooting last season and the shooting has obviously carried over, but also a third offensive option. Usage wasn't going to spike, but Levine's gone. He's not there. So Vuc's usage is back up and the numbers are pretty strong. Kobe White, MVP, sorry, Kobe White, 40 minutes for him, 26, seven and 11, four threes, 45%. 26 usage plus 20. This man is dominating at the moment. He's only a sell high if you get a top 20 player back. Otherwise, just enjoy what's going on. One of the best late round picks and hold recommendations that I've done in recent years, I think, which I enjoy, because they're not all good. DeMar DeRozan got his free throws going, 10 of 11, but the field goals continue to be annoying. 43 from the field, 14 shot attempts. He had 23, five and four and it just doesn't feel like he's going to hit the top 50 this season. While Alex Caruso, you're going to be stunned to know this. The Rabbit Hunter was ruled in, available to play. He left in five minutes and didn't return due to an ankle injury. I think Vuc stepped on his foot this time. This man cannot stay healthy. You cannot roster him until we get, like, I feel like three, four, five games in a row. Even streaming him in at this point is risky because you never know when he's going to leave a game early. That meant that Ayo DeSumo stepped up and Ayo DeSumo did step up in a huge way. 35 minutes for DeSumo, 24, eight and five, three threes, a steal, 83% shooting, which is great. It's a fantastic line, no question about it. But I will look at this and give you some interesting things. Someone said to me on Basketball Monster in the chat, I said, man, look, should we go and grab DeSumo? And that's another big line. And that's really interesting. And again, it ties into the psychology of fantasy basketball. Another big line, huh? He had a 27 trillion two games ago. He had nine three-and-three the game before that, four three-and-three the game before that, eight two-and-two the game before that. He did have a very big line in this game, but he's been downright putrid every other game. There were a couple of, there was a 15 and a 14 back then. One of those was without DeRozan when he played 39 minutes, but this was great. 83% is so far from realistic, it's not even funny. You had 10 of 12 shooting. Let's say it's five of 12, six of 12, maybe, whatever. That's like eight fewer points, and he was great. I am absolutely not falling for DeSumo as a 12-team guy. Again, we had a 27 trillion in a start two games ago. We had nine points in 38 minutes the game before, literally the game before this, two days ago against the Nuggets. I don't care whether Caruso is in or out. I'm just not interested in adding Io DeSumo and let a bunch of other guys go out as well. Not interested in adding him at this point. Pat Williams, it doesn't look great. 32 minutes, nine points is not a good return. Two rebounds is putrid. But two threes, actually, in honor of the first test that's happening here in Australia at the moment, shout out to you guys in Perth. He had to reach it better. Two points, he had two steals, and two blocks. He also had three assists and two rebounds. That's a lot of twos for Pat Williams. And part of the reason that we would roster Pat Williams is to get two steals, two blocks, two threes. The three assists is nice. Again, he probably should be on a 12-team roster, but don't let him be a cockblock to adding somebody else that you want more. Like, if you want Ta-Reese and more, don't be, oh, I've got Pat Williams. Like, he's fine to have, probably should be on someone's roster, but he's no impediment to getting better players because he is not a better player. On to the Miami Heat, it just continues to be hard to evaluate because four rotation players are out. Bam Adebayo, Tyler Hero, Joshi Richardson, and Haywood Highsmith. Kayla Barton is probably the guy who's got the biggest chance of this continuing. 39 minutes, 17-11 with three threes and four assists. I really enjoyed it yesterday, I think it was. I had him as the streamer of the day and he farted in a bucket. Today, I think he might've been one of the streams of the day, but not the highlight guy. He puts up a big game. I think you want him in 12-10 leagues. I would have him over Duncan Robinson long-term and I would have him over everyone's best mate, Jaime Jaquez. Now, Jaquez, again, 22 points, looks great. He shot only 43% from the field. He played 34 minutes, no defensive stats, and nine of 10 from the line. It is just very, very hard, I believe, for Huckers to play enough minutes and do enough things to be useful enough in 12-team leagues when players return. Stream him by all means. But he's 127th over the last two weeks, which is fine. It's not great though. Duncan Robinson, he's top 100 over the last two weeks. 11 points, three threes, 27 minutes. I don't think his value's gonna last. I said already, we can jack off Orlando Robinson. Get that garbage outta here! One point and two rebounds in 14 minutes. They went the three-center thing. We actually jacked him off last time they played because, oh, it was yesterday, and said, what we did say was he can move on. You can hold through the back-to-back, but Jesus Christ, that's terrible. Well, Kevin Love, maybe we do have him until Bam is out. 16 and nine, five assists, three threes. That is absolutely a 12-team guy, Kevin Love. No problem if you wanna have a crack at that. Lowry had 17. He played 39 minutes on a back-to-back with four threes. He is very hit-or-miss, but he's worth a 12-team roster spot. Well, Jim Butler continues to be like, okay. 22 to seven and seven is okay. No threes, no steals, no blocks, sub-par field goals, and 80% from the line, which is fine, but on 10 attempts, eight of 10 is just actually mid and average. It's not good, it's average. And he has been a, look, we can talk about, I don't know that you guys would love talking about how shit I am with Jordan Poole's projection. I get that, but low-key, Butler, and in the other side, it's DeRozan, have been two of the biggest busts, I would say, for their relative draft spots. And they don't get talked about that much because they haven't been as bad as a Jordan Poole, but Butler was going at 20 in a lot of spots. DeRozan was going in the third round in most drafts, and they're not really close to that. I think Butler can be better than this. DeRozan, I'm not sure, but it's been disappointing. I think that's fair to say they've been disappointing. All right, the next game, the score at the start of this one, Minnesota-Dallas was like, I think it was 18 to two. Oh no. And in the end, Minnesota wins by 18 points. They were down 18 to two, and they just turned it around, smacked the Mavs in the end. Wasn't because Anthony Edwards played well, because he didn't. 35 minutes, nine points on 16%, terrible. He did have 11 assists and two steals. Maybe if there are people worried about his hip, you could throw a by-low out there. But also remember, he's the 41st ranked player this season. The idea that he was a first-round guy this season was a little far-fetched. I was probably, I was definitely a little bit too high having him at 18, but we talked about, efficiency is going to be somewhat of a concern here for him. And if you ever make drafting decisions based on the fact that guys don't get hurt, it's silly. That's a silly drafting decision. Edwards can be better than this, so go and do by-lows. What do we do with the Wizard of Noz here, Nas Raid, who just went crazy? 27 and six with seven threes. He played 31 minutes, which is absolutely 12-team worthy. I don't know how he's going to get 31 every night, and I don't think he will. But it's really interesting that he did. So, have a crack, see what goes on. I'm still not fully convinced on it. Townsie had 21 and 17, while Gobert had eight and 12 with five assists for Rudy Gobert, it's crazy. Three steals and a block, bad from the line, but that is him. And McDaniels, just the 24 minutes. We do not need to have Jadon McDaniels rostered in 12-team leagues. Get that garbage out of here! And what was also interesting is they just took Sheik Milton out of the rotation. So they used Alexander Walker and Kyle Anderson to sort of back up point guards in the second unit. Sheik was out, they kept Troy Brown in. Alexander Walker had 13 points with three threes in his 20 minutes, while Conley had 14, two, and three. I'd been stashing Milton in sort of deeper bench formats, waiting for a Conley game missed, or game rest, or injury, and Milton would start and be good, but he's been bad and he is out of the rotation, so he will probably move out of my rotation. Also, you don't roster Kyle Anderson in 12-team leagues. For the Mavs, Luka Doncic is still carrying pretty hard. 39, six, and 13 with two steals. Great efficiency from the field, great efficiency from the line. While Exum played 28 minutes, a little bit low on the usage, six shots, but 14, four, and four gets it done. He remains a 12-team player. I think Derek Jones does too, even though it wasn't a great game. Three points on 13% is dreadful, but I like that he started. He had two steals. That 13%, if it's 40% or 50%, then we're talking 10 points, four rebounds, two steals, which is not great, but it's okay. It's okay to have him. I would have him over Grant Williams, who had five points in 36, but I wouldn't have him over Tim Hardaway, which sounds silly, because Hardaway, again, did nothing, 27%. But Hardaway had 32 minutes, and while Kyrie is out, Hardaway and Exum are the guys I prefer over Jones at this stage, and definitely over Grant Williams. 10 and four for Timmy in 27% shooting is rough. No threes, no assists, no steals, no blocks. It's terrible. He's a hot and cold guy. We know this. But the opportunity to get some bulk scoring in and some threes in with good free throws usually is appealing. This just didn't work. Derek Lively, clear muster roster, 32 minutes, 15 and six, two blocks. Could he be top 50? Because he's 76th now, and he's 39th over the last two weeks. We put him under the lens the other day, talking about how some of what he was doing was pretty interesting, and would he keep up that efficiency, and he hasn't kept up 91%, but field goal's high, block's strong, scored 15 points. Been an absolute rookie revelation, I would say. Derek Lively, which is great, because the Mavericks are able to trade down and get him. So good for them. Today's episode is also brought to you by Prize Picks. Prize Picks is the largest daily fantasy sports platform in North America. It's also the easiest and most exciting way to play DFS. It's you against the numbers. 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That is prizepicks.com slash locked on NBA. The code is locked on NBA. You get a first deposit match up to $100. Prize Picks is daily fantasy sports made easy. Okay, we've got the next one to take a look at, which was the Nuggets comfortably beating the Nets who were on a back to back here. We know that teams can often struggle on a back to back. That's a relatively common thing. Denver 124, Brooklyn 101. On the Brooklyn side, no Simmons, no Walker, no Dennis Smith. Dennis Smith's going to be out the rest of this road trip also. Didn't we only play 24 minutes? Again, the minutes are a little bit all over the place because this was such a blowout, but 17, four and eight, he is comfortably exceeding my expectations at the moment. Cam Johnson, not a great game. 10 and three, Cam Thomas, probably a worse one. The Cam Thomas problem is becoming something that needs to be addressed. 27 minutes, only had 23 usage, but an absolutely putrid minus 25. No threes, no assists, no steals, no blocks. 39 from the field, 50 from the line. He will get benched. He cannot continue to play this poorly and stick in the starting lineup. He just, it's so hard to build, I think, a good team around him. And yeah, I was never in, and I remain on the outside, and my opinion on him has been the same the whole way through, even though sometimes it looks like it's wrong, I do think in the end it is going to prove right. Mikhail Bridges, he stunk here. Talked about him being a sell high because he was shooting unbelievable numbers. I, under no circumstance, believe he's a top 15 or top 20 player, but I do believe he's better than this. Nine points, zero rebounds, two threes, 38%. Vinnie Smith did nothing in 16 minutes. O'Neal did nothing, but they just went like bench. We had 17 Jalen Wilson minutes, 15 Harry Giles minutes, 22 Trenton Watfords, and 26 Dayron Sharps. Sharp also flashing five assists, which is interesting. Not reading anything into the bench minutes of those guys. It's more important about what the starters did and how they sucked, versus these bench guys that popped off. For the Nuggets, speaking of bench guys popping off, Peyton Watson, 18, seven and five, one, still two blocks. Still really value him long-term in Dynasty. It's been rocky this season, but he is improving. The headmaster had 16 points in 22 minutes, Jamal Murray, while Jokic dropped a casual 26, 15, and 10 triple-double. Good for him. Good to see that efficiency jump back up after a little bit of a rough patch there. Aaron Gordon had 13, and Michael Ponder had nine and six in 23 minutes. They did not start Julian Strauber. They dusted off Justin Holliday, who had two points in 27 minutes, while Strauber had eight in 20 on 27%. So, with Strauber, I said, but maybe it's worth a stream with KCP out, but long-term, I don't see it. He barely played in that first half when they were healthy the game before, and he is just not going to have long-term 12-10 value. I think that is relatively clear. He's going to be inconsistent, and yeah, you will see people who get really excited when a young player has a big, big game. And I guess at times, I am guilty of it too, but we always have to look at the context behind shit, and yeah, we can very, very clearly, clearly move on there. Christian Brown played 24 minutes, 10-4-2 with two blocks, but this game was just so like, so straightforward in the end for Denver that it's hard to take a huge amount out of it, I don't think. Next game. The Utah Jazz, the undermanned Utah Jazz, took on the Portland Trailblazers on the road, and they get a victory, 122-114. A lot to talk about here in this one. There was no Clarkson, no Markkinen, no George, obviously, no John Collins. So Walker Kessler rejoined the starting lineup, and he looked more like the Walker Kessler that you may have invested in in the draft. 10-10, seven blocks, 83%. Fantastic. He's obviously been nowhere near that this season. Let's hope he's able to stick in the starting lineup. I think any hopes of 30-plus minutes is not going to be there, but 27, 28, fine, reasonable. Colin Sexton, I think we've got to add him. 32 minutes, 27-2-4, 65%. Talon Horton-Tucker, as long as Keontae George is out, he's an add. 23-2-4 with four steals, they're good numbers. Kelly Olenek, two points is yuck, but 10 rebounds and seven assists is fine. But of course, there's just a lot of guys out. Markkinen will be back next game, John Collins should be back next game. Clarkson and George will be out a few, so that does help Sexton and Horton-Tucker, but the Olenek one here probably doesn't work. Again, Taylor Hendricks was good. 10-7, two threes and a steal. I had him in the top five of the real draft. I had him top five of Dynasty rookie rankings. We haven't seen anything from him this season. We are going to. We heard this report that the Jazz are wanting to move on from John Collins. Like, sure, cool. You could even consider moving on from John Collins, I reckon, if you wanted to in fantasy. Especially in 10-team leagues, no need to roster him. Hendricks is not worth a stash now in a standard format league. In deeper formats, I've got him. Deeper benches. Locked on fantasy basketball, I've got him. I added him. So I just think it's going to happen. And it is sort of happening now. But there are a few guys in the way. But I don't know how long they're going to be there. We're not quite at luxury stash style for Hendricks in standard formats, we're not there. We're getting closer, we're getting closer. Ibaishi dropped in 16 points in 26 minutes, while Fontecchio started, had 24 with five threes and 88%, which is not obviously a real number that's going to hold or anything like that. The big takeaways from this one are Sexton and Horton Tucker, yes, we're interested. Hendricks, we're definitely interested long-term. Good recovery from Kessler. And also Chris Dunn played 26 minutes. Six, two, and five, nothing super interesting. But again, it is hard to judge with Markin and Clarks and Collins and George out, with Collins and Markin and maybe back next game. For the Blazers, they got some guys back. Aiton returned and Brogdon returned. Brogdon played 14 minutes off the bench. You could say that that is because of the blowout, and that is a factor in it. You could say it's because he's back after two games off for knee soreness, that is also a factor. But he entered the game as like the eighth player. He came off the bench with Scoot ahead of him. Brogdon's sell-high value was through the roof. We knew this. And I do think he will end up being a drop. Nine points in 14 minutes clearly is not going to cut it. And with Simons and Sharp and Scoot all there, it is hard to see how he does it. If I was in a situation where I wanted to make an ad of Colin Sexton, of a Warriors player, of whoever, Tari Eason, I wouldn't have a problem cutting Brogdon, honestly. Put Shade and Sharp on the sell-high show, and the sell-high slump smacked him right in the middle of the scrotum. Four points in 27 minutes on 8% shooting, seven rebounds and two assists. He played only 27 minutes because it was a blowout. And the things that I highlighted in that show was that is all well and good that he might maintain big minutes later on when guys are traded, but he cannot shoot at this level. And all of the regression basically happened in one game. You still hold him, but again, he was just so far above any expectation. Simons was also flying. He had nine points in 38 minutes here, played 32, sorry, 38% shooting with 22 minutes. He had six assists, don't worry too much about it. While Kamara played 24 minutes, 18 and six, good game from Tamani. But when they are healthy, there is a huge minute squeeze. Like there's still no Jeremy Grant here. So what the hell do they even do with their lineup? Are they going to continue to go Simons and Sharp with Scoot off the bench? And Thibel or Kamara at the three, Grant at the four? I honestly don't know. This is again why I run into the problem with how do I even bother to keep Brogdon? Because there's not a starting role. This doesn't even look like there's a sixth man role. And you'd be battling with a seventh man role between Thibel, Kamara, one of those guys, and Brogdon. It's not enough. As for Thibel, 17 minutes, three points. Ah, yes, the old Matisse Thibel is back. Still just remains a fringe, steely stream guy who'd been playing really well, but there is going to be a crunch that comes. Aiton only played 21 minutes, had 14. There are people who tell me they're going to drop DeAndre Aiton, which is crazy. This man is top 50 this season. I know he's had some issues, but Jesus Christ, calm down. And speaking of calming down, Sterling Henderson. Yes, it was a rough start, but as we all know that it is very, very difficult to judge a rookie early in their career. You definitely can't say that they're going to be awesome, and you 100% can't say they're going to be a bust. I'm not saying that Scoot is not a bust anymore. Like I said the other day when he had, I think, what, his second or third good game in a row. But what you saw was like, ah, I guess he can start to do it, and he should be rostered. We talked about this ad nauseum. We add, we hold in luxury positions or not even sometimes, and we wait and give it a timeframe. The timeframe's pushed out now. 35 minutes, 23 points, 10 assists, 43%. Yes, the blowout helped. He's done a lot of this stuff with damage against some second units, I know that. But the talent is real. We saw the talent on tape in the G League. It just took a little bit of time, and I'm not saying that he has proven that he is good. He hasn't, but what we can say is that he's not a bust. We could never have said that to begin with, that people did, but what we can say now is, okay, we've got some positive signs. Scooter needs to be rostered, and I would have no problem dropping Fiebel. I would have no problem dropping Brogdon, or just those guys from this team, to get him on. There's gonna be rockiness. I don't know what they do. They should be looking to see whether Scoot, Sharp, and Simon's gonna play together, or at the very least, they all need to play 32-33 at night. Forget Fiebel, forget Brogdon. They're not key pieces. The other three are. They are the key, Simon, Sharp, Scoot. They're the key to everything on this squad. So they are going to have to get those minutes in. The minutes are here. The production is here. I don't know that it holds, but it honestly doesn't even matter. We just grab him for now, and we see where it goes. Again, a lot of things happen in this game that are weird. Lower minutes, blowouts, still no Jeremy Grant, but I think you've seen enough to know that you should be grabbing Scoot Henderson, if he was dropped. Next, we go onto the game in Sacramento between the Thunder and the Kings. The Kings win it, 128-123, the final score. Shea was awesome again, 43-6-9 with two steals. And it was also a really, really good Josh Giddy game. 18-8-4, three steals. We love to see that, to see that bounce back, because he'd been shit house, obviously. Whether this holds or not, I'm not sure. Would I rush to grab him if he was dropped? Maybe, maybe. I'm not super enthused, maybe. But it was great, and it was not great for Jalen Williams. Had five points in 29 minutes. He did get a steal on a block, but shot 14%. He'd sort of started to improve some little bits, but hasn't taken gigantic steps forward, and that has been a constant theme through eight weeks now. Chet Holmgood only played the 13 minutes. He had five fouls, 14 and 10. Well, Lou Dort had a good game. Don't fall for it, don't. 17 points with three threes and two steals for Dorta. Not much else going on there. We saw Usman Ceng's minutes push back down, just the 10 minutes with six points after. Last time out, he was pretty good. For the Kings, Darren Fox, 41-3-7, two steals, five threes. We love that. 61 from the field is great. Unfortunately, 73 from the line is not, and he did appear to hurt his shoulder at the end of the game. We just need to keep an eye on that. Nothing has come out at this point. But Keon Ellis looked great again. Second year guy from Alabama, 17-6-3 with five threes in 28 minutes. At some point, he will get converted from a two-way contract into a real contract. He is well ahead of guys like Chris Duarte and Davey O'Mitchell, who are DMPs at ESEA. Ellis is not anyone we're considering much for 12, although that is a 12-team line, but we do look at that in deeper formats. 16-teamers, I'd be interested in Keon Ellis. Sabonis had 18-16-7. Wald Malik-Monk continues to be great. 33 minutes for Leakey. 18 points, four threes, nine assists, a must-roster 12-team player. Keegan Murray continues to be the king of mid. 15 points, no threes, three rebounds. It's like Monte Morris in a stretched-out body. Just boring as shit from this guy. Mate, you can drop as many 40-point games in Summer League as you want. At some point, you need to do something in the NBA that's not hitting corner threes. I know that sounds harsh, but he just continues to, I feel, underwhelm. We're obviously, obviously, if you haven't already, jacking off Kevin Herter. Get that garbage out of here! And Harrison Barnes. Get that out of here! Both guys played under 21 minutes. Both guys shot under 30%. Both guys have been trash all season, most of the season. Do not have to roster either Herter or Barnes. Get them out of here. You do not need them in a 10 or a 12-team league. What else happened in this one? Oh, this was Trey Lyles, who was ill before the game. He actually got put in the inactive list, and somehow they were able to change that and put him off the inactive list, and he played nine, 10 minutes with seven rebounds. That's just a deeper league thing, though, while Sasha Vazenkov, just the 10 minutes, even with Barnes only playing 21, because they're relying a lot on what Malik Monk is giving them. He is giving them some really, really important minutes at the moment. So now, of course, we've got the last game of the night, the game that we're all waiting for, because there was going to be interesting stuff happening, the Golden State Warriors and the LA Clippers. The Clippers win it, 121-113. We'll start with the Warriors. Draymond was out, obviously. So they started John Kaminga. They did not start Chris Paul, very interesting. So Kaminga started next to Looney. We'll start with the bucket. 25 minutes for Kaminga, 15-5, two threes, 50%. He had foul trouble. We'd already been talking about Kaminga as an ad about six days ago, right? So he's an ad, remains an ad, more so points than categories, but he's a 12-team ad. Klay Thompson went bananas. So to be fair to Klay, we put him on washed watch. I'm not taking him off it, because part of the reason, or when you get older, is you can't do it consistently. You might be able to summon a couple of good games, but this is encouraging. He's not completely washed. 30 points, eight rebounds, two steals, 60% shooting. Steph wasn't at his best. 17 on 29% is bad with four assists. And Looney had one of his better games, eight, seven, and five in 26 minutes. I still would not care to add him in 12-team formats. But the big shocker, I guess, came. Well, it was a little bit of a shock that Chris Paul didn't start. He played 29 minutes, 12, two, and three, which is fine, but not great. But they benched Andrew Wiggins. Wiggins played 22 minutes. He had nine and three. He did have five fouls, so maybe he could have played more. I haven't really considered the idea that they moved him to the bench, but they would have started him had Paul George been playing. I don't really believe that at all, but I guess it's a theory you have. But we've been jacking Wiggins off for seven weeks now. So, get that garbage out of here! And they started Brandon Pajemski. Now, Pajemski's line looks trash on the surface. Four points, a nine to 18%. That's a Wiggins line. But I don't really care because he played 35 minutes. He had seven rebounds, three steals, one block. Instead of shooting 18%, if he shoots a five of 11, which is like 45%, that makes it an extra three field goals made. It makes 10, seven, two, three, one. And we take it every day. So, Kaminga and Pajemski, the big winners here from a 12 team perspective. Dario Saric didn't really work out. They went with Looney Moore, so I don't think you need to hold Saric. And the other one we wanted to watch was Moses Moody, but he played only 16 minutes. Now, he had 11 and five, which is good, but 16 minutes doesn't cut it. So, it is Pajemski and it is Kaminga as the two guys that we go to grab. There is no guarantee that that holds every game. There is no guarantee that they even have a run of top 100 numbers, not at all. Like 15 and five is fine. Four, seven, two, three, one is fine with deficiencies, but it is good to see that at least we get something out of this, something we can take away. And I was worried that we might not see anything, especially if they had have started Chris Paul and started Wiggins. Because this is, again, what I said when Draymond went down. The biggest impact here will be not necessarily the Draymond suspension, but what decision they make with Wiggins and or Clay. And the benching of Wiggins has had a big impact here in providing that extra value. For the Clevers, I told you that Paul George and Ty Lue are liars. Sorry if they're listening. I know Paul's got his own podcast to do, but they did the exact same thing last season. He left a game with hamstring tightness in a blowout. So now it's fine. I'm good, mate. I could have come back in. The same thing happened this season with his groin. Apparently he was good enough to play in the second half two days ago, but wasn't able to play here and his day-to-day moving forward. I call the biggest load of bullshit ever. And I talked about it. I said this. They are lying. And I had pretty strong confidence they were lying here. And they were lying. I don't know what this means now as we move forward. How long is George going to be out? I've got no idea. They say day-to-day. It's not too bad day-to-day. I don't believe it for a single second. Cause why would I? Why would I when they just literally lied two days ago about the same injury? I'm not going to say that he's out for weeks because I don't think that's true. But I can't believe that it's day-to-day. The good news is that Jim Harden went sick. 28, seven and 15, five threes, four blocks, 92 from the line. That's old Jim Harden. He's a top 20 player over the last two weeks. He's actually top 25 for the season. You got him. Now there was a reason he slid in drafts because we just didn't know what the hell was going on. We didn't know when he was going to play, where he was going to play, how long before he started. Doesn't matter. He's dominating. Really good draft day steal. And Kawhi did seem to hurt his rib at the end there, but 27 and eight, 39 minutes continues to be great. The big winner from Paul George's absence, Norm Powell, even though he didn't start. 21 points in 36 minutes. And that's the key. 36. He hit 69% of his shots, which is of course nice, but also very good. And he is at least worth a stream while Paul George's groin continues to not bother him in the slightest. I don't even need to look here. It's fine. He's okay. What we also saw is that it doesn't matter that Paul George was out. Russell Westbrook's not a guy we need. Get that garbage out of here. 19 minutes, nine, four, and two. Maybe Westbrook becomes a stream when Harden sits. But what we saw here is that there were some that were saying you're too quick to drop Westbrook because someone's going to get hurt and he's going to step up. Well, no, that didn't happen. So I think it's just going to be a Harden stream. And for full transparency, Russell Westbrook, at one point, mid-2010s, was my favorite player. I loved watching him play. I loved what he did for fantasy. Loved it all. I don't really have a favorite player anymore because I'm more and more in the work. But it should be relatively clear. I know there are going to be Russ stans that are watching this and I apologize to you. You might want to go and like stand over your poster and do some squats or something, whatever. Whatever you need to do to feel better. But it is not a coincidence that the Lakers sucked and they got rid of Russell Westbrook and they became good. It is not a coincidence that when Westbrook was starting for this team, they struggled and then he moved to the bench and it all figured out. And yes, they were playing okay before Harden arrived. Okay. But even last season, when he came in and started, they never really got to play with everybody. And there were nights when he'd just get reduced in minutes because he's just not that guy anymore. And he has failed to adapt himself enough to be that player. And I don't see it changing. I just don't see it changing. So we don't need to roster Russell Westbrook in 12 or 10 team fantasy leagues. 14 maybe, but that's about it. They started Amir Coffey in place of George. He had 18 points. The Farmer's Union with four threes. That's only a deeper league thing. While Terence Mann sucked, he had two points in 20 minutes and Zubats had 10 and eight in his 30 minutes of action. Do you think I'm being harsh on Westbrook there? I just think that it's relatively clear. And I know what his fans will say. Well, the teams just need to build around him. I'm sorry, you don't build around a guy that's not that good. That's not how any of it works. Adapt or die. Who said that? Somebody said it. But I think that's a relatively fair assessment of where we're at with Westbrook at the moment. Honestly, he's not that good and we don't need to deal with him in any sort of fantasy setting. That's the seven games done. Let us go in now and do a recap of the streams of the day. The 10 team stream of the day was Dante Exum. He had 14, four and four with no defensive stats, but that's okay. We like the line. Caleb Martin was the 12 team up. Pretty strong response there. 17, 11 and four with no defensive stats. The 14 team up was one of the worst bed shits of all time. One and two for Orlando Robinson. One of the worst ever. Move on from him. But we do like the 16 team stream. Brandon Podjemski. Well, I didn't know he was going to start, but he was very much available when we did this show yesterday. Four and seven, two assists, three steals, one block. And the two point streams were Dante Exum. He had 23 Yahoo points and 28 ESPN points. Again, that works pretty well. Let's, what are we going to do? Oh, let's do the monstrous line of the night. Again, I don't think this is a hard one. I don't think there's too much to debate here. The monstrous line of the night does go to Slippin' Jimmy Harden, who had 28 points. He had 15 assists. He had four blocks. He was great. Not debatable. Awesome. The Waverwire line of the night. Best player available in over 50% of fantasy leagues. And that does go to Cleveland. And it does go to Dracarys Levert, who had 26 points. He had five assists. He had three steals. He was really good. He'd been really bad for multiple weeks. I'm not going to be totally against you adding him. I don't think it's 100% a necessity, but whatever. He was good here and we hope it continues. The young gun of the night. The best performance from a first or second year player in fantasy. This one also is easy. It is Walker Kessler in Utah. 10 points, 10 rebounds and a massive seven blocks. Let's hope this gets his season kickstarted. And then lastly, we look at the dud of the night. The worst fantasy performer of the day. It gives me no pleasure. Honestly, it doesn't. To tell you that it's Cam Thomas. He had 13 points. He shot 39 from the field. He had 50% from the line and he didn't contribute in any other category. And that is a really stinking run of games at the moment for Cam Thomas. Now we go in to look at the top six players in each of those categories that we like to look at. We'll start off with our top six nine cat players. Number one was Jim Harden, followed by Luka Doncic, Shea Gildas Alexander, Walker Kessler, Klay Thompson, and Big Chungus himself, Nicola Jokic. Your top six players rostered under 50% of leagues. It is Karis Levert, followed by Simone Fontechio and Keon Alice and Peyton Watson. Imagine that for a group. Fontechio, Alice and Watson. Really like Watson long-term and Alice is showing out to be at least an NBA rotation caliber guard. And then we had Scooter Henderson, who was right on 50%. So when including him here, must roster him. And then Lou Dort, streamer, but that is it. Your top six players in points leagues. Number one was Jim Harden, followed by Gildas Alexander, Doncic, Jokic, Vujicic, and Darren Fox, who did hurt his shoulder at the end, but he did also say, ah, it's going to be fine. But of course, players lie. So let's see whether that impacts him at all. Now to round out the show, let's just do a quick recap of what we're seeing. I think Scooter's an ad. I think the Padawan, Colin Sexton's a guy we add. And you can also just tack on Taylon Horton Tucker's name behind him. And then Brandon Podjemski is an ad in Golden State and I'd throw John Kaminga's name there. In fact, if it was a points league, more tailored recommendation, probably have Kaminga over Podjemski. But I think both guys are 12 team ads. In terms of drops, Malcolm Brogdon, I'm more than happy to jack him off. And Kevin Herter, I also think is turning into that, or not turning, he's already been that droppable player. That will do it for me today. Don't forget, follow this podcast if you are on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, and on the Odyssey app. If you are on YouTube, give it a thumbs up, hit the subscribe button, leave your comments and share it with your friends. Guys, we are done here. Thank you so much for listening, everyone. See ya. Bye.