The Basketball Diaries: Thursday, January 28th
Welcome to another edition of the Basketball Diaries.
This article is a reflection upon the previous night’s lineup in an effort to improve player selection moving forward.
Before we can learn what to do right in a process, we need to figure out what we’ve done wrong in the past. That is the focus of this piece.
Russell Westbrook – $10,500
Russell Westbrook is clearly one of the most dynamic players in the NBA. Although typically I would fade guys, even superstars, who are in a back to back situation having come off of an overtime game the night before, I thought Westbrook, in a matchup with Ricky Rubio, was going to be too much to handle.
Archie Goodwin – $4,100
And once again Archie Goodwin was a 60+ percent owned guy in tournaments. He disappointed with this final point total of just under 21, but if he is below $5,000 on FanDuel the next time they play, I would take him again. Just moving forward I would expect more mid-20 point games than some of those 30+ point explosions he had the last few games.
Kentavious Caldwell-Pope – $5,800
Shooting guard and small forward is where I typically struggle to piece together my lineup. I hate spending up at these positions and when Harden is in such a bad matchup you just can’t do it. So I put KCP in this lineup as basically one of the last guys I selected. He’s been a fairly consistent producer this year and obviously has a great matchup with Philadelphia. He salvaged his game with a nice flurry in the fourth quarter, but a 22 point outing isn’t going to win you any tournaments. KCP wound up on my roster because I thought it was an odd night at this position. I can assure you that I don’t believe that he is a guy you should look to roster with any consistency.
Avery Bradley – $5,500
Originally I had JR Smith in this position right here but realized I had enough money left over that I could upgrade to Avery Bradley. Although I thought Smith had some upside also, I jumped on the opportunity to get Avery Bradley on the team because he is typically a guy who sees a ton of minutes in competitive games. He doesn’t always produce big fantasy stat lines with those minutes, but when his outside jump shot is falling he is a monster performer at a cheap price. That’s what makes him a very solid tournament player.
Kawhi Leonard – $7,500
Although Kawhi Leonard has been struggling of late, I thought a great matchup against Houston would snap him out of his funk and getting back on track with a 40 point fantasy game. I was wrong and he only ended up with 23.7 FanDuel points. I realize he didn’t play the fourth quarter due to blowout but the time he spent on the court wasn’t very productive and I really don’t know what’s wrong with him right now. At this point I think he’s a fine tournament play, but I’m looking elsewhere in cash games until he finds his groove again.
PJ Tucker – $4,500
When I looked over this position and realized that the price tag on PJ Tucker wasn’t moving, I quickly set him in my FanDuel lineup and never budged. He doesn’t have a whole lot of upside but with the injuries on this team he is almost a lock for 24 or more fantasy points every night.
Kevin Love – $7,000
I didn’t necessarily like any of the Cleveland Cavalier superstar players in this game as I thought it would be a blowout early and that they would all be resting in the second half. But Kevin Love was a guy that kept popping up on all projections I looked at as an extremely valuable play. The more I thought about LeBron James deferring this game to get Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving going, the more I liked the idea of playing Love in this game.
LaMarcus Aldridge – $6,600
LaMarcus Aldridge was a guy I had heavy exposure to in the last game against Golden State. He was a massive disappointment in that game and I was very gun shy about him in this game. But I saw the price tag had slipped down all the way to $6,600 and Tim Duncan was still out, so I felt like I almost had no choice but to fire him up. He is a guy I will probably be fading in the next game because I feel like he’s a candidate to have his minutes lowered significantly.
Andre Drummond – $8,200
Andre Drummond was the one player that I locked into all my lineups on all sites right away on Wednesday night. I know some people were scared off by the recent string of poor performances but he is clearly too much to handle for the Philadelphia 76ers inside guys. The only threat here was a big blowout but even then I could see Drummond playing into the fourth quarter. It’s always good to identify the one guy that is playing that night that you feel you just can’t fade and lock him in. Then, find your value plays to save money, and build around that core.