Tip-In Points: Pau’s Not Even The Best Gasol In His Own Conference
Anyone can suggest adds and drops for the NBA fantasy fans out there, but few make those suggestions from the gut. We’ve also sprinkled in tons of helpful stats for all fantasy formats too. Because that’s the kind of fantasy help you deserve.
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Marc Gasol, MEM First thing’s first, this guy needs a nickname. I’m going with “Fuzz” until somebody comes up with something better. Second thing’s second, Gasol’s 21 points and 10 rebounds Wednesday solidified in my mind that not only is the little Gasol one of the monster steals in this year’ draft, but at this point in the season, hes the best center in the Western Conference. He’s the only one averaging a double-double (15.1/ 10.0), he ranks fourth in points per game, second in the league in rebounds per game and field-goal percentage. He’s also fifth in blocks per game among centers from the West. There’s no other such center who sits in the top five in all four categories. That 69 percent mark from the free throw line looks like one of those unsightly yellow bruises, but even that isn’t hurting you too bad. He’s only getting to the line about five times a game. Fuzz was (he wasn’t fuzzy, was he?) the 48th pick of last year’s draft and proved the first 47 wrong for skipping him. He was left for the waiver wire in many leagues to start the season and he’s proving most of them wrong too.
Here’s Wednesday’s roundup of guys also proving something or another.
Jameer Nelson, ORL In his four games back since sitting out a month with injury, Jammer is shooting .286 from the floor, .182 from the arc, averaging 7.25 points per game and only 2.75 dimes. T’ain’t good. Someone defrost him, catch him up on the Golden Globe nominees and then get him back to ballin’.
Jason Williams, ORL While Nelson was getting his sea legs back, Williams had 16 points and seven assists. D’you see, Nelson? Williams took a whole season off and still tossed off seven dimes.
Zach Randolph, MEM 28 pts/ 13 reebs. That’s six games in a row he’s scored at least 23 and grabbed at least 13. If this man blocked one more shot every other game, he’d be the best power forward at this point in the season. I already said Gasol was the best center in the West. They’re both on the Grizzlies! What’s happening?! The room is spinning! I feel faint. Someone grab my chardonnay glass before I spill it on the rug.
Mike Dunleavy, IND The Pacers have dropped eight straight. Murphy was out, Granger was out, but I’m choosing to blame Dunleavy Jr. During the losing streak, he’s had more turnovers+fouls than points in half of the games. He’s had more than five rebounds just once in that time, more than three assists never. If it keeps on rainin’ the Dunlevee’s going to break.
Luther Head, IND Hey! Did you know Luther Head still plays professional basketball? Yeah. He’s out in Indiana. Matter fact, he made an appearance last night in the starting lineup and dropped a season-high 30 points in a season-high 40 minutes. Ironically for the Pacers, this marked a season-low. As long as Granger and Murphy remain out of the lineup, it couldn’t hurt to keep an eye on Head’s role.
Roy Hibbert, IND Easily the best of the healthy Pacers (21/ 9.5 in his last two games), Hibbert notched a career-high 25 points to go along with 13 rebounds. So stop laughing at him now. And give him back his cap. His grandma knitted that hat for him and he loves it. No seriously. Enough’s enough. Give it back. You’ve had your fun.
Joe Johnson, ATL Went 15-for-25 and racked up 35 points. It was the third time this year he’s scored at least 35.
Gerald Wallace, CHA 15 point, 16 rebounds. Killer. At this point I’m pretty sure the sun rises whenever Gerald Wallace decides to wake up.
Stephen Jackson, CHA Stack Jacks has been off-and-on over these last two weeks. 18 points, then 10, 13, 24, 12 and 30 last night. You can’t drop him, but you also can’t trust him. I mean, his name uses a “ph” instead of a “v”. His friends call him Steph instead of Steve. Steph’s a girl’s name! Anyway, he went to the line for a season-high 11 throws last night and made them all. Focus on that.
Andrea Bargnani, TOR Tied his season-high with 28 points. That’s only 23 Canadian points however.
Hedo Turkoglu, TOR Two points on four shots before leaving with a contused knee.
Courtney Lee, NJ Ten points on 42 percent shooting from the floor. The Nets win their third game of the season and we talk about the only starter who didn’t have a good game. Why? ‘Cause that’s the kind of bidness we runnin’.
David Lee, NY 24/ 15/ 8. Matched his career-high in assists. He also dished out eight once in November ’06. In fact, he was almost the first Knick with a triple-double in six years.
Al Harrington, NY After not scoring more than 20 points or playing more than 34 minutes in his last seven games, Al finally did both. Now let’s see if D’Antoni remembers through January that Harrington is on the team.
Ronnie Brewer, UTA Possibly keyed up to play his brother Corey, Ronnie scored 20 points and had four steals. But in 40 minutes, that was it.
Jonny Flynn, MIN Flynn has been underwhelming. There. I said it. I don’t care which team drafted him. He’s underwhelming. He’s only had six-or-more assists in only seven of his 33 games. Perhaps I’m expecting too much. I’m hard on the kid, I know. It’s just … I don’t want him to make the same mistakes I did growing up. I want something better for him than the Timberwolves. I want him to grow into a Laker or a Nugget or something.
Peja Stojakovic, NO Um … I thought he’d been hurt since early November. He’s not hurt. It’s just that he’s only scored more than 13 points once since December 11.
Dwyane Wade, MIA Six turnovers and a solid, but not elite performance. That seems to be theme with him in 2009-10.
Kevin Garnett, BOS Out. Knee. Rasheed Wallace replaced him and went mad with power.
Tony Allen, BOS Playing well in place of the injured Paul Pierce. Let’s call him the pseudo-Pierce. I once had a pseudo piercing and my mom grounded me for the entire month of June.
Juwan Howard, POR Started for Portland on Wednesday. Does that mean you should pick him up? Absolutely not, but if you have a non-injured Blazer in your lineup, keep him there because they literally have no one better to play than Juwan Howard.
L I N E O F T H E N I G H T
LeBron James, CLE 43 min./ .652 FG%/ .875 FT%/ 4 3ptm/ 48 pts/ 10 rbds/ 6 asts/ 2 stls/ 2 blks/ 3 tos. No one should have been surprised that after having one of the worst games of his season the night before, that James was going to come out swinging for the fences on his birthday. He’s scored at least 30 points on his birthday three times in his career. 33 in ’06, 38 last year and now this monster. Dang, and all I got for my birthday was a gift card to the Cheesecake Factory.
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Photos courtesy of Yahoo! Sports via Getty Images
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