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Welcome to the RotoBaller NBA Recap. In this feature, we will highlight a few key fantasy basketball takeaways from the games played during last night's slate. These viewpoints can be both positive and negative and will hopefully help to provide insight into different roster moves you should consider making based on trends and statistical nuggets from around the Association.
Fantasy basketball has a lot of moving pieces with all the different scoring settings that are possible to play under, so I will always do my best to spotlight where players gain or lose value in certain game types. For the sake of simplicity and consistency, every time I mention Fantasy Points in these articles I will be using DraftKings' scoring system, which goes as follows: 1*PTS, 0.5*3PM, 1.25*RBD, 1.5*AST, 2*STL, 2*BLK, -0.5*TO. On top of that, bonus points are awarded for Double-Doubles (+1.5) and Triple-Doubles (+3), only one per player at a time.
Without further ado, let's get right into the latest slate of games from the 2021 season and try to figure out how to take advantage of what we saw transpire.
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Friday, November 12
Phoenix and Golden State add one more victory to their season tallies and it's now seven straight wins for each of them... as the Rockets dropped their 1oth game in a row
Starting on the bad side of things: Houston can't get a win to save its life. The Rockets lost for the 10th time in the last ten games they've played--to Portland this time--and although rookie Jalen Green has been good for a freshman, the team as a whole stinks too much. Only the Pelicans--on a nine-game losing streak themselves--rank worse than Houston (.083 to .077) in the West and everything points toward a race for the top draft pick between these two when all is said and done, at least judging by early-season results.
On the flip side of the coin and staying on the Western Conference, both the Warriors and the Suns ran their latest foes (Chicago and Phoenix respectively) out off the court and came away with their 7th win(s) in a row. No team has still reached 9 wins out West other than Golden State, which is now sitting at a very tasty 11-1 and has yet to lose an away game this season. Thank Steph Curry for yesterday's W, as the Chef cooked himself a spicy 40-burguer with 9 treys baked into it while shooting a freakish 62.5% from the field attempting 24 FGA.
- Luka Doncic snatched the highest tally of DK's slate with a rounded 80.0 FP score to the tune of a 32-12-16-2 trip-dub including 6 treys and only 2 TOs against San Antonio. Not to that level, of course, but Kristaps Porzingis still played to a reasonably high one with his 32-7 and 3 blocks line to help Dallas outscore its in-state rival.
- James Harden fell one point short of hitting the 40-bell with a 39-5-12-1-1 stuffed line in a match that only required him to shot the rock 18 times. All good on that front, not so much on the TO department as the Beard gave away the possession a high 6 times.
- Other fantastically great performers were Nikola Jokic (22-19-10-1 trip-dub coming back from his suspension), LaMelo (12-17-9-5-1 packed line in Charlotte's comeback win against the Knicks), Schroeder (OT-aided 38-8-3-1 attempting a silly 27 FGA), and Ja Morant (26-12-6-2 without a single three-point made in a meaningless loss to Phoenix).
- Tons of values in yesterday's large slate of games. Nassir Little came off the pine for Portland an put up a 13-14-2-2-1 shooting 60% on 10 FGA and only turning the ball over once. Rajon Rondo had a ridiculously low-but-high performance dumping a 7-8-8-2 line in just 25 minutes against Minny. Veteran Garrett Temple started for Brooklyn, played a bulky 37 minutes, and all he did was reaching a phenomenal 17-6-2 line with 2 blocks and no turnovers at all.
- Denver with a couple of great performances by two very different players: Aaron Gordon (who the Nugs hope plays like this every night) finished with a 23-4-4-2-3 all-around contribution while rookie Bones Hyland played 21 minutes and got one of the better FP/min averages (1.43) thanks to a 15-6-4 contribution while eluding turnovers.
- Not a good night for rookies not nicknamed Bones, though. Other than Evan Mobley (16-7-1-2-3 with 2 triples), all of Green, Cunningham, Giddey, Mitchell, Kuminga, etc... didn't even reach 21 DKFP in their games with the man from OKC having the best performance (7-5-5) yet still falling way short of his ceiling and what he's shown in prior games.
- DeAndre Hunter got his writs done and had to leave the Hawks game early yesterday... Montrezl Harrell and Wendell Carter Jr. are off the injury report for tonight's affair, while Bradley Beal (personal) and Davis Bertans (still out for 3+ games) will miss it... Serge Ibaka, Marcus Morris, and Jaylen Brown are mid/high-profile players tagged injured and/or out.
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