RADIO
The RotoBaller staff highlights three fantasy basketball takeaways from the prior night's NBA slate. Joel Embiid's monster game tops the highlights from November 9th. Other notable performances were by Nikola Jokic and Karl-Anthony Towns.
Welcome to the RotoBaller NBA Recap. In this feature, we highlight three fantasy basketball takeaways from last night's slate of NBA games. Friday did not disappoint with a handful of contests coming down to the final minute to be decided. Caris Levert hit the game-winner for the Brooklyn Nets over the Denver Nuggets on the road, giving Brooklyn a 112-110 victory. LeVert's 17-point performance was his third-lowest scoring output of the season, showing what an incredible 2018 he is having so far. The 24-year-old should be employed as a top-40 option for the rest of the season and is someone that not all owners are negotiating at that price. If I had him, I would keep him, but I have seen far too many teams trade him for less than they should be, which means that there still must be a buying window out there for him.
The Utah Jazz clawed out a 123-115 victory over the Boston Celtics at home, giving them back-to-back home wins after starting the season 0-4 in their building. Utah had six players score in double-figures during the game, but the star of the contest for them was Joe Ingles, who tied his season-high of 27 points. On Monday, Ingles separated his finger in the fourth quarter against the Toronto Raptors and only was able to score six points on Wednesday. Fortunately, the 31-year-old appears to be completely fine and is a very underrated nine-category league performer. Tonight ruined his buy-low opportunity, but he is not a volume-based shooter, and you will have additional chances to acquire him throughout the season.
And the Washington Wizards continued their turbulent start to the year, losing on the road to the Orlando Magic 117-108. Orlando had seven players score in double-figures, including three members of their bench. As far as Washington is concerned, Murphy's law may describe them best. "Anything that can go wrong will go wrong." Otto Porter is dealing with a hurt toe and doesn't look right. He only played 23 minutes on Friday and stated after the game, "It's a part of your body you don't think about using a lot, but once you hurt it, you're like dang, it affects a lot of variables." Porter never has been a great DFS commodity, but he becomes virtually unusable for the time being. However, he will eventually get it going for category leagues and remains a buy-low option there. Our three main takeaways of the night are still to come, so without further ado, let's dive a little deeper into Friday's recap.
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Joel Embiid- Storybook Path to the NBA
Tonight's performance will make you forget that Joel Embiid didn't start playing organized basketball until 2009. Imagine for a second a 15-year-old boy out of Cameroon with no basketball experience and try to visualize how impossible it sounds that the same kid would have any chance to make the NBA. Cameroon has produced a handful of quality players over the years like Luc Mbah a Moute and Pascal Siakam, but it's not a country that is known for its basketball acumen.
Embiid used his height as a youngster to play volleyball, and it wasn't until his school's high school basketball coach gave him a videotape of Hakeem Olajuwon and told him to watch it that he decided to pick up the game. The future writes itself from there, and with the help of Mbah a Moute, Embiid moved to the United States at the age of 16 to devote himself to becoming a professional basketball player.
Since we all know how the story ends, let's fast forward to Friday night and Embiid's season-high scoring performance against the Charlotte Hornets in a 133-132 overtime win. The 24-year-old concluded the game with 42 points on 11-for-18 shooting from the field and 19-for-22 from the charity stripe. He also produced 18 rebounds, four assists, four blocks and one three-pointer. And while his production was fantastic, this has become the norm for the 7-foot center, especially since we have entered November. Through five games this month, Embiid is averaging 31.6 points, 14.6 rebounds, 2.8 blocks and 52.1 percent shooting on a staggering 18.4 attempts per contest.
Embiid showed flashes of this during his first couple of seasons, but now that he doesn't have minute restrictions because of injuries, the third pick in the 2014 draft is officially one of the best fantasy players in the NBA. Embiid's average draft position on ESPN, Yahoo and CBS leagues of 14th overall apparently was way too shallow, and owners that were able to get him in the second round got an absolute steal. If you are worried about Embiid's health, there could be a sell-high window of pretty much anyone you want. It's an option, but there are only a few players that I would even consider in a swap, and at that point, it is probably just trading apples for apples. Enjoy him this season if you have him.
Nikola Jokic - Gets Aggressive On Offense
I haven't been shy when describing Nikola Jokic in past articles, even calling him the number one fantasy option on the season. And while some could say that is slightly overzealous, nights like Friday are why the 23-year-old is a rare combination of size and finesse.
After a strange four-game stretch that saw Jokic only take 4.5 shots per contest and average 5.7 points, the 7-foot center exploded on Friday night, making 14 of 22 shots from the field for 37 points and adding in 21 rebounds, three assists, one steal, two blocks and one three-pointer in 33 minutes.
Well, that is more like it! I don't want to undermine the good he was able to do in his previous games, like putting up 16 assists last Saturday, but the aggressive offensive tactics were lacking, and it is nice to see Jokic go back to being a destructive force. Even though Denver was unable to get the victory tonight, they remain an uptempo team that will have to score in the West to compete. The attacking mindset is a good start, but if Jokic can figure out when to switch up between his pass-first approach and bulldozing mentality, he truly could become the number one fantasy option on the season. As it is now, he is still probably a top-five player going forward.
Karl-Anthony Towns - Is Beginning To Find Rhythm
The Minnesota Timberwolves might be falling apart as a team, but Karl-Anthony Towns is beginning to heat up on the year. On Friday, Towns went off for a season-high 39 points in a 121-110 loss to the Sacramento Kings, hitting 15 of 27 shots and seven of seven from the line. These were the types of monster lines that we became accustomed to seeing last season, but they have been far and few between so far this year.
Towns also pulled in a season-high 19 boards while adding one assist, one block and two three-pointers on the night. The most impressive part of Towns' performance was his 27 shot attempts, and he might run into some boosted stat lines for the foreseeable future. The Timberwolves are in dire straights and need to trade Jimmy Butler out of town, but until they do, it seems likely that they could be playing from behind in a lot of shootout type contests.
The buy-low window for the 22-year-old has been shut after tonight, but it is possible that it could reopen again soon. And even as things stand, there is still a reduced price compared to where he was drafted to begin the season. I still have him rated as a top-10 player on the year and would love to get him for a player I have outside that range like Ben Simmons, Chris Paul, Paul George or John Wall to name a few. In a nine-category league, I was able to acquire KAT and Tobias Harris for Kyrie Irving and Marc Gasol just the other day. You never know how the members in your league are feeling about certain players, so don't be shy to throw out some feeler offers!
