The verdict is in, this year is weird. Weird with teams that are good that were not supposed to be good. Weird with teams that are not supposed to be bad, that are bad.
Exceedingly, weird like raisins in your Aunt’s new mac and cheese recipe.
Everyone is preparing for the holidays this week, but there is plenty of basketball to be played. Unfortunately, not as many questions coming in. Just how the cookie crumbles sometimes, but it is the nature of the beast. Going to talk more about Jordan Poole and Mikal Bridges, a bit about the defensive metric players, and another edition of looking at an individual team. As hinted at last week, the entire Chicago Bulls roster is on the most recent fake trade proposals on the Fanspo trade machine.
Weekly Fantasy Basketball Mailbag – Week Four Turkey Trot
Let’s dive right in!
How should I operate when it comes to accumulating assets for the 2024 draft? Is this a year where I should prioritize assets? – Sabapathy
Thank you again Sabapathy for the question. This year is a little bit weird, but when it is this early in the season there is not much data. With that in mind, it is not totally unreasonable to accumulate assets in buy/sell patterns right now. If you think that a player is having a career year and can capitalize on that value, do it. But it seems like there are some years where the draft is not “great” and all of a sudden there are five guys that turn out to be stars. Kids are closer to playing before they get drafted than they have ever been, and that will continue to trend upward. Especially in contracts leagues, trading for middling assets is a better payoff than otherwise.
Are Jordan Poole and Mikal Bridges living up to their ADPs? Is this Jordan Clarkson’s year? – Davin
Another week, another question about Poole and Clarkson. This makes sense. Having volatile shoot-first guards, everyone wants to know if they can profit off of them. Streaming guards like that is great, but you can live by the sword and die by the sword.
To answer the question, Jordan Poole is most certainly not. Fantasy owners were expecting 20+ points per game, with at least 4 assists on decent but not great shooting. Instead, they are getting one of the most efficient guards in the league that is chucking up shots. I would not be super surprised if a lot of smaller leagues started to drop him as we get into December.
Bridges, on the other hand, is scoring in good quantities with his career-worst three-point percentage, so that should start to change. He’s performing around his draft position but has taken on so much more responsibility. I would expect him to get better as time moves on, especially since none of his other stats have suffered but only improved.
Jordan Clarkson is what Jordan Poole wishes he was. I think he’ll continue to prove as he did last season that scoring is his forte. However, he has been good in different aspects as well. Even if he got traded to another team, they would most likely put him in a high-minute sixth-man role, which would take away some value but not a ton.
Can you rely on players with high steals/blocks? I.E. Jaren Jackson Jr. being boosted to 30s value because he averaged three blocks a game. – Gunnar
Rely is a strong word. I think it depends on which player is doing what. Basically, players that are stocks guys need to be able to do something else too. There has to be something to fall back on in case the output is not where it was the year before. Using Triple J as an example, this season he has more points but is not shooting the three as well as not blocking as well. Sometimes players just need to find their footing, or they may have a down year, like Rudy Gobert had but is now a leader in the league. A deeper analysis can help. Jackson played this summer for the USA team, which could lead to a tiring factor for the early season.
A few different pundits have noticed that players who played this summer (except Tyrese Haliburton) have had slow starts to this season. Steals and blocks are effort stats. It makes sense that it has not happened thus far.
Who are the equivalent players to the standard Thanksgiving dishes?
Turkey, the dish that can be great, or absolutely dry and terrible: Jerami Grant
Stuffing, the stat-stuffer, makes you full but sometimes unsatisfied: James Harden
Cranberry Sauce, a bitter but necessary palette cleanser. The defender of the plate: Mikal Bridges.
Mashed Potatoes, a staple, and often the best part of the dish: Nikola Jokic
Ham, the unsung hero and usually people’s favorite part of the meal: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.
Green Bean Casserole, a sneaky good side dish that usually everyone enjoys. Has been prepared almondine or with those nice crispy onion pieces: Lauri Markkanen
Mac and Cheese, the fun part of the dish that you just enjoy eating, even though it may as well be at any other gathering: Tyrese Ma(c)xey.