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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.
Editor's Note: Our incredible team of writers received five total writing awards and 13 award nominations by the Fantasy Sports Writers Association, tops in the industry! Congrats to all the award winners and nominees including NBA Writer of the Year, Best NFL Series, MLB Series, PGA Writer and Player Notes writer of the year. Be sure to follow their analysis, rankings and advice all year long, and win big with RotoBaller! Read More!
Sunday, March 14
Great night for second-fiddle players on Sunday: Draymond Green and Kelly Olynyk put on great performances and help both GSW and MIA win
Let's address the elephant in the room first: both Jimmy Butler and Stephen Curry were great for Miami and Golden State respectively yesterday, as expected, and logged usage rates of 28% and 32% in their games. It makes sense to find them ranked as the 3rd- and 5th-best fantasy players on Sunday's slate. More impressive, though, were the performances of their teammates Kelly Olynyk and Draymond Green.
Olynyk started at C as he's been doing all year long and put up a stuffed 18-7-4-3-2 line shooting 67% on 9 FGA (and hitting 3 treys) on a silly 16% usage rate for 43 FP. Green logged an 11-12-12-4 trip-dub in 36 minutes on a ridiculous 13% usage rate for 56 FP. Both of these two are far from fantasy-darlings, but they provided value steadily throughout the season. I have highlighted Olynyk as a WW-target in earlier columns (available in 57 percent Yahoo leagues) and although Green will be harder to get for free (available in only 10% of leagues), he's an all-across-the-board contributor worth trading for.
- God bless Aleksej Pokusevski. The rookie spent some time in the G League with OKC's developmental squad and is now back in the L. Back for good, that is. Poku became the youngest player ever to put up 20+ points, 10+ rebounds, and score 5+ threes in a game at just 19 years of age. Pokusevski is still super-green and in the baby stages of his career, but there is some sweet potential out there.
- The Magic might be on the verge of entering a full rebuild. If they decide to make some moves before the deadline, Terrance Ross could be one of the traded-away assets. Ross was yesterday's top bench-player with a great 31-5-3 performance in which he hit a slate-leading 8 triples in 34 minutes of playing time.
- The second-best reserve of the day in fantasy terms, and one I've been screaming you to add through your WW no matter the league you play in: Celtics' Robert Williams. I legit don't know how this man isn't getting more minutes of playing time, honestly. Another day, another dub-dub for RW with a 16-13-1-1-3 outing in just 19 minutes on the court. The efficiency is bonkers, as his 2.11 FP/min show. Calling it impressive is falling short of what this guy is doing.
- Kira Lewis keeps playing a lot of minutes for the Pelicans, probably in advance of what the franchise could do in the upcoming days re: trades. The rookie played 27 minutes off the pine and was rather good with a 13-3-4-2 line on a 21% usage rate in a W against the Clips. Jaxson Hayes was great too, stuffing the line on the low with a 17-3-1-1-1 all-across-the-board performance.
- You can't get him through waivers, nor probably trade, but let me spend a point on Rudy Gobert. The Baguette dropped a 24-28 on Golden State while being on the court just below 33 minutes. He also added a dime, 2 steals, and 4 blocks to his game log. Peeping the history books, this is the first 24-28 game since Dwight Howard did it in 2018. Only Andre Drummond and Kevin Love did it before this century, and only one player (Walt Bellamy in 1963!) reached those marks in 32 or fewer minutes (30).
- Keep an eye on Kevin Love. He got injured yesterday, just two days into his comeback, and was forced out of the game even before hitting the two-minute-played mark against the Hawks. Here's hoping it's nothing serious and we have him back soon.
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