RADIO
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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Wednesday, April 7
Phoenix defeats Utah in a battle for Western Conference supremacy after OT; Brooklyn welcomes back Kevin Durant and almost drop 140 pops on New Orleans effortlessly
First things first: we got to watch the supposed WCF finalists go against each other on Wednesday--if only those two teams were purely based on win-loss records. The Lakers, Clippers, Nuggets, etc... will make it tough for Utah and Phoenix to reach that stage in the postseason, obviously, but if they do I don't think many of us would complain. A great, tight game yesterday between these couple of squads with all of Donovan Mitchell, Chris Paul, and Rudy Gobert getting into the top-10 fantasy leaderboard while Deandre Ayton and Devin Booker also put up top-20 performances.
Moving to the Eastern Conference, the Nets played Kevin Durant for the first time since Feb. 13 and all KD needed to rack up 33 FP and average a 1.75 FP/min was 19 minutes on the court coming off the bench. Brooklyn ran New Orleans out of the court demolishing them on a night in which Durant dropped 17 pops shooting 5-for-5 from the floor and 5-for-5 from the charity stripe. He added 7 boards, 5 dimes, and even swatted a rock against the Pels. The Nets are legit scary and it feels like they can drop 120 points any game even if they just play walking all 48 minutes. Jeez.
- The Pacers and the Wolves into an all-offense, no-defense game yesterday that saw both teams combine for 278 points. T.J. McConnell of all men was the best reserve of the slate thanks to a 19-3-15-2 line that came out of left field for Indy, with TJ hitting 75% of his 12 FGA. This is McConnell's seventh game with 10+ assists, and his third dub-dub on dimes and points (he has one more, only it was a trip-dub with a 16-13 and 10 steals).
- Ja Morant wasn't his best self, but it was nice to see him back on the court after he fell injured a few days ago--yet he missed no beat at all. Greater for the Griz: Jonas Valanciunas, who dropped another double-double yesterday on just 27 minutes to the tune of a 19-11-4 with a block. Morant is the man leading the pack, obviously, but Valanciunas has been great and Jaren Jackson Jr. is still to come. Everything bodes well for Memphis going forward, folks.
- Zion logged a low 23 minutes in Brooklyn's trouncing of the Pels, but even with such a short run, he was still able to put up a 16-4-6-2 line in a rather bad shooting night (4-of-12 from the floor). Zion led the slate in freebies, going to the line a healthy 14 times, although once more, he whiffed there too hitting just 57% of those attempts.
- Jalen McDaniels--the younger brother of Jaden, a Timberwolf--started at the SF position for the Hornets yesterday and put up his career-high in points with 21 including 3 treys. He added a 6-3-2 rest-of-line, shot 64% on 14 FGA, committed no turnovers, and was one of the best positive surprises of the slate. Jalen is part of just 3% of Yahoo leagues' rosters, but given Charlotte's current injury issues he might be a good flier to take for those in super deep leagues.
- Romeo Langford, a zero-percent-rostered player in Yahoo leagues, started for the Celtics against the Knicks yesterday. Remember, these two teams were/are virtually tied on the standings, so that was not related to an unbalanced matchup. Langford, no matter what, sucked. He played 25 minutes but fell short of even reaching 15 FP with a 6-6 line that clearly tells you why Langford is a fantasy afterthought.
- Jae'sean Tate, one of the most sought-after WW targets these days (rostered in 54% leagues) put up a dud for the Rockets starting at SF. John Wall righted his wrongs, though, with a 31-3-7-4-1 line. Other WW-darlings such as Chuma Okeke, Robert Williams, and Dillon Brooks were rather disappointing too, and worth keeping an eye on if you have them in your roster in case you have to smash that "release" button.
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