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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!
Wednesday, October 20
Boston and New York combine for 272 points on a two-overtime extravaganza; Memphis and Cleveland reach 253 themselves in a classic four-quarter affair
It took a couple of five-minute extra periods of play, yes, but Jaylen Brown hit the ground running in his debut this campaign dropping a phenomenal 46 pops on a Knicks team that ultimately had no answer for the Cs. Brown played 46 minutes on the night, hit a slate-leading (tied with Harrison Barnes) 8 treys, and went on to rack up a 46-9-6-3-1 mega-stuffed stat line that also included 4 TOs and 5 PFs. Quite a busy day in the office, that is.
On the other end of the floor was Julius Randle, he of the 46 minutes played too. Randle put up a 35-8-9-0-3 line but he turned the ball over 7 freaking times. Damn. Other than this full-of-fireworks game, the Grizz and the Cavs put together a scoring bombing in which all of Morant, Melton, Bane, and Jarrett Allen scored 20+ points while eight more players finished in double figures. Talk about some All-O-No-D approaches right there.
- Can't hate on either of Jaylen/Julius, but the truth is they benefited from the game extending twice, thus reaching 46 ticks each. That's why the very true performer of the day was LaMelo Ball. Yes, you read that right. Melo finished with the third-highest FP tally putting up more than two (2.04) FP/min, the only player in the first two days of hoops to do so along with Giannis. The line? A tasty 31-9-7-2 in 31 minutes with 7 treys baked in.
- Some usual suspects had their usual great games yesterday: your Jokics, Sabonises, KATs, and Morants. But more interesting are the low-salaried/low-rostered folks out there putting up numbers. Fournier debuted to a 32-6-3-4-1 stuffed line, Harrison Barnes did so hitting 8 treys on a 36-9-2-2 night with no TOs, Brogdon put up a 28-4-11-0-1 dub-dub, and CJ McCollum shot a ridiculous 58.4% from the floor on 24 FGA to close the day with an overall 34-6-5-3-1 line.
- We had a surprising explosion from Nemanja Bjelica back on Tuesday, and when it comes to value plays there were a bunch in yesterday's large slate of games. My favorites? Chris Duarte starting at SG for the Pacers and having a magnificent day on all fronts (27-5-1-1 shooting 60% and hitting 6 treys with a 3-for-3 performance from the freebie-line), and Devin Vassell of the Spurs thanks to a 19-2-5-2 game coming off the bench and playing 25 minutes with an average 20.1% usage rate.
- Montrez Harrell came off the bench for the Wiz and was as efficient as ever (1.41 FP/min), Maxey is the new PG in Philly and played to very-starter levels of play (20-7-5 in 34 minutes), and Andre Drummond was Embiid's backup and had a classic board-burger finishing with a spicy 6-17-3-2-2 line.
- We couldn't watch no. 1 overall pick, Cade Cunningham, in action but other rookies stepped onto NBA courts around the nation yesterday... and all of them endured very strong growing pains. Jalen Green didn't even reach 10 points (9-4-4-1 shooting 28.6% on 14 FGA), Jalen Suggs was even worse (10-1-1-1 line with 3 TOs shooting 21.4% on 14 FGA), Scottie Barnes was close to dub-dubbing (12-9-1-1 with a disappointing 6 TOs and 5 PFs), and Evan Mobley was the lone bright light of the freshmen crop (17-9-6-1-1 hitting 53.8% of his 13 FGA, playing 38 minutes all around the court, and committing no turnovers on the day).
- Collin Sexton better improve his overall game after going for 17 pops but only 1 rebound and 1 dime... Devin Booker must get his shooting right after scoring 12 points on 20% night from the floor on 15 FGA... Kevin Porter Jr. didn't help his early MIP case with a slate-leading 9 TOs and a low 33% on 12 FGA day... Ricky Rubio was fantastic off the pine and will get to celebrate his birthday today after putting up a nice 12-4-10-1 in his debut for the Cavs.
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