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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.
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Friday, March 19
T.J. McConnell (16-6-15) joins a two-man club after posting the third off-the-pine 15-5-15 line in the history of the Association
I don't know what to make of T.J. Just a couple of weeks after logging a ridiculous 16-4-13-10-1 performance against Cleveland on March 3, McConnell went to work once more and dropped another incredibly rare line with a 16-6-15-3-1 stuffed line while helping Indiana defeat Miami. Oh, and he did that while coming off the bench and playing just 29 minutes finishing the game with a 26 plus/minus.
This was such a rare performance that it was good enough to make T.J. part of a very elite club: only two players had ever had a 15-5-15 performance while not starting for their teams. Bobby Washington did it in 1971, and Darwin Cook achieved the feat 10 years later in 1981. Nobody had been able to do so until McConnell pulled it off yesterday, and he did so in 29 minutes compared to Bobby's 40 and Cook's 41. Shout-out to T.J. for making history!
- Andrew Wiggins posted his first 40-burger game in forever. Actually, it is the first one since the very first games of last season, and he got it against his current team while he was still a Wolf. 40-8-4-4 stuffed line for Wigg on the night and a top-2 finish in fantasy leaderboards.
- While McConnell's game was great and surprising, it didn't quite reach the heights of Keldon Johnson's performance against the Cavs: 23 pops and 21 boards to go with 2 dimes, 2 blocks, and a theft. 58 FP was the final tally and the no. 4 spot in the DKFP leaderboard his final rank on Friday's slate.
- Whether Kyle Lowry gets traded during the next few days or not, Toronto surely has his replacement in tow already. FVV started next to him yesterday (he had missed ample time due to COVID) and in 41 minutes (!!!) he reached 43 FP to the tune of a 17-6-9-2 line. None of these two are available in any fantasy league, and it'd be hard to trade for them, but if for some reason a fantasy GM is fielding offers for FVV and you can get him for a reasonable price, definitely go for it. If Kyle gets moved, the upside would be even higher.
- As it has been the case all season long, it's a random outcome every time GSW plays a game when it comes to who will be the hitting play. It was Damion Lee's turn yesterday as he came off the bench, played 28 minutes, and dropped a nice 21-5-2-1-1 line shooting 57% on a quite high 14 FGA. Lee is barely rostered (2%) on Yahoo leagues, but it makes sense considering how up and down he (and all GSW players) is on a nightly basis.
- Draymond Green keeps doing it. If you don't give a damn about points scored and are hurting for rebounds and assists, Green is your man. Dray doesn't care just one bit about dropping buckets, but he does everything else on the court. That is not what most fantasy GMs are after, because points are the wealthiest source of FP, but other than that Green is master of all crafts.
- A couple of very serious duds popped up in Denver on Friday: Michael Porter Jr. and Will Barton played 42 and 41 minutes respectively, yet none of them could top 31 fantasy points against Chicago. The lines read 19-6-2-1 and 16-6-3, not bad on the counting/raw side of things, but definitely helped and bulked up by the large playing time.
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