Game Notes: 11/15

Few players have logged as many minutes, yet been as utterly useless in terms of fantasy as the acclaimed Collins twins of Stanford University. Their presence has long been proclaimed upon (at some length too, I might add) by people who track invisible statistics, such as the one that says the Collins twins are two of the best defenders in the game whose name I can’t remember. However this is most often the only sign that they are in the league, as the only stats they log are minutes played, and the only highlights they appear in are the ones where they are made to look a fool and aloof (anagram?). Now, in a frightening tale, please follow me through the evening of November 15^th, for this sacred day saw the return of not one, but TWO Collins twins… FG%’s around the league fell through the floor, dozens of generally competent and reliable players were forced into “below average production”, even coaches fell victim as many of them made very odd decisions.

Golden State – 121 at LA Clippers – 103

Anthony Morrow gets his own section and it is below the summary. On the polar opposite end of the spectrum, Brandan Wright was the recipient of a DNP-CD! Seriously… a fantasy player much have wronged one of Don Nelson’s daughters or something, because this line up morphing (although expected) is just random and ridiculous. Azubuike’s line barely extended beyond 15 points and a nice FG% with 2 steals and 2 threes, Stephen Jackson and Biedrins did what has become the norm for them, and Corey Maggatte managed a decent FG% which is nice to see (since he failed to do that in pretty much every game before he sat down to let his injury heal). CJ Watson was the only player to log significant time off the bench, and contributed 10 points and 8 assists. Baron Davis mirrored Captain Jack’s line, Kaman is finally beginning to return to his former glory, and Cuttino Mobley scored 19 but in an unspectacular fashion failing to fill out his line in all areas. Ricky Davis received 30 minutes off the bench but did nothing. Tim Thomas started for Marcus Camby because Mike Dunleavy is a terrible coach (or perhaps to make some ill thought out attempt to counter the Warriors small lineup?), and then only received 11 minutes… in part because of foul trouble, and in part because he is just not very good. Camby put up 12-11 with no blocks in 24 minutes off the bench.

Anthony Morrow: An undrafted rookie out of Georgia Tech; he played 4 years of college ball, shot ~87% from the line during his college career, and by his senior season was one of the leading three point shooters in the country at 44.8% (on 5.7 attempts per game, which is a ton for college). Nellie loved him in camp, proclaiming that he was “the best shooter on the team”. However, from what I have read, it sounds like shooting (and the things that go into being a great shooter, such as moving without the ball to create space) is pretty much his only skill. His ball-handling and passing are so weak that he actually signed a contract in a low level league in the Ukraine before he came to the Warriors. As long as he gets minutes he should at least be a good source of threes. He won’t get to the line much, and won’t give assists, since Nellie will probably bench him for a week if he puts the ball on the floor more than once after receiving it. If the scouting reports I have read on him are accurate, the rebounds today were an aberration, and he will not provide above average blocks or steals for his position, but low TO scoring with nice %’s and some threes? That is his game!

Oklahoma City – 85 at Philadelphia – 110

Jeff Green had another great line (LeBron light with PF eligibility), this time bringing FG% along for the ride! Kevin Durant was ugly all over. Robert Swift was in the game for 14 minutes… which coincidentally is the same amount of time it took head coach PJ Carlesimo to realize that he did not show up for basketball, but to debut a performance art piece titled “Jason Collins: embodiment of a mortal”. Johan Petro had a nice line off the bench, but given that it is only his second “nice line” in 10 tries (and that it came against super slow Philly), I would wait to see him repeat it before making a move for him. Thad Young had another big scoring night with great %’s and a three, but failed to fill it out with significant boards, dimes or steals. Iggy had a decent line, but nothing that would indicate a player of second round value. Andre Miller only did well in the categories that would help his owners in leagues where I am currently pitted against him. Sammy is apparently such a simpleton that benching is an effective motivation tool (I have never understood why this works for professional athletes. If you were content to loaf, play awful on a national broadcast, and still pick up your check… wouldn’t a benching mean success for you?) and flipped out Biedrins style with 13-16 and three blocks. I am going to ignore all the bench stats because this game was over early and OKC couldn’t buy a shot even when it was close (ie inflated rebounds for everyone).

New Jersey – 119 at Atlanta – 107

Devin Harris had ANOTHER huge game, and this one was nearly perfect. PHAT FT volume, great FG%, and 10 assists on a single TO. OH and a pair of 3’s to go with his pair of steals! Vince Carter had a very nice game outside of missing a couple of FT’s. Brook Lopez took a step back from his last game, but he was in the game for 28 minutes, and is manning the post Jason Collins occupied only a year ago... I cannot even fathom the pain experienced every time he tried to make an athletic play that was in some way quantifiable. Ryan Anderson and Jarvis Hayes provided a scoring punch off the bench while the rest of the team did little of note. Joe Johnson was cooking from outside, knocking down 5 threes, but tarnished his line with 6 TO’s (4 steals though… so it works out?). The rest of the Hawks paid homage to the most notorious Collins brother former team by putting up useless, or self defeating stats. I want to say Marvin Williams had a nice game, but I am afraid I only think that because I own him in a number of leagues and if you take away the TO’s this game is exactly what I want from him (although he can go back to hitting 100% of his threes, I would be totally fine with that).

Hawks starting lineup: Al Horford returned to the C spot tonight, Marvin Williams shifted up to PF, and Mo Evans got the start at SF. This is the result of Zaza missing the game with injury (minor shoulder injury, could return in the next game), which must mean that Mike Woodson is significantly more comfortable with Zaza than he is with Solomon Jones… which is odd to me, but I have never seen Jones play in real life.

Something to watch: Ryan Anderson makes me nervous, because in the games where his line has been ownable he has hit an absurd percentage of his shots… which is awesome, but he never gets many shots, even when he plays over 25 minutes. Even if he continues to get this much playing time, I would be uncomfortable owning him until he gets 10+ FGA’s with some regularity.

Utah – 93 at Cleveland – 105

LeBron had a monster night, killing both %’s and adding handfuls of threes, steals and blocks to the mix. Z had his usual numbers with an extra helping of turnovers. Mo Williams had a very SG-ish line, and Delonte matched him step for step save a handful of points. Ben Wallace had a nice night with 10 boards, 4 steals and 2 blocks, but is too inconsistent to warrant a pick up. Boozer put up the only Utah line of consequence and even he had a bit of an off night. Paul Millsap’s numbers were nice but the 4 TO’s are a major pain for a guy most likely used as a hustle stat streamer. The injured Jazz players are slowly making their way back though, as the incurable fantasy plague that is Jarron Collins made his debut tonight.

Portland – 88 at Minnesota – 83

As though it were written in stone many ages ago, Jason Collins (the second half of the prodigal Collins twins) followed his brother’s foot steps to align their much anticipated 08-09 season debuts. Tremors were felt around the world, but seemed to be particularly strong in Minneapolis, as the events which took place in the Target Center tonight mirrored the Collins legend to perfection. The viewer may have been led to believe that time actually sped up during this game, as the stats that came about in no way indicate a full 48 minutes were played… But nay, this is merely the Collins way. In perhaps the least eventful fantasy game of the season, Brandon Roy posted a perfectly clean but somewhat shallow 24-3-6 (no threes, no steals, no blocks, no TO’s, 9/18FG, 6/7FT), and was followed (in terms of fantasy relevance in this game) by Oden (13-8-1-2-3) and Przybilla (10-8-1-1-1) who each did well from the field but missed a few FT’s. Aldridge had some foul trouble and judging by his overall lack of stats I would guess that he was just bullied to death by Minnesota’s bulky front court (and nightmares due to rumors of a Jason Collins return). Al Jefferson’s FG% and point total were lovely, but outside of the three blocks the rest of his line was kind of lame. The remainder of Minnesota’s roster felt the wrath of the Collins twins worst of all, as only the valiant Mike Miller and his flowing mane escaped to salvage any decent statistics. Even head coach Randy Whitman succumbed to the Collins plague, first by PLAYING Jason Collins, and second by playing Randy Foye the wretched 22 minutes longer than Sebastian Telfair for no discernable reason (although Foye’s skill at poisoning of the fantasy well in Minnesota is documented well enough to make loose associations between him and the Collins curse… perhaps the Collins twins are not two… but three? Only the third one is kind of stupid and went to Villanova instead of Stanford?)

Indiana – 91 at Chicago – 104

TJ and Marquis had quiet nights compared to their recent work. Rasho and Troy Murphy received full servings of PT which resulted in two very serviceable lines (and Jeff Foster being dropped in all leagues around the world… although he had a handful of blocks again, which is just weird, as he is only 4 shy of halfway to the total accrued in 77 games last season). Danny Granger had a rough shooting night, but made out ok with 10 boards and two blocks. Meanwhile, Derrick Rose continues to thrill, Ben Gordon finally cooled off a little, and Luol Deng fell off of the pleasant plateau he had enjoyed recently shooting 4/16 from the field and outside of 9/10 from the line doing essentially nothing but wasting 36 minutes. Drew Gooden returned to start alongside Joakim Noah, but each of them saw less time than Andres Nocioni who enjoyed a decent line if you ignore the 5 TO’s. Larry Hughes was 4/5 from the line and had 3 steals and a block in 22 minutes, but was otherwise un-notable.

New Orleans – 82 at Houston – 91

A late surge by the Hornet bench makes the score look respectable, but the Hornets struggled most of the night. Trying to outdo himself from the night before, CP3 had another off night… but still wasn’t that bad. Tyson Chandler gave the FG% oomph everyone has been waiting for but only collected 4 boards in 33 minutes. David West did an extremely boring 18-10, and Peja must have done something to irritate Byron Scott as he only played 24 minutes (no report of injury). Aaron Brooks started for the Rockets again, and was very bad… really, outside of T-Mac the Rockets did not put up fantasy friendly numbers. Yao didn’t rebound or block, Artest had 7 assists but virtually nothing else, Scola put up a double double but turned it over 3 times, and the bench… well they didn’t really do anything. The Collins effect strikes again.

Boston – 102 at Milwaukee – 97

Ray Allen and Paul Pierce both went OFF in their respective ways, and KG salvaged an otherwise underwhelming line with 2 steals and 4 blocks. Unfortunately, these were the only three Celtics strong enough to withstand the fantasy ragnarok induced by the return of the Collins twins. Thankfully for Milwaukee, Richard Jefferson treats every day like “return of the Collins twins day”, and contributed another line to show his devotion to such a great cause! Andrew Bogut was like most of the other players who were active tonight though and had his regular performance inverted, playing the entire game free of foul trouble and scoring 20 points for the first time this season. Sessions and Ridnour were each ugly in their own way, and Mbama ruined a nice line with a horrid FG% as he replaced the wise (and injured) Charlie Villanueva, who must have foreseen this plague coming, and in true Milwaukee Buck form (as passed down by sage pussy Michael Redd), conveniently acquired an injury so as to be on the inactive list the day Collins twins Jarron and Jason returned.