Fantasy Basketball

2014-15 Fantasy Basketball: Sizzlin’ and Fizzlin’ — Week 8

Sizzlin-Fizzlin Cover

The whole Golden State Warriors team — minus gimp David Lee — has been sizzlin’ this season as they sit at a cozy 21-2, but I can only pick one player to profile and it has to be Draymond Green. The Michigan State alum has just blossomed into an awesome NBA player in his third season. We definitely saw flashes last season of the potential and many labeled him as a sleeper this off-season with his Paul Millsap-like traits to be a 1+ trey – 1+ block – 1+ steal guy. The only thing holding him back was the Warriors possibly not giving him enough minutes to be a true beast, but with David Lee missing every game so far (minus one where he got re-injured) the path was paved and, wow, has Green ever seized the opportunity.

Photo Credit: Ezra Shaw/Getty Images
Photo Credit: Ezra Shaw/Getty Images

Dray has played phenomenally on both ends of the court, and even when Lee returns there is no way new coach Steve Kerr can put a major dent in Dray’s playing time. Green is a huge reason for the team’s early success and he should continue to start even when Lee is healthy, but time will tell how that plays out. Lee is a non-factor defensively so even if Dray doesn’t start, he will get plenty of minutes both at SF and backing up Lee. Andrew Bogut is also battling the injury bug right now (what else is new?) so there are plenty of ways for Kerr to insure he keeps Dray-money on the floor.

He’s been great all season but this column focuses on the recent, and over the past couple weeks (eight games) Green has been the sixth best fantasy player in 8-category leagues. Just check out this delicious line over that span: 36 minutes, 16 points, 9.1 rebounds, 2.9 assists, 1.8 steals, 1.5 blocks and 2.1 treys while boasting 47% from the field, 84% from the charity stripe and better than 39% from long range. FILTHY!

While I’d love to say that he’ll keep this up, it’s really just a bit much especially with David Lee coming back soon. The drop won’t be due to a decline in play but a decline in his minutes from 36 recently to more around 30. He should still be able to contribute a 14 points, 7.5 boards, 2.3 dimes, 1.3 steals, 1.0 block and 1.5 treys, which is still great from a guy you likely drafted between rounds 10 and 13. If you find someone who is willing to pay up top-15 value for Dray right now, you have to swallow your draft prowess pride and make the deal. Don’t force a trade by any means, but there’s no harm in hearing what kind of offers owners would throw at you. You should absolutely get paid nicely for such a great do-it-all guy if you can bring yourself to pulling the trigger.

Photo Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports
Photo Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports

The fizzlin’ player profile this week isn’t as high of a level player as I have been doing most weeks, but Brandon Jennings was drafted inside the top-100 in most leagues. While he wasn’t drafted overly high, his owners still have a reasonable level of expectancy in him. Jennings has always done several things well, but he’s available later in drafts because along with his good points, threes, assists, steals and free throw percentage you have to take on his field-goal percentage which is basically like dating a hot girl who has rancid body odor. Unfortunately for those who took on this “hot girl” and accepted the body odor, she got comfortable and now lost the good looks, too.

The Pistons brought in a new coach in Stan Van Gundy this off-season which seemed like a good thing for Jennings since SVG had a similar but less gifted Jameer Nelson in his Orlando days who was a nice fantasy point guard when healthy. During the Piston’s preseason though, SVG was quite critical of Jennings and hinted that he preferred D.J. Augustin who he acquired in free agency in his other role with the team as President. Most thought of this as verbal motivation towards Jennings to step it up, unfortunately though, he didn’t. In the first two games of the regular season Jennings played less than 20 minutes while Augustin played more and better. After that Jennings’ minutes went up and down a bit as did his stats before he had a pretty nice run of good games in mid-November, but then came December. Much like December weather, Jennings’ game got frigidly cold. How cold? Let’s just take a look at his seven game December shot chart:

Brandon  Jennings December shot chart (thru 7 gms)
Brandon Jennings December shot chart (thru 7 gms)

Yeah, that cold. Jennings’ December numbers through seven games sit at 28.6 minutes, 5.3 points, 2.3 rebounds, 7.0 assists and just two total steals. The worst part for him is after shooting a fine 40% from deep in November and hitting over two treys a night, he has shot a shameful 1-of-17 (.059) from three in December. He hasn’t been much better from inside the arc either shooting just 11-of-42 (26%). The advanced stats don’t speak brightly for the kid out of Compton either with a 21.2 eFG%, 28.6 TS%, 17.5 usage rate and a lowly offensive rating of 94.

The only plus for Jennings in this antarctic freeze he’s in is that DJ Augustin hasn’t played overly well himself playing 21.5 minutes and shooting a lackluster 32% from the field. While Jennings is as in the dumps as it gets, he should remain the starter for the foreseeable future or until SVG finds someone out there willing to take him via trade. I can’t blame those in 10-team or shallower leagues for dropping Jennings and even in 12-teamers it has to be tempting if you are in need of stats/wins and there’s a good option available on your waiver wire. If you do decide to hold on in hopes of a revival, bench him until either he heats up or you give up on him and finally cut bait. The poor Pistons, I could use a different player from them every week for the fizzlin’ portion of this column…

For more fantasy hoops analysis and to have any questions you may have answered, follow Zack on Twitter @BigZack44

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