The worst game of the season

According to the peeps I follow on Twitter, the Washington/Sac-town game was atrocious. Ugly fouls, an inability to keep time, a distinct lack of defence. However, the ever optimistic account of the NBA used more fantasy friendly terms, describing the epic battle of sub .500 teams as a ‘wild win’.

What exactly does ‘wild’ mean? Here are a few thoughts. DeMarcus opened up by going 0-6 from the floor. ‘Sisco Garcia had a season-high 26 points. Nick Young (THE NICK YOUNG!) dropped 43 including 7 from down town. January 2011 will forever be known as the time when the Wizards used all 12 players including Trevor Booker and Kevin Seraphin. It doesn’t get much better for fantasy. Except… it does.

There is a myth out there that scoring and a million possessions per game maketh a fantasy player. Two theories are used frequently to uphold this supposed fact. They are the ‘Golden State Warriors theory of relatively little defence’  and the D’Antoni effect. Many a fantasy nerd will proscribe avidly to these two methods of thinking. One, that a random GSW player will be awesome that season because they will play 40 minutes and score a shit load of points. The other, any team coached by Mike D’Antoni is not going to worry about a half court offense, leading to higher possessions and more chances to accumulate precious box score statistics.

My thoughts are not in compatible with these two situations. For example, like every other dummy this season, I can see Dorell Wright is God’s gift to the waiver wire.  Proveth theorum numero uno – with the small caveat of Reggie Williams who I remember at draft time was meant to be that player. Also, you cannot deny the D’Antoni effect on players such as Ray Felton, Landry Fields and Wilson Chandler. Felton and Chandler struggled before being turned into up and down machines, running the floor all day. However, again, there is the inevitable failures such as Anthony Randolph and to some extent this season, Danilo Gallinari who is struggling to click as the tempo has been raised from even last season.

BUT. The real issue is not with these two facets of fantasy NBA – it’s that people see this and presume because their possessions per game as so ridiculously high, this must be true for all teams and when teams start to play up tempo, it automatically produces fantasy results. Bringing us back to the Sacramento/Washington game and check out the rest of the box score after we move past Nick Young and Fransisco Garcia.

The previously mentioned DeMarcus Cousins had 8 boards, 3 assists, 2 steals and a block. Not bad until we see he shot 4-19 from the field and missed 4 free throws (2-6). This is the other side of fast paced, up and down basketball. Shots won’t drop. Turnovers appear (3 for DMC). John Wall might have dropped 22 points and 9 assists but he killed his fantasy value with 6 turnovers and 6 from 19 from the field. JaVale McGee, averaging over 2 blocks per game for the season was only able to swat one shot, whereas you might except 4-5 with the extra possessions and shitty front court from Sac-town. Apart from rebounds, steals and points, this type of basketball has absolutely no guarantees for fantasy purposes. Fringe players get hot, ride a streak then go cold again. FG% suffers, normally reliable players turn the ball over. Did I mention I get angry when the hot players are accidentally on my opponents roster? There is that too.

Anyway, I suppose what I’m trying to say is that points and rebounds and steals do not make a fantasy team (unless you play in the Carmelo Anthony fantasy league – 4 cats, plus FT%). A game full of defence might not bring the stars out to play, but if we look at the Minnesota/San Antonio game, we see a different picture. You might be screaming that of course there are better fantasy players in this game (Parker, Manu, Duncan, Love, Mili… OK, just joking). But that doesn’t obscure the fact that it was a 107-97 slop fest in which the teams shot a combined 42% from the field. However, the game produced more threes, just as many steals and only 2 less blocks – on 34 less possessions!

I’m not advocating abandoning fast paced basketball for fantasy players. They definitely can score a shiteload of points, giving you boosts across multiple categories. It’s just that it’s a very simple explanation for success. There is a reason that players like Luke Ridnour, Nic Batum and Ray Allen have value and it’s not because they play in run and gun offences. Too often this is overlooked in favour of the dude who drops 30 points because he took 20 shots in a ‘wild win’.

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This shirt made me laugh. A lot.

This dude is smoking crack when he says he traded Howard and Harris for Billups, Jackson and Tyrus Thomas. His FG% and Turnovers just got destroyed and who knows what will happen to Billups. However I like the pick ups (Monroe is pimping right now) so it’s definitely worth a read.

Please go and give some credence to the fbasketball blog Fantasy All-Star ballot. I hear you can win a ticket to the big (fantasy) draft in October (on the internet).