Well, it’s safe to say James Wiseman learned how to foul on the NBA level. This dude has been drinking more cups of water on the sideline than minutes logged. As you can see, somebody is mad they drafted Wiseman 3rd overall in his Dynasty Sports Empires rookie draft. Anyway, I’m going to go over some NBA teams that have surprised me in a good or bad way. I’ll go over a handful of injuries and the player it impacts. Wrapping up with some waiver wire adds. And finally, dropping my updated chart.
Man, I’ve been very impressed with the Suns thus far. They have been playing great all-around basketball, and I think Chris Paul has a lot to do with that on both ends of the floor. I’m a little bit disappointed that CP3 hasn’t been running the pick and roll more often with Ayton. And speaking of Ayton, he’s been off to a pretty slow start, and they keep winning games. Once he gets rolling, watch out! It looks like they are picking up where they left off in the bubble.
Another team I have been impressed with thus far is the Pelicans. They are playing excellent basketball on the defensive end. Last year teams would feast on them and run the scores up. Zion hasn’t had a game we have expected from him yet, but it’s nice to see him not missing any games or playing limited minutes. Coming off the bench, Josh Hart has been a great spark on that second unit, and he’s been stuffing the stat sheets.
Now one of the two teams I’ve been pretty disappointed with is the Toronto Raptors. I can’t believe how terrible Spicy P (Pascal Siakim) has started this season. He was talked up to be one of the best power forwards in the league. He recently was benched for violating team rules. So it’ll be interesting to see what happened with that. Losing Serge Ibaka seems to have hurt this team a lot more than they had thought. Also, Fred VanVleet gets that huge contract he was looking for in the offseason, and just like Siakim, we have yet to see a performance he was paid for. The only 2 Raptors that seem to be consistently playing well are OG Anunoby and Grandpa Kyle Lowry. They need their 2 superstars to wake up if they want to dig themselves back out of the bottom of the division.
Lastly, what the heck is going on with the Nuggets? They were completely healthy until Michael Porter went into the COVID Protocol and couldn’t buy a win. Nikola Jokic has played excellent basketball, while Jamal Murray, Michael Porter, and even Paul Millsap have been doing fine. But they have been getting beat up on the defensive end. My random trade thought is that they talk to the Warriors about Draymond Green. I’m not going to touch on the Warriors’ struggles because that would be an entire article on its own. But the Warriors are struggling big time to put up points. Offer them Paul Millsap and some bench firepower in Will Barton for Draymond. It’s a win win for both teams.
Injuries
Ja Morant
What a crushing blow to not only the Grizzlies but for the NBA and all their fans! First, Jarren Jackson gets hurt, and now this. We won’t see Ja back for roughly 2 months, and 3 guys will have increased roles. Tyus Jones will be his direct replacement, and he may be available in your waiver wire. The other 2 players that will see an increased role are Kyle Anderson and Dillon Brooks. I would target these guys in your leagues to see if you can get at a low price. My favorite of the three is Dillon Brooks.
TJ Warren
He had a stress fracture in his foot and will miss a ton of time. Could this be the effects of him playing his tail off in the bubble and then having a short offseason? Possibly. But as far as free agent targets to look at, Doug McDermott, Justin Holiday, and Aaron Holiday will get increased minutes. But they are not very good fantasy guys. My lean would be McDermott because he is more of a scorer that can wander himself into a handful of rebounds. But overall, Domantas Sabonis is going to turn into a monster with all the usage he acquired. And trailing behind him, the two guards in Malcom Brogdan and Victor Oladipo will get more minutes as well.
Marvin Bagley
Bagley is not injured, but it is worth mentioning his dad recently went public demanding that the Kings trade his son. Take that for what it’s worth, but if you have roster space, I will stash Nemanja Bjelica. He’s a proven starter, and when he was given the opportunity last year when Bagley went down, he was definitely fantasy viable.
Top 5 Waiver Wire Targets:
And finally, attached is my chart that shows what positions to target to which team. We still need a couple more weeks for this chart to be handy. But as you can see, the Bulls get burned by point guards. Target power forwards against Cleveland, especially with Love out. And 6 teams have been tagged twice. In a couple of weeks, we can use this tool to help in DFS, but you can use this to stream players on the waiver wire.
As always, thank you for taking time out of your day to read through my article. Please follow me on Twitter or Instagram or even join my Facebook Page to help me out. I will have my podcast out talking about the NFL in a couple of days that’ll be posted on my channels.
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