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NBA Fantasy Basketball: Weekly Preview

By Bryan Gibberman

Nov 12, 2014; New Orleans, LA, USA; Los Angeles Lakers head coach Byron Scott reacts against the New Orleans Pelicans during the first quarter of a game at the Smoothie King Center. The Pelicans defeated the Lakers 109-102. Mandatory Credit: Derick E. Hingle-USA TODAY Sports
Nov 12, 2014; New Orleans, LA, USA; Los Angeles Lakers head coach Byron Scott reacts against the New Orleans Pelicans during the first quarter of a game at the Smoothie King Center. The Pelicans defeated the Lakers 109-102. Mandatory Credit: Derick E. Hingle-USA TODAY Sports /
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Here we pick out a a few teams and preview the NBA week from a fantasy basketball perspective.

Los Angeles Lakers

Games: Three (vs. Kings, at Spurs and at Timberwolves) 

Average opponents’ defensive rating: 104.4

  • Sound the starting lineup change siren!!!!!!!!! Byron Scott logically replaced Carlos Boozer with Ed Davis and illogically benched Jeremy Lin for Ronnie Price. In 337 minutes the group of Lin, Boozer, Kobe Bryant, Jordan Hill and Wesley Johnson had a negative net rating of -15 so it was clearly time to shake things up. On Sunday against the Pelicans Davis played 30 minutes to Boozers’ 23 and Price got 26 to Lin’s 20. Davis put up 12 points, seven rebounds and two blocks on 5-of-6 shooting. Price’s box scored was ugly as expected and I don’t see that changing. Lin shoot poorly from the field going 1-for-5, but on most nights he will still have more value than Price.

Sacramento Kings

Games: Four ( vs. Jazz, at Lakers, vs. Rockets and vs. Pistons)

Average opponents’ defensive rating: 105.8

  • Outside of the game against the Rockets, the Kings play three bad defenses this week.  According to Jason Jones of the Sacramento Bee, DeMarcus Cousins will miss at the least the next week with some sort of weird illness that sounds like it really sucks to have. Cousins has missed the last five games. During this stretch none of Sacramento’s other big men have filled the void from a fantasy perspective. Carl Landy, Ryan Hollins, Jason Thompson and Derrick Williams have all been inconsistent and unreliable. If you need a cheap source of rebounds Reggie Evans is an option. The only three Kings I’m firing up are Darren Collison, Rudy Gay and Ben McLemore.

Detroit Pistons

Games: Three (vs. Blaxers, at Suns and at Kings)

Average opponents’ defensive rating: 102.4

  • The night after Brandon Jennings decided it was a smart idea to pass on a game-tying layup for a game-winning three-point attempt from Josh Smith, it seemed appropriate to check back in with the Pistons. Detroit’s starting point guard is coming back to earth following a November in which Jennings shot 39 percent from three and averaged 18.5 points with 6.1 assists per game. In four games in December the shooting splits are .189/.000/.917. Jennings is averaging only 6.3 points per game, but still putting up 7.1 assists. He won’t be this bad for long and Jennings is a better fantasy commodity than he is in real basketball, but you’re not getting out of him what you did in November the rest of the season.
  • Center Andre Drummond is starting to reach the production you were expecting from him. Drummond is averaging 15.4 points on 54.5 percent shooting with 12.2 rebounds, 2.1 blocks and 1.3 steals over his last nine games. The free throw shooting has been a manageable 51.4 percent too. I stayed away from Drummond in all of my leagues because I didn’t want to deal with the free throw percentage, but if you grabbed him this is why you did.

Dallas Mavericks

Games: Three (at Grizzlies, vs. Pelicans and vs. Warriors)

Average opponents defensive rating: 100.2

  • The NBA’s most efficient offense hummed along on Sunday night dropping 125 points on 58.3 percent shooting versus a strong defensive team in the Bucks. A big part of the effort was Chandler Parsons, who posted 28 points on 11-14 shooting with four threes and five rebounds. Since having three single digit scoring efforts in Dallas’ first seven games, Parsons has mainly been himself. In his last five games the .463 shooting percentage is much more in line with career number than the .429 he’s compiled on the season. Parsons is putting strong numbers, but they should continue to trend up as he most likely ends up having the best statistical season of his career when it’s all said and done.

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