Fantasy Friday (Dec. 3)

Another week of Fantasy basketball is here. There have been some great player this week, as well as some disappointing players, so lets take a look at all of them.

Over-Performers Of The Week

1. Alec Burks: This guy has been big for his team. In this past week he has averaged 20.3 PPG, 4 rebounds, and 3 assists. Not to mention the 46% behind the arc.
2. Arron Afflalo: Has 31 points in one night and 13 in the next. He has played pretty well. Not to mention he is gathering ton of rebounds and shooting lights out from the field.
3. Pau Gasol: 17.7 PPG, 14.3 RPG, 3.7 APG, and 2.3 BLPG this week. That is over-performing or Pau.

Under-Performers Of The Week

1. Jahlil Okafor: His off-court issues might be contributing to this, but he has been not playing so hot of late. This week, he has shot 36% from the field and has just averaged 10 PPG. Not to great.
2. Nerlens Noel: Jahlil's front-court buddy hasn't been the best either. In his last 3 games he has averaged just 7.7 PPG, 7.7 RPG, 1 steals, and 0.3 blocks with 2.7 turnovers and 36% shooting. Philly's big boys have not been that great this last week.  

Pick-ups Of The Week

1. Mirza Teletovic: He has been playing great this week averaging over 15 PPG and 4 three-pointers. He is owned by 18% in Yahoo and 9.4% on ESPN.
2. Rodney Stuckey: This week has been great for him averaging 15.3 points, 5 rebounds, and 1.5 steals. He is owned by 5% in Yahoo and 5.2% in ESPN.

I didn't include Isaiah Canaan on the Pick-ups because Tony Wroten and Kendall Marshall are coming back to the 76ers and he will get less production. Hope you all have a great week in fantasy and I hope to see you next week here on NBA Inside The Play Nation!

The (New) New York Knicks

"Kristaps Porzingis" by Ed - AIMG_1464. Licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons.

The New York Knicks have an improved roster. No doubt. I mean, if your roster has Louis Amundson as your starting PF, that isn't too good. You won't win many games. But now it's looking a lot better. There is still a lot of work to be done but just take a look at it.

PG- Jose Calderon (starter), Jerian Grant (bench), Sasha Vujacic (res.)
SG- Arron Afflalo (starter), Langston Galloway (bench), Cleanthony Early (res.)
SF- Carmelo Anthony (starter), Lance Thomas (bench), Thanasis Antetokounmpo (res.)
PF- Derrick Williams (starter), Kevin Seraphin (bench), Louis Amundson (res.)
C- Robin Lopez (starter), Kristaps Porzingis (6th man), Kyle O'Quinn (res.)

Not a bad roster, is it? They have a strong bench and some great role players. And with Carmelo comming back they could easily make a spot in the Eastern Conference Playoffs.

However, I think that the Knicks will be a new beginning for some players. Derrick William will hopefully live more up to the potential that they said he had as he was drafted number 2 overall by the Minnesota Timberwolves in the 2011 draft. After not really improving much, he was sent to the Sacramento Kings where he had also not improved and now the Knicks have signed him this off-season.

Arron Afflalo is a guy who knows Carmelo Anthony from when he played for the Denver Nuggets. They will be great to watch playing together. And backing him up will be Langston Galloway. His rookie season was great until it was shortened by injury. With him coming off the bench, the Knicks bench will have no trouble in the scoring department.

Kristaps Porzingis and Jerian Grant will look to be developing and learning along the way. They might not be starters or star players but they will have important roles for the Knicks to have success this upcoming season.

Carmelo Anthony will look to be making the playoffs after coming off an injury. He will be taking on the main scoring load but he will finally have some other players to give the ball when he needs some help with scoring. And if everyone is healthy I would expect the Knicks to at least come close to making the playoffs this season. With Jose Calderon working with Robin Lopez on the pick and roll, with Afflalo coming off screens, and with Derrick Williams going up for some high-flying dunks, this should be a fun year for the Knicks. And they should do well as long as they don't have Louis Amundson starting.

Grizzlies VS Trailblazers (game 5)

Final Score: Grizzlies win 99-93



Grizzlies win series 4-1

It's all over. Another series finished. The Grizzlies just were too much for the for the hurt and lacking Trailblazers. Let's take a look at what the Portland Trailblazers did right and wrong.

The Blazers had a great contribution form C.J. McCollum as he had 33 points and shot 7-11 from 3 point range. He wasn't enough to give this team the win though. Even though Batum had a horrible shooting night, he still had 10 rebounds and 7 assists. Damian Lillard only shot 1-8 from the 3 point line. He had shot like that all series. Arron Afflalo just couldn't shoot. He was scoreless in the game. The Blazers also had 18 less rebounds than the Grizzlies. All of those things contributed to the loss in game 5 for the grizzlies.

The Grizzlies just played great. They controlled the boards, dominated in the paint, and played great defense. One thing they could have done better is shoot the 3. They only shot about 7% from three point range. That's pretty sad. Defensively, Tony Allen played great. He had 5 steals and 2 blocks. The Grizzlies had an astonishing defensive rating of 94.6. Beno Udrih played absolutley horrible. He had a defensive rating of 111 and an offensive rating of 65.3! That's a net rating of -46.6. Absolutely horrible! Udrih was great in pretty much every game of the series, but game 5 he couldn't do anything. He is going to have to play better in the next series if Conley is still out. If Conley is back, I don't see this guy play much if he continues to play like this. Of course, this was just one game. I expect him to bounce back in game 1 against the Warriors. 

The Grizzlies are moving on. I will miss the Trailblazers and all their crazy three point shooting they gave us. I wish the Grizzlies best of luck going into the next series. They are going to need it.

Portland's Playoff Hopes

Wesley Matthews went down. Not long before that Arron Afflalo was involved in a trade that sent him to Portland. Okay, we have Afflalo to start. The only thing is, what will they do in the Playoffs. Arron Afflalo is no Wesley Matthews. He is simply not as great as Wesley Matthews. Lets take a look at what Matthews brought to this Portland team.

Wesley Matthews

• 15.9 PPG
• 44.8% FG
• 38.8% 3 point range
• 2.9 3 point makes per game
• 1.3 Steals per game
• 1.4 Turnovers Per Game
• 2.3 ASP
• 3.7 RPG
• Defensive Rating (points allowed per 100 possessions) 99.4
• +4.6 on the court

Arron Afflalo

• 13.6 PPG
• 42.6% FG
• 35.0% 3 Point Range
• 1.5 3 point makes per game
• 0.5 Steals per game
• 1.6 Turnovers Per game
• 1.7 APG
• 3.2 RPG
• Defensive Rating (points allowed per 100 possessions) 105.7
• +2.3 on the court

Wesley Matthews leads in all of those categorizes. Look at the +/- advantage. Matthews has double than Afflalo does with the Trailblazers. The teams defense is better with Matthews and they give up more points with Afflalo. I'm not saying Afflalo is a bad player. I love Afflalo, but he is just not as good of a player as Wesley Matthews. I think that Portland's playoff hopes have really been lost since Matthews went down. Afflalo is a great player, and Portland has Damian Lillard and LeMarcus Aldridge, but Wesley Matthews is the player that made this team so great. Now he's not here. How will they win in the playoffs without him?