NBA Fantasy Basketball News and Notes From Nov. 1

There were a lot of newsworthy happenings yesterday, including injury news, more on the Kevin Love situation and playing time issues for a few guys. So make sure you check out all the news and game notes and look for the guys on your team.

News

• Shaquille O’Neal missed practice for the second straight day and it’s assumed he won’t play in tonight’s game against the Pistons. With Shaq hitting the bench, Jermaine O’Neal is set to step into the starting lineup as he is finally starting to get back to full strength himself. More importantly than that though is that Glen Davis should see more minutes, as well, and he has been the team’s most impressive big man so far.
• John Wall was wearing a boot on his sprained ankle at practice yesterday, but he says he’ll be playing tonight. We’ll see how limited he is by the ankle. Meanwhile Gilbert Arenas, who is sporting a similar injury, will be out once again and there is still no timetable for his return. Al Thorton has done well with increased minutes in his absence and is worth a pickup at least for the time being.
• After only playing 27 minutes against the Warriors the other night in a blowout, Kobe Bryant was adamant that he is 100% with his knee. Phil Jackson however disagreed about Kobe being 100% and thinks he’s going to continue getting better. So far Kobe has looked good and while a lot of people seem almost bored with Kobe in fantasy basketball circles, I think he might actually be a buy low candidate in a trade.
• There are rumors of a shakeup to the Timberwolves lineup amid the free Kevin Love saga. There is talk that Darko Milicic will head to the bench and Love will man the center spot with Michael Beasley taking over the power forward position. This would open up the small forward spot for Corey Brewer or Wesley Johnson. How they do it doesn’t matter to me so long as they find more playing time for their best player.
• The word is that Anthony Randolph will make his New York Knicks debut tonight against the Orlando Magic. He’s missed the first few games with an ankle injury and it’s not clear how much time he’ll get right away, but he is going to play. Now let’s see if he can put his dismal preseason behind him and live up to his sleeper status.
• Erik Spoelstra told a Florida paper that he is going to continue to only use one point guard and that is Carlos Arroyo. When Arroyo isn’t on the floor it’ll be Dwayne Wade or Lebron James running the team. That means if you own Mario Chalmers, now would be a good time to drop him. It also means Arroyo should continue to see his minutes stay in the high 20’s every night.
• Roy Hibbert has 14 assists in three games so far and according to coach Jim O’Brien, that’s no fluke. O’Brien says he wants to continue to run the offense through Hibbert, giving him plenty of looks knowing that he’ll distribute the ball to the right place if need be. Hibbert’s already good for 15 points, eight rebounds and over two blocks a game, so it’d be mighty nice to see him add four assists to go with that.

Game Notes

• It was a career night for Luol Deng as he dropped 40 points on the Portland Trail Blazers. It was good for Deng owners to see after a tough first couple of games in which Deng averaged 11 points and was only 7 of 23 from the field. Luol was 3 of 5 from three—point range in the game showcasing what is supposed to be an improved shooting touch.
• LaMarcus Aldridge followed up back-to-back double-double’s with a 20 point and nine rebound night adding a steal and a block as well. He was also 9 – 9 from the line which was encouraging after shooting just 4 – 10 the previous game. Aldridge is a career 75 percent free—throw shooter, so you have to assume the last game was just a fluke.
• The Raptors let a big lead go against the Kings, but Demar Derozan still looked good in defeat. Derozan scored 24 points and it’s starting to look like he could be a viable scoring option for the Raptors behind Andrea Bargnani. Toronto has a few guys who can fill this spot, so temper your expectations, but he’s worth a look.
• No team in the NBA can find more random talent out of nowhere than the San Antonio Spurs. Last night it was Gary Neal who came off the bench once George Hill went down with an injury and scored 16 points including four three-pointers. His value is probably minimal, especially if Hill’s injury isn’t serious, but he sure looked good last night.
• After averaging a career low 12.3 points per game last year, Richard Jefferson seems to be back on track once again this year, scoring 16, 18 and 18 in his three games so far this year. Jefferson might be another buy low guy.
• With Baron Davis out of the lineup it was up to Eric Gordon to step up and run the Clippers. While they may have lost, Gordon can’t be blamed as he scored 23 points and had 11 assists. The one concern with Gordon right now is that he is only 3 for 21 from three point range right now on the season. You have to expect that to turn around at some point, but it’s not helping you any right now.
• With the injury to Baron Davis and his backup Randy Foye, the rookie Eric Bledsoe also saw 40 minutes of action last night at the point. Bledose had nine points, three assists, five rebounds, two blocks and four steals. Foye looks to be out a couple of weeks and if Davis misses any more time Bledsoe might be a nice fill in play.

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