SILLY SEASON WIND DOWN

Congrats to all who already won a trophy and good luck to y’all still in it.

Is MarShon Brooks (top-10 over the last two weeks) already the Silly Season MVP?

Week 26 Schedule

Monday has 9 games: Raptors at Pistons, Bulls at Nets, Thunder at Heat, Cavs at Knicks, Magic at Bucks, Grizz at Wolves, Kings at Spurs, Blazers at Nuggets, and Pels at Clips.

Tuesday has 6: Hornets at Pacers, Sixers at Hawks, Celtics at Wizards, Suns at Mavs, Dubbs at Jazz, and Rockets at Lakers.

Wednesday has 12: Nets at Celts, Knicks at Cavs, Raptors at Heat, Wizards at Magic, Bucks at Sixers, Pistons at Bulls, Nuggets at Wolves, Spurs at Pels, Grizz at Thunder, Lakers at Clippers, Jazz at Blazers, and Rockets at Kings.

For My Streamers

ATL: 1- Tues
BRK: 2- Mon/Weds
BOS: 2- Tues/Weds
CHA: 1- Tues
CHI: 2- Mon/Weds
CLE: 2- Mon/Weds
DAL: 1- Tues
DEN: 2- Mon/Weds
DET: 2- Mon/Weds
GSW: 1- Tues
HOU: 2- Tues/Weds
IND: 1- Tues
LAC: 2- Mon/Weds
LAL: 2- Tues/Weds
MEM: 2- Mon/Weds
MIA: 2- Mon/Weds
MIL: 2- Mon/Weds
MIN: 2- Mon/Weds
NOR: 2- Mon/Weds
NYK: 2- Mon/Weds
OKC: 2- Mon/Weds
ORL: 2- Mon/Weds
PHI: 2- Tues/Weds
PHO: 1- Tues
POR: 2- Mon/Weds
SAC: 2- Mon/Weds
SAS: 2- Mon/Weds
TOR: 2- Mon/Weds
UTA: 2- Tues/Weds
WAS: 2- Tues/Weds

Back-to-Backs

Sun/Mon: DET, MEM, ORL, TOR
Mon/Tues: none
Tues/Weds: BOS, HOU, LAL, PHI, UTA, WAS

Of course this late in the season, back-to-backs might take on a different importance; there’s an increased risks of vets, dinged up players and tankers missing one of the two.

3 games in 4 nights:

Sun/Mon/Weds: DET, MEM, ORL, TOR

Sun/Tues/Weds: BOS, LAL, PHI, UTA

Working The Wire

Point Guards

-Quinn Cook held top-50 value despite the return of K.D. and Klay. It’s nice what a good shooter can do just spotting up for the Dubbs: 16.0 points, 3.0 threes, 6.3 assists and many thanks from yours truly. He plays on Tuesday.

-With no Lonzo Ball (knee) last week, Josh Hart got 11.0 points, 1.5 threes, 7.0 boards and 2.3 assists with 1.5 turnovers and shaky shooting. If you’re aiming for counting stats he could help on Tues/Weds.

-Tyler Ulis continues to start and put up 13.7 points, 1.0 threes, 7.3 assists and a high 1.7 steals last week. The Suns play only once, on Tuesday.

-D.J. Augustin got typical top-100 value with 14.0 points, 1.5 threes and 2.8 assists last week. The Magic play Mon/Weds.

-Patty Mills was right there with 14.5 points, 2.8 threes and a nice 4.5 assists last week. The Spurs play Mon/Weds.

– Jerian Grant was usable last week with 13.0 points, 1.3 threes, 4.5 assists and 2.3 steals. The Bulls run Mon/Weds.

-Fred VanVleet (and Delon Wright) cooled off last week and both were outside the top-120. Toronto goes Mon/Weds if you have no options.

Shooting Guards

-Joe Harris had sneaky good top-70 value last week in over 27 minutes a game. How does 15.3 points, 3.3 treys, 3.3 on over 50 percent from the field sound for Mon/Weds?

-Malik Monk had top-60 value last week with 20.0 points, 4.0 threes, 4.0 dimes and 1.5 stocks a game. He’s likely to get full run on Tuesday.

-Sean Kilpatrick had 19.8 points and 3.0 threes in four games last week. The Bulls go Mon/Weds.

-Marco Belinelli was on fire last week (over 60 percent from the field) and dropped 20.3 points and 3.5 threes if you need a boost Tues/Weds.

-Ty Wallace was pretty hum-drum since returning from the Gigli, but he put up 18 points (no 3s) and two steals on Saturday in a loss. With the Clippers now officially out of playoff contention, he could get extended run on Mon/Weds, especially with Lou Williams (ankle) out for Monday (at least).

Small Forwards

-Mario Hezonja was back to his stat-stuffing ways last week, getting 1.8 steals and 1.3 blocks and adding 14.0 points and 2.5 threes. That was with Aaron Gordon and Nic Vucevic in and out of the lineup. The Magic go Mon/Weds.

-Stanley Johnson has been pretty good with no Reggie Bullock (knee). Over the last two weeks he has 11.7 points and 0.8 threes which isn’t very good but his 2.8 steals really stand out if you need ‘em for Mon/Weds.

-Corey Brewer’s outside shooting has dipped as expected (1.0 threes last week) but he’s still getting steals (3.0, but that does include a 5-steal outlier). The Thunder play Mon/Weds.

Power Forwards

-With no Blake Griffin (ankle) Anthony Tolliver has scored in double-figures seven consecutive games while averaging 17.4 points and 3.9 threes on a blistering 60.6 percent from the field. Detroit plays Mon/Weds.

-Richaun Holmes has been a bit of a letdown since Joel Embiid (face) got hurt. He’s usually not even cracking 20 minutes a game but still managed to get 8.5 points, 4.8 boards, 2.5 assists, 0.8 steals and 1.4 blocks. If those numbers can help he has a Tues/Weds back-to-back.

-Staying with Philly, Ersan Ilyasova bounced in and out of the starting lineup last week but still excelled with no Embiid by getting 14.3 points, 2.0 threes and 9.5 boards in almost 30 minutes a game. He has a Tues/Weds back-to-back.

– Nerlens Noel got suspended for violating the league’s drug rules, and now we know why he loves hotdogs so much. Salah Mejri is out with a knee injury. Finally, nobody left to steal Dwight Powell’s minutes (top-100 last week).

-Well, maybe Johnathan Motley. After playing in seven games the whole season, Motley started the last two and got over 40 minutes in each with averages of 20.0 points, 10.0 rebounds and 1.5 steals. It’s such a small sample size and I don’t even know who this cat is but there you go. Dallas plays on Tuesday.

-With no Marc Gasol or JaMychal Green, Ivan Rabb put up 14.0 points, 9.0 boards and 1.5 in a very small sample size of two games. If they continue to miss games, Rabb is an option for Mon/Weds.

-Weekly Marquese Chriss Watch: 17.0 points, 0.7 threes, 10.0 boards, 1.4 stocks and 2.7 turnovers is what you got last week. Not too shabby. He is questionable for Sunday, though (hip).

Center

-Kyle O’Quinn always reminded me of Bluto with his beard, brawn and bull-in-chinashop approach. Well, he’ rolling with no Enes Kanter (back). In those three games, he got you 11.7 points, 13.7 boards and a massive 3.0 blocks per game (top-30). Sign me up for that on Mon/Weds.

– Jarrett Allen is still the guy you want for blocks: 2.6 over the last two weeks, 3.5 last week. Brooklyn plays Mon/Weds.

– John Collins (12.0 points, 1.0 threes, 9.8 rebounds and 1.3 blocks) and Dewayne Dedmon (11.7 points, 1.0 threes, 10.7 boards and 0.7 blocks) are still both very usable. The Hawks only play on Tuesday though.

-Over his last four games Willy Hernangomez has averaged 12.0 points and 10.0 rebounds. That’s good for top-60 value over that stretch which is what we knew he was capable of while stuck on the bench in New York. Charlotte plays on Tuesday.

– Montrezl Harrell is back with awesome shooting from the field. Last week he averaged 16.5 points on 71.4 percent shooting. The bad is that his boards (4.3) and blocks (0.3) are not ideal for a big man. The Clips are officially out of the playoffs so he might get a bit of extra run Mon/Weds.

___

And that, my friends, wraps it up for Working The Wire.

I want to shout out Dan Besbris for putting me on, Aaron Bruski for graciously giving me the opportunity, and Mike Passador aka Panda, who always deals with my mistypings, verbosity, and Oxford commas with aplomb.

Also, extra thanks to Dan for pubbing me on twitter. My twitter is kinda poppin’ now but pre-Besbris, it was looking like this.

To the readers: A very big thanks to y’all for reading, and especially the folks who took the time out to send me words of encouragement and support; it’s easy for established fantasy players like Bru, Mike Gallagher and Josh Lloyd to be confident- they have a public track-record and following-  but very helpful for the new guy. Gracias, merci, danken, mamnoon, shukran, ese-gan, salamat, shay-shay and arigatou.

At lot of you are already doing fantasy baseball and will do football, but for the hoops-only crowd like me, try not to pay too much attention to basketball during the summer. Don’t mock too much in September before the rankings adjust. The fantasy season is a grind so give yourself a rest between seasons. Let everything from this season marinate, let the news trickle in, and let your subconscious get to work.

Come next season, I shall…proceed, and continue, to rock the mic.

In the meantime, I’m set up for an extremely busy summer. Hopefully when the weather turns I can finagle a little time for myself.

If so, Ima be like this, this and this .

Chef

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