Saturday Recap.

LaMarcus Aldridge   23.50 FPTs     12P/2A/4R/1S/1B

Dario Saric   18.25 FPTs   10P/5R/1S

Bruce Brown Jr    15.75    4P/4A/3R/2S

Aldridge had a good first half, but like the rest of his team, fell off a cliff in the second half. LaMarcus only scored 2 points and grabbed one rebound in the 3rd quarter and was benched in a blowout in the 4th. With the way he was playing in the first I thought I would get around 40 fantasy points out of LA, I couldn’t have been more wrong.

I changed out Saric from my lineup. He was listed as a GTD after I posted the article and it was looking like he wasn’t going to get much play. It wasn’t a bad performance for how much he played, he clearly didn’t look 100%. He was only out there for 19 minutes and he almost had a fantasy point a minute. Overall, It is a disappointing point total, hopefully you were able to switch him out of your lineup and added a more productive player.

Bruce Brown was a waste of space, I literally thought he went home at half time. Tim Frazier showed him up off the bench, he had 13 points and 9 assists in 28 minutes, Bruce Brown played 33 minutes and had 4/4/3, a grand total of 15.75 fantasy points. Brown didn’t score a basket after the 9 minute mark of the 1st quarter. Terrible performance.

Sunday Lineup

Saturday’s lineup went off the rails quickly, looking to bounce back with 3 locks for Sunday’s small 4 game slate

Nikola Jokic – $9,200

It is almost Christmas but it looks like Nikola Jokic has finally played his way into “shape”. Jokic is a big boy and he was never known for his muscle definition, but he looked like a bloated corpse the first few weeks of the season. Jokic is one of the best big men in the league and he is one of the best passing centers of all time. He looks like a 7 foot guard at times running the floor, he can also knock down 3s and bang down low like a traditional centre. Don’t get me wrong, Jokic was still putting up good numbers early in the season, but he just wasn’t playing like the MVP calibre player he is. Jokic is the Nuggets leader with 10 rebounds and 6.8 assists per game, and he is .6 points away from being the leader in points per game too. He has surpassed his fantasy average in each of the last 8 games and he has has 2 triple doubles in the last 4 games. An out of shape Jokic was still an all star, now that he is locked in, he is back to being one of the most dangerous offensive weapons in the league.

Malcolm Brogdon – $7,100

I think Brogdon is going to have a good game against the banged up Bucks backcourt. Bledsoe and Wesley Matthews are out, DiVincenzo and George are starting and a mix of Pat Connaughton , Kyle Korver and Sterling Brown are coming off the bench. I think Malcolm will be running a lot of pick and rolls with Sabonis/Turner, he gets a lot of assists that way but he also gets some points with floaters or getting to the line from the P&R. Brogdon isn’t quite like Steph Curry off ball but he does run his defenders through screens until he gets to his spot and can get his shot off. Brogdon’s salary is on the lower of his salary range, he has had good games lately but has failed to reach his fantasy average. The Bucks are the best team in East and they score the most points per game in the league with 120.7. They have been a little less efficient on defense with the injuries, but they know their dominating offense will be able to make up anything they give up on the other end. Because of their offense, I am looking at picking up a bargain guard from Milwaukee to go along with Brogdon. I think there is going to be a lot of points put up in this game, I’d take the over on the 220 point total, and I think Brogdon will fill the stat sheet.

Brook Lopez – $4,900

Lopez is a good value pick tonight against the Pacers. He got on a roll early against Knicks last night, he had 2 early 3s and finished the game 4 for 8 from deep. He had 7 blocks to go with 14 points and 7 rebounds. Brook will get you a lot of defensive points, he is 4th the league with 2.4 blocks per game to go with with 10 points and 5 rebounds a game. Brook is a streaky 3 point shooter and he likes to get his shots off early in the game. Lopez averages 25 fantasy points a game, but if he gets going from 3 he can easily get 30+. Brook is a good bargain at $4,900.

Those are the 3 players I picked to build around. This is a garbage slate of games today, a lot of low game totals, not a lot of players are jumping out at me. Zeller has been pretty productive for the Hornets since moving to PF. He has surpassed his average in 7 of the last 9 games and he is still only getting around 25 minutes. I hate this salary though, I think $6,100 is steep. This is a smaller Celtics team, I can see him getting in foul trouble trying to cover the more athletic Jayson Tatum. George Hill is a good price at $4,800, he is going to get minutes because of the injury problems in Milwaukee.