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Fantasy Thoughts - November 6th - 8th
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Smith has always been a high-flyer but is he ready to ascend to the next level?
There was a lot of action this past weekend and some surprising outcomes as well. On Friday night, the last two undefeated teams in the NBA, Denver and Boston, both lost their first games – losing to Miami and Phoenix, respectively. Denver followed up their loss to Miami with another loss to the Atlanta Hawks on Saturday night. Then surprisingly on Sunday, the Oklahoma City Thunder shocked the Orlando Magic with a 28-point beating, 102-74. Those outcomes should shake up the NBA Power Rankings this week.
Efficient Games – One way I like to measure offensive efficiency in basketball is to divide a player’s points scored by their shot attempts. Normally any number 1.5 or greater is considered efficient. If a player scores a high number of points and has an efficiency number approaching 2.0, they have had an extremely efficient game. A high number usually indicates one of two things – the player hit a high number of three pointers (indicates hot shooting) or the player hit a high number of free throws (indicates player was aggressive attacking the basket). This weekend, several players had high-scoring, highly efficient games. On Friday night, Jason Richardson scored 34 points on 16 shots in the Suns win over the Boston Celtics. Richardson hit 6 out of his 7 three point attempts and 8 out of his 11 free throw attempts for an efficiency number of 2.13. Also, Raja Bell returned from his injury Friday night and scored 24 points on 12 shot attempts to help lift the Bobcats over the Atlanta Hawks. Of the 12 shots that he attempted, 6 were three pointers and he nailed 5 out of the 6 three point attempts. Likewise on Friday night, Dwight Howard scored 22 points on 8 shot attempts and had an efficiency number of 2.75. Howard, who is a 60% career free throw shooter, hit 8 out of his 9 free throw attempts. Lastly, Tyreke Evans scored 32 points on 15 shot attempts in the Kings’ win over the Utah Jazz on Saturday night. Evans hit 16 out of his 19 free throw attempts for an efficiency number of 2.14.
Josh Smith vs. Denver Nuggets – The Atlanta Hawks handed the Denver Nuggets their second loss of the season on Saturday night. Josh Smith of the Hawks filled the stat sheet with a 22 point, 9 rebound, 7 assist, and 6 block performance. He played an efficient game, hitting 8 out of his 10 attempts from the field and 6 out of his 8 free throw attempts. He showed a glimpse of his all-around game that leave fantasy owners salivating at his potential. For the season, he is averaging 15.1 points, 6.6 rebounds, 4.4 assists, 2.9 blocks, and 1.6 steals per game. His blocks per game total leads the league at this point during the season. On a side note, after averaging one three point attempt per game and being a 27% three point shooter throughout his career, Smith has not attempted a three-point shot this year. That may be the reason for his dramatic increase in field goal percentage this year – 57% percent this year, up from his 46% career percentage.
Big Assists Numbers – On Friday night, Chris Paul began the streak by dishing out 18 assists against the Toronto Raptors. That total brought his season average to 9.7 assists per game. Deron Williams tallied 15 assists Saturday night as the Jazz loss to the Sacramento Kings to go along with his 29 points. Williams has become the unquestioned leader of the Utah Jazz, averaging 24.2 points and 9.8 assists so far this season. Sunday night Steve Nash dished out 17 assists in the Suns’ win over the Washington Wizards. Nash, who is the early season league leader in assists, also had a 20 assist game versus the Golden State Warriors earlier in the season.
Frustrating Warriors – I watched the Golden State/Sacramento game last night and even though the Warriors play an exciting brand of basketball, they can be frustrating to watch at times. Their offense has no continuity and no flow – they are just a ‘one pass and shot’ type of team. It really appears that most of the players have the ‘me-first’ mentality and are just focused on getting their own personal numbers. In their one win of the season over the Memphis Grizzlies, the Warriors had 4 players to score at least 20 points and showed the scoring potential that they have as a team. They totaled 29 assists as a team, with Monta Ellis dishing out 12 assists and Stephen Curry adding 9 assists. In the four losses, the Golden State team has a total of only 79 assists (19.75 per game). I addressed the risks associated with the Golden State Warriors in one of my earlier articles and if this type of performance continues, their fantasy numbers are going to be spermatic at best. At this point Monta Ellis and Stephen Jackson are their best fantasy options and even they have played inconsistently this year.
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