NBA Week in Review
NBA training camps are just around the corner and we can finally get some actual NBA news to go with all this coach speak. Some teams are starting to reveal their first drafts of their lineups, which are obviously subject to change. We will be all over it on our Player News Page and track the position battles in columns and in our Draft Guide coverage.
In actual basketball news, Team USA played horribly in the first half of Tuesday win, but a magnificent third quarter gave them a win over Slovenia. They were only leading by seven points at halftime before they absolutely turned it on in the second half. They will take on Lithuanian on today in a semifinal matchup at 3 EDT. We’ll have more on FIBA later.
Follow me on Twitter @MikeSGallagher and be sure to check out our loaded Fantasy Basketball Draft Guide. I just updated the rankings this morning.
Latest on Greg Monroe's Arrest
Wednesday had some interesting news. Greg Monroe reportedly urinated on himself during the booking process of his DUI arrest. Obviously this doesn’t have any basketball impact, but it’s certainly going to lead to a lot of funny signs when Detroit comes to town.
In case you missed it, the NBA suspended Greg Monroe for the first two games of the season for driving under the influence. While a two-game suspension is really just 2.4 percent of the season, I’m a little more concerned that Monroe will lose more than three percent of his value because of this suspension.
Monroe is a very good big man. He is above average in low-post defense, has a solid rebounding rate, and he’s among the league leaders in shots at the rim every year — he led the league in 2012-13 for attempts at the rim. However, it’s becoming more and more clear that the Pistons will be using Josh Smith at power forward, which will likely eat into Monroe’s minutes at the four. One would think Andre Drummond’s minutes will increase from the 32.3 per game, as well.
It’s pretty clear that Monroe won’t be back with the Pistons next season. His agreement on the qualifying offer will allow him to choose which team he’ll want to join next season, and even this season if he wants to go that route. If I’m coach Stan Van Gundy, I’d probably dial down Monroe’s minutes to see what kind of small-ball lineups I could put together. And I’d probably have a couple Diet Pepsi cans too.
Unless I’m punting free throw percentage, I won’t be targeting any other Piston besides Jodie Meeks in standard fantasy drafts. Although, I’d keep a close eye on Spencer Dinwiddie (knee) in a few months.
Great Scott!
It’s too bad Byron Scott doesn’t have a DeLorean to get the Steve Nash and Carlos Boozer from seven years ago. The Lakers coach is expected to start his aging veterans this season as his point guard and power forward.
Nash is probably the bigger surprise of the two after his injury-plagued 2013-13. He played in just 15 games at only 20.9 minutes per game and didn't look good doing it either. His minutes probably won’t be going up much and it’s hard to imagine he’ll be able to play in more than 30 games after last year. Although, it makes sense to throw him in the first unit to allow guys like Jeremy Lin and Nick Young to have higher usages in the second unit. On the downside, their first unit defense is going to be among the worst defensive units in the NBA. Obviously, you can ignore Nash in fantasy leagues and target Lin late.
Carlos Boozer hasn’t been a very impactful big man in quite some time. Last season, coach Tom Thibodeau barely played him in the fourth quarter due to him shooting a career-low 45.6 percent from the field last season. Plus, his rebounding rate and defensive numbers went down from his career averages. It was a horrible season and the Bulls couldn’t wait to get rid of him via amnesty.
Well, he’s going to start for the Lakers and may have more defensive responsibilities. Thibodeau has been able to hide poor defensive players in his system, so it’s scary to think how Boozer will look on the Lakers. He’s penciled in to start, but there’s really no way I’d target him. He doesn’t block, his shooting numbers are trending down, and he’s not really great at anything. He had 15th-round value on a per-game basis last year, so yeah.
Meanwhile, Julius Randle will come off the bench. I don’t think Randle will have a massive upside since he’s not much of a shot blocker and his jumper is going to be a problem because teams will just give him space on the mid-range. Still, he’s a solid late-round target.
Let’s get to some FIBA:
It was all good just a week ago
Back on Wednesday Sept. 3, Brazil beat Serbia 81-73 and Spain beat France 88-64, but in the quarterfinals on Wednesday Serbia stomped Brazil 84-56 and France shocked Spain 65-52. The two winning teams will face each other on Friday to face the USA in the final on Sunday. Here are some individual players who have caught my eye.
Go, go Gobert
The French shocked the world on Wednesday with a massive win over Spain to get them to the semifinals. No player looked better on the court than Rudy Gobert, which isn’t a surprise. He finished with five points, 13 boards, one steal and one block in 23 minutes.
Gobert was a superstar at Las Vegas Summer League and he was much better on the glass. That obviously carried over into the FIBA World Cup and one would think it will only get better in training camp. It seems clear that Gobert is going to push incumbent Enes Kanter for his starting job. Kanter and Derrick Favors were terrible together last season and Gobert makes much more sense on paper. I won’t be touching Kanter even with my last pick in a standard league.
As for Gobert, he’s still hands-off material in standard leagues because of his woeful free throw shooting. If you’re in a points league, you’ll want to watch him closely. His big offseason could lead to a six-point, five-board, 1.3-block line in the early going.
Jonas Validation
On the news side of things, Jonas Valanciunas has been working on his low-post game and free throw shooting this summer. Those were actually two of his strengths last year, making 76.2 percent from the line and shooting 58.7 percent in the paint. He’s obviously trending up as he begins his third year.
At FIBA, he’s been fantastic. In his seven games, Valanciunas averaged 12.9 points, 8.5 boards, 1.3 blocks and 2.0 turnovers on 73.1 percent from the field and 73.7 percent from the line in just 23 minutes per game. Those are top-10 numbers in fantasy if he can get to his 28.2 minutes-per-game average from last season. Thursday's game should be a real treat.
Just about every Rotoworld writer picked him to break out last year, but that didn’t really happen. Although, he did post top-40 value in from Mar. 1 and beyond last year. Big things are coming.
Rosey Outlook?
Coach Mike Krzyzewski said he wants Derrick Rose to be himself and he didn’t want him to be an understudy. Coach K admitted Rose hasn’t been able to be himself due to the injuries, which is fair considering he’s been out of action for two years — 10 games last season excluded.
After shooting just 21.6 percent from the field in his first six FIBA games, Rose played well vs. Slovenia with 12 points, three rebounds, five assists, one steal and two turnovers. Perhaps the best part of that line is that he shot 6-of-8 on his two-point shots to go with his two misses from beyond the arc. Plus, most of the guards struggled with their shooting in the first half.
Still, we’ll need to see two more good games out of Rose before we view his FIBA as an encouraging run. Personally, I’m not drafting him.
Manimal Instinct
The Manimal continues to crush it on the glass on his way to his second double-double of the World Cup with 14 points, 10 boards, one assist and no turnovers in 20 minutes vs. Slovenia on Tuesday.
He is the only player to make it out of the group stage and average at least 4.0 offensive boards per game. His defense has been much better and he may be the most impressive player on the Team USA roster based on expectations coming into the tournament. I think we all knew Anthony Davis was going to be a beast.
He’s gained about a round of value in my book and I’d look to grab him around picks 50-60 now. For what it’s worth, I’d still rather have Derrick Favors.
Double Dragon
The Suns are interested in signing Zoran Dragic to a contract. It’s worth mentioning that Goran Dragic is expected to re-sign with the Suns next season. It makes sense for the Suns to add Zoran because it will keep Goran happier, because after all, Goran is their franchise player.
As for Zoran, he looked great at FIBA. He posted a sterling effective field goal percentage of 59.6 to go with his averages of 12.9 points, 4.0 boards, 1.3 assists, 1.4 steals, 0.7 blocks and 1.9 triples in 26 minutes per game. Those are Goran-like numbers minus the dimes and should certainly catch your eye as a fantasy owner.
Still, he probably won’t have an impact this season. You can just keep this in your back pocket for now.
