Get to the Points: Who will be the odd man in out in L.A.?
Yahoo Fantasy Basketball analyst Dan Titus and contributor Justin Henry look at the Clippers roster for fantasy purposes after the addition to James Harden.
Video Transcript
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DAN TITUS: What are your thoughts on the Clippers here? So there's been a lot of stuff coming out in the news about, I think Chris Haynes just dropped a report saying that Ty Lue is facing the biggest challenge of his coaching career, which is kind of interesting, because he's had to deal with a lot of egos back to his days in Cleveland and all that. And then Paul George is like, we're 4 good basketball players. We're going to figure it out.
It's going to take time. And I don't know why I keep referencing Pat Bev, but Pat Bev was like, this team is going to be garbage in the regular season, but just wait till they figure it out in the playoffs. Fantasy is a regular season game. Who do you think is going to be odd man out here?
JUSTIN HENRY: When you look at the collection of talent, you're like 4 Hall of Fame potential type players on this team and you got a potential Hall of Fame coach too in Ty Lue. So, I look at this setup and when I think about the fantasy aspect of it, I'm like, all right, who's going to see the biggest reduction in their usage? And obviously, the guy I got to go to is Russell Westbrook. I think James Harden is the new addition, but as they get their ball rolling, they'll start winning some games here. They won't be over forever.
But Russ is going to be the player that's going to be the most frustrated. He's going to get taken out in late game situations. He's going to have the ball in his hands less, especially if there's a second unit that comes in with Russ and James Harden. So the usage for me with Russ is a little concerning. He was playing a little bit more free. And I think as time goes, as they get this thing figured out, and as James Harden becomes a little bit more comfortable, Russ is going to suffer in the interim.
DAN TITUS: Yeah, it kind of looks like it's trending that way. Russ hasn't played over 30 minutes in his last 2 games. He's noticeably looking a little bit more frustrated on the bench, getting pulled in late game situations. But the one thing you can't take away from Russ is that everyone notices that this team plays with a lot more pace when he's running point.
But they're going to have to figure it out. But I think you're right, just given what James Harden can do from a scoring perspective and getting other players involved, I think that Russell Westbrook is eventually going to take a hit here. Right now his steals are kind of propping up his fantasy value, but that field goal percentage is also going to come back down to Earth and it's already started too.
JUSTIN HENRY: Yeah. And if you were going to do something too, this is a perfect time to buy low on James Harden. To let everybody else listen to the naysayers, listen to all the 0 and 6 talk, listen to everything else. This is the perfect time to go get a guy like James Harden.
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