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Fantasy Basketball Find: Jeremy Lin

LestersLegends — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 11:00:30 +0000

Anthony Gruppuso, US Presswire
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One of the players that is jumping off the shelves is New York Knicks guard Jeremy Lin. In his past two games he’s 20 for 36 from the floor for an impressive 55.6 shooting percentage. He’s also made 12 of 16 (75.0 percent) of his free throws. He only knocked down one three-pointer, but it would hard to complain about that.
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Not with an average of 26.5 points per game. It’s not like that’s the only area he has contributed either. Lin added 3.5 rebounds per game, 7.5 assists per game, and 2.0 steals per game.
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With the kind of production it is easy to overlook the lack of three-pointers. Let’s face it, as long as he’s scoring like that does it really matter how he gets his?
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Lin has averaged 40.5 minutes during the two-game eruption. Obviously getting extended run is important if he’s going to continue to play at a high level. The Knicks do have other options at point guard (Iman Shumpert, Toney Douglas, Mike Bibby, and perhaps at some point Baron Davis).
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Nobody has ran away with the job yet so Lin is the current flavor of the month following his outburst.
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Lin does have a tendency to turn the ball over. In his final three years at Harvard he averaged 3.2 turnovers. Lin only had one on Saturday, but he followed it up with eight turnovers on Monday.
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Lin is owned in just over half of fantasy leagues. That number is only going to go up, especially in the short-term. Given the way he played the past two games, and the ability for point guards to put up big numbers in Mike D’Antoni’s system, Lin is a must-add if he’s still out there.
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Is Vince Carter Turning Back the Clock?

LestersLegends — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 16:39:54 +0000

Danny Bollinger/NBAE/GETTY IMAGES
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I’m not suggesting that Vince Carter, at 35, is going to leap over anybody on a slam or revert back to his Half-Man, Half-Amazing days. I’m not suggesting that the Vinsanity is going to return either. Those days are behind him. However, he can still score, as evidenced by his recent streak. The question is whether or not he can keep it up.
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In his past four games he has twice went for 21 points en route to a 15.5 points per game average. He is contributing across the board, adding 3.8 rebounds, 3.0 assists, 0.5 blocks, 1.3 steals, and 2.0 three-pointers. He has even 50.0 percent of his shots during the hot streak.
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His recent stretch has allowed his season numbers to increase to 10.8 ppg, 2.9 rpg, 2.3 apg, 0.4 bpg, 0.9 spg, and 1.3 3pg. Not exactly superstar numbers, which is why he is owned in 48.0 percent of Yahoo! and 39.4 percent of ESPN leagues.
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Obviously his age and the Mavericks depth also play a role. Carter is averaging 29.0 minutes per game over his past four, but with Jason Kidd, Rodrigue Beaubois, Jason Terry, Vince Carter, Delonte West, Shawn Marion, Lamar Odom, Dirk Nowitzki, Brendan Haywood, and Ian Mahinmi, the Mavs have ten players playing just about 17 mpg or more. Nine of them are playing at least 20 mpg.
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Carter has bounced around quite a bit, with Dallas being his fourth team since the 2008-09 season. He likely can’t sustain the 15.5 ppg average, especially with Dallas’ depth. If you want to ride him while he’s hot, it’s not a bad idea. Along with the scoring, you’ll get a little bit of everything.
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A Tale of Two Dunks

LestersLegends — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 18:52:42 +0000

The end of January is proving to be a great time for some amazing dunks. Blake Griffin and LeBron James had two of the best dunks of all-time. Here’s a look.
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Which nasty jam do you like better?

Fantasy Basketball: Gooden Gold

LestersLegends — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 18:53:12 +0000

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Injuries often open the door for certain players to elevate their game. Milwaukee’s Drew Gooden seems to cherish that opportunity. The injury to Andrew Bogut is the latest opportunity for Drew to up his game.
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So far he has delivered. In the two and change games he’s played since Bogut went down with an ankle injury, Gooden has averaged 19.0 points, 8.3 rebounds, 3.0 assists, 0.7 blocks, 1.3 steals, and 1.0 three-pointer.
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Gooden has seven starts this year. In those starts he’s averaging 17.4 points, 9.4 rebounds, 2.1 assists, 0.3 blocks, 0.7 steals, and 0.4 three-pointers. The simple fact is, with Bogut out the Bucks are going to ask Gooden to play 30+ minutes per game. With that amount of run I expect him to put up those kinds of numbers.
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He has obviously put up better numbers as a starter, but playing center has suited Gooden well. He has 33 career starts at the position and has averaged 13.7 points and 9.8 rebounds, which is 1.3 more points and 1.3 more rebounds per game than he averaged in 421 career starts at forward.
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At first glance there is a pesky little problem of facing Orland four times in the next 18 games. In sixteen games against Orlando since Dwight Howard’s rookie year, Gooden is averaging 16.0 points and 9.0 rebounds. Not many people can say they had that kind of production against Howard.
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Gooden is owned in most ESPN leagues (81.0 percent), but there still could be some time to snatch him up in Yahoo! leagues where he is owned in just over half of their leagues.
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In deeper leagues you may want to look at teammate Ersan Ilyasova.
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Can Amar’e Stoudemire Be Had at a Discount?

LestersLegends — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 16:00:42 +0000

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Throwing out Amar’e Stoudemire’s three game 2005-06 season, he’s averaging less points (17.8) than he has since his rookie season, way back in 2002-2003. He’s four points per game below his career average, and 7.5 points below last year’s average in his first year with the Knicks.
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Not only is his scoring down, but his field goal percentage is off-the-charts down. We’re talking more than ten percent below is lifetime 53.4 percent shooting. The shooting woes run deep in New York. Only two players (Tyson Chandler and Landry Fields) getting significant run are above 47 percent. Fields is at 47.1 percent so even that isn’t entirely impressive. Of all the players to bounce back, Amar’e has the best odds.
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Also uncharacteristic of Amar’e Stoudemire is his lack of blocks. At 0.5 bpg he is only getting about a third of the blocks per game that he has got over the course of his career. Eight blocks in sixteen games just isn’t cutting it.
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It’s not a lost season by any means. Sure, the scoring isn’t the same, but 17.8 isn’t bad. Neither is a 8.4 rebound per game average. Assists have never been his strong suit, but he is averaging a career high 1.2 steals.
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Obviously getting Stoudemire isn’t going to be cheap. He’s still a huge name and it’s early enough that his owners may not be quite frustrated enough. His past eight games are helping your cause though. During that stretch he has as many 20+ point games as he has single-digit games. His scoring average is 14.6 ppg and his rebounding average is 7.8 rpg. He’s shooting 41.7 percent during the stretch. To make matters worse, he’s averaging 3.8 turnovers during the eight games, with at least five turnovers in half of the games.
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His owner may not be willing to move him right, but I bet he or she will listen. Given Amar’e's track record he’s a good bet to rebound. If you can get him at a discount, all the better.
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Jordan Crawford Heating Up

LestersLegends — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 11:00:13 +0000

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Washington Wizards guard Jordan Crawford has eight double-digit scoring efforts in his past ten games. The other two he went for nine points, giving him a 13.7 ppg scoring average during the stretch. He’s been particularly hot over his past six games averaging 15.2 ppg.
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He’s been helping out in other categories as well, averaging 3.0 rebounds, 3.0 assists, 0.7 steals, and 1.0 three-pointers per game during his past six games. While he hasn’t shot extremely well (44.4 percent) during the stretch, it is an improvement considering he’s shooting below 40.0 percent on the year.
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While even his hot streak isn’t comparable to last April and May when he averaged 19.3 points, 3.6 rebounds, 4.7 assists, 1.3 steals, and 1.2 three-pointers in 18 starts, he can be a productive option. He was averaging nearly 40 minutes per game in those starts. Barring injury, he won’t come close to that amount of playing time, but as long as he’s averaging 20+ minutes he can be a spot starter.
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Obviously a lot will depend on how he’s used by Randy Wittman, who surprisingly landed the head coach position despite a horrible track record. Wittman went with a very balanced line in the battle of the have-nots last night. Ten players played at least 19 minutes and one more (Trevor Booker) checking in at nine minutes. Given the way Wittman’s good friend Flip Saunders was run out of town, Wittman could just be looking to see who shows a spark. Interesting times ahead in the nation’s capital. Just remember even bad teams often supply unlikely fantasy options.
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