The NBA is fantastic and there are so many things to talk about each and every week. Whether you are a Fantasy Basketball fanatic or just a fan here is ten things about the NBA that I want you to know about as we head into week 25 of the NBA season!
Best Games to Watch in Week 25
Monday April 2: No games today. Watch some baseball!!
Tuesday April 3: Toronto Raptors at Cleveland Cavaliers. This should be a very intense battle between two of the top teams in the Eastern Conference.
Wednesday April 4: San Antonio Spurs at Los Angeles Lakers. The Spurs are barely clinging to a playoff spot and better show up against the young pesky Lakers.
Thursday April 5: Portland Trail Blazers at Houston Rockets. Arguably the top two teams in the West on a Thursday night? I will be there with bells on!!
Friday April 6: Minnesota Timberwolves at Los Angeles Lakers. The Timberwolves are fighting for the playoffs and a great way to spend a Friday night.
Saturday April 7: Denver Nuggets at the Los Angeles Clippers: Both teams have plenty to play for on this special 330pm Eastern start!
Sunday April 8: Utah Jazz at Los Angeles Lakers. Utah also needs to win to reach the playoffs. Can the Lakers play the spoiler?
You are a Happy Fantasy Basketball General Manager If
If you have players on your roster from the Atlanta Hawks, Boston Celtics, Dallas Mavericks, Golden State Warriors, Indiana Pacers, Los Angeles Lakers, Orlando Magic, Philadelphia 76ers and Toronto Raptors as each team has four games this week.
Waiver Wire Pickup of the Week for Week 23
The Golden State Warriors have four games this week (@OKC, @Indiana, New Orleans and @Phoenix) and with 
Warriors PG Stephen Curry out for the foreseeable future the man you want to add to your roster for week 25 is Warriors PG Quinn Cook. Over the past five games Cook is averaging 17.5 points, five rebounds, six assists and knocking down two triples a night. Cook has decent shooting percentages, is getting well over 30 minutes a night and will also get the occasional steal. Cook is widely available across the Fantasy Basketball Industry.
You are an Unhappy Fantasy Basketball General Manager If
You have players on your roster from the Minnesota Timberwolves, Oklahoma City Thunder, and Sacramento Kings as each team has only two games scheduled this week.
Widely Available Streaming Options for Week 25
Tuesday April 3: The OKC Thunder haven’t been playing much defense so please play Warriors PG Quinn Cook Tuesday night.
Wednesday April 4: New Orleans Pelicans SG E’Twaun Moore is actually a small forward and small forwards feast on the Memphis Grizzlies.
Thursday April 5: Warriors PG Cook is the guy on Thursday against an average Indiana Pacers backcourt defense.
Friday April 6: Sacramento Kings “young guy” Skal Labassiere should get plenty of run against a subpar Grizzlies defense against power forwards.
Saturday April 7: Running back Warriors PG Cook against the defensively challenged New Orleans Pelicans backcourt defense.
Sunday April 8: Pick Cook up for the entire week as he has a GREAT opportunity on Sunday against the Phoenix Suns.
Kosta Koufos Benched After a Big First Half
If you were playing on FanDuel and selected Sacramento Kings center Kosta Koufos you were excited to see him score 23.4 points in the first half of Tuesday’s game with the Indiana Pacers. If you were playing in a GPP at less than six percent ownership you already reached seven times value; now we (because he was on my roster) had our fingers crossed that Koufos would go out there and dominate the second half as he did the first half.
Then much to our horror, or dismay, Koufos never touched the floor in the second half and our hopes of smashing a GPP were shattered because the Kings decided that intentionally losing the game playing their younger guys was more important than our fantasy team.
How in the heck does Sacramento Kings Head Coach Dave Joerger justify benching a player with 15 points and seven rebounds in the first half? That was what plenty including me were asking on Twitter Tuesday night and early Wednesday.
Way back in January Joerger said he was going with the younger guys so it shouldn’t have come as a surprise that Koufas sat especially when Koufas was specifically named as one of the players who would have his role reduced.
We even mentioned it at Creative Sports 2 because we thought that information was valuable.
Why did I play Koufos? Because he had been getting the minutes and was in a terrific spot as the Pacers give up plenty of points and rebounds to centers like Koufos. He still exceeded six times value but that first half was fool’s gold and the greedy guy in me was ticked off.
Let this be a lesson for us; it could have been worse and thankfully Koufos did reach seven times so we really shouldn’t be as ticked off as we were…..we need to be much more careful with these teams with nothing to play for…..especially when the coach was nice enough to warn us this was going to happen.
Tweet of the Week
NBA Twitter is what it is; sometimes it can be entertaining, other times downright silly as well as quite informative as this one regarding All-Time Per leaders from Hoops Hype.
Best PER in NBA history…
Michael. LeBron. Boban. pic.twitter.com/Uc5ZxenjIT
— HoopsHype (@hoopshype) March 28, 2018
Dunk of the Week
Toronto Raptors backup center Jacob Poeltl has had a few poster dunks this season; this one this past Tuesday night over Denver Nuggets PF Paul Millsap might be his best one yet!!
Taking Advantage of the Tankapalooza
Because the NBA powers that be didn’t think the Lottery all the way through we now have a NBA Front Offices building rosters solely to lose enough games in hopes of getting the number one pick in the NBA Draft. It sucks for fans of tanking teams but for wise Fantasy Basketball General Managers this is a beautiful thing and something to take advantage of. I’m going to give you one player on a few of these tanking teams that could pay off big in either Daily Fantasy Leagues or Season Long Fantasy Leagues. Each of these players is widely available across the Fantasy Basketball industry.
Atlanta Hawks: Mike Muscala is getting 25+ minutes and contributing and Isaiah Taylor is also getting 25+ minutes. You could also try Tyler Dorsey as he is getting more run especially when Dennis Schroder is out.
Dallas Mavericks: If Dennis Smith Jr is on your waiver wire he might be good this week and also Yogi Ferrell but I would be careful as his minutes are a bit shaky.
Los Angeles Lakers: Anyone worth owning is probably already owned in your league.
Orlando Magic: D.J. Augustine seems to have secure minutes as does sharpshooter Mario Hezonja.
Who is Your Fantasy Basketball MVP?
I’m really enjoying hosting Fantrax Fantasy Basketball with Phil Naessens. What I like most is bringing on Fantasy Basketball Analysts who actually know what the heck they are talking about. This week my guest was Fake Teams writer Natty Wallach; tune in below as we discuss our Fantasy Basketball MVP, Bust and plenty more!!!
You can reach Phil on Twitter. Listen to his Fantasy Basketball show on Fantrax and his NBA show the Phil Naessens Show.
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