NBA
A Dozen Dimes: Volume 17
The NBA trade deadline and the impact it had on the fantasy basketball landscape...

The NBA trade deadline came and went this past Thursday, and the deals that happened will change the landscape of the league for years to come.

Ok, that might be a bit of an exaggeration on the NBA level, but there will certainly be some notable fantasy fallout from the various deals (and non-deals). The rotations of several teams are up for reevaluation, and the value of certain players will soar or crash into a brick wall based on what went down.

The day wasn’t exactly filled with blockbusters, but a one-time All-Star was traded for a former second-overall draft pick, and that’s certainly something worth looking at it. Sure, it wasn’t like crazy bench celebrations than, you know, actually playing basketball. In 105 career game in Golden State, he averaged nothing more than 2.1 points in 5.6 garbage minutes per game. Continuing this year’s tradition of the Lakers making fantasy value nearly impossible to predict (which I’ve complained about at length and will spare you from now), Bazemore is suddenly awesome.

Of course he is.

In two games playing for the Lakers, he has averaged 16.0 points, 1.5 rebounds, 2.5 assists, 2.0 steals, and 1.5 three-pointers in 31.5 minutes per game. His career high while in Golden State was 14 points and he only reached double-digits in scoring four times. In both of his games as a Laker, he has topped his previous career high in points, going for 15 off the bench on Friday and 17 as a starter on Sunday. As has been the case with just about every Laker this season, go ahead and add him and see how it goes. Why not, right?

Add Ben McLemore

Ben McLemore has done little to warrant your attention in standard leagues so far this season, but he might be on the verge of doing just that. There’s little to report on here in terms of positive trends, other than the fact that he’s started the last three games since Marcus Thornton stopped playing for the Kings (he was traded to the Nets at the deadline).

In those games, the averages of 7.0 points, 4.0 rebounds, 1.0 steal, and 1.0 three-pointer are a little underwhelming (and the .304 shooting from the field isn’t exactly a good thing), but the 27.2 minutes per game are a positive sign that the Kings are ready to spend the rest of this season developing their youngsters.

With their newest acquisition Jason Terry set to take the rest of the season off to rehab his knee, McLemore and fellow rookie Ray McCallum are in line to get all the minutes they can handle. The starter McLemore has the best chance of standard-league value and is worth the speculative add to see what he can do with the increased role.

Drop Glen Davis / Buy Tobias Harris

The Magic have a very bright future ahead of them with a young core of players, cap flexibility, and several picks in the next few drafts. This future, of course, wasn’t likely to include all three of veterans Jameer Nelson, Arron Afflalo, and Glen Davis. Neither of them got moved at the deadline, but Davis had his contract bought out this week and cleared waivers to become a free agent.

He looks to be all but locked up to play for the Clippers and should provide the frontcourt depth that they’ve been looking to address all season. While the move might help the Clippers’ title chances, it leaves Big Baby’s fantasy owners no choice but to drop him.

He was posting borderline late-round value in standard leagues in 45 games for the Magic and he certainly won’t come close to the 30.1 minutes per game he used to average as a starter in Orlando now that he’s serving as a backup to Blake Griffin (36.2 minutes per game) and DeAndre Jordan (36.1 minutes per game). No need to bore you with stats, just drop him and don’t think twice.

Also, just as a friendly reminder, I told you last week to buy or add Tobias Harris, as a Big Baby exodus would give him every chance to be a huge difference maker down the stretch this season. He wasted no time whatsoever blowing up, averaging 25.0 points, 7.0 rebounds, 1.5 assists, 1.5 steals, 0.5 blocks, and 0.5 threes in the two games since Davis’ departure, while shooting .654 from the field, .500 from deep, and .938 from the line. The chance to buy might already be gone, but no harm in making one last-ditch effort.

Add Matt Barnes

Someone who is posting surprising value for the Clippers over the last few games and who warrants at least a temporary add is Matt Barnes. Barnes has been starting for the Clippers since mid-January, but has been too inconsistent to warrant ownership. Over his last two games, however, he’s put up mid-round value on the strength of 19.5 points, 7.0 rebounds, 1.5 assists, 1.0 steal, and a ridiculous 4.5 threes per game, while shooting .519 from the field, .529 from deep, and 1.000 from the line.

He might fall off again before long, but he was always a good streaming option last season and has an inside track to decent value with J.J. Redick out indefinitely and Jared Dudley doing next to nothing to threaten his starting spot. Give him a shot if you’re looking for a player trending up for this coming week.

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