Hoops Lab: Party Like It's 1999

Way back in 1999, during my first year of grad school, I decided to invest in the NBA League Pass so that I could watch every game that I wanted every night. I was a single guy then, so I used to watch a LOT of games. During the NBA season, I was much more likely to want to stay in and watch a game on Friday night than I was to go out. Because of that, I used to always see the big stuff live. For example, I remember watching the Malice at the Palace live and calling everyone I knew to see if they were watching, only none of them were because they were all out on the town. But I was watching, because in those days that's what I did.

Then, I got engaged. And I had to get serious about finishing my Ph.D. And I got married. And I started having kids. And the research got stupidly time intensive. And I kept having kids. And I wrote a (as yet unpublished) book...actually two if you count the dissertation, along with several research papers. And I had another kid. And I started having to travel for work. And those kids started getting bigger and more active. And you know, there just wasn't as much time as there used to be to watch every game. I still have League Pass and I DVR so I'd record and fast-forward-through games as often as I could and watch the recaps on NBA TV every night. But my days of burning through every game, every night seemed to be at an end.

Until this year. This year, my wife has agreed to let me really lean into the NBA season. In addition to the Hoops Lab, I'm writing DFS columns pretty much every night of the week. I'm doing a segment on the RotoWire show on Sirius-XM every Monday, the Rotowire fantasy basketball podcast every Wednesday and the TYT Sports NBA show every weekend. I am in full-on NBA mode right now, and for the first time in years I'm getting to really put the League Pass through its paces the way I like to.

I. Freaking. LOVE. It.

It's been less than a week, but this already feels like my favorite season in years. Stephen Curry is going nuts (more on this below), Kevin Durant is back and balling, though he is quietly getting overshadowed by his wacky teammate Russell Westbrook (even though, as I tweeted the other day, I still can't figure out his newest Mountain Dew commercial). I've been watching moving tributes/interviews about Flip Saunders from all around the NBA, and Flip's two main teams, the Timberwolves and Pistons, are a combined 5-0 right now. And I'm getting to watch as much of it as I want!

Now mind you, it's not like the rest of the world went away. I still have to do all the other stuff and, as I wrote in this space last week, that can still be quite a challenge. So in general, I think I'm pretty much just going to punt on sleep for the next six months. You know, the way that you might punt on a category in a roto league to focus on more important/winnable categories. So I'm punting on sleep, but outside of a cold or two plus a few narcoleptic fits at work, I should be able to function. After fighting against it my whole life, I'm finally giving in and drinking coffee most days now. But again, it's worth it. So what, I pick up a new drug addiction in caffeine, I finally get to feed my NBA addiction, so that seems like a price I can pay.

This is shaping up to be a fun season. So let's sit back, strap on the seat belts and get ready to win some fantasy titles (and/or DFS leagues, whichever floats your boat).

Around the NBA

Wow, Steph
I intimated in last week's Hoops Lab that I might prefer James Harden to Stephen Curry this year. I then went on TYT Sports and said that I didn't think Curry would win the scoring title this year. I think that Curry heard me and that it pissed him off. That's the only way that I can explain what's going on right now. Either that, or the perimeter defense of the Pelicans is truly heinous. Actually, come to think about it, that might be the more likely explanation. Either way, Curry has gone absolutely ballistic so far this year, with most of the damage done in two games against the Pelicans. In the opener against New Orleans he popped for 40 points, seven assists, six boards, five treys and two steals. Four days later in New Orleans he topped that with 53 points, nine assists, eight treys, four steals and four boards. I will stay out on my limb and predict that Curry doesn't maintain his current average of 39.3 points per game for the rest of the season, if for no other reason than he's almost done with his games against the Pelicans. But still, as I tweeted on opening night, holy crap is this guy fun to watch when he's in the zone.

Dang, @StephenCurry30 ! He's in that Klay-Thompson-I'm-not-even-going-to-hit-the-rim mode right now

— Andre Snellings (@ProfessorDrz) October 28, 2015

Cousins' Achilles Serious?
DeMarcus Cousins did not play the second half of Saturday's game due to a sore Achilles tendon, playing only 15 minutes in a very winnable game against the Clippers (much to my chagrin as someone that owns him in several leagues and also was playing him in DFS that night). The injury is not considered overly serious, but there is the real chance that he sits out at least a game or two to make sure that it does not become worse. I have Cousins in a league with weekly roster moves, so I have to decide by Monday evening whether to start him for the week or not. The current word is that he is iffy for Tuesday and possibly the game after. I will be watching the RotoWire player updates very carefully ahead of my deadline, and hopefully we will get some type of word that helps make this decision.

Howard Still Not All the Way Back
Dwight Howard sat out Sunday's loss to the Heat, two days after making his season debut with a nine-point, seven-rebound effort in 22 minutes against the Warriors. The Sunday game was the first of a back-to-back, and the Rockets are still being cautious with Howard after he had to deal with tightness in his back all training camp. The Rockets know that they need Howard to be healthy for the playoffs, and the big man has battled injuries to his back and knees pretty consistently over the last few seasons. So expect the Rockets to remain cautious, and for Howard to be worked back up to full speed slowly.

Mavericks already playing injury roller-coaster
After the Mavericks missed out on getting DeAndre Jordan this offseason, the rumor was that they might decide to close up shop for this season and play for the future. If true, this would likely entail over-resting injured veterans and choosing long-term health over short-term wins. While no one knows if this is an actual strategy for Dallas, we can say after a few games that they are already playing the injury roller coaster. Starting point guard Deron Williams, starting shooting guard Wesley Matthews and starting small forward Chandler Parsons have all started at least one game and also missed at least one. I expect that this type of in/out injury management program might be the norm for the Mavs this season, which makes it difficult to assign full value to any of their players. That said, if you can get any of them on the super-cheap due to owners that are ready to punt, they still could be worth having on the chance that they win enough to be competitive as the season gets rolling.

Season of Flip
The Timberwolves are good. I said before the season started that the Timberwolves would make the playoffs this season. I tweeted the same Sunday after the first two games:

And his actual team, the Wolves, are embarking on a shock-the-world playoff push. No one realizes how good they are https://t.co/ARNjSlY59o

— Andre Snellings (@ProfessorDrz) November 1, 2015

Back-to-Back Schedule: 11/2 – 11/8
Teams with four games: Hawks, Nets, Cavs, Warriors, Rockets, Pacers, Grizzlies, Heat, Bucks, Knicks, Thunder, Magic, 76ers, Suns, Trailblazers, Kings, Raptors
Teams with two games: Celtics

Back-to-backs:
MT: Grizzlies
TW: Hawks, Pacers, Magic, Kings, Raptors
WT: Thunder, Trailblazers, Jazz
TF: Nuggets, Heat
FS: Hawks, Nets, Warriors, Rockets, Bucks, Pelicans, Magic, 76ers, Kings, Wizards
SS: None

New Additions:
Rodney Hood (52 percent owned in Yahoo! leagues): Hood somewhat surprisingly beat out Alec Burks for the starting job in Utah, and so far he's showing that he deserves the minutes. He is averaging 15.3 points, 3.0 rebounds, 2.7 assists, 1.3 steals and 1.3 treys per game through the first three.

Jared Sullinger (41 percent owned): Sullinger is a former starter for the Celtics that has, through his career, flirted with being a fantasy-caliber starter as well. He succumbed to injury last season and there were rumors that he was not in sufficient shape to please his coaches this summer. He might be the odd big man out in Boston, with the team leaning towards a four-man rotation of Tyler Zeller, Kelly Olynyk, David Lee and Amir Johnson. But none of those bigs have done anything to separate themselves from Sullinger, and thus far Sullinger and Johnson have been the two bigs that look the best for Boston.

Dennis Schroder (39 percent owned): I've picked Schroder up in a couple of leagues, primarily because he is both productive now (15.7 points, 3.0 rebounds, 2.7 assists, 1.0 treys in 25.3 minutes per game) and has explosive upside potential if anything ever happens to Jeff Teague.

Langston Galloway (38 percent owned): Galloway is another player who I've picked up in multiple leagues. He's another young lead guard that is coming off the bench, but in his case I'm not sure that the starter is any better. With the lack of talent in New York, I have to feel like a reasonably talented second-year guard that made the AllRookie team last season will eventually make his way into starter's minutes, if not the actual job.

Willie Cauley-Stein (37 percent owned): Cauley-Stein didn't start the first game for the Kings, but has started since. He's known for his defense, but his scoring touch hasn't been bad either. And with DeMarcus Cousins dealing with his Achilles issue, WCS could be in for an even bigger role in the short term.