Hoops Lab: Klay Goes Kaboom!

Klay Goes Kaboom

Man, I just witnessed history. This lead was supposed to be about daily basketball leagues, but that's going to have to get moved to the next Lab because I'd be completely remiss if I didn't take a moment to reflect on what I just saw. Klay Thompson just went absolutely BONKERS in the third quarter of the Warriors vs. Kings game. I mean positively, ridiculously, Ray-Allen-and-Reggie-Miller-WISH-they-ever-got-this-hot in the ZONE.

I've never seen anything like that.

You ever see someone make a couple of shots and then take a "heat check" that misses by a mile? Well, dude made about three of those crazy heat check shots in a row …and then the rest of his team got out of the way and just let him shoot every possession for the rest of the quarter. In fact, here is what Thompson himself said about his shot selection that quarter: "I was taking a lot of bad shots out there, but I was taking one until I missed." But here's the kicker…

HE MADE ALL OF THEM!

The Kings actually had the lead early in the third quarter, before the detonation. In the third quarter alone, Thompson went 13-for-13 from the field, including an NBA single-quarter record 9-for-9 from behind the arc, to score an NBA single-quarter record 37 POINTS!

NOBODY has ever made nine treys or scored 37 points in a single quarter in NBA history, until Friday. And he did it without missing a single shot. In fact, as I Tweeted while watching the game, he wasn't even hitting the rim.

Just for fun, here were my real-time thoughts as shared on Twitter (@ProfessorDrz):

Klay Thompson is freakin WET right now! Dude's not even hitting the rim, barely even hitting the net. He's NBA Jam and made 3 shots in a row

— Andre Snellings (@ProfessorDrz) January 24, 2015

This is unreal. He's even hitting 3s after the whistle! He's got 35 points IN THE THIRD QUARTER ALONE! And he's at the line!

— Andre Snellings (@ProfessorDrz) January 24, 2015

Man, that quarter from #KlayThompson was just nuts. That's the reason you watch the NBA, you never know when you're going to witness history

— Andre Snellings (@ProfessorDrz) January 24, 2015

By now I'm sure you've seen the SportsCenter highlights, or heard someone talk about the game, or looked at the box score and marveled at the numbers. But let me tell you something…watching this live action made my sports week. After a week of getting inundated with Deflate-Gate and Tom Brady talking about how he likes his balls, it was wonderful to end the week with a reminder of why I love watching sports so much.

Around the League

Aldridge's hand:LaMarcus Aldridge has been diagnosed with a torn ligament in his left thumb, which will keep him out for the next six to eight weeks. Six weeks from now is early March, and eight weeks would have him out toward the end of March. You can't cut Aldridge because he's probably (at worst) one of your two best players. But if he's out the full eight weeks, the fantasy playoffs will have already started in some leagues before he's back on the court. Expect the other Trail Blazers starters, particularly Damian Lillard, to score more volume if perhaps at lower efficiency, in Aldridge's absence. And this gives either Thomas Robinson or Dorell Wright the chance to establish some value over that stretch as well.

Kobe's shoulder:Kobe Bryant tore the rotator cuff in his right shoulder, and though it hasn't been officially announced yet, he is widely expected to miss the remainder of the season. If he does, this would mark the third year in a row that Bryant's season would end early due to injury and the second straight that he wasn't even able to play in half of the games. As he's now 19 years into his future Hall of Fame career, this has inevitably led to the question of whether Kobe may consider calling it a career. I'm not the biggest Kobe fan, but I personally can't imagine that it would end like this for him. I think he's going to want to come back and go out on his own terms. And of course, he's slated to be the highest paid player in the NBA next season, and it seems unlikely that he'd leave almost $30 million on the table by walking away. But either way, those that took a chance on Kobe this season were dealt a blow with this development.

Melo's knee: After notching 25 points, seven boards, four assists and three treys on Friday, Carmelo Anthony is now averaging more than 25 points with nine rebounds, 3.7 assists and 2.7 treys in his last three games since returning from a knee injury. With that said, if I were a Melo owner, I would be burning up the phone lines trying to trade him right NOW, if he's even tradeable at all. Long before Kobe Bryant tore his rotator cuff, I was preaching to people that they should trade him (even at a loss) because he was obviously dealing with physical issues, and with the Lakers struggling, it seemed inevitable that he'd eventually be shut down for the season. Well, I've long felt the same way about Anthony. The Knicks stink, they're heading deep into the lottery, and there was already a rumor a couple of weeks ago that Anthony might be shut down for the year. Right around that time, it was revealed that Anthony really wanted to play in the London game (he returned from injury in time to do so), and in the All-Star Game in New York (still to come). Once the All-Star break ends, I can't imagine a single other reason for Melo to continue to risk his knee on a team going nowhere. If you can trade him, even at a loss, I'd do it.

Old guys in general: Whenever I write a Hoops Lab, I write a bunch of bullet points for this section, and I don't always end up including them in that particular article. When writing a Lab article a few weeks ago, I wrote but discarded this headline: "Old Guys slowing down: Kobe, KG, Duncan?" Since then, Kobe has gone down (presumably) for the year, Kevin Garnett's minutes have been dwindling into the teens on the regular, and even Tim Duncan has started looking more like a 30-something than whatever dream of youth he was on to start the season. It's too late to trade Kobe, and KG doesn't have any trade value. But Duncan presumably still has a bit of cache, and his season numbers look good. He's another that I would be looking to move as soon as I could, though not as desperately as I would have Kobe or Melo. Duncan's Spurs team is the defending champ with aspirations of another postseason run, so barring catastrophe, Duncan's not going to get shut down. But for that same reason, coach Gregg Popovich is likely to continue to play him less and less to make sure he has some juice in the tank for the playoffs. I'd definitely try to trade him while he's still ranked in the 30s (like he is in Yahoo!) and see if I could get anywhere near value for him.

Howard's ankle:Dwight Howard had to leave Friday night's game early with a sprained right ankle. The injury doesn't appear to be serious, but Howard has come up a lot in conversations and interviews lately because his production just isn't quite what it used to be. He's still solid (outside of free throws, of course) but no longer the defensive game changer in fantasy that he used to be. That said, the ankle shouldn't keep him out for long, so you'll be able to deploy him as usual soon.

Lawson's arrest:Ty Lawson was arrested on suspicion of DUI on Friday morning. He wasn't immediately suspended by either the league or his team, but he was not in the lineup on Friday. Presumably, he will return to the court soon. Jameer Nelson was strong in his absence on Friday, but barring further news, that substitution was temporary.

Batum's wrist (again):Nicolas Batum is considered doubtful for Saturday's game after aggravating his injured wrist. This is scary, considering the wrist injury lingered all through last season and Batum has already admitted that it has been affecting his shooting this season. Batum had the opportunity to burst out of his slump and produce big in LaMarcus Aldridge's absence, but it now appears that he will be battling his own injuries.

Holiday's ankle stress reaction:Jrue Holiday has been sitting for the last couple of weeks, but it was just announced this week that his injury is a stress reaction in his ankle that could keep him out for up to the next month. Holiday's injury has been a boon to the fantasy fortunes Tyreke Evans and Eric Gordon, who are sharing the backcourt duties in his absence. Gordon in particular is of note, because his value had been so low due to his own injuries, but he now seems to be playing up to his previously expected value.

Wroten's torn ACL:Tony Wroten's season is over, after the lingering knee soreness that had plagued him recently was discovered to be a partially torn ACL that requires surgery. Wroten had played himself into fantasy relevance, and was a nightly rotation piece for the Sixers before the injury. His absence is a fantasy boon for Michael Carter-Williams, who always produces more when he has the ball in his hands, and he'll have that a lot without Wroten.

Teletovic's blood clots:Mirza Teletovic is done for the year after blood clots were discovered in his lungs this week. Teletovic was a reserve for the Brooklyn Nets, but he got regular minutes and had shown himself to be worthy of the occasional spot start in fantasy on nights when the Nets started him in place of Kevin Garnett.

New Additions

Shout out to Rudy Gobert, who at 61% owned isn't really eligible to be in this space. But as someone who's been a huge Gobert guy since I saw him in Vegas last summer, if you're in one of the 39% of leagues where he isn't owned, go pick him up right now. And ditto if you're in one of the 39% of leagues where Elfrid Payton is out there or the 35% of leagues where Timofey Mozgov is still available. These are all players that should be starting every game in all but the most shallow leagues moving forward. Don't leave Enes Kanter out there in 37% of the leagues either.

Channing Frye (52% owned in Yahoo! Leagues): Everyone knows that Frye is a big man that can hit the three. For some reason, he spent a large part of the season not making them and getting benched. Now he's hitting them again (3.4 made treys per in his last five) and playing more than 30 minutes a night, so it's time to get him back in your lineup.

Marcus Smart (43% owned): Smart was drafted by the Celtics to be the point guard of the future, and even though he wasn't quite ready to take over the job full-time after the Rondo trade, he is slowly getting more and more minutes and starting to put up fantasy-worthy stat lines. His improvement and expanding role should snowball as the season progresses.

Alex Len (36% owned): Len was drafted to be the center of the future in Phoenix, and he's been solid for the most part since moving into the starting lineup. Over the last two weeks, he has flirted with a nightly double-double, averaging 8.2 points (59% FG, 79% FT), 9.2 rebounds and 1.7 blocks per game.

Langston Galloway (21% owned): Galloway may have joined the Knicks on a 10-day contract, but outside of Carmelo Anthony, he is currently the most fantasy-worthy player on the team. He is averaging 15.7 points, 6.7 boards, 3.3 assists, 2.0 treys and 1.0 steal over his last three games since moving into the starting lineup. He's a combo guard, and starting point guard Jose Calderon is a bit ouchy right now, so he may get to run more point over the next few games.

Keeping up with the Professor
If you're interested in my takes throughout the week, you can follow me on Twitter @ProfessorDrz. Also, don't forget that you can catch me on the radio on RotoWire Fantasy Sports Today with Chris Liss and Jeff Erickson on XM 87, Sirius 210. I also co-host the RotoWire Fantasy Basketball Podcast with Kyle McKeown once a week and co-host the Celtics Beat podcast on CLNS radio about once a month.