Hoops Lab: Giving Thanks for Finding Family

OK, fair warning: this lead won't have anything to do with fantasy basketball, so if that's all you're interested in, by all means skip down to the other sections of this article as I've got plenty of good hoops discussion below. But last week was Thanksgiving, and I've got a lot to be thankful for. I just found a previously un-met part of my family, introduced myself, and now I get to look forward to getting to know them. And I'm extremely thankful for that.

But let me back up a little to catch you up on the story.

I'm an only child, and on my dad's side of the family, I grew up as an only grandchild as well. That side of the family was my father and his parents, my grandma and grandpa. I was really close with my dad, and he was really close with his parents. But in 2001 my dad passed away from complications of kidney failure, just months before our kidney transplant was scheduled. A few months later, the day after 9/11, my grandma passed too. After that, it was just me and grandpa. Grandpa lived to be 100 years old as of this past September, but he passed away a couple of weeks ago.

I had never really realized how much it would hit me when he passed, but I really felt alone. I've got family on my mom's side, but on my dad side I felt like it was just me. It was kind of crushing, actually, and I had a hard time wrapping my head around it.

But there's a twist.

See, my dad has an older brother. But before I was born he changed his name and moved away. I've only seen him a handful of times in my life. My uncle has two sons, both older than me, but none of us (me, my parents, my grandparents) have ever met them. My grandma had pictures from when they were children on the table in the living room my whole life. But none of us had even seen a picture of either of them that wasn't 40 years old, let alone ever met them.

The older of my two cousins had actually reached out to my grandma right before she passed away. He had called her on the phone, and they had spoken for an hour, and he told her his name (he had changed his name too, the way that his father had a generation before). But she hadn't told us any of that info before she passed, and his name was common enough that there was no real way for us to use it to try to find him.

Fast forward to a couple of weeks ago at my grandpa's funeral, my uncle came. It was the first time that I had seen him in a decade, but this time I found that I really wanted to get to know him. After all, he now represents the only direct family I have left from my father. And for the first time, I really asked him questions about his sons. The problem is, much like he had lost track of us, my uncle had also lost track of his sons. He also hadn't spoken to them in years, and didn't believe that he had contact information for them. It kind of broke my heart.

And then, today happened. I was going through some of my grandfather's old things, and my wife found a folder in it that had notes in my grandparent's handwriting. Apparently, in that phone call 15 year ago when my cousin had reached out, they had written down his contact information. His address, his phone number, a picture of him and his college sweetheart from 30 years ago. The name of his job at the time. I immediately tried to call the number, but it was disconnected. This being the internet age, I tried Googling him and his job. I looked for him on Facebook and LinkedIn. No haps. Sadness.

But then, completely unrelated to that finding, my uncle called me.

Full. Stop.

I don't know if I've properly conveyed this, but in the 38 years that I've been alive my uncle has NEVER, and I mean NEVER called me. The only reason that he even had my phone number was that I had picked him up from the airport for his father's funeral. But he happened to call me, TODAY of all days, to tell me that he had managed to locate his younger son's contact information. Not the one that had reached out to the family 15 years before, but the other one. My uncle gave me his name and phone number. And he asked, if I used it, that I tell his son that I got the info from my uncle in hopes that maybe the son would call him as well.

As I read what I've written here, it's bananas to me how estranged my uncle is from his family…which has caused us to be estranged from each other.

So, of course I called the number. But it was five-plus years old, and it went to a voicemail without mentioning a name, so I couldn't be sure that it worked. But my uncle had also given me (with correct spelling) my cousin's name, so I searched Facebook and…I found the name. I clicked on it and…I couldn't be sure if it was the right person. I called my wife over to look at the photo, ask if this guy looked like me or my family. She thought that he did, but couldn't be sure. So I sent him the strangest direct message and friend request that I've ever sent. It went something like:

"Hey. I'm trying to find my family. What's your dad's name? It's possible your dad was my dad's older brother. Um, if so, I'd love to meet you. If not, please forget this crazy message."

Then I went and bit my nails for a few hours while constantly refreshing my screen to see if he replied. And eventually, he did. And he's my cousin. I've got a big cousin, y'all. And his name's Jamil, and he wants to get to know me too. And I'm extremely, extremely thankful. Family is the most important part of my life, and just today I found a direct connection to family that I've never known.

And you know the really funny part? He works for NFL Network! My long-lost cousin works in sports! If I find out that he's a fantasy football/basketball nut, that will be proof positive that genetics runs true. And speaking of sports, let's stop this sappy talk and get back to the basketball, shall we?

Around the NBA

Kobe hanging 'em up: I flirted hard with the idea of leading with Kobe Bryant today, after his announcement that this is his last season. Interestingly, it was Chris Liss and Jeff Erickson on RotoWire Fantasy Sports Today that changed my mind. Nevertheless, even if I don't lead with it, I have to at least acknowledge that one of the greatest to ever play has acknowledged that he's on his last lap. As I tweeted on Sunday after the announcement:

Saying goodbye to @kobebryant . He wasn't my favorite player...not even close, really, but he always MATTERED. NBA history. #Respect

— Andre Snellings (@ProfessorDrz) November 30, 2015

Davis is hurt (and back) again:Anthony Davis made everyone's heart skip a beat this weekend when he banged knees with Chris Paul and had to be carried to the locker room. He was unable to return to the game on Friday, but he was good to go and put up huge numbers Saturday. As I mentioned last week, it just feels like Davis is always right on the verge of getting hurt. I'm glad he was able to play through, but as a Davis owner I really need him to go a good week or two without any injury scares.

Cousins is killing my weekly leagues: Another elite big man who has also been missing too much action is DeMarcus Cousins. I just participated in a debate on TYT Sports about whether Davis or Cousins is the best big man in the NBA, but both are in the process of murdering my year-long teams. One of my leagues, SRL, has weekly transactions, which means I have to pick my weekly starters Monday afternoon. Cousins has already missed three of the first five games, leading yours truly to three losses in winnable games. There's nothing to be done about it at the moment, as they've all been one-off suspensions or nagging injuries, and the hope is that this won't continue, but if it does keep going for much longer I'll be out of the hunt before I'm ready to be.

Paul's abs:Chris Paul had to leave Monday night's game due to a rib muscle strain. There is currently no word on whether he will have to miss more time. Paul has been in and out of the lineup this season with various maladies, and if he is forced to miss time it would benefit Austin Rivers, Jamal Crawford and likely Blake Griffin, who would have to pick up the offensive slack.

Lillard's abs too:Damian Lillard also had to leave Monday's game early with abdominal pain, with unknown severity. However, the broadcasters in the game had referred to him being under the weather and not feeling good early in the game, so perhaps his issue is more illness than injury. That is speculation, though, so for now consider him day-to-day. The Trail Blazers have a game on Tuesday, and if Lillard can't go, then presumably C.J. McCollum would be the main beneficiary.

Jefferson's calf:Al Jefferson will miss at least two weeks with a strained calf. Most likely Cody Zeller and Marvin Williams are the direct beneficiaries, with Frank Kaminsky and Spencer Hawes also possibly on the list to see more action.

Warriors' potential if challenged: Before the season began I predicted that Stephen Curry wouldn't lead the league in scoring because the Warriors beat teams so easily that he doesn't get to play whole games. Now, at the rate and efficiency that he's scoring, that doesn't seem to matter, but just think: what if he really had to actually play hard for all four quarters? Same with Draymond Green, Klay Thompson or Harrison Barnes. On Saturday, I had a DFS team that was a serious threat to win the (pretty big) tournament that I was in. I had Curry, and after the first quarter he had 17 points. I was starting to get nervous-happy butterflies about the possibilities until the Warriors blitzed the Kings without Curry even having to score. He scored two more points for the game and ultimately sat out the fourth quarter of (another) blowout. The Warriors have some of the most fantasy-friendly players in the league, but man, if only they could ever be challenged their players values would go through the roof.

KAT getting rested?:Karl-Anthony Towns was one of the most impressive rookies in the first month of the season. But in his last four games he played 22 minutes per game after averaging 30 minutes in his first 12. Timberwolves head coach Sam Mitchell announced last week that he plans to rest Towns as much as he can over the course of the season, and that these short-minute games aren't necessarily a fluke. It appears to be a strategy to help keep Towns fresh and avoid the rookie wall as he adjusts to the NBA game. This is, of course, the opposite of what the late Flip Saunders did with Andrew Wiggins last season, but Mitchell seems to be of a different mindset than his former boss. While this is great for the longevity of the phenom rookie center, these unpredictable low-minute games are killers for Towns' fantasy owners.

Kobe's unprecedented shooting: While we honored Kobe Bryant above as one of the legends of NBA history (and hopefully avoided the ire of Kevin Durant), now it's time to talk about the fantasy ramifications of his breathtakingly terrible shooting from the field this season. It's actually amazing. Bryant is shooting 16.9 field goal attempts per game, which leads the Lakers by a lot and is 16th overall in the entire NBA. Yet he is shooting an abysmal 30.5 percent from the field, absolutely dead-friggin-last of every NBA player that qualifies for the ranking. 30 percent on 17 shots! I can't emphasize how much of an anchor this is on a fantasy team. It's bad enough that he's shooting this many times on a young squad with the No. 2 overall pick in the 2015 draft that actually NEEDS shots, but Kobe's trying to do to his owners' field goal percentage what DeAndre Jordan does to their free-throw percentage. He's unplayable right now in roto leagues.

Okafor's crazy month:Jahlil Okafor is in the midst of developing the wrong kind of reputation. Over the last month, Okafor has had two public confrontations with heckling fans, one of which reportedly resulted in a gun being pointed at his face, and the other of which resulted in him punching someone. Then, for kicks, he was pulled over by the police doing 108 mph over the Benjamin Franklin Bridge. Okafor is a rookie, and a young one at that, on a terrible team with no veteran role models, so there are a lot of reasons why he might make rookie mistakes. But hopefully he learns from them and changes his behavior quickly enough that these types of incidents don't start affecting his playing time on the court.

Got the drank in me going back-to-back: Back-to-backs 12/1– 12/8
TW: Lakers, Pelicans, 76ers, Suns, Wizards
WT: Nuggets, Pacers, Spurs, Raptors
TF: none
FS: Cavaliers, Rockets, Bucks, Knicks
SS: Warriors, Kings
SM: Mavericks, Pistons, Lakers, Suns, Wizards
MT: Trail Blazers

New Additions:

Jerryd Bayless (39 percent owned) and O.J. Mayo (five percent owned): Bucks coach Jason Kidd shook up the starting lineup this weekend, moving Bayless and Mayo in and pushing Michael Carter-Williams and Jabari Parker out. While these moves might not be permanent, they should add value to both Bayless and Mayo. Bayless was averaging 15.5 points, 5.3 assists, 5.3 boards, 3.5 treys and 2.8 steals per game over the last week, going into Monday night, while Mayo scored 12 points with five assists, four boards, two treys and two steals in his debut as a starter.

Clint Capela (38 percent): Capela has settled in as the starting power forward in Houston. He had been alternating starts with Dwight Howard, but with Howard now playing every game, Capela has moved into the starting lineup himself, with Terrance Jones going to the bench. He's responded by averaging 16 points (53.8% FG, but only 50% on 4.0 FTA/game), 9.3 boards and 3.0 steals per game over the last week.

T.J. Warren (34 percent): Warren was expected to eventually take over the main swing role from P.J. Tucker, and over the last week he has started taking strides in that direction. Tucker is still starting, but over his last four games Warren is averaging 19.3 points (59.6% FG, 87.5% FT) with 5.3 boards in 29.5 minutes per game.

Rondae Hollis-Jefferson (22 percent): Hollis-Jefferson has moved into the starting lineup for the Nets and has been one of my favorite DFS low-price pick-ups over the last week or two. The talented rookie is a swingman who can do a bit over everything, averaging 8.3 boards, 1.7 steals, 0.7 blocks and 6.3 points per game over the last week. He's not a big scorer, but he's a utility guy and, as one of the only young talents on the Nets team, should be looking at plenty of playing time moving forward.