For Wednesday's game, everybody seems to be picking a Hawk almost exclusively. Here, look at the hottest picks...
Hot Picks:
- D. Carroll (22%)
- A. Horford (22%)
- J. Teague (19%)
- P. Millsap (12%)
- K. Korver (11%)
That's a staggering 86% picking a Hawk starter. This shows the value of the Hawks starting five. With all the talk in this round between MVPs James (past), Curry (current) and Harden (future?), remember that four of the Hawks starting five got to the All-Stars. That is how the media and the coaches respect that group.
Now for the pick, really, you can just jumble them up this round, and try to pick the best Hawk on his best night. It's guessing time!
Horford is the default pick for the standard strategy of best player in team about to lose. If you want to play it safe, he is your guy.
Carroll is the hottest pick. If you are nursing a lead in your league, stay with the hot picks so that the majority of your trailers will remain behind you. Note that Carroll is the top 2 hottest picks for three straight games (1-3).
Millsap has the second highest PRA and it is baffling to see that only 12% of DTTF is picking him. Maybe people are saving him for an elimination game. If you want some sneaky pick, now is the time. Or in Game 2 when he is owned at 10%.
Korver may be the dark horse. He's been quiet the first two rounds, and the Hawks are pressed to shoot more threes to even stand a chance against the Cavs. Wait for him to have a good game before picking him.
Teague gets my pick, and that is partly because of Irving's injury. There is always opportunity when the opposing player is hobbled. It can be argued that Irving will get even healthier as the series go, and that he will be at his most cautious state in Game 1. Even if Irving does a John Wall and plays well, I still like Teague in a Game 1 at home. I'm not expecting high PRA; his 20s will do.
Hope the Cavs steal Game 1.
Two days offline, and what do I get when I come back? 16 PRA by Harrison Barnes, that's what. 1 rebound? Really? Sigh. Livingston was the guy to pick, no doubt. But who would have done that?
ReplyDeleteTonight I'll keep my pick of DeMarre Carroll. I hope he somehows manages to score in game 1 while defending the King. Who knows, it might happen.
Tomorrow, good question. I really don't want to start with one of the big 3 of the Warriors. Then I see that my next best players left are three Rockets? And my Warriors after the big 3 are Iguodala and Bogut? Hmm...
I'll stick to my initial plan to pick players from the hometeam for the first four games and will go with one of the Splash brothers. Hopefully Klay Thomspon will rebound and shot and score like he can do. 30+ would make me very happy.
Don't worry you are safe to get 30+ from Klay Thompson since I've already used him. He ended up with only 21 PAR, less than half of Curry's 45 and that is after having 16 PAR at halftime so he got FIVE PAR ALL 2ND HALF! But that's explainable... I PICKED HIM! So he's good to go the rest of the way.
Deletei guess Klay for me in G2 too :D
DeleteGolden State got things done at home with a Game #1 win, although it was far more difficult than anything they faced in the regular season vs. them (all 4 easy wins), and they didn't even have to face Dwight Howard for much of the game. Dwight Howard was injured in the first half and only ended up with 22 PRA after a decent enough start, except for his inability to even remotely come close to making a free throw. Although that seems contagious for many NBA players now. Want to see these players start making more free throws, start fining them 10 grand for every free throw missed. Then watch those free throw percentages rise quickly, when it starts taking money out of these players' pockets.
ReplyDeleteGolden State will have to play way better than this if they have expectations of winning any games in Houston. If not, this will end up being a longer series than anyone really wants, unless you managed to save up Rockets players. Anyone playing Dwight Howard in Game #1 certainly was not impressed, although it can always get worse, that's for sure.
My entire plan going into the Warriors vs. Rockets series was completely thrown on its head. David Lee (5 PRA) who I wanted to play while Marreese Speights was out, only got to play 4 minutes. Andrew Bogut (4 PRA) was absolutely useless and in foul trouble the entire night, and the player I eventually picked Andre Iguodala was also extremely useless with his 9 PRA lack of effort. Iguodala had just had two 22 PRA games (his two best games of the 2015 Playoffs), so naturally he waited until I decided to pick him to fire off this disaster. Another miserable start to a round! No breaks this year at all (or most years it seems).
Hopefully Dwight Howard misses at least one game so that I can pick Clint Capela, so he can put up less than 10 PRA when I pick him. In any event, I am going to have to come up with another plan now, since the initial one is complete toast.
Best picks (losing team): James Harden (48 PRA), Josh Smith (29 PRA), Trevor Ariza (25 PRA)
(winning team): Stephen Curry (45 PRA), Draymond Green (33 PRA), and the biggest shocker, Shaun Livingston (27 PRA).
In the case of Shaun Livingston he probably was the best pick of the entire night, as he emerged from being a player posting single digit (in most cases) to low teens PRA scores to last nights stunning 27 PRA effort. Wish there was an easy way to identify when when of these scrubs is going to go off on a given night. Of course you know when I pick him, it will be back to single digits once again. This is so entirely frustrating.
Horrible picks on the night: Complete wastes of space: Andrew Bogus (4 PRA), David Lee (hardly any playing time excuse, 5 PRA), brick machine normally Andre Iguodala (9 PRA), however tonight he decided not to shoot the ball at all and brick his only free throws, and Terrence Jones (10 PRA), among other hideous picks etc.
Terrence Jones' 10 PRA at 14% owned is the real bust. Maybe he rectifies that in G2 if Howard sits?
DeleteAndrew Bogus?
DeleteI swear I didn't do that on purpose, just a typo. But looking at it now, it is kind of funny, if you think about it.
2m$ bonus for being all-defense 2nd team... not funny. i won't earn that being an employee. gotta get a biz going hmm
DeleteInteresting to see if Howard plays in G2. Would either use Jones, Smith, Clint or Bogut.
ReplyDeleteCavs: All available
DeleteHawks: Teague
Rockets: Harden, Ariza, Howard
Warriors: Barnes
I have no clue who to pick yet. With injuries to Irving, Shumpert, Lebron, Love and Thompson I cannot see the Cavs moved on to the next round even with a rookie coach.
jones and clint had additional minutes with howard out but they still underperformed. i like the smith pick though.
DeleteTonight is completely impossible. Atlanta is at home and won the season series with Cleveland 3-1, winning both home games and a road game. Still Cleveland is always dangerous as LeBron is better than mostly any other player and is easily capable of stealing a road game or carrying his team to victory all on his own. Also Atlanta didn't exactly dominate either the Wizards or the Nets in their first two series of the 2015 Playoffs. So on paper this looks like anyone's series to win. Because of that fact, don't really know which way to go with this, pick Hawks or pick Cavs, which team will be the one moving to the next round? Can't really afford to make any more mistakes, although I am sure there will be more to come.
ReplyDeleteFor tonight I will pick Kyle Korver of the Atlanta Hawks. Korver has been downright horrible lately, and I can't say I am enthralled to pick him at all, but since I have to pick him sometime it is best to do so at home. I certainly want no part of having to pick him on the road, and if his struggles continue, he may very well find himself camped on the bench, and someone else playing in his place. So now is as good time as any to pick Kyle Korver, and if he somehow cracks the 20+ plateau, I would be ecstatic with that, as I am expecting far less than that. Still at this point Korver is the most expendable player, as we see a game to see how this series will play out.
Korver is due for sweet shooting, but don't you want to see the shots falling before you pick him?
DeleteI just don't want to mess up any more and pick someone crucial that I am going to need for the next round. I want to at least make one solid attempt at winning one of the round's prizes this year. And the 4th round is usually the easiest to do that in, if you keep you rosters heading into it intact with your best players. Just need to get really, really lucky. So that means not likely to happen.
DeleteIn all honesty though, I really don't want to pick Korver at all. He is putting in scrub-like performances night after night.
Today Teague but I also have Horford. Taong, When I should use him?
ReplyDeleteHorford in G2 if Cavs steal G1.
DeleteOtherwise, pick him in elimination game.
Uh oh, it looks like DeMarre Carroll hurt his left knee. What's worse is that he hurt it while driving to the lane. SMH for those who haven't picked him yet (including me). Hopefully, he gets back to play in G2
ReplyDeletejust bad luck for him and his pickers in G1. seems like strain type of injury, he should be back later this series
DeleteTime to use Korver in G2. Or even Mike Scott could start.
Deleteafter Carroll went to the locker room, Bazemore was inserted in the lineup. He responded well and his defensive ability could open up to more minutes. Picking between him, Horford or Schroder in G2
DeleteWould any of you like to take a guess who I took tonight? The boxscore gives it away, remember what my natural luck is like before guessing.
ReplyDeleteI guest you took Carroll?
DeleteElton Brand? You can't get much worse than Elton Brand.
DeleteJ.R Swish ?
DeleteI just saw the play-by-play. I wanted to ask you if you took Carroll and jinxed him for me? If I had known that beforehand, I would have switched to J.R. Smith.
DeleteNah, just kidding, I never would have picked the guy with the hot hand. But I did pick Carroll. Too bad.