NBA Youth Movement

With the NBA ratings dwindling  rapidly, this is a great time for another sport to try and make the leap into the power slot that football has owned in recent years.

The NBA has received some scrutiny recently with players taking games off, enforcing minute restrictions, constant complaining over foul and non-foul calls, and the ever increasing salaries and ticket prices.

Just when the status of the league is being brought into question, there is an exciting youth movement making its way to the forefront.

Veteran players like LeBron James, Steph Curry, and Kevin Durant have been showcased in the NBA Finals each year and Russell Westbrook did the unthinkable last season by averaging a triple double but there is an influx of talent making their way onto the scene and grabbing everyone's attention.

Giannis Antetokounmpo, also known as the "Greek Freak", burst onto the scene last year and has come out of the gate full speed ahead so far in 2017.

Through four games this year the 22 year old Giannis is averaging nearly 37 points per game, 10.8 rebounds per game, 5 assists, a block and 2 steals.

The Philadelphia 76ers spent a couple years doing all that they could to tank their season(s) so that they could increase their chances of obtaining the #1 draft pick in order to rebuild their franchise.

This strategy worked according to plan and landed them cornerstones Joel Embiid, Ben Simmons and Markelle Fultz. 

Embiid, who has been playing on a minutes limit, has flashed moments of brilliance and shown that he can be a dominant big man when healthy.

Fultz is battling a shoulder injury which has hampered his shooting ability and prevented fans from seeing his full ability so far this season.  At 19 years old, he has plenty of time to grow into the player many expected him to be when taking him #1 in the 2017 NBA draft.

Ben Simmons sat out the entire season after being selected #1 in the 2016 NBA draft due to a foot injury suffered in a training camp scrimmage.

Simmons burst onto the scene by scoring 18 pts, grabbing 10 rebounds, and dishing out 5 assists in his regular season debut.  The 6' 10" 21 year old point guard smashed the Detroit Pistons on October 23rd as he put up his first career triple double (21 pts, 12 rebounds, 10 assists) to help lead Philadelphia to their first win of the season.

The much talked about team, who urged fans to "trust the process" while going through some miserable losing seasons, are now in position to reap the benefits while putting out a very entertaining squad.

Speaking of "much talked about", the eccentric LaVar Ball yelled, screamed, and hollered to everyone that would listen that his son Lonzo should be the first pick in the draft and any team that passed on him would be a fool.

LaVar became such a media presence that Lonzo had a spotlight on him before he ever stepped foot on the NBA floor.

After being drafted by the Lakers, the media circus just grew larger as now the circus that followed Lonzo was heading to Los Angeles.

With all of this pressure on his shoulders, the  19 year old Ball did not disappoint.

Playing with a fast paced, pass first mentality, Lonzo has brought the "showtime" back to the Lakers.

After three games of his rookie season, Lonzo is averaging 13 points, 9 rebounds and nearly 9 assists per game.

He, along with the 2016 NBA Draft's #2 pick in 20 year old Brandon Ingram, has made the Lakers games "can't miss" as you never know what creative and amazing play they will make next.

Beyond the above mentioned players, there are guys like the Kings' De'Aaron Fox (19 years old) and Buddy Hield (23 years old), Boston's Jayson Tatum (19 years old), Brooklyn's D'Angelo Russell (21 years old), Denver's Nikola Jokic (22 years old) and Jamal Murray (20 years old), Minnesota's Karl Anthony-Towns (21 years old) and Andrew Wiggins (22 years old), New Orleans' Anthony Davis (24 years old), Suns' Devin Booker and Josh Jackson (both 20 years old), and
New York's Kristaps Porzingis (22 years old).

This list only scratches the surface of the plethora of young talent in the league that are looking to become the next "face of the NBA".

They are young, they are hungry and they can ball.

It is an exciting time to be a fan of the NBA and there is a chance that they could sneak up on the NFL in the very near future.

NBA DFS Draft Kings Building Blocks 10/21

Good morning everyone!

I know it is early, and a lot can change before it is time to really start locking in your lineups, but with it being a beautiful Saturday here in the bluegrass state, I wanted to go ahead and get some thoughts down in print before heading out to get some things done around the house.

Today I am going to give you three building blocks to focus a roster around for your NBA DFS teams.

Pricing and focus will be on the Draft Kings model:

High End Player

There are loads of options at the top tier tonight as we see 4 players $10,000 and higher, including a rested James Harden playing without CP3 who could miss up to a month with his knee injury.

My focus, however, will be on the Center position and the Nuggets Nikola Jokic for $9300.

Jokic is coming off of a pretty poor match up in a pace down game vs Rudy Gobert and the Utah Jazz.

Shooting a pretty pedestrian 3-10 from the field,  playing in a poor match up, Jokic still managed to give owners 32.5 DK pts as he just missed a triple double scoring 7 points, grabbing 12  rebounds, and handing out 8 assists.

Tonight the Nuggets take on the Sacramento Kings who will be playing their 3rd game in 4 nights, all of which have been on the road.

Kings' starting center, Zach Randolph, played 30 minutes in last nights bruising match up with the Dallas Mavericks so I would expect him to get some rest tonight, leaving Cauley-Stein and Labissiere to try and handle the versatile Jokic.

In the Kings' opening night match up, playing without Randolph, Houston big man Clint Capella put up 22 pts and grabbed 17 rebounds and he isn't any where near the same level a player as Jokic can be.

I will be locking Jokic into almost all of my lineups tonight as my high dollar building block.

Upper-Mid Price

I'm going a little above what I originally planned for the 'mid-tier' player here but there is almost no way I am having a team tonight without Spurs' PF/C LaMarcus Aldridge ($7,700 DK).

Aldridge's usage over the last two seasons when Kawhi Leonard is out goes up approximately 31% as he becomes the #1 option on offense.

If you like to play the narrative game, like so many DFS players do, LaMarcus was drafted #2 overall by the Bulls back in 2006 before a lop-sided trade sent him to the Portland Trailblazers.

Since then, in 21 games vs the Bulls, LMA has averaged nearly 21 points to go with 8.6 rebounds per game.

Chicago, coming off of a 117-100 loss to the Raptors, are currently running out one of the worst units in the league, so there is always the scare of a blowout.   The good news about a potential lopsided game is that we can expect Aldridge to have quite a strong stat line if the Spurs go up big.

There will be plenty of value plays available tonight so you should be able to play a couple fairly expensive players my teams will start with Jokic and LMA.

Under $6k player

I debated and debated about who I wanted here, as I will be sprinkling a number of under $6k guys in my lineup tonight but, without going into all of them, I want to focus on just one in particular:

JJ Barea, Dallas, $4,200

With Dennis Smith, Seth Curry, and Devin Harris all missing tonight, JJ will look to build off of last night's 29.25 FP effort.

The Mavericks are playing their 3rd game in 4 nights, but JJ saw the court for only 18 minutes on opening night, scoring 25.75 DK pts and then managed 29.25 DK pts last night while shooting just 4-14.

In a major pace-up game for Dallas, taking on Houston, JJ will look to pick up right where he left off.  With Patrick Beverley no longer in HOU, and CP3 sidelined, Houston really struggles to guard the PG position and Barea should have no trouble hoisting up shots during his time on the court.

His minutes increased from 18 in game 1 to 27 in game 2 and I expect him to level off around the 27-28 minute mark again tonight.

At just $4,200 I find it hard to believe that Barea gets less than 5x salary and could easily reach 7 or 8x with just a few things going his way.


There may be more value opening up late, as PHX Devin Booker is now Questionable for tonight's game but, as we saw last night with Eric Bledsoe, you can't always trust what you read about the Suns' players...

Good luck all!

2017 WWE SmackDown Hell in a Cell Preview

The build to this PPV has been quite long and, honestly, a bit underwhelming.  I have very low expectations heading into this Sunday but hopefully the WWE can find a way to under hype and over deliver for once.

PRE-SHOW

Chad Gable & Shelton Benjamin v The Hype Bros: The newly formed version of the World's Greatest Tag Team has been quite exciting to watch so far but I'm a little concerned that they've spent a lot of time showcasing Benjamin instead of Gable.  Shelton is at the tail end of his career so one would think the WWE would use him to help push along the younger Chad Gable but so far that isn't the case.  The Hype Bros have been teasing either a heel turn or a break up for the last few weeks and all signs point towards a loss here for Mojo and Ryder.  This match should be fun but will end with a clean and decisive win for Gable and Benjamin.

SKIT

Fashion Files: Instead of diving right into the actual card I figured I would take a minute and talk about the Fashion Files.  The first few "episodes" of this were exceptional and quite clever but this skit jumped the shark several weeks back.  You can only promise a conclusion to an angle and then fail to deliver so many times before people stop caring.

I have officially stopped caring.

Originally I thought this would turn out to be Harper & Rowan but rumors are now that it'll be the Authors of Pain getting their NxT call-ups.
 
Maybe this week they'll actually provide an answer to the "who done it" storyline .... or maybe the won't.  Honestly, it doesn't really matter and this is a waste of PPV space.  It really just furthers my previous point of this show being very underwhelming on paper.

Randy Orton v Rusev:  Hopefully this is a program that helps return Rusev back to the mid-title belt scene in the near future.  Orton's career is starting to wind down and this should be a great time for him to put over a young star such as Rusev.   If pushed correctly, Rusev has the look, the mic skills and the in ring work to be a great US title contender.  That being said, the WWE has proven time and time again that they love them some RKO and they have little to no interest in pushing Rusev, so I fully expect Orton to win here which would be extremely disappointing.

Bobby Roode v Dolph Ziggler:  As I stated a couple weeks back, this whole "flashy entrance" gimmick that Ziggler had been doing was clearly leading to a match up with Roode down the line.  This could easily be the match that steal the show, which is something Dolph has been known to do on PPVs over the course of his career.

Roode will win but I expect this match to be a great back and forth effort with several close pin fall attempts and some really good actual wrestling.  Ziggler, like the aforementioned Rusev, has had so many ups and downs within the company over the last few years and I fear that his best years were wasted due to injuries.   Roode is no spring chicken but the WWE seemingly believes in him at this stage in his career more than they do Dolph.

Baron Corbin v AJ Styles (c) US Title:  Typically when someone loses on the "go-home" show, like Corbin did, they win on the PPV.  I would really hate to see AJ drop the belt here but part of me thinks that they will give the belt to Corbin and return the US title to a mid-card level and then go back to pushing Styles into the main event scene.

I expect some shenanigans, I wouldn't be shocked to see Dillinger get involved but I think that somehow/someway that Corbin walks away with the title here.

Hopefully this gets the belt off of AJ and allows him to win the Royal Rumble this year and challenge the WWE champion at next year's WrestleMania.

Charlotte Flair v Natalya (c) Women's Title:  This is one of the matches on the card that I am just not sure about.  Charlotte will get the belt in the near future, without a doubt, but I just am not sure it makes much sense to take the belt off of Natalya this early into her reign.  For me, right now, this is a literal coin toss but one thing I'm sure of is they won't let Charlotte lose clean.

If Natalya retains I expect it to be by DQ or interference, likely by Carmella.  

Do I think Charlotte is the best person on SmackDown to be champ?  No.  Not at all.  That being said, with all of the rumors swirling of a Rousey v Charlotte at next year's WrestleMania then it simply makes sense for her to obtain the belt before then.  

This match, and I hope I'm wrong, will likely be one that should've been saved for a SmackDown Live show but hopefully they are able to do enough to not embarrass themselves on the PPV.

The Usos v The New Day (c) SmackDown Tag Team Titles:  This has been one of the best feuds going for the Blue Brand and this match will likely continue that trend.   These two teams doing battle inside Hell in a Cell may be something special.  

The Usos have done a fantastic job of transitioning to heels and the New Day continue to do their goofy acts that the younger fans absolutely adore.

The in-ring work between these two teams has also been quite good so it keeps the "smarks" coming back for more too.

Unfortunately, at some point, there has to be another contender for the titles and I simply don't see anyone on the current roster, other than maybe Gable/Benjamin, that could be pushed into the title scene that makes sense.

I believe the New Day retains here for a couple of reasons.   First off, the belt has bounced back and forth so much recently that they NEED to keep it on someone for a bit so that the championship can regain some integrity and meaning.  Secondly, the only team that I can think of that makes sense to enter the title picture after this show would be the former NxT champions: The Authors of Pain.

I could see the AoP destroying Breezango early in the show and then come out after the title match concludes to leave the champions laying in the middle of the ring.

Nakamura v Jinder Mahal (c) WWE Championship:  Please, please, please let this be the end of the Jinder experiment.  It's not working.  

I truly understand why they put the belt on him initially but the numbers aren't increasing as much as they'd hoped in the India markets and the fans are growing VERY tired (and bored) of Mahal.

Not only as the WWE Championship become an obsolete belt recently, but management has done such a poor job of establishing Nakamura as a star that they are really on the verge of ruining his character (see Bayley).

Nakamura NEEDS to win the belt here to help push him up to the level that he deserves and Jinder should move back down the card a little as they continue to try and get his character polished and cleaned up a bit more.

If Shinsuke does indeed win Sunday I could fully see him holding the belt until WrestleMania where he faces his New Japan foe: AJ Styles.

Shane McMahon v Kevin Owens:  There has been a lot of talk in the last week of KO getting shipped to RAW soon.

This would be a HUGE loss (and mistake) for SmackDown.

Owens is really starting to hit his stride as the heel character that he played in ROH and is showing the world just how good he can be as a "bad guy". 

In a dream world, this match plays out pretty simple.  Lots of back and forth.  Shane does something crazy.  Most importantly, Owens beats McMahon down to the point that the match has to be stopped by the official.  

After the match is called, KO continues to pummel Shane until he can no longer defend himself and the locker room empties and pulls him off.

This all leads to Tuesday night where Owens comes out and talks about getting rid of Shane, getting rid of Vince, and how the WWE is now his.

Obviously there is one part of the family left that he hasn't had to come face to face with yet.

HHH.

HHH v Owens at the Royal Rumble.

I would much rather see KO running around like SmackDown is "his show now" until he's confronted by Daniel Bryan, leading to Bryan's in-ring return, but that is starting to look like it will not happen in the WWE, so I'll settle for HHH.