Fantasy Notebook: Bigs(by) Goes Down

For all of you Dwight Howard fans out there — yes, all four of you — this season is starting to look pretty unfair. After starting out the season looking as healthy and as dominant as he has since he forced his way from Mickey’s white-gloved grasp, Howard now hasn’t played in three weeks and according to his coach, Kevin McHale, “won’t be back anytime soon” after receiving plasma treatment (a.k.a. the Kobe Special) on his injured knee.

Unfair for Howard fans, sure, but even more so for Howard fantasy owners because… well, at least, we know there are a good many of those.

What Fantasy owners are to do with Howard, though, is a bit tricky since there’s been no timetable for his recovery. If you have an IR option in your league, though, by this point it seems worth giving Howard a stay on it, perhaps picking up Howard’s Houston teammate Dontas Motiejunas for the interim. In the absence of both Howard and Terrence Jones in the Rockets front court, Motiejunas has been averaging 13.1 points and seven rebounds a game on 56.4% from the field over his last 10. Those numbers are even better over his last four games (16 points/8 rebounds) and he’s only owned by 13.6% of ESPN leagues.

The other Western Conference big man whose health threw a wrench into many a fantasy team this past week is Sacramento Kings center DeMarcus Cousins.

Cousins, who was playing the best basketball of his career for a surprisingly plucky Kings squad, has been ruled out for this week. What was first reported as an “illness,” then a “virus,” has finally been identified as viral meningitis. The recovery period for viral meningitis is listed as one to two weeks so, barring any setbacks, NBA fans, fantasy owners, and just good, empathic human beings should expect Cousins to be back on the court sometime in the next week or so.

In Cousins’s absence, former Cavalier Ryan Hollins has seen his playing time increase, though not so much (just 4.3 point/1.9 rebounds) to cause anyone to strain his/her index finger rushing to click the “add player” button. Same for starting power forward Jason Thompson (6.5/6.7) and former number two overall pick Derrick Williams. Better to add Chris Kaman’s 10.8/6.8 (though be very afraid of that 43.8% FG), who is only owned in 13.1% of ESPN leagues, and hope for the best — and for a speedy Cousins recovery.

CtFL Update:

Just like in the real NBA, no Cavs: The Fantasy League championship is won in December. This is the time when you want your team to fight and scrap their way to a couple more winning categories, to keep the season from completely tipping and toppling over on you.

This week did not feature a CtFL staple — a token blow-out win by David Wood’s Team Alex Dirk — but, instead saw Wood’s squad locked in a key early-season match-up against the league’s number two club (and recent recipient of the Kevin Durant Stimulus Package), Cory Hughey’s Team Iron Sheiks.

This hard fought win was typical CtFL fair for this week. No needle swung to wildly and Wood’s crew maintained their “first quarter of the season champion” pace. Again, nothing is decided in December, but everyone in CtFL now knows you don’t shirk on Team Alex Dirk!

As for our weekly winners, the commissioner will speak of himself in the third person for just as long as it takes him to bestow the laurels of this week’s victory on Team Waiters Invaders, who rolled the dice with an iffy K.J. McDaniels pickup and endured a week where LeBron James shot something like 7.5% from the field (at least, it seemed like it) to notch one of the week’s top lines against the law firm of Team Krolik, Krolik & Krolik. Good work, Team Waiters!

The week’s other top line goes to the winner of the Giannis Antetokounmpo Award for team name I least like having to spell, Ben Werth’s Team The Deutschiest.

Mallory Factor’s Team The Factors Of Love, still trying very much to remain a factor, might soon be inclined to change his name to something more fitting. You like music, right Mal?