Angle Fantasy Basketball

Finally! James Harden got his way and has been traded. An interesting list I encourage you to view is the players that have had to find new homes due to a James Harden trade demand. We discuss a former all star that is very much missed by yours truly. As well as a mystery on 2022 draft night that is turning out to be a genius move. In some quick NCAA news, Cooper Flagg has committed to Duke! Shocker, right? What I do love about this is the #1 recruit in 2023 and in 2024 will be playing in the NCAA, and more importantly, March Madness. Welcome to another edition of A New Angle!

Hardly Knew Ya

As I mentioned in Ep.1 of the Angle Fantasy Basketball Podcast, James Harden would either be traded prior to week 3 or there will be no trade until the last moment of the deadline. Luckily the former has happened, and now we no longer need to hear about Harden trade drama all season. Surely the media will now shift its attention to how the Clippers manage to make this all fit. This now marks the 3rd time Harden and Russell Westbrook team up. It is interesting to note that both players have had good regular seasons and playoff runs when playing together previously. The Clippers are unique in that all 4 of their stars come from Southern California and played college ball for a West Coast school. Harden being the only one to make it out of Cali for college, albeit not very far. 

For fantasy implications this may increase the value of Kelly Oubre. Maxey, Melton, Oubre, Tobias, Embiid has been the closing lineup of choice for Philly and may very well become the starting lineup now. It was exciting for Paul Reed to see Harden AND PJ Tucker shipped out. Only to have that ruined by a plethora of power forwards arriving in exchange. The frontcourt rotation (aside from Embiid) is the only tricky part to figure out. The guard rotation with Maxey and Melton will see no change. The Clippers, however, do see an impact on their guard rotation. Terance Mann and Bones Hyland take a hit in value. As does Westbrook. Coach Lue has a lot to figure out with this nightly rotation. At least he got to keep Terance Mann, right?

I Miss You, Man

Throughout high school one of my favorite basketball players in the world was John Wall! I recently thought about why he is not on an NBA roster and if we have seen his final days on the hardwood. It has flooded me with memories of watching what was an idol to myself and many other young basketball players. That Kentucky team Wall was a part of was special. They single handedly started the two-tone shooters sleeve (where did that go by the way?!) and had a starting 5 that produced three starting caliber NBA players and one solid bench player. Wall had it all: talent, athleticism, good looks, honors GPA, and a killer dougie. He spearheaded the revival of Reebok into the NBA shoe game with the infamous Zig-Tech. Wall had all the makings of a global NBA superstar. What started as a rock solid first 7 years of a career (and 1st round fantasy value during this time) was completely derailed by injuries. These stories always hurt the worst because Wall didn’t get into trouble or do something stupid, his body just fell apart on him. Wall is now 32 years old, so the high flying speedster that once was is no longer there. We lost Wall for much of his athletic prime between age 26-30. I often wonder what could’ve been had he been active during that time?

International Man of Mystery

The above title was a nickname bestowed upon Shaedon Sharpe on the night he was picked 7th overall in the NBA draft to the Portland Trail Blazers. After leaving highschool early to basically run practice with Kentucky for a semester many did not know exactly what Sharpe was going to bring to the table. His first season was largely uneventful until the famed “silly season” saw Sharpe thrust into a larger role while Portland nosedived for an improved draft pick. What he showed during that time has largely carried over to the beginning of his 2nd season. Here are his numbers after 4 games:

2.3 3pt

18.0pts

5.3reb

2.5ast

1.0stl

.5blk

2.5to

Vast improvements across the board has made Sharpe an absolute steal for any dynasty managers that traded for him over the summer and for any redraft managers that took him in the mid 100s. The trio of Sharpe, Scoot and Simons in Portland will be very fun to watch for a long time!