🏀 Remembering a Spurs Great, Welcoming a New One? CP3's Second Unit - 10/25/23

Welcome to “Hoop’d There It Is” - Your DAILY 5-6 min Dive into all things NBA. We’re trying out different sub-headers until we find the perfect one, and I need to submit this edition soon. 🏀

Who I’m Watching for Tonight (10/25/23)

• In the actual NBA: Victor Wembanyama. I think this is a no-brainer; he’s the most anticipated prospect since LeBron, and he looked great in pre-season. But tonight is the real deal—it's not preseason anymore. He’s must-see TV. 📺 Plus, he’s playing against the Mavs at 9:30 PM EST, so we get to see Luka too.

• In my Hoop’d/FD fantasy game: I'm excluding Wemby from this section because he would be my choice here too. My pick is Ben Simmons. I’ve read that he had good preseason activity and I caught a few highlights (I don’t really watch preseason basketball, sorry 🤷‍♂️). At $6100 (on Hoop’d), if he produces anything close to 10/8/8 with 2 steals and a couple of turnovers, then that’s roughly 35 HDP/FDP points. 📈

What Stood Out to Me Last Night (10/24/23):

CP3 with the second unit, despite the loss, looked good. It showed glimpses of the structure they lacked when Poole was initiating the offense.

Lest we forget, CP3 in 2018 was lethal with the Rockets' second unit. They would routinely run teams off the floor with a good mix of shooting and defensive athleticism, all orchestrated by CP3 running the show.

This article by ESPN’s Tim MacMahon does a great job of highlighting what it felt like during that season. 📰

Considering the Warriors lost the game despite Draymond not playing, CP3 going 4-15, Klay going 6-18, Steph going 8-20, and even Wiggins only going 4-12... The Warriors shot 35% for the game and 23% from three and lost by only 4 to a superior Suns team. That’s solid. 👍

I think he will make Moody better, take pressure off GP2 greatly and develop good chemistry with Kuminga to make the Warriors bench a strength this season.

Random NBA Thought: 

The biggest narrative on TV was around AD coming up short in the second half, scoring zero points in what was at times a close game. My thoughts on this? Besides the obvious— that it's only game 1 of the season—I’m never surprised by this with AD anymore.

That’s just kinda the player that he is. I wouldn’t be surprised if AD had 40/20 next game, dominating the painted area as the most impactful defender in the league. Conversely, I also wouldn’t be shocked by a rather uninspired 17/8 performance in the next game either.

"Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me," right? The point is, AD is who he is. He’s inconsistent. But for the most part, he’s still pretty damn good.

Then, I watched the GS game and thought Klay Thompson is another guy like this for me. I wouldn’t be surprised if this dude scored 44 on 17-25 shooting in one game and then goes for 8 points on 3-16 shooting in the next.

It got me thinking - who else is like this? Can I build a starting lineup out of it?

So, that’s what I did. Here’s my “If You Can’t Handle Me at My WORSTbrook, Then You Don’t Deserve Me at My BESTbrook” team.

I think Westbrook and Harden are pretty obvious. They're so obvious, in fact, that I moved Klay to SF just to include them. Both guys, for different reasons, make me go “I wouldn’t be surprised if either had 35+/10+ assists in any game. But also, Westbrook could be completely inefficient and take teams out of their rhythm, or Harden could just completely disappear.” 🏀

Classic Old School FD Score Memory: 

Now that you have an idea of how the fantasy scoring works per player (if you’ve taken a look at the updated scores on FD/HPD), here’s another old-school throwback stat line. This time, it's to The Admiral, David Robinson, back in 1994. 📜

Learn more about our fantasy game we’re building at hoopdfantasy.com