* I got burned by Marcus Thornton when he lost his starting job in New Orleans and of course didn't have him for his second half redemption act with the Kings. I figured that if I drafted him, he would return to sucking. Since he's not on my team, it figures that he's already lighting it up. 9 for 13 from the field, 5 for 5 from the line, 4 3s, 27 pts, 5 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 steal. That's one hell of a debut for the Kings. I could have taken Thornton at #62 overall in my draft (6th round) but instead opted for Wesley Matthews. It now appears that Thornton and Harden would have been better choices, even though ESPN had Matthews ahead of both.
* The Mavericks had no answer for Ty Lawson last night. And Nowitzki is right -- they have looked out of shape and old. Kidd (4 3s, 12 pts, 3 rebounds, 4 assists) and Nowitzki (7/14, 6/6, 20 pts, 4 rebounds) were reasonably productive through three quarters but sat out the entire fourth quarter in a blowout loss to the Nuggets. Blowout games are the last thing you want as a GM.
* DeJuan Blair got in early foul trouble against the Grizzlies and was never a factor.
* Spencer Hawes, how awful will you be in game 2? If game 1 is any indication (10 pts, 14 rebounds, 9 assists, 2 steals, 1 block in 39 minutes), you'll go 0 for 4 and foul out in 7 minutes.
* Ramon Sessions was great last night (18 pts, 4 rebounds, 6 assists in only 22 minutes) and even hit two 3s. Doesn't Kyrie Irving seem like the type of player who would have a debilitating injury during his rookie year and then be a fantastic player by his third season? Just a hunch here ...
* While Jared Dudley did not have a great night from the field (3 for 11), he was on the court more than any other Suns player (35 minutes). Shannon Brown was 1 for 8 from the field in 20 minutes of action.
* Recently waived players in our league (in order of ownership level): Charlie Villanueva (71% ... Can Jerebko keep Charlie out of the starting lineup? And does a platoon kill the value of both players?), George Hill (62%), DeJuan Blair (52%), Ramon Sessions (50% ... obviously happened before last night, due to the news that Irving was starting), Brendan Haywood (12%), Gary Neal (12%), Josh McRoberts (10%).
* Nice start to the year for Luol Deng, who cracks the top 25 in season avg (I know this is relatively meaningless through two games -- no need to comment). Deng averaged a career high 1.4 3s last season (0.5 for his career) and fantasy GMs can only hope he'll keep it up -- even though he's not a particularly effective three point shooter (.345 last season and .326 for his career) and it's not in the team's interest. I'd expect his field goal attempts to ultimately be around 14 per game again. Richard Hamilton should shoot more than last year's collection of off guards (essentially the substitution of Hamilton for Bogans, with Korver and Brewer taking a backseat) but I'd expect the losses to be shared by all four Bull starters (Rose, Deng, Boozer, Noah). If it's only 2 shots more, that's negligible. Hamilton has been quiet thus far -- only 16 points and 20 shots through two games -- but I expect him to be a 13-15 ppg scorer for this team. His impact on other Bull starters is the only thing to watch here -- a shooting guard who doesn't hit 3s is rarely valuable.
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