Welcome back to the Flashy Stats Fantasy Podcast! We come to you today after a months-long hiatus with our unfiltered (after all, season two of FSFP is edit-free, so our takes are right off the dome) thoughts on the top prospects for the 2021 NBA draft. Following where we think players will land in the draft, we talk through the following upcoming rookies:

1. Cade Cunningham

2. Jalen Green

3. Evan Mobley

4. Jalen Suggs

5. Jonathan Kuminga

6. Scottie Barnes

7. Davion Mitchell

8. James Bouknight

9. Moses Moody

10. Keon Johnson

We talk on some other players with rising draft stock coming out of the NBA combine and NCAA tournament like Ziaire Williams (who, by the way, did not get into a train crash… you’ll see once you listen to the episode), Tre Mann, and Jalen Johnson, as well as other prospects that we’re not huge fans of, such as Franz Wagner, Josh Giddey, and for some, Kai Jones.

We answer the burning questions going into the 2021 Draft: Should the Houston Rockets pair Evan Mobley with Christian Wood, or create a high-scoring, soup throwing backcourt by pairing Jalen Green with Kevin Porter Jr.? Is it worth it for the Oklahoma City Thunder to take Scottie Barnes at 6, or do they look for a backcourt mate for Shai Gilgeous-Alexander like Mitchell or Moody? Do the Orlando Magic take Kuminga at 5 and the best available guard at 8th, take two guards at 5 and 8, or even trade up with the Cavaliers? Who is the most NBA-ready player for the Golden State Warriors to add at 7? Is Troy Weaver the G.O.A.T. (spoiler alert: yes)? All this and much more comes with the inaugural episode of FSFP season two. We hope that you enjoy the listen!

Oh, elephant in the room – we will be touching on the NBA Playoffs in a future episode. This has been a super exciting playoffs despite all of the injuries to stars like Giannis, Trae Young, Kawhi Leonard, James Harden… well, mostly everyone… and after we know which teams are in the Finals (hopefully after tonight – Go Bucks), we’ll recap the playoffs and all of its fantasy basketball implications. Until then, enjoy this episode, and we’ll be back next week!

In today’s episode of the Flashy Stats Fantasy Podcast, we discuss and debate the latest news and trends in the world of fantasy basketball and the NBA.

We have created a template, splitting the episode into four unique segments, that will remain relatively similar for each week of the rest of the fantasy season – let us know if you have any ideas or criticism for how we can improve this format going forward!

Current news events:

• Derrick Rose was traded to the Knicks from the Pistons for Dennis Smith Jr. and a pick – whose value will this affect? (Immanuel Quickley, Elfrid Payton)
  
• Free KD! – Kevin Durant under COVID protocol while the rest of the Nets team continues to play + potential fantasy replacements for KD
  
• Injuries to: Christian Wood, Larry Nance Jr., Marcus Smart, Lamarcus Aldridge, OG Anunoby, Deandre Hunter – Players whose value will be impacted by these injuries + who to keep on your team and who you can drop
  

Re-cap of last week’s games:

• Tyrese Haliburton and LaMelo Ball (now a starter) headline the Rookie of the Year conversation with great weeks
  
• Ridiculous performances by Steph Curry, both Nikola’s (Vucevic and Jokic), Fred Vanvleet, and… Kelly Oubre? Am I reading this thing right?
  
• Pascal Siakam aka Spicy P becomes Jalapeño P with a great week
  
• Stormin’ Norman Powell keeps rollin’
  
• “PWilly” Patrick Williams is the love of Giuseppe’s life (can he get Mike on board the PWilly train? Coming after this commercial break)
  
• Gary Trent Jr. and Thaddeus Young enter fantasy relevance due to key injuries on the Trail Blazers and Bulls
  
• Draymond Green continues to make his last name ironic by getting every fantasy stat but points + the weirdest stat line of all time?
  

Predictions for next week and beyond:

• That’s why they call him Chris Boucher (he’s back)
  
• Someone’s gotta step up on the Orlando Magic – 4/5 starters injured (Free Vuc) – Chuma Okeke, Dwayne Bacon, Mo Bamba?
  
• All those players people have been picking up in Memphis are going to lose their value as the team gets healthier
  
• Vince triples down on his take that Michael Porter Jr. is overrated for fantasy
  
• Buy low on Seth Curry
  
• Joe Harris stock is going to the moon
  
• It may be time to drop Immanuel Quickley soon
  

Potential pick-ups and advice to win your week:

• Jakob Poeltl
  
• Patrick Williams
  
• Stash Caris Levert, pair with Jeremy Lamb
  
• Ride the wave of Anthony Edwards and Eric Gordon
  
• Pick up Kyle Anderson, drop Dillon Brooks (unless you don’t care about FG%)
  
• Leave Justin Holiday and Cody Zeller on the waivers
  
• T.J. McConnell is an excellent steals and assists streamer
  
• Hamidou it – with SGA and Maledon out, it’s Diallo’s backcourt now!
  

Welcome back to the Flashy Stats Fantasy Podcast, where apparently we now talk about Luke Kennard in every episode. This week, we are coming at you with three different segments for discussion and debate. As promised, please find timestamps below for each of these:

(2:26) We start out with our recurring Guess That Player segment, one of our personal favorites and probably the funniest part of the episode. Each of us gives 5 hints about an NBA player that we are thinking of, mostly rooted in fantasy basketball stats and other interesting tidbits about the person, and the other three guys get 3 official guesses to determine who the player is. I won’t spoil who any of the players are here, but suffice to say that in the course of the first 15 minutes of this episode, we will both surprise you with our random knowledge and baffle you with our lack of common knowledge of NBA team rosters.

(19:07) After Guess That Player, we dive into the fantasy basketball winners and losers of the blockbuster trade that sent James Harden from the Houston Rockets to the Brooklyn Nets. Again, I won’t spoil who the winners and losers are here (except the most obvious winner – any strip club within 50 miles of the Barclays Center), but the players and teams that we talked about for this segment are:

The impact on Kevin Durant – James Harden – Kyrie Irving – Deandre Jordan – Joe Harris on the Brooklyn Nets

Caris Levert -> Indiana Pacers

Victor Oladipo -> Houston Rockets

Jarrett Allen (and, in turn, Andre Drummond) -> Cleveland Cavaliers

Everyone on the Rockets, mostly Christian Wood and John Wall, where about 20 shots a game just opened up

And in classic FSFP form, we got off track multiple times, including a point where we were debating whether the Pistons should pick up Kevin Porter Jr. after he set a franchise record for the Cavs, previously set by J.R. Smith, for biggest tantrum thrown during practice. We talked about players that you should trade, trade for, buy low, sell high, etc. as a result of this trade.

And lastly, we finished off the episode with 5 players to add (38:35) and 5 players to drop (47:31) at this point in the fantasy basketball season. And, for some bonus content, Vince found a way to connect all of our droppable players' struggles to our newest apparent punching bag, Luke Douglas Kennard.

Oh, as mentioned in the last episode, this recording happened about a week before our publishing date (hence why we discussed the Harden trade as if it just happened), so if you notice that a couple of these takes are outdated, we apologize for that and promise that it will be resolved soon!

Five players to add:

Deandre Jordan – Brooklyn Nets

Enes Kanter – Portland Trail Blazers (if still available)

Wendell Carter Jr. – Chicago Bulls (once he returns from injury)

Cedi Osman – Cleveland Cavaliers

Cam Reddish – Atlanta Hawks

Drop:

Anthony Edwards – Minnesota Timberwolves

Obi Toppin – New York Knicks

Austin Rivers – New York Knicks

Darius Bazley – Oklahoma City Thunder

Lou Williams aka Lemon Pepper Lou – Los Angeles Clippers

If you enjoyed this episode, please make sure to subscribe to the podcast below to be notified for future episodes. If you want to send us constructive criticism, episode ideas, or just chat, you can reach us on Twitter @FlashyStatsPod, on Instagram @flashystatsfantasysports, and on email at flashystatspod@gmail.com.