The most added player in ESPN standard leagues has had quite the path to relevance. Once upon a time, current Golden State Warriors swingman Damion Lee was the top player for the Drexel Dragons, scoring and shooting in obscurity in the Colonial Athletic Association. Then he transferred to the well-known Louisville program to play for a year under the renowned Rick Pitino, but it could not get him drafted. Then he played for the Maine Red Claws and Santa Cruz Warriors, finally piquing the interest of NBA teams. The Atlanta Hawks gave him a mild chance and then the Warriors. Few seemed to notice.
On Monday, Lee scored a mere eight points in a loss at Sacramento but the real news was the postgame waiving of his teammate Marquese Chriss, because that cleared a roster spot for the rest of the season for Lee, now 27 and suddenly teeming with promise. What a ride.
Lee might not become a legit fantasy star, but, again, he is the lone player who has seen his roster percentage rise more than 10% in the past seven days, thanks to three games with at least 20 points in the past three weeks. We watched the star-less Warriors in fantasy looking for the proverbial diamonds in the rough and we quickly tired of Eric Paschall, Ky Bowman and Chriss, for good reason.
Perhaps Lee will suffer the same fate, but in his 11 starts, he averages 14.5 PPG, 7.3 RPG and intriguing steals, 3-pointers and free-throw shooting. We keep saying someone has to score for this lottery team. With overrated D'Angelo Russell regularly sitting out games, Alec Burks and Lee have enticed us. Lee is available in more leagues.
It might seem odd for the Warriors to release Chriss, the No. 8 pick in the 2016 NBA draft, mere minutes after he was averaging 15 minutes off the bench so they can keep the undrafted and considerably older (by five years) Lee, but in an oft-misunderstood NBA world of guaranteed and non-guaranteed contracts and repercussions, the Warriors had few options. They wanted to make room to keep Lee and it is a great sign that they did so. Do not worry about Chriss. He will quickly find work somewhere else, but he is a reminder that myriad lottery picks fail to pan out. It is nice to see an undrafted player rise to relevance.
Sure, Lee missed most of his 11 field goal attempts against the Kings, but he grabbed five rebounds, which he has done in 10 of 11 games, made a few steals and, really, the minutes are key. The Warriors must play another half this lost season with no sign of Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson suiting up, and only partial interest from Russell and Draymond Green. Someone has to play. Lee has a good chance at remaining relevant and keeping a key bench role in the fall when everyone else returns.
Here are some other NBA-related thoughts on this fine January morning.
I cannot recall a season in which so many players simply sat out so many games, often with little to no warning. Similarly, the term "day-to-day" seems to mean little. Yes, I kept Minnesota Timberwolves star Karl-Anthony Towns in my active weekly lineup each of the past four weeks. Hey, I thought he was day-to-day, not week-to-week. Even the team reporters seemed optimistic he would play the next game. He has missed 10 of them. Perhaps he plays Tuesday, or perhaps he misses four more Tuesdays. What a drag. I know he hurt his knee. Would it kill the franchise to inform the world he will miss four-to-six weeks? Towns missed nary a game his first three seasons, and only five last year. Now he is like the other stars, Kawhi Leonard and Joel Embiid, and many others. It is sad.
In a related story, Gorgui Dieng averages 13.8 PPG, 9.5 RPG and solid shooting as a Minnesota starter. The minutes are always the thing, folks.
Detroit Pistons forward Blake Griffin has a knee injury and his next minutes might be in October, with season-ending surgery a possibility. Griffin has played terribly this season, hitting a sad 35% of his field goal attempts and averaging 4.7 boards per night, so we knew he was hurt. Yeah, I would drop him now, even for Sekou Doumbouya, his likely replacement with 37 points and 26 boards the past three games. The Pistons are going nowhere and Andre Drummond could be averaging 20 and 20 for another team any minute now. Griffin has played in more than 61 games in one of the past five seasons, so think about that when you foolishly convince yourself he is worth your fifth-round selection in October.
Yeah, I fell for the Gary Payton II thing a few weeks ago. The Washington Wizards gave him a chance and Payton, like his father once upon a time, racked up the steals early on, with six in two of three games. He has two steals total in the past four games, even working as a starter. I thought there was a chance for big point-guard numbers, but nah, it is more Ish Smith again.
Let us be positive for a minute: Lonzo Ball suddenly can shoot. I know it sounds crazy and the numbers on the back of his basketball card offer few hints of this, but Ball -- sans any warning at all -- has scored more than 20 points in each of his past four games, hitting 37 of 69 field goal attempts. Prior to the Dec. 29 game, Ball missed a ton of shots and could barely score in double-digits. What changed? His shot looked the same to me on Monday night versus Utah, but amazingly enough it was going in. He is actually taking more 3-point shots, a lot more. It does not make sense. OK, back to negativity: I do not buy it. Not saying I would sell quickly in a trade, but, yeah, I am skeptical that this shooting will continue. Prove it longer.
I have seen few updates on Jazz point guard Mike Conley, who hurt his hamstring and then hurt it again, and I wonder if the team just does not care anymore. Joe Ingles did nothing in fantasy through Thanksgiving. Fantasy managers moved on, rightly so. Ingles is No. 16 on the 30-day Player Rater, averaging 14.1 PPG, 4.4 RPG, 5.9 APG, awesome shooting and a trio of 3-pointers per game as a starter. He is ridiculous now. I wish I had drafted Ingles instead of Conley. Oh well, at least the Jazz do not list Conley as day-to-day, like the Wolves with Towns.
I will remind eager fantasy managers of this come September, but when a player is injured and you think he could return in December, think again. The Pelicans are in no hurry to push rookie Zion Williamson. I thought he would debut in January, and now I am skeptical of that. In redraft leagues, I would consider moving on. I doubt he ever plays on back-to-back days this season. The Pelicans are not winning the West. The Pacers could win the East and they will be patient with Victor Oladipo. This happens every season. Stashing long-term injury options in redraft formats never makes sense.
Charlotte Hornets point guard Devonte' Graham looks like a star in his second season, as his 19.1 PPG and 7.8 APG shine. He also shoots 38% from the field, missing double-digit field goals in more than half his games over the past month and showing no signs of this changing. Graham is great, but that shooting can kill a fantasy team and I avoided it for a reason. My colleague Andre Snellings recently wrote about fixing your percentages -- check out his Friday videos as well! -- and to me the best way to do so is not only by adding good shooters, but shedding the awful ones.