Tyrese Haliburton, Jayson Tatum, LeBron James, D'Angelo Russell and Grizzlies scrubs all made it into the Dr. A's Mailbag column this week. Keep the questions coming at @docktora! Let's go.
Nine-cat league. I give up Jayson Tatum + Nikola Vucevic + Nic Claxton. I have Ayton coming back and Kessler + people who contribute boards. I get LeBron + Lillard + Scoot Henderson. Should I do it? - Lester Chu (@LesterChu218)
Seems like a fair trade to me. May come down to how many games LeBron plays but so far, so good. And you probably get upgrades with the guards. I kinda like it. You'll need Ayton and Kessler to step up, and not shut down, in the second half to make it fully work out.
Worth holding D'Angelo Russell until the trade deadline to see if he is moved somewhere that offers a higher usage rate? - A Process (@a_process)
Yes, I think so. Plus he still has the occasional big game even with the reduced role. I have no idea if or where he'll be moved to, but with trade talks and action heating up, if you can live with the inconsistency for a few more weeks, might as well hold onto him and see what happens.
The Grizzlies lost Morant and Smart. How is the priority of the following pickups? Aldama, Kennard, Vince Williams and GG Jackson? Can Jackson be a hold ros in a 14T/9Cat league? - Illgobbo (@Illgobbo)
Tyrese Haliburton, Jayson Tatum, LeBron James, D'Angelo Russell and Grizzlies scrubs all made it into the Dr. A's Mailbag column this week. Keep the questions coming at @docktora! Let's go.
Nine-cat league. I give up Jayson Tatum + Nikola Vucevic + Nic Claxton. I have Ayton coming back and Kessler + people who contribute boards. I get LeBron + Lillard + Scoot Henderson. Should I do it? - Lester Chu (@LesterChu218)
Seems like a fair trade to me. May come down to how many games LeBron plays but so far, so good. And you probably get upgrades with the guards. I kinda like it. You'll need Ayton and Kessler to step up, and not shut down, in the second half to make it fully work out.
Worth holding D'Angelo Russell until the trade deadline to see if he is moved somewhere that offers a higher usage rate? - A Process (@a_process)
Yes, I think so. Plus he still has the occasional big game even with the reduced role. I have no idea if or where he'll be moved to, but with trade talks and action heating up, if you can live with the inconsistency for a few more weeks, might as well hold onto him and see what happens.
The Grizzlies lost Morant and Smart. How is the priority of the following pickups? Aldama, Kennard, Vince Williams and GG Jackson? Can Jackson be a hold ros in a 14T/9Cat league? - Illgobbo (@Illgobbo)
We covered this in Tuesday's podcast if you want to check it out. But of the players you listed I'd rank them in this order: Vince Williams Jr., Santi Aldama, Luke Kennard, GG Jackson. If Jackson wasn't a two-way player on a heater I'd be more excited about picking him up but I think he's a short-term guy right now.
Williams is the easiest decision here, in my opinion. But I'm probably biased because I've been on him since the moment Ja Morant went down. And with no Desmond Bane and Marcus Smart, he simply has to play big minutes and produce.
Early silly season heroes? And worth stashing any player near the trade deadline? - Kaimansinthehouse (@martinezpich)
Cam Whitmore and Tari Eason of Houston, Xavier Tillman, GG Jackson, Jacob Gilyard (Memphis), Corey Kispert, Bilal Coulibaly (Wizards), Jontay Porter, Jalen McDaniels (Raptors), Ish Smith (Hornets) and Julian Champagnie (Spurs) all come to mind as possible silly-season guys on bad teams who might shut players down.
Add Bruce Brown after the Pascal Siakam trade? - Mealy Mouthed Rogue (@bushmush)
The Raptors are weird now, void of forwards and big men with a plethora of guards. Brown should play plenty of minutes at small forward and I could see Jontay Porter or Jalen McDaniels end up getting a lot of big-man minutes for the Raptors, as well. I think Brown is worth picking up, especially in 12-team leagues. But how he'll do remains to be seen. He should be in a position to succeed in Toronto.
Which team should move on from the past: Warriors or Lakers? - Hoopstrainer (@hoopstrainer)
I just don't think the current version of the Warriors has a real chance to win and it might be time to think about blowing the whole thing up. Steve Kerr probably doesn't want to hear that, or do that, but he might not have a choice. Let Stephen Curry, Brandin Podziemski and Jonathan Kuminga see what they can do and trade some big names for future talent and try to rebuild quickly.
The Lakers aren't giving up with LeBron James and Anthony Davis, and I think they'll try to make a splash or two at the trade deadline that could put them in a better position to win it all. But as long as they have Bron and AD, they have a chance to beat any team on any given night.
How do you generate your projections? - Christopher Mosca (@cwmosca)
I don't actually do projections anymore but when I did, I basically ran them by hand, sitting down with an excel spreadsheet and taking into consideration player roles, team moves, talent, past history, trends, etc. and I feel like they were good. As for RotoWire, we generate a preseason set of projections and then use an algorithm plus real-time info throughout the season to come up with them.
The number of tools and features RotoWire offers is off the charts and I trust our projections emphatically. And I like the fact that there are humans monitoring them and making changes and updates as necessary.
How realistic is it that Tyrese Haliburton plays tomorrow? - Tony G (@tonyjewels)
The fact that he's officially questionable for Thursday is a bit surprising but I don't think the Pacers would mess with him playing if it posed a risk to their season, especially with Pascal Siakam on his way over. And it's not lost on me that the Pacers are playing at Sacramento for the only time this season. I can guarantee you he badly wants to play on Thursday night and while he may be on a minutes limit, I'd almost be surprised if he doesn't play at this point.
The Pacers are going to try to win the East this season and need Haliburton healthy to have a chance of making that happen. But every game from here on in will matter and I think Haliburton is going to beat his timeline by almost a week and play against his former team, in his former town, on Thursday night.
