Day 13: Parting ways with JaVale and gushing over Markieff

(Illustration courtesy of Roger Huang)

If a player has a great game, it's worth mentioning but probably not worth acting upon. If he has two great games, it's not a bad idea to pick him up, but hey -- there's still a chance he could just be on a hot streak. If he has three straight great games, it's time to shelve whatever reservations we may have had about this player and give him our unconditional support. And that's exactly what just happened with Suns forward Markieff Morris, who scored 23 points added 5 rebounds, 2 steals and a block in 34 minute against the Pelicans on Sunday. Morris shot 9-12 on the night and is an insane 30-38 from the field in his last three games, and is shooting 63% from the floor on the year.

Yes, Markieff Morris is clearly a must-own player at this point, and if for some reason he's still hanging around on the waiver wire in your league, you need to stop what you're doing add this man. Like, right now. (It's okay, I'll wait.) But what's his ceiling? Is Morris merely a competent role player on a bad team, or does he have the makings of a superstar?

I set out to answer those questions by watching game tape of Morris from this season, via YouTube of course. (Because I don't have NBA League Pass. Shameful, I know.) And believe it or not, Morris' visible skillset actually encouraged me more than his gaudy stats do. He's incredibly talented. The best way to describe Morris, in case you're not familiar with him, is that his game is a cross between Blake Griffin and Michael Beasley. At 6-10 and 245 pounds, he's kind of undersized at the power forward position, but he's a very adept scorer. He can hit an open jump shot, drive off the dribble, knock down a turn-around, dunk in another player's missed field-goal attempt, and he can even hit a three. Most young big guys have almost no scoring ability outside of 15 feet, but Morris already has one of the most diverse offensive games in the league; there seriously are less than 10 bigs in the entire league who can drive to the basket and knock down a three like he can.

Morris reminds me a bit of Paul George, who was pegged by scouts to become something special entirely from how visibly talented he was. And sure enough, George is now franchise superstar. George was taken with the No. 10 overall pick in the 2010 draft; Morris was taken 13th overall pick in the draft just one year later.

Truthfully, there's a lot of competition in Phoenix as far as minutes for big guys are concerned. Besides Markieff's twin brother Marcus, there's Miles Plumlee (who the Suns announcers refer to as "Plumdog"), Alex Len and Channing Frye, and at the moment, Markieff Morris is just a sixth man. But I can't see him staying in that role for very long; he's too damn integral to the Suns' future for them to keep him on the bench through the remainder of the season.

Even if he remains a bench player in the short term, he's absolutely still worth your time. Whether or not he'll follow through and become a star is anyone's guess -- I remember watching Darius Miles in his rookie season with the Clippers and being 100% convinced that he was going to be a star, which... he wasn't. Still, considering how talented he is and how well he's playing, their truly isn't a reason not to invest in this kid, and to do so with the expectation that he could very well be the biggest waiver wire steal of the fantasy season.

Okay, now to get into some other players, including a send-off to one of the game's most interesting players.

• JaVale McGee, you deserved better than this. The gaffe-prone big suffered a stress fracture in his left tibia and there's reportedly no timetable for his return, which can only mean that he'll be out for a long, long time. McGee was only getting sparse playing time anyway in Brian Shaw's goofy rotation, and now that he's out indefinitely, it's hard to see this injury as something that won't ruin his season. Even if he comes back from this ailment, he's likely to just be a role player. McGee had a chance to be a rebounding/shot-blocking dynamo this season, but with this injury, it doesn't look like he'll ever get the chance to play his way into getting 30 minutes a night. And that's just based on the "if" of him coming back 100% healthy, which is an enormous question mark in and of itself. McGee, unfortunately, is completely droppable. J.J Hickson and Anthony Randolph, meanwhile, become viable fill-ins, though it's worth watching Denver's next game to see which of them will get more minutes,
• Anthony Davis had what was considered a "bad" game for him, with 14 points, 12 rebounds, 4 steals and a block. His bad nights are better than most players' good nights. Only Kevin Love stands in his way as the undisputed best PF/C combo in fantasy basketball.
• Andrea Bargnani came back to reality after his 5-block masterpiece on Friday. Bargs scored 16 points on 5-10, but he did virtually nothing else, collecting no assists, no steals, no blocks and 1 defensive rebound. He's set to be a consistent scorer so long as Tyson Chandler is out, but... that's about it. (There seriously needs to be a new Jewish holiday to commemorate his improbable 5-block outing, which -- if it wasn't a miracle -- might have been a sign of the apocalypse.)
• J.R. Smith played in his first game of the year thanks to a suspension, and he posted underwhelming numbers in the Knicks' blowout defeat to San Antonio: 5 points and 3 assists on 1-9 shooting. Despite coming off the bench, Smith is going to have a large presence on this Knicks team and is poised to once again put up 15-18 points a game on a regular basis. Don't read too much into this lousy performance.
• Danny Green had a terrific afternoon at Madison Square Garden, producing 24 points and 10 rebounds to go along with 6 three-pointers. Green is just a role player on the Spurs and is liable to occasionally do nothing for you, like on Friday, when he went 1-6 and scored just 3 points. Still, he's a surprisingly-decent source of steals and blocks for a shooting guard and he hits enough three's when he's on that he's totally worth owning, even with his occasionally empty nights.
• Bradley Beal showed his potential on Sunday, scoring 34 points on 6 three's and grabbing 6 rebounds in an OT-loss to Oklahoma City. Beal is the best scoring option on the Wizards and is at last beginning to prove it on a regular basis. I like his chances to average over 20 a game and be amongst the leaders in the league in three-pointers.
• Nene had 14 points, 7 rebounds and 6 assists for the Wizards. Nene is perhaps the most injury-prone player in the entire league and isn't dependable at all. In fact, I firmly expect him to step on a rusty nail or something in the next week or two and suddenly go back to watching his team play in street clothes. Nonetheless, Randy Whitman is playing the Wizards' starters so many minutes that I wouldn't hesitate to add Nene if he were still available. Again, he'll have that red "DTD" tag next to his name for most of the year, but so long as he's able to get on the court, he's worth the add. Just don't expect him to be a foundation on your fantasy team.
• Thunder rookie Steven Adams did nothing on Sunday, coming away with 1 point, 2 rebounds and 2 blocks in 19 minutes. I'll be honest, it didn't even dawn on me until this weekend that Adams had become a trendy fantasy pick-up, just because it never occurred to me that he'd be worth adding. Does it look like he could be a good shot-blocker? Yes. Is he already better than Kendrick Perkins? Yes. But here's the thing: Thunder coach Scott Brooks is the Dusty Baker of NBA coaches. He overplays Derek Fisher and Thabo Sefolosha, he underplayed James Harden, and he's going to keep Perkins in that starting lineup until further notice because that's just the way he rolls. Kendrick Perkins is making $8.5 million this year and he has an extra year left on his contract, so I'll be monumentally surprised if he gets moved. Adams is worth paying attention to if something suddenly happens to Perkins, but given the unlikeliness of that occurring, I can't recommend adding Adams right now.
• Steve Nash hurt his back on Sunday and only played 13 minutes. After the game, Nash said his injury had taken "a turn for the worse," and he added, "The pain is always there, it's not as much of a concern. ... It's just when you're so limited and you're limping, you're trying to get off your left leg the whole time, then you just can't be effective and you're making it worse. I tried to play through it, but to what diminishing returns." And I think that about sums it up. Nash has had an amazing Hall of Fame career, but the writing is on the wall, and no one can see what's happening more than Nash himself. At this point, it'll be an accomplishment for him just to play 50 games, and if you own him, I advise shopping him and trying to get anything -- anything -- you can for him while his name still has some clout.
• Steve Blake, meanwhile, replaced his counterpart Steve-named point guard with gusto, scoring 19 points on 5 three's for the Lakers and even adding 8 assists. Blake is only going to score on open jumpers and lay-ups, but with Steve Nash and Kobe Bryant hurt, and Dwight Howard out of town, Steve Blake is suddenly locked in as a starter for the Lakers. Even though he doesn't have much of a ceiling, the 33-year-old veteran should be a decent producer of three's and assists for the forseeable future and is definitely worth owning.
• Ricky Rubio continued his fantastic season on Sunday, posting a triple-double of 12 points, 14 assists and 10 rebounds, while adding 5 steals. Rubio is a catastrophically-bad shooter; at 31.8%, he's a constant threat to crater your field-goal percentage, and he's only passable as a three-point shooter. Still, he's a phenomenal all-around performer and is so prolific at passing and stealing that his paltry field-goal percentage is more than endurable.
• Kevin Love had 25 points, 13 rebounds and 3 assists against L.A., along with 4 three's and a steal. If he could block shots and get a tad more steals, he would be an absolutely perfect fantasy player. At the moment, he's 95% perfect, which is still pretty awesome. If you own Love, your probably pretty happy about your team. (Or, you should be.)