Charlotte Hornets
Key Losses: Micheal Kidd-Gilchrist, Roy Hibbert (limited)
Primary Beneficiaries: Nic Batum, Marco Belinelli
Secondary Beneficiaries: Treveon Graham, Jeremy Lamb
The Charlotte Hornets face Toronto Friday night with a bit of a good news/bad news situation. Good news? Roy Hibbert is returning, albeit to likely limited minutes. Cody Zeller will still get the majority of minutes at center, but they will be starting to decrease as of Friday. Zeller is a middling center start most nights anyway, so weening yourself off him isn’t going to be tough. However as long as Hibbert is eased back in, he’s not going to have much value either. We predict that he should be back to normal sometime next week, so keep an eye on the reports.
Kidd-Gilchrist is a surprise deactivation, given he logged plenty of minutes Wednesday night. Back issues can be serious though, so we will have to see if this becomes a long-term, repeating issue.
Batum is a guy we already like on a regular basis, and added minutes could make him a really nice play at the ‘2’ as long as Kidd-Gilchrist is out. We’ve already accounted for this in our projections for Friday, and again, if the Kidd-Gilchrist back injury is a consistent issue, Batum will hold that value. He’ll move between the SG and SF positions (the 2 and the 3) and spend more time on the court.
Belinelli will also see an increase in minutes, but the impact for him may not be as great. Not the most productive DFS play anyway, we think the minutes will bump him up a bit, but not enough to move the needle.
It won’t move much for Graham or Lamb either, but both are worth monitoring. Lamb has not logged a lot of minutes this season (just under 14 a game in three games) and has never carried huge minutes. An increase in minutes might change his stats a little, and open up an opportunity for him, but that’s happened before without him taking hold. Graham has played even less (7.5 minutes per game) and is more of an unknown. Seeing more of him will be instructive after he spent time with the Orlando Magic in the summer league and the Idaho Stampede of the developmental league.
Miami Heat
Key Losses: Goran Dragic
Primary Beneficiaries: Tyler Johnson
Secondary Beneficiaries: Josh Richardson
Dragic injured his ankle Thursday night, and was seen in a walking boot though the reports say the X-Ray was negative. He’s unsure if he will play Saturday or when he will get back on to the court.
With that said, Tyler Johnson will see more time on the court at the point guard spot. Each of his first three seasons has seen an increase in minutes (from 18.8 to 24 to the current 29.9 average) and with that his field goal attempts have risen to 10.4 a game with him making 49 percent of those attempts.
Johnson has already been a solid and adding more minutes could give him a boost. If Dragic’s ankle lingers, Johnson is only going to see an uptick in his points.
Josh Richardson has seen an increase in minutes played over the last three games after not playing the first four. The steady increase has been mirrored by an improvement in points scored and shooting accuracy as well. While he is possibly being groomed for the shooting guard spot, he sees some time he also plays the point at times (and is actually listed that way on the Miami roster on some sites) and Dragic’s injury could open the door for him a little more as well.
Brooklyn Nets
Key Losses: Jeremy Lin, Isiah Whitehead
Primary Beneficiaries: Sean Kilpatrick
Secondary Beneficiaries: Randy Foye
BJ VanderWoude talked about this when Lin went down initially, and Isaih Whitehead stepped up admirably until he had his head stepped on. Now Whitehead has missed the last Nets game and will miss Saturday’s as well.
Sean Kilpatrick has stepped up in terms of minutes, though his production has been a bit shaky. He’ll get even more time now, and the Nets will continue to have a pair of shooting guards and no real point guard until Whitehead returns.
Which also means Randy Foye will get some play in the rotation. He played 15 minutes in the loss to the Knicks, going 2-for-6, with 1-of-4 from beyond the arc. He’s still rounding out his game after returning from his hamstring injury, but the Nets may need to speed up his participation with the lack of bench depth they currently have.
