63 posts tagged with "pickle"

As all good things must inevitably come to an end, the Bulls have lost their last 7 games. The are lucky that they played the wizards or they would be staring down a 9 game losing streak starting with a 35 point spanking by the heat. But this is to be expected of any team top 10 3 points attempts and turnovers and bottom 5 in shooting from the field and from 3. The Minnesota Timberwolves has won their last five raising them to 6th in the west in a tight race with the rockets and spurs. And the Grizzlies are starting to show life going 8-3 since Ja Morant went down with a 'calf injury'. This has begun to course correct for the 4-10 start prior to Morant's injury. Now while we wait for the Kings to make a major push for the disgruntled Morant, lets take a look around the league to see where the big dills are happening:

• In Brooklyn a very positive week for both Nic Claxton and Michael Porter Junior. Claxton has been utilized as a playmaker having 9 and 10 assist games last week, this is well outside of the average of 0.9-2.2 over the last 5 seasons. If this remains Claxton shows great promise as a punt Ft source of dimes. Carrying over the career high play making numbers MPJ has broken the 2 assist per game threshold for the first time in the last 5 years. however unsurprisingly with his new role on the Nets he has set highs in 3 point shooting, free throw percentage, and scoring.

• Deni Avdija has emerged as the most fantasy relevant player in Portland, providing a little bit of everything except turnovers, he gets a lot of turnovers. 17 over the past week.

• Kawhi put together his biggest week of the season, suggesting that his play schedule was well spaced. Shooting 19/20 from the line as the basis for a 101 point week combined with 6 steals and 24 rebounds.

• Kyle Filipowski has been providing excellent across board stats in Utah, jazzing his way to solid contributions for a waiver wire pickup of 58 points, 33 rebounds and 7 steals.

PG

583

Kevin Porter Jr.

Volume

Efficiency

FG

FT

3PT16

PTS108

REB17

AST27

STL11

BLK1

TOV13

Do your best Maxey impression must have been what Kevin Porter Jr heard heading into last week, because thats exactly what he did. If you thought last week was unexpected, I was worried that Porter had gone undrafted and would be hard to assign to a manager. A 108 point week with 11 steals, 16 triples and 27 assists out of left field replacing the offensive output of Giannis when previously completely out of the rotation is an incredibly impressive feat and one worth of the bread and butter pick of the week.

Welcome managers to week six of the nba season and the standings have been full of surprises. To start, there are seven teams in the west worse than the Phoenix Suns. This is the suns team that removed Beal and Durant and replaced them with Jalen Green and Dillon Brooks, and the results are an amazing 12-9 which is exactly where they were last year, except they were expecting to be contenders. In the east, the Bucks 9-12 start have Giannis looking from the outside in at the playoffs despite putting together an MVP class season where he is riding a 5 year high in both scoring and assists. Lets take a look around the league to see who the best dills are this week:

• Keegan Murray is back in Sacramento and easily getting big minutes due to Kings, He's struggled a bit from 3 but combined for an impressive 18 stocks and didn't commit a single Turnover in week 6.

• Saddiq Bey has kind of returned from irrelevance but is still on the NOP, averaging 36 minutes per game over the last week, he's taken that time to put up really strong 20/10 double-double with 3 3s a game. All it took was all five starting pelicans to be out with injury.

• Jay Huff has been grabbing additional minutes at center Indiana edging out Isiah Jackson for the starting role over the last week. He rewarded this additional playing time by providing a league leading 13 blocks

• Russell Westbrook continues to play 28 a night for the kings, if you can stomach his 15 weekly turnovers and general bricklayery, you will be treated to 33 rebounds 31 assists and 8 steals.

SF

611

Josh Hart

Volume

Efficiency

FG

FT

3PT9

PTS68

REB47

AST28

STL11

BLK2

TOV10

Josh Hart has provided us with an incredibly ethical performance with only 12 free throws. Leading with 11 Steals to league and 47 rebounds, he also brought us 28 dimes, 9 triples and 68 points. No one provides a better out of position of boards and when the Knicks needed him, he was able to elevate his scoring, defense and play-making. Maybe if he got to the line more he's be pushing 75 points, but by filling the board like we never thought possible we are proud to crown Josh Hart bread and butter pick of the week.

At the time of this article there are currently 126 reported player injuries ahead of tonight. Managers have had to Sophie's choice their pet player and have spent their focus responding to injuries rather than executing a strategy. We are one step away from online sports books offering futures on a players MCL. The waiver wire pool has been so diluted that player recognition is usually for a bad reason. But all these roster holes has left plenty of opportunity for the remaining stars. Here are some big dills showing how availability is the best ability:

• Trey Murphy III leads the pelicans in both minutes and scoring, but the impressive part is he also led the league in steals over the past week while going 19/20 from the line.

• Tyrese Maxey is continuing his early season dominance, with a 144 point week, allowing to Philidelphia to fulfill gameplan of have someone drop 50.

• Immanuel Quickley is showing signs of life in Toronto throwing out a 68 points week with 24 boards, 21 assists, 7 steals on only 5 turnovers.

• In Case you were wondering how Josef Nurkic was handling the increased role Kessler out, he had 18 shot attempts the week and went 3/7 from the line.

PG

544

Jalen Johnson

Volume

Efficiency

FG

FT

3PT9

PTS97

REB39

AST36

STL6

BLK2

TOV12

Last week I stated that it was hard to imagine what kind of performance would be superior to Jalen Johnsons performance last week, and he took that personally. As last weeks reining assists and rebounds leader. He repeated his 24ppg week, but alongside 9 rebounds and 9 assists. He also kept it efficient from the field shooting a clean 500 and still hitting 9 3s. It seems like no matter who Atlanta needs him to be he's able to provide. And that is why we are proud to proclaim Jalen Johnson bread and butter pick of the week.

With the NBA cup well underway we are getting to see the warm glow of Friday night basketball courts. The Raptors currently remain undeafeated and with their next two cup matchups being the Hamilton-less Pacers and the Wizards its a fair assumption that they should be able to carry this momentum to top off their bracket with ease. After years of being foretold we are finally getting to see the Detroit pistons taking the top of the East dropping only two games vs the Cavs and Bulls powered by Cunningham taking that next step as a playmakers and dropping back his Turnover rate considerably. In the west there are no real surprises except for maybe Portland placing above the Clippers and Grizzlies. Around the league this week lets look at our big dills:

• First up, Deni Avdija is playing an extra 4 minutse a night and is putting up record numbers in all categories a sa result. The former wizard has just come off a 110point week with solid 3, assist, and rebound numbers but has struggled with an increasing turnover rate as his usage increased.

• Keyonte George has been a machine from the line hitting all 22 free throws over the last week. However he went a frigid 9/32 from 3 and 13 turnovers hard capping his upside.

• Steph Curry has been hot and cold sandwiching 49 and 46 point games between 2/11fg amd 4/13fg stinkers. Having played less than 30 minutes in 6 of his last 10 games hopefully can see more minutes coming his way. At least he's playing most back to backs.

• What an incredible week from Jalen Johnson, the last man standing in Atlanta. Leading the league in both rebounds and assists alongside 10 steals while scoring 24 points per game, its hard to imagine what kind of performance would be superior.

PG

660

James Harden

Volume

Efficiency

FG

FT

3PT18

PTS136

REB39

AST35

STL2

BLK4

TOV14

Hard to imagine or Harden to imagine. The system took advantage of Leonard not Aspiring to play this week and put forward a staggering line, hitting 38/42 free throws and averaging 4.5 3s/9.8 reb/8.8 ast while avoiding his signature 4+ TO a game and punt tier fg%. James Harden you are the bread and butter pick of the week!

3 weeks into the new season and IL slots are already filled up making room for a new wave of waiver wire acquisitions, league winners and tragic stashes. Do you think you'll be able to ride out the next few weeks hoping for an early Tatum return, or does Paul George have enough left in the tank to be worth holding while we wait his return? You may be missing out on prime time to be stealing a win from a manager stuck with a handful of illnesses and day to day issues. As I am the last person you should look to for winning strategies lets take a look at some of the biggest dills this week.

• Derrick White has greatly exceeded expectations in the suddenly sparse Celtics lineup. Leading the league with 12 steals on the week he has established himself as the Celtics guard with the fewest hairline issues.

• Myles Turner has adapted well to life in Milwaukee, maintaining his unique stretch big contributions across all stats and pulling up a hot 3fg% of 47%

• Alex Sarr has shown up for the first time as a player of note which is probably the best news for Wizards fans since Bradley Beal waived his NTC. Sarr threw down a respectable 87 points along with 12 blocks and 26 rebounds.

• There are signs of life from Wussel Restbrook. That is to say, he shot 54% from 3 on 24 attempts. This 79 point week is the most he's had since January of this year and is so impressive I forgot to meantion he had 18 turnovers.

C

678

Nikola Jokić

Volume

Efficiency

FG

FT

3PT9

PTS125

REB45

AST53

STL8

BLK3

TOV13

There is nothing about this player than hasn't already been said over his last half dozen pickles. But the mountain giant Nikola Jokic managed to leave fans slack-jawed as he bombed in 125 points and 53 assists while shooting 69% from the field. And while his 47% 3 point shooting is slightly behind last year around this time, he did end up top five in rebounds and contributed 8 steals. So we are happy once again to celebrate the cornerstone of pickle based analytics Nikola Jokić as the bread and butter pick of the week.

With 2 weeks of the NBA season passed we are starting to see things shaking up across the league. The 76ers are top of the east with only one loss despite Embiid only playing 22 minutes a night. 2nd in the east is the new Giddey era bulls with the supporting cast of Vucevic, Tre Jones, and Kevin Huerter. OKC is undefeated in the west and to date have maintained a differential of +12.4 points per game picking right up from where they left off last season, and the pelicans are last in the league in scoring only putting up a paltry 108 points per game. Lets take a look at some individual performances and see what the big dills are this week.

• Ryan Rollins has emerged from nowhere to become the starting point guard for the bucks. He's been experiencing some red hot shooting and mixing in solid rebound and steal numbers.

• Scottie Barnes has been exceeding expectations from 3 draining 43% on 7 attempts per game while keeping his turnovers below 2 per game. If this holds up he provides solid coverage on all counting stats.

• Lauri Markkanen hs been an absolute offensive phenom hittings 17 3s, 130 points and 35 assists

• Jrue Holiday has been secretly cooking away in Portland providing excellent value in 3s points rebounds, assists and steals.

PG

622

Tyrese Maxey

Volume

Efficiency

FG

FT

3PT15

PTS134

REB21

AST39

STL5

BLK3

TOV11

And this weeks greatest performer lead the league in both Assists and while keeping a whopping 134 points for themselves on the back of hitting 15 3s at a hot but not unsustainable 39%. He even had time to contribute 5 steals and 21 boards. He cut and slashed his way to a 49% shooting percentage on 90 attempts and got to the line 37 times over the past week. This weeks bread and butter Pick of the week is none other than Tyrese Maxey, the reProcess.

Welcome back to another exciting picklytics season where we isolate the most dominant performance of each nba week. The 2025-2026 Season offers up a new year of thrilling story lines such as "will Houston Rocket to the finals with KD as the rocket driver?" or "is drafting Josh Giddy in the 3rd round going to pay off. We've seen a lot of age moving to the western conference this season, so much so the clippers are now having team dinners at 4:30. After a soulful search this offseason we've decided to go ahead without refinement of the BIGDAWG model even though it is showing a very worrisome bias towards Jalen Green being a good basketball player. We've already had a full slate of elite performances this season, so lets dive right into the big dills for this week.

• First of all, lets have a moment of silence for all those homies that lost their week by Aaron Gordon dropping 10 triples against the Warriors

• Our Category leaders in are generally unsurprising with SGA scoring 120 points, Giannis cleaned up with 48 rebounds, James Harden is the leagues leading dime man with 31, and Steph Curry hit 16 Triples while not missing a single free throw out of 20.

• Austin Reeves is the top player out of LA this week with an impressive 102 points and 29 rebounds, alongside 9 triples and 23 rebounds.

• LaMelo in response to be heavily faded in drafts this year put forward together an absolute stew of a statline, with huge contributions in 3s, steals and assists while maintaining solid fg efficiency and scoring.

C

621

Victor Wembanyama

Volume

Efficiency

FG

FT

3PT4

PTS100

REB40

AST7

STL5

BLK18

TOV2

And we are getting it out of the way early this year. Flirting with a pts/reb/blk triple double is one thing, but to then follow it up with an astounding 31/14 game with 3 steals and 6 blocks is a feat unheard of in the picklytics era. This weeks leading blocker got 18 blocks compared the 2nd place blockers 7. He combined this with 100 points on only 2 turnovers resulting in a red hot .569 fg%. Thats right, first overall on both your draft board and the first big dawg to be the bread and butter pick of the week is non other than longboi Victor Wembanyama!

Some big dills around the league this week:

• James Harden has taken a break from ethical basketball, getting to the line a league leading 48 times on his way to a 127 point lead

• SGA went a perfect 28/28 from the line and scored 40, 41, and 51 points to lead the league in scoring last week despite only playing 3 games.

• Nikola Jokic hit a record setting 31/21/22 Triple Double Joker however stuggled to make his free throws making only 53%

• Trae Young lead the league in assists by 14 while going 29/30 from the free thow line, that was almost offset by his putrid 5/25 3point shooting.

• Speaking of hitting 5 3s. Bam has been ending this season with top 20 numbers over the past month. This has been achieved by hitting an extra 3 every other game and pushing from 18-23 ppg.

SG

562

Desmond Bane

Volume

Efficiency

FG

FT

3PT8

PTS107

REB41

AST25

STL6

BLK3

TOV9

This week we have yet another first time pickle, who has made the cut by just being a well-rounded fellow. A solid scoring contributor with massive rebounding for a guard, what sets this cat above the rest is that he has provided meaningful contribution in all 9 cats with a 33 percentile contribution in blocks being his worst category. We think that's just wonderful. With the final week of the regular season under wraps we've got just one more pickle to award, and we are proud to declare Desmond Bane to be the bread and butter pick of the week.

Some big dills around the league this week:

• Josh Giddey after a season of being banished to the Chicago Bulls has been on a rip over the past 2 weeks. He's upped his 3s, points, rebounds and assists by 50% from his season average and he managed to break 50% from 3.

• Steph Curry had an absolute bomb of a game against the Magic, hitting 12 3s for 56 points. He even went an impressive 17/17 from the line. We even got to see him dunk this week.

• Jalen Duren managed to put together an impressive week with 68% shooting combined with 49 rebounds and 7 blocks. He was also able to salvage his ft% with a 6/6 showing against the Nets. After struggling to provide value for much of the season he could be coming in clutch come playoff time.

• Kevin Durant, Devin Booker and Bol Bol were within 2 pickle points of one another in this weeks ranking. In order to drop this low KD had to shoot 73% from the line and Booker got 3 steals, zero blocks and 14 rebounds. Bol Bol got 72 points while shooting 48% from 3.

• Zach Collins had been crushing it since being traded from Wemby's shadow to the Bulls. seeing an increase from 14 mpg to 33, he is expectedly setting season highs in points rebounds and assists.

PG

641

Tyrese Haliburton

Volume

Efficiency

FG

FT

3PT17

PTS88

REB11

AST48

STL13

BLK2

TOV4

As this seasons pickle parade begins to wind down we have an absolute spicy big mary of a performance. Combining a smooth 62% (60% from 3) from the field for 88 points this dominant scorer hit 17 3s this week. He also combined for 48 dimes and 13 steals while only having 1 turnover per game. Hell just for badness he went 5/5 from the line. With the performance of the year (so far) we are elated to crown Tyrese Haliburton the bread and butter pick of the week. See you next week for the final pickle of the season!

Some big dills around the league this week:

• Anthony Edwards Attempted 71 3pt shots during the extended fantasy week out of 132! fg attempts. the second most attempted 3s was by Curry who had 59. Curry shot slightly better than Edwards 32%.

• Evan Mobley had an enourmous week with 104 points on 58% shooting, 59 rebounds and 13 blocks. The only mark against his record was a gnarly 70 ft% on 20 attempts.

• Draymond Green had his best week so far of the season, showcasing impressive steal numbers and assists while keeping his shot attempts at well below 10 per game.

• Kyrie Irving has been riding a high shooting rate with a surprisingly low number of assists since the big Mavericks trade. Posting 124 points and 15 3pts with only 5 Turnovers over the 4 games

• Isaiah Collier and Keyonte George (Utah) combined for 88 assists on the week and both managed to shoot under 70% from the line. They ranked 1st and 3rd in total assists.

PF

561

LeBron James

Volume

Efficiency

FG

FT

3PT16

PTS133

REB37

AST35

STL6

BLK6

TOV24

Declaring himself a "natural-born wide receiver" after receiving a beautiful lob pass from a fat, pale natural-born quarterback, Lebron James appears to be revitalized since the arrival of new teammate Luka Doncic. Since the trade he's exchanged a couple assists per game for an extra 3 points and increases to both Steal and block rates. Still defying father time, LeBron managed to put together a multicat monster of a fantasy line combining excellent scoring with good 3s and assists. This was combined with meaningful contributions across rebounds, steals and blocks on great shooting efficiency. Even though he failed to pickle last season we are still very pleased to bring back the king as our week 16 bread and butter pick of the week.