Merlin's Beard: A Fantasy Basketball Podcast Jason

*pending the league's decision on the rest of the season (which I'm pessimistic about)

Maybe I'm too gloomy, but I'm guessing that the NBA regular season is just about kaput. So here's a possibly premature discussion of the top 12 players (so far?), best value draft pick of the year, biggest disappointment of the year and pickup of the year. I also answer three mailbag questions that look forward to next season.

Stay safe, wise and kind, listeners. Stay home unless you absolutely must make a run for necessities, etc. For more info regarding COVID-19, check out the CDC's website.

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The 2019-20 NBA trade deadline bordered on madness, but now that all the dust, dollars and draft picks have settled, let's look at the fantasy basketball implications. Here's my take on the winners, losers and wait-and-see guys post-deadline.

Is Robert Covington a total winner? Is Juan Hernangomez a must-add now? How is Marvin Bagley a loser this trade season? Listen to find out.

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It's been way too long, but I'm back with a new episode. With nearly a month's worth of games in the books, it's a good time to take a closer look at players who have fallen short of preseason expectations and those who have outperformed expectations. Why are they underperforming or outperforming so far, and what should fantasy basketball managers do about it?

In this episode, I discuss players like Nikola Jokic, Draymond Green, Jaren Jackson Jr., Lauri Markkanen, Jonathan Isaac, Andrew Wiggins and Tristan Thompson, among others.

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If you have a fantasy basketball draft coming up (or even if you've already completed your draft), this episode is for you. Here's a deep dive into a 12-team, H2H mock draft (on Yahoo) I recently participated in (I had pick No. 8). In this lengthy episode, I discuss just about every player drafted.

If you want to follow along with all the picks, use this page displaying the full results on basketballmerlin.com.

Remember to visit basketballmerlin.com for my recently completed series on punting.

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Now that we're three episodes deep into this new fantasy basketball podcast, it's time to show my true colors by going pessimistic — or pragmatic, as I like to call it. In this episode I talk about nine players I don't want to own in the 2019-20 NBA season:


Joel Embiid
Kawhi Leonard
Kemba Walker
Russell Westbrook
Mitchell Robinson
Kristaps Porzingis
Chris Paul
Kevin Love
Hassan Whiteside

Also, remember to visit basketballmerlin.com for my ongoing series on punting in fantasy basketball.

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In the second episode of this new podcast, I briefly discuss the 11 Golden Rules of fantasy basketball. This isn't a comprehensive list, of course, but the rules herein are ones that I think are particularly important for new and veteran managers alike.


Be pragmatic
Don’t overreact
Don’t be an absentee owner
Accept/reject trades in a timely manner
Know your league’s settings and rules
Don’t abuse veto power
Don’t be cheap with your trade offers
Make educated trade offers
Be smart about 2-for-1 trades
Be nice
Have fun

Head to basketballmerlin.com for my ongoing series on punting in fantasy basketball.

Follow me on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

Music: "Wizard" by Jahzzar
From the Free Music Archive
CC BY NC