Jalen Johnson, Alperen Sengun, Deandre Ayton and Mikal Bridges all made it into the Dr. A Mailbag column this week. Keep the questions coming at @docktora! Let's go.
Is Jalen Johnson a void? I'm using chalkboard. He played some of the 3rd quarter but left halfway. - Adrian Estevez (@AdEstevez24)
Although I'm not completely sure I understand this question, I get the gist of it enough to share some thoughts. First of all, he went down with a sprained right ankle that actually woke me up when I dozed off during the game and it did not look good. The sprain itself wasn't unwatchable or anything like that, but the way he was grimacing and rolling around in pain was not a good look. In other words, JJ was in a ton of pain. He walked off the court under his own power, sort of, but he had some help and was moving very gingerly.
My official diagnosis is that he's going to miss at least a few games and is likely done for the week. I would also guess that we'll see the word 'crutches' attached to his name at some point soon. I'm going to guess that he won't play on Friday, Sunday or Monday and will hope that he can play next Thursday against the Suns. But I'm not a real doctor, this is all speculation and there's a chance he could even play on Friday.
But if he misses fewer than those three
Jalen Johnson, Alperen Sengun, Deandre Ayton and Mikal Bridges all made it into the Dr. A Mailbag column this week. Keep the questions coming at @docktora! Let's go.
Is Jalen Johnson a void? I'm using chalkboard. He played some of the 3rd quarter but left halfway. - Adrian Estevez (@AdEstevez24)
Although I'm not completely sure I understand this question, I get the gist of it enough to share some thoughts. First of all, he went down with a sprained right ankle that actually woke me up when I dozed off during the game and it did not look good. The sprain itself wasn't unwatchable or anything like that, but the way he was grimacing and rolling around in pain was not a good look. In other words, JJ was in a ton of pain. He walked off the court under his own power, sort of, but he had some help and was moving very gingerly.
My official diagnosis is that he's going to miss at least a few games and is likely done for the week. I would also guess that we'll see the word 'crutches' attached to his name at some point soon. I'm going to guess that he won't play on Friday, Sunday or Monday and will hope that he can play next Thursday against the Suns. But I'm not a real doctor, this is all speculation and there's a chance he could even play on Friday.
But if he misses fewer than those three games, I'll be pretty surprised. And I would not be surprised to see him miss more than those three games, as well. Any way you slice it, it appears to be a terrible break for the Hawks and JJ's fantasy managers. Wait for an update on Thursday before doing anything drastic, but brace yourself for bad news. De'Andre Hunter, Saddiq Bey and Bogdan Bogdanovic all benefit if he misses time.
Is Deandre Ayton cooked? I need his roster spot to secure a playoff spot. - Looselips67 (@Looselips671)
I honestly have no idea if or when we'll see Ayton again due to his hand injury that has now kept him out of four straight games. They play again in a back-to-back on Friday and Saturday and it would be a little surprising to see him play in either of those. But once we move into next week, it would appear that the Blazers want to get him back in the lineup and let him continue to play on this season. I've got him stashed on the IR and plan on just leaving him there until we see him on the court again, but I also don't know for a fact that the Blazers want him to even finish out the year.
If you are in a desperate situation and need to drop him to get into the playoffs, like it sounds like Looselips is, then you probably need to just bite the bullet, let him go and try to qualify for the postseason. If the move comes back to bite you in the you-know-what, you can at least say you tried to do what you could to make the fantasy playoffs. If you don't make the playoffs while sitting on an injured Ayton, it doesn't matter anyway. This is the time of year when some very tough decisions will have to be made by many fantasy managers in a ton of leagues. Good luck!
Victor Wembanyama is sitting tomorrow. Are they going to cap him at the minimum number of games he needs to win Rookie of the Year? - Hoopstrainer (@Hoopstrainer)
That number is 65 games and he has played in 56 of them so far. He was iffy for his last game but played through a sore left shoulder on Tuesday night, but will now sit on Wednesday with what's being reported as a sprained right ankle. Those are two very different injuries and, honestly, I haven't personally seen signs of either one of them being an issue for him lately.
So the Spurs will have 19 games remaining after Thursday night and Wemby will need to play in nine of those to win Rookie of the Year (as far as I'm concerned, the race is over as long as hits the 65 games). The question becomes, will they cap him and only let him play in half of the Spurs' remaining games? Man, I sure hope not. I've got him on all my good teams and I have a chance to win several championships if he's playing late in the season.
My hope is that he's really dealing with a sore ankle and shoulder and they'll let him keep playing when he feels better. But the reality could be that we see Wemby sit one game per week the rest of the way. Which would be a real buzzkill. But like Ken Crites and I talked about in Tuesday's podcast, there's nothing us Wemby managers can do about it as trade deadlines have mostly passed and two games per week out of Wemby is as good as three games per week from most other players.
All we can do is cross our fingers and hope the Spurs let him keep playing on nights when he's feeling healthy enough to go.
Is Alperen Sengun's game shaping up to where he could be a force like Nikola Jokic in the future? - NOT TAKES Fantasy Football (@NOTTakesFF)
The timeliness of this question was impressive as Sengun went off to the tune of a 23-point, 19-rebound and 14-assist triple-double in a tough loss to the Clippers on Wednesday night. After struggling a bit in late February, Sengun has been on an absolute tear over his three March games with averages of 30.7 points, 15.0 rebounds, 6.3 assists, 3.0 steals and 0.7 blocks with two double-doubles and a triple-double. He's also having a great year on the whole and he's going to be in the conversation with Nikola Jokic, Domantas Sabonis and Wemby next season as to who is the best center in the league.
I'm not ready to declare Sengun better than any of them right now, but all bets are off next year. Sengun has a lot of similar traits to Jokic and should be in that conversation. The scary thing is he's only going to get better and he could take another big step forward next year. My early center rankings for next season are 1. Wemby, 2. Jokic, 3. Sengun, 4. Sabonis and 5. Chet Holmgren. And I wouldn't be surprised to see Sengun try to outplay Jokic for the entire season next year. He's going to be a fantasy monster, although he's pretty much already there.
Is there any hope for Mikal Bridges? - Patrick McNamara (@patwmcnamara)
This probably wouldn't have been a question after his 38 points and full stat line against the Hawks on Saturday, but he then scored 14 on 4-of-14 shooting on Monday against Memphis and then hit 4-of-12 shots for 15 points on Tuesday against the Sixers.
Bridges is still having a fine year and has been a Top-90 player this season, but he simply hasn't lived up to the hype that was surrounding him coming into the season. He was overdrafted, probably isn't good enough to be the focal point of any team's offense, let alone the Nets, and is simply a very good fantasy player. But he's not in that elite category and may not ever be. He needs help.
How surprised were you to see Jaren Jackson play tonight? - Z (@LycanThreeSix)
Mildly. And he looked good after missing three straight games with a quad injury, finishing with 30 points, 11 rebounds, six blocks and two 3-pointers in 37 minutes. Additionally, the Grizzlies pulled off a nice comeback win against the Sixers and have won two straight games after beating the Nets on Monday, not that it matters. The good news is that we have an official JJJ sighting and there's still hope that he may continue to play the rest of the season. But I still sense the Grizzlies will pull the plug on him at some point and I'll even humor you and give y'all a shutdown date guess.
My guess is he'll play against the Warriors on March 20 on ESPN and then sometime around that date they'll pull the plug on his season. But that's just a guess and I honestly thought he would have already been shut down by now, so I clearly don't know what I'm talking about. And I don't have a crystal ball, either. Let's just hope he keeps playing until further notice.
Who do you think is the most important hidden player from now to the end of the season? - Kaimansinthehouse (@martinezpich)
Once he's over his illness I think Keyonte George is going to finish up strong. Unfortunately, I had to drop him tonight, which hurt me, but I needed to get some games played in my lineup. De'Andre Hunter could be another one after the Johnson injury, Kelly Olynyk could be big for the Raptors with Jakob Poeltl being lost for the season and Josh Hart is going to go off for the Knicks. I don't know if those guys qualify as "hidden" or not, but off the top of my head, that's what I've got. A guy like Duop Reath is also someone to keep an eye on if the Blazers ever decide to shut down Ayton.
Would you trade Paolo Banchero and Jalen Duren for Alperen Sengun, OG Anunoby and Jabari Smith in a cats league? - Z (@followthethattiger)
It depends on your team build and depth needs but I love what Sengun is doing and if your goal is to end up with three good players instead of two, it certainly works. I don't hate it for either side but prefer the Sengun side if all things are equal.
Where was this Jordan Poole all season? - pablo Escobar (@mact0098)
In the starting lineup instead of coming off the bench, apparently. As a starter in 52 games before the All-Star break, Poole averaged just 15.6 points on 40 percent shooting on the season. In his seven games since the break, in which he's been coming off the bench, Poole has averaged 23.4 points on 43.6% shooting and has seen the rest of his numbers rise as well.
He's literally been better in almost every statistical category coming off the bench with the exception of turnovers and he's even shooting it better from the line from the pine (88.5% vs. 85.9%), while the steals and blocks have been the same. What a weird year it's been for Poole, prompting many of us to say "never again" to ourselves as we toss and turn in bed at night.
