Taj Gibson and Doug McDermott Thunder Debuts
It's not yet known whether Gibson and McDermoot will play Friday evening after being acquired from the Chicago Bulls on Thursday, but the expectation here has to be that both will suit up. Heck, there's a decent chance that Gibson might start.
It will be interesting to see how these two fit in early on their new team. If not initially, Gibson should eventually earn the starting job over Domantas Sabonis in OKC. He's was averaging 11.6 points and 7.0 rebounds with Chicago prior to Thursday's trade.
As it relates to McDermott, his role is a bit more confusing. Oklahoma City still boasts the likes of Victor Oladipo, Andre Roberson and Jerami Grant out in the wing. McDermott was averaging double digit points while shooting at 39 percent from distance for Chicago on the season.
What is Going on with Blake Griffin?
Griffin put up just 12 points on 3-of-13 shooting against the Golden State Warriors on Thursday night. This followed up a 6-of-15 shooting night en route to scoring just 17 points in the Clippers' final game prior to this past weekend's All-Star Break. With Chris Paul still sidelined after indications he might return Thursday, Griffin simply failed to do anything of substance in a blowout loss to the Warriors.
Unfortunately for the Clippers, they have the honor of hosting San Antonio at home Friday night in the second half of a back-to-back. Considering Paul wasn't able to go Thursday, it's highly unlikely he will play Friday. This will put the onus on Griffin to do something against one of the best defensive teams in the NBA.
Brandon Ingram's Chance to Shine
After trading Lou Williams to Houston this week, Los Angeles is surely prepared to give rookie top-two pick Brandon Ingram more time. With the team pretty much out of the playoff race, this makes perfect sense. And in reality, Ingram has struggled recently.
It might be time to get him consistent minutes. Ingram has scored a total of 11 points while shooting 4-of-11 from the field over the past three games. We're going to want to see how he performs in a larger role now that their Lakers leading scorer on the season resides in Houston.
Debuts on New Teams
Look for Nerlens Noel to make his Dallas Mavericks debut Friday night against the Minnesota Timberwolves. In fact, it could be in a starting role. Expected to log consistent minutes after wasting away in Philadelphia this season, Noel gets to take on a T'Wolves team that has yielded the most fantasy points to centers on the season. It is a prime matchup and should tell us something about Noel's role on his new team.
Interestingly enough, Ersan Ilyasova will also be making his debut with the Washington Wizards. It comes against his former Sixers squad in Philadelphia. Surely, he will want to shoe his former home-town fans what is up here. While Ilysova isn't what we'd call fantasy relevance, his presence in Washington could impact others.
As of right now, Otto Porter and Kelly Oubre have seen sharing time at small forward with Markieff Morris playing more at the four. There's definitely a scenario here where Ilyasova plays the stretch four, limiting Morris' minutes a tad. At least, it's something to keep an eye on initially.