Fantasy basketball – Why short-term production matters more than ever

Fellow steamrolled Washington Wizards fans… we need to talk.

After last night’s total existential implosion against the LA Clippers? After surrendering a 35-point halftime lead? After those cataclysmic late-game events?

Turn off your notifications. Set your phones to silent. Because the Bradley Beal trade chatter is about to hit decibel levels somewhere between a 767 jet engine and a 1976 Who concert.

I’m skipping denial, moving straight into acceptance, and trying to model how to handle imminent heartbreak for my kids. My kids are apprehensive. They see the Beal swag in my garage.

But I’m creating a teachable moment on handling looming breakups with dignity. This present Woj Bomb Vigil? Just like that dark eighth-grade evening I got dumped for the first time.

Reliable sources had warned me: don’t pick up the phone, Cregan. She’s gonna do it via phone call.

And I could have squeezed a couple more days of being an official boyfriend out of it. I could have screened incoming calls with this exotic device called an “answering machine.” I could have cooked up a fake fever and hidden out at home through the weekend.

But sometimes… you gotta take your medicine.

Because Ardath White and Bradley Beal gave me extended opportunities to make it work. They were patient. I didn’t deliver. Both deserve new situations with championship upside… far removed from the Friend Zone.

And hey. At least in fantasy… I’ve learned to relish playing the field.

Because my empath factor renders it impossible to sit around complaining about fantasy production lost to a historic pandemic. I prefer to focus on finding new ways to win. And that means hitting the wire with unabashed gusto… and a revised methodology.

The most significant fundamental shift is in my perspective. I’ve retrained it to focus on the short-term. Instead of investing bandwith into projecting out ROS valuation for wire players — a near-impossibility at present — I invest my energy into anticipating who will make…