Give Me The Rock

SI.com - NBA - Abdur-Rahim scheduled to have jaw surgery - Wednesday December 28, 2005 8:48PM

Sacramento Kings forward Shareef Abdur-Rahim’s mouth will be wired shut for six weeks after he undergoes surgery to repair his broken jaw.

Abdur-Rahim’s jaw was broken by an elbow from Portland’s Zach Randolph in the third quarter of the Kings’ loss to the Trail Blazers on Monday night. He was scheduled for surgery Wednesday night, and will be reevaluated in two-to-three weeks, with no timetable set for his return.

Fantasy Impact

I’d already picked up Kevin Martin in one of my leagues. He’s been playing well with Bonzi out… Not that there’s a direct relationship to Shreef there, but less players means more stats for everyone!

Kenny Thomas seems like a solid replacement for Shareef. I wouldn’t be opposed to picking up Francisco Garcia either. He had a good game on the 27th and is probably being picked up in leagues across the country and abroad (y’know, in the places where they aren’t playing fantasy futbol).

There’s not a lot of other guys left on the Kings… and the ones above (as well as Mike Bibby and Brad Miller) seem determined to soak up as many minutes as possible while they can. I would have thought Brian Skinner would be worth a look, but you’ll notice his name is not in bold. So I guess that’s that.

Sure was a good ride while it lasted, eh?

The Denver Nuggets announced Wednesday that Camby will undergo surgery for a fractured right pinky.

Camby will have pins surgically inserted into the finger Thursday. The team then will set a timetable for his return.

Pins does not sound good. Perhaps they should just replace his skeleton with one made of adamantium.

Fantasy Impact

Let’s see… Kenyon Martin is out… Nene is out… Francisco Elson can only score more than 4 points when he clears that magical 45 minute threshold… That leaves Eduardo Najera. Is it any suprise I got an email notification he was picked up in my Jedi league? While it depends on how long Martin and Camby are out, Najera is probably not a bad pick up. He’s never really done that much, but he’s solid, and the increased PT has started to nudge his numbers upwards.

Technorati Tags: fantasybasketball, basketball

Technorati Tags: fantasybasketball, basketball

Clippers forward Corey Maggette will be out at least four more weeks because of an injured left foot.

It was thought Maggette had a sprained left foot, and he was listed as day-do-day. But he returned to Los Angeles on Thursday, a day after the Clippers lost at Indiana 97-75, and a CT scan revealed a small separation of the ligament between the bones in the foot, team physician Dr. Tony Daly said.

That sucks. I am going to basically be playing a man down for the next 4 weeks in my FantasyBasketball.com league. I guess it’s not as bad as the guy who has Yao, or Amare, so I should probably shut my yap and get on with it.

Fantasy Impact

While you would think this would be a great opportunity for Sam Cassell and/or Cuttino Mobley to do a little Ballin’ Outta Contol, you’d be wrong. Dr. Livingston is the only Clipper who is doing any better in Maggette’s abscence (at least I can take comfort in that). If you are looking for a short-term solution, I’d have to say that’s about it. I mean, there probably aren’t any other Clippers worth plucking from the free agent pool, and none of them besides Elton Brand are worth trading for (and Brand is worth trading for whether Maggette is injured or not).

So, I guess that’s that.

Happy Holidays. And by Happy Holidays, I don’t just mean Merry Christmas, because Hanukkah starts on the evening of the 25th this year, and Kwanzaa follows starting on the 26th. Okay, secular from here on out.

Technorati Tags: fantasybasketball, basketball

According to Fantasy Basketball Guru, trading season has begun. I have yet to see this, but I have made free agent 6 pick-ups in the past 3 days in my FantasyBasketball.com league. It sucks to the point of being cruel to have daily lineup changes with no injured reserve. If I could keep my 10 best players in for the whole week against someone who was doing the same, I’d be in pretty good shape. But when you’ve got 3 injured people, that adds up to 6-9 games a week less than your opponent. It’s pretty much impossible to win doing that unless your team is stacked like, well…

The FBG has also dropped Stromile Swift. I’m close to doing the very same. I thought with Yao out, Strom would step up, but I’m only giving him one more game before he gets the boot. If you’re looking for someone to replace Swift and Al Jefferson is not available, you might want to check out my Sizzlin’ / Fizzlin’ article over at FantasyBasketball.com. And just so you know I ain’t bullshittin’ you, I picked up Viktor Khryapa shortly after submitting the article. He’s got to be better than Eric Snow and an injured Derek Anderson, right?

One more from FBG: Raymond Felton.

The Association is blogging about Vinsanity’s return. Yeah, around here we call that BOC. Of course, as soon as anyone says “Vince” and “Carter” in the same blog post, every manger in every fantasy league says “How long until he’s out again?”

In other injury news, Kirilenko is on a road trip to Los Angeles where he’ll take on back specialists. Not so good going up against those guys. I can’t help but wonder if back doctors in LA dabble in a little plastic surgery on the side. I mean, the demand is high enough out there… Some butt implants might help AK box out better.

I said I’d address this comment via post, so here it is. Quite simple really. First things first, Miami is no way a +2.5 over Detroit. Why? Because that means The Bookies (aka Oddsmakers) think that Miami will win the game by 2.5 points (this is the essence). Why 2.5? So you can bet on the game and know for sure if you won or lost. If it was 3 points, then what happens if Miami wins by 3 points? Do you win? Or The Bookie? I sure as hell wouldn’t risk a broken kneecap over something like that.

So, you can bet that Miami will cover the spread, and if they win by 3 points or more, you’re rolling in dough. If you think Detroit will win the game, you bet on Detroit. If you think Detroit will lose, but by less than 2.5 points, then you bet on Detroit.

If you’ve still got questions, go ask Anthony at NBA Source. I think he knows more about it than I do.

Other pluses:
The Chronic-les of Narnia from Saturday Night Live (that’s some SEO linking right there) (thanks to Straight Bangin’)
NBA BPRs at YaySports.

Other minuses:
I’m sorry, did you say Wallop?

NBA Today - NBA - Yahoo! Sports

All-Star Yao Ming of the Houston Rockets missed his first game of the season and the third of his NBA career Sunday night because of a sore right big toe that will sideline him indefinitely. Yao, the leading vote-getter after the first set of returns for this season’s All-Star game, is averaging 19.9 points and 9.0 rebounds.

Fantasy Impact

Yao is big in more than one sense. While his play hasn’t been what some people want, you can’t argue that 20 and 9 is a bad thing. And it’s going to hurt when 20 and 9 drops out of your lineup. So, what’s a fella to do?

I wouldn’t recommend picking up Dikembe Mutombo. He got 31 minutes of burn with Yao out, but failed to product much of anything in that time. He’s just getting a little old to be anything more than a big body in the middle.

Stromile Swift forgot to step up his game with Yao gone, so I can’t very well tell you he’s a good pickup. Juwan Howard might be able to do something for you, but really, do you want to drop someone for Juwan Howard?

The only person who really benefits here is Tracy McGrady, who once again has Orlando style free reign of the team. Of course, he’s not someone you pick up off the waiver wire. So, where does that leave us?

Pretty much, if you’ve got Yao, you’ll just have to hold tight. If you don’t have Yao, you’ll just have to hold tight.

In other news

Apparently the new pink is starting a blog for each individual piece of news. The old pink is Dwyane Wade splitting defenders and dunking the ball (Thanks to HoopsAddict.com)

• Perhaps Sactown Royalty has something sharp wedged in between the lobes of his brain sort of like The Mamba (who named himself after a female superhero), or perhaps more like another player that apparently nobody wants, but more than one blog wants to free?.