Give Me The Rock

All hail the power of his name! King James has signed his extension and Cavs fans are rejoicing. Really Rejoicing. Rejoicing with crazy-ass-girlfriend like rants. All the way from a comment on a Caviler Attitude post, take it bigbuddylove06:

Listen up all you haters! If you are not from Cleveland then you dont understand how we feel about Lebron! You can take all those other franchises, wrap em’ up in a big ball, and none of them will match up to the investment our fans will make for our hometown hero! … Hate it or love it but the underdogs on top! Yeah underdog! … Everybody just get used to the C-town being the place to be once again! … The man, The King, that’s right, the Cavalier! See ya’ll in the playoffs haters!

I am (less enthusiastically) inclined to agree. Lebron willed the Cavs into the playoffs and almost took out Detroit in the second round. It’s got to be a good feeling to know that your team is going to contend for at least the next three years and possible for a long, long time. My guess is that Lebron will lead many fantasy teams to championships for a long, long time as well.

Onto the rankings:

2005/2006 RANKINGS
(4) Lebron James
(49) Zydrunas Ilgauskas
(81) Larry Hughes
(114) Drew Gooden
(124) Donyell Marshall
(209) Eric Snow
(232) Damon Jones
(282) Anderson Varejao
(324) Aleksandar Pavlovic
(376) Luke Jackson
(379) Stephen Graham
(415) Ira Newble
(431) Martynas Andriuskevicius

OUT
(206) Ronald Murray

IN
(N/A) Shannon Brown
(N/A) Daniel Gibson
(N/A) Ejike Ugboaja

Not the greatest fantasy team ever assembled, but when you got King James, magic can happen. Word on the street is that the Cavs are still looking to wheel and deal, possibly moving Gooden or bringing in a point guard (the word says David Wesley). Since starter Wesley wasn’t worth much last year, we can safely ignore the possibility of backup Wesley on the Cavs. My forecast:

BUY

Lebron James – While conducting research for this preview (oh yeah, I do research), I was initially overwhelmed by the non-stop gushing man love for Lebron at every Cavaliers site I came across. It reminded me of those old Bill Swerski’s Super Fans skits on SNL.

Bill Swerski: Now, gentlemen, let me ask you this: What if Da Cavs were all 14 inches tall, you know, about so high? Now, what’s your score of today’s game?

Carl Wollarski: Oh, hold on. Then I change mine, too. I thought it was Mini-Bron.

What more can you say? I’ll keep quiet and let the real fans speak - in blogs, newspapers, and even video. Full-size Lebron is worthy of all that man love and he’ll be on the top of my draft list this fall. Mini-Bron would only be like 8th, though.

Larry Hughes – Probably the toughest guy to predict so far, I’ve had him as a BUY, a SELL, and a HOLD at various times while writing this post. Hughes is the stock market equivalent of investing in real estate in California, Satellite radio, or Russian brides. Who the hell knows what’s going to happen? 36 games? 65 games? 15 pts/game? 22 pts/game? So, do you feel lucky? If you can buy low enough, never underestimate the value of an injury bounce back year.

HOLD

Drew Gooden – As of this exact moment, Gooden is still an unsigned restricted free agent and the rumors are fierce. My go to Cavs site, Caviler Attitude, is predicting Gooden is as good as gone because some stupid team will offer him insanely large Nene-ish money. I can see that happening because as a fantasy player, Gooden’s always played the “this is his year” sleeper role and (with the possible exception of 2004) never quite lived up. He’s never smelled one of my fantasy teams because someone always seems to grab him up 2-3 rounds too soon and I can see that happening again this year (especially if he moves to another team).

Zydrunas Ilgauskas – On one hand, he’s a 31 year old 7 foot 3 inch giant who operates in slow motion, saw an across the board drop in his stats (and minutes) last year, and increasingly can’t quite keep up with the pace of Lebron’s team. On the other hand, he’s played in at least 78 games the past four seasons, his stats are still a’ight, and you can’t exactly buy centers on the Internet. What? Shit, I guess you can. Add up the pluses and minuses and Ilgauskas gets the marginal hold instead of a sell.

SELL

Donyell Marshall – If someone is so consistently inconsistent, are they then consistent? Anyway, seeing that my memories of Marshall consist of checking out my fantasy team’s results from the previous night and seeing lines like 3/2/2 and 20% from the field (Feb 13) or 3/4/2 and 16% from the field (Feb 2), you can certainly imagine my surprise after seeing him ranked at 124 for the year (which is not great, but certainly worthy of being on someone’s team). If you’re the type of player that enjoys checking your team’s results every morning, Marshall will drive you absolutely you insane to the point where you must either drop him or begin a routine of daily antidepressants. However, if you’re the type to draft a team and check back in May, then you might want to give him a try.

By the way Cavs fans, enjoy the next three years of Donyell Marshall. That should be fun.

Eric Snow – In case you’ve just stepped out of a time machine from the year 2003 and, as a result of said time travel, happen to believe Snow to a be a relevant fantasy player, now would be a good time to sell.

WATCH

Shannon Brown – They. say. the kid. can play. I wouldn’t draft him, but the way the roster is currently constructed, he’s one Larry Hughes injury away from some mad minutes.

Aleksandar Pavlovic Anderson Varejao – If Gooden gets shipped out, he’s the man. Although, people in the know seem to not be sold on Varejao. Since the situation will probably be resolved before your fantasy draft, this is more of a watch what happens during the next week. I’m just ecstatic that the Cavs will have their PF who wears a headband quota locked up no matter what happens.

And watch Lebron, most of all. Don’t be a hater.

Where I’d pick em (in a 10 team league)
Lebron James – 1st round, 1st overall
Zydrunas Ilgauskas – 6th
Larry Hughes – 6th (possible 3rd round talent if healthy… but could be a total bust)
Drew Gooden – 9th (He’ll likely be gone long before that)
Donyell Marshall – I’m not going through hell again, but as long as he is still bombing threes and grabbing some boards, he’ll be worth something. Maybe 13th or 14th.
Anderson Varejao – If the Cavs move Gooden, he’ll probably play like a 11th or 12th rounder, and should be worth a look. Otherwise, don’t bother. [Note: Despite all my insider information telling me otherwise, Gooden did stay with the Cavs, so don’t bother with Varejao].