Carlos Boozer is out for 3 - 5 weeks with a hairline fracture in his knee. Pick up Paul Millsap immediately if you need rebounds and FG%.
SALT LAKE CITY (January 31, 2007) – The Utah Jazz announced today that a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and additional x-rays revealed a hairline fracture in Carlos Boozer’s left fibula head. Jazz physician Dr. Lyle Mason treated Boozer and identified the hairline fracture, which was then confirmed by a second opinion. Injuries of this nature typically take four to five weeks to fully heal.
I said preseason that Boozer just seems to fall on bad luck every year. This is the latest in a very promising career that is consistently being hampered by bad luck.
If you are an adventurous owner you may want to throw some buy low trades at AK-47. As I posted Yesterday Boozer has been going Tom Brady on Bledsoe-47. Without Carlos Boozer in the lineup I expect AK-47 to see a jump in rebounds and blocks. I do not foresee his points jumping to much because the offense has found other weapons, but you never know.
I will preface this by saying that the starting line up you see is exactly the same as the last ballot that I cast. This ballot judged players on a rather casual fantasy basis. For example, I respect Mike Miller’s outstanding fantasy season thus far, but, I am not about to deem it all-star worthy. At the same time, this list is not like the Grammy’s, have you won an award before? Will your presence/nomination get more people to watch? Ok, your in. Face it Shaq fans, his election is just like Madonna getting three nominations for an album that came out in 2005; how the hell does that work? If you know how… don’t answer. Anyway, for the bench I followed NBA protocol, two guards, two forwards, a center and two utilities. Feel free to argue with me.
Starters
Steve Nash - Guard
The guy on the right can start also. 43G .536FG .876FT 112T’s 843PT 142RB 514AT 31ST 2B 159TO
Anyone else find it ridiculous that at this moment, I could propose a rule requiring the reigning MVP to be a starter in this game? He leads the league in assists… by 97… he has a .536FG%… he is a point guard in case you missed that… oh, he has that percentage with 226 three point attempts… with 112 connections, hrm, that is a 49.6% completion rate, this is all just the epitome of ridiculous. Oh, I forgot that he is the leading member of the most exciting offense since the 80’s and has a third consecutive MVP within arms reach.
I am not a Kobe fan. I never have been. In fact the only thing I like about him is his endless supply of nicknames… Black Mamba is my personal favorite. Can I just say, I respect Kobe and his dominance, this is proof. Now what number will he wear in the All-Star game? Will he punch anyone that blocks him?
I am an enormous Dirk fanboy. A poster of his has rested on my closet door for years. Half to show my dedication and half to mock every college guy that has a naked pinup in that location. It seems that he will forever suffer from KG and Timmy D’s dominance over the fans. Perhaps he could get a start if he won a title or an MVP, or saved some orphans from a fire, or converted to Scientology. Whatever the case he seems screwed, remember that Grant Hill started in 2005… fan loyalty lasts forever.
I think his numbers and leadership talk better than i could.
Again, numbers and leadership do more talking than I can. This atrocious Wolves team is around .500 because of the tireless efforts of this man. Hell, when I watch these games he seems so effortless. As a first time KG owner, I am tickled with his production but also torn. Because, it does not seem like he is applying himself like in previous seasons. Rather, he is just that damn good. Trying or not, KG easily waltzes into this lineup.
Remember the rules? I can not vote for Timmy as he is not center eligible on the ballot. Also, I won’t vote for Yao due to the injury, he gets an honorable mention bench spot. Both of these players aside, Camby is having an outstanding season. If I gave out the defensive player of the year award this would be my choice. Sure he is not an offensive stud like when he came into the league, but his defensive presence can not be ignored. Ten Nuggets games have ended with Camby dominating the block column for five or more blocks. Also, he has a staggering 13 games with 15+ rebound games. Don’t forget his broken finger set him back some games, so that is 1/3 of his games. Every third game he is grabbing 15 rebounds, period.
Amare Stoudemire is the consensus choice for this spot, but look at the numbers. Camby out performs Stoudemire in every category except for the percentiles and points. All this in eight less games. I think Stoudemire is dominant, but Camby is just having a stellar season and deserves to be on this team. It just so happens that he weaseled his way into my starting lineup because of rules and my unwillingness to vote Yao a starter due to injury. It should be noted that I did this despite being from Houston, it pained me.
Ha! I worked him on as a center. Remember, on the coaches ballot you can assign a player any position you feel he can play. I have a feeling that every coach in the league except Pops would play Duncan at center. This is the biggest lie since George Michael’s heterosexuality. Seriously, how did the 80’s miss that one (no insult to Wham, I know all the lyrics to the song, you do also)? Wham! references aside (yes the ‘!’ is mandatory just like the lightening bolt in AC/DC) Tim Duncan is having another picturesque year. Just like KG, he is not trying his hardest, but who the hell has noticed? I predict Duncan will make the All-Star team every year of his career until they repaint the box on the backboard into a different shape. I wonder what Duncan’s shooting percentage would drop to if they changed that from a box to a trapezoid, or a pentagram, or a heartagram? Do i have to pay Bam Margera for making that joke?
The Matrix is the perfect nickname. His statistics defy reality. I watched all the Suns games that have been on national TV recently, as always Shawn Marion was invisible the whole game. Dunk here, loose ball tip there, three from the corner perhaps a block, he never does anything to monopolize your attention. The announcers have finally noticed this, if I hear Hubie Brown say “remember Marion does all this without having any plays run for him all game,” one more time, I will probably cry with joy. Hubie Brown, hands down the best announcer, can I put him on the All Star team? The Wachowski brothers should be paying Marion for restoring honor to his nickname after they left it in sequel shambles (I actually like those movies, but public opinion rules). The last thing I have to say about Marion, Sean and I watched a Suns game awhile back and took a drink for every dribble Marion took. Well next time we do this, we will get some heavy liquor, eight drinks… all game. I was more sober after the game than before.
22.1 and 11.8. There is no reason aside from rampant hereditary alcoholism to not love Carlos Boozer. A perpetually injured player finally playing to his potential… wait 13 blocks is his full potential? I am ready to anoint the Alaskan born beast as the best true power forward in the West. Sure, TD, KG, Dirk are all good, but there is a constant ambiguous debate about their positions. You know just by looking at him what position he plays. Carlos Boozer puts on Charles Barkley’s shoes then goes to work. Not only is Boozer having the best year of his career. But his resurgence has put a well known Russian All Star and teammate in the dog house. Don’t think for a second that there is not a correspondence between Boozer’s rise and AK-47’s demise.
I have been down with interleague/conference All Stars ever since that time Carlos Beltran was traded to the Astros right before the All Star game. So I can get behind this selection. If there is any doubt, he is proving how good he is with his increasing assist numbers. Amazing, he may actually be better when he has a decent amount of talent around him.
The time that he missed hurts him a lot. If he does not miss that time then he is a starter for sure. 23.4, 5.4 and 6.2. Tracy has undergone an evolution this season. The last two weeks we have seen the Tracy of old. Capable of taking over a game and willing his team to victory. However, earlier in the season we saw the new McGrady, the gentle Tracy who passed first. T-Mac already has 4 games with ten dimes, the previous two season saw him net five games of 10 or more dimes total. Right here there are some sentiments in play. The Rockets are playing the best defensive basketball in the league and deserve to have an All Star for playing as well as they have without T-Mac and Yao for time. All this while manning up for the toughest schedule in the league.
Ok, I am riding the bandwagon on this one. The Mavs deserve a second All Star for their league leading record. After last year, that is an All Star game rule. If you can not put the entire starting lineup of the leagues best team into the All Star game then you have to put at least two guys there. Jason Terry is having a good year also, but Josh Howard has shown more all around game and growth. We remember the Jet reaching these heights, it is more fun from a spectators position to watch Josh Howard achieve this. If Dirk could run for President, this would be his running mate.
Two knee surgeries later Amare deserves to be in Las Vegas. While he is no longer an instant Hall of Fame candidate, he is back to his old tricks. I will admit again that sentiments are at play here. Everyone including myself wants Amare to get back on the horse. Also, we want to run three Suns out on the court at the same time and see if they create havoc against the East. Will Kobe play with them or is he still bitter about the playoffs?
I just want to highlight that if injuries had not taken them down I would have Yao Ming and the forgotten about Rashard Lewis on this team.
Despite James’ big point totals and modest boards and assists, I’m starting to worry about his other stats. LBJ had 9 turnovers and shot 40% from the FT line. In January, he is averaging near 4 turnovers a game and is barely above 70% from the charity stripe. While most elite players generate a few turnovers, 4 per game is a lot, and 70% from the line is brutal considering that he shoots 8-10 freethrows per game.
After watching both play last season, I would have sworn that Lebron James would always be the better fantasy option. However, as good as Bron has been this year, his numbers are down from last season and Wade’s numbers are up.
I’m just lucky Dwight Howard is really living up to my expectations for a number 24 pick. I guess if I’d gone with Josh Howard at number 24, I’d be okay. Luckily my 4th round pick, Andre Iguodala, got rid of that pesky ball hog Allen Iverson and was able to get himself up to #20 on the GMTR Player Rater. And Baron Davis, who I chose 1 pick after Iguodala, is 2 places behind him at #22. Of course, my biggest score was probably JR Smith, taken with the 144th pick, and now residing at #65. We won’t mention Tyrus Thomas until next year. Or maybe when it’s Playoffs Time.
In a mabeufesque move, I’m going to declare LeBron James to be the Jessica Biel of Fantasy Basketball. As in, she grew up quick and was ready to become a superstar right away. Yeah, and I’m at least creating a metaphor here… Unlike some people who are just name dropping.
You can definitely see the “potential” but when it comes to the performance, it’s good, but it’s just not as good as you’d hoped. Her HSX value was like a Tech Stock in 2000. Like one of those startups that didn’t recover. Blade: Trinity might have been cool… but her performance in Elizabeth town was like watching LeBron shoot free throws. And to make another metaphor out of a comparison, LeBron in 2006-07 : D-Wade in 2006-07 :: Biel in The Illusionist : ____________ ?
If you said: Scarlett J in The Prestige, you are Absolut Ly Correct.
What that analogy above means is: it’s a perfectly acceptable performance by LeBron. But you’d just rather have someone else in the role.
You can try to blame his supporting cast, but really, it’s the same team he’s had before. And that certainly doesn’t account for him making 4% less free throws. YaySports and everyone’s who’s emailing The Cavalier reports on the Cavs knows that LeBron just isn’t trying as hard as he has before. I want LeBron to try, and not just because he’s on my team. I want him to try every year, because he could be the best basketball player ever. But everyone has been handing him that title for the past 3 years, and I don’t know if he realizes that it’s something you have to actually earn anymore. I just don’t want him to end up posing for pictures in nothing but a thong, y’know…
Lebron: Put your clothes back on, and then puff out your chest. Otherwise you look like a crack whore instead of a sultry lady.
It may be selective memory, but it seems like there are a lot guys coming out of almost nowhere on the season compared to the last few. Here’s my top 10 as of today. Kevin Martin is running away as the biggest surprise of the year in my mind. But, I’d also forgotten just how much J.R. Smith was overlooked in preseason rankings.
FGP
FTP
3PT
REB
AST
STL
BLK
PTS
PRE
CUR
1. Kevin Martin
49.3
87.6
1.6
4.4
2.1
1.1
0.2
20.5
130
30
2. David Lee
61.1
79.7
0.0
10.8
1.8
0.9
0.4
11.2
NR
51
3. Andris Biedrins
62.4
55.1
0.0
9.4
1.1
0.8
1.9
10.2
NR
59
4. Monta Ellis
47.2
74.1
0.7
2.9
4.3
1.4
0.3
17.7
154
66
5. J.R. Smith
44.9
82.1
2.9
2.7
1.6
1.0
0.2
16.6
142
61
6. Earl Boykins
41.0
91.3
1.5
2.2
4.5
0.8
0.1
16.1
164
78
7. Leandro Barbosa
46.6
85.2
1.9
2.4
4.1
1.1
0.2
16.2
131
55
8. Mo Williams
45.8
82.8
1.1
5.4
6.3
1.2
0.1
17.7
110
40
9. Mike Miller
45.7
80.0
2.8
5.9
4.4
0.9
0.3
17.5
96
35
10. Caron Butler
47.8
88.3
0.4
8.1
3.9
2.0
0.3
20.8
53
12
PRE is the preseason rank complied from a bunch of fantasy basketball sites and can be found here. CUR is the current GMTR player rank as of 1/29.
It’s been a slow day at work for me, so I’ve had time to compile some gems from the old world wide web of awesomeness.
You may have come across this already, but apparently Bill Walton has a podcast that’s everything you’d expect a Bill Walton podcast to be. Be afraid, J.E. Skeets and Tas Melas, Big Red is coming after you. Thanks to Complete Sports, where I first came across it and Doug LeMoine, who linked to the podcast even before that and had this to say:
…this really bizarre ESPN podcast in which Bill makes repeated references to some Brazilian celebrity’s Internet sex video, praises Brendan Haywood (â€keep running, it’s good for youâ€), tells a pretty good story about Larry Bird banking in three-pointer after three-pointer, and discusses his love of crossword puzzles (â€What is a 10-letter word for surge? I was crushed when I couldn’t come up with … ‘escalation.’â€).
For the last week or so, a new name has sat atop the GMTR player rater (as well as the Rotopoll Ratings). I’ll admit that I avoided Dwayne Wade in drafts earlier this year because I thought he’d be tired from his non-stop play over the summer. And while he’s missed 7 games so far, overall he’s playing even better than last year, something that can’t be said about LeBron James.
I’m not listening to those people expecting good things from Mike Dunleavy in Indiana. He jumped right into the Pacers starting lineup and has averaged the very Dunleavy line of 12 points, 5 rebounds, and 4 assists in three games. In fact, anytime someone’s box score reads 12/5/4, it should be called “a Dunleavy”. He’d average a 12/5/4 if he played for my middle school team or was the mascot for the Austin Toros.
Isiah Thomas, Stupid Like A Fox! According to this ESPN article, Forbes magazine has determined that the New York Knicks are the NBA’s most valuable franchise despite nearly $40 million in operating losses last season. The Knicks are valued at $592 million. The rest of the top five include: the Lakers ($568 million), Mavericks ($463), Bulls ($461), and Rockets ($439).
He’s back! The Atlanta Journal-Constitution noted that Kobe’s new #24 jersey is now the best selling in the NBA, toping Dwayne Wade and Lebron James. He was number three last year. via Sportsbiz
On TrueHoop yesterday, special guest blogger Kelly Dwyer posted about the idiotic Austin Toros mascot, “Da Bull”, who ran out onto the court and dunked while the game was going on, interrupting a possible a game-winning play. Well, here is the video:
Sixty percent of the time, that’s funny everytime. Does that count as “Ballin Outta Control”… I think it’s got to.
