or: How JR Smith wants to be like Baron Davis; Dwyane Wade wants to be like Steve Nash; and it’s hard to be America’s Next Top Model when the only guy with no eyeliner is messing up your hair

(Yes, I’m aware the picture has nothing to do with Dwyane Wade or JR Smith, but I thought the title of the post was pretty clever and I’ve been waiting for a week to use these pictures)

Might as well kick things off with a little bit o the Fantasy Basketblog post entitled Flash in a Wheelchair:

[Shaq's] 20/16 with 1 block on 9-of-15 shooting qualifies as his best game of the year, while even a few years ago that was pretty much a ho-hum Shaq Daddy evening.

Really, that’s all there is to it. If Jason Kapono is still available, he’s certainly a good pickup, but it’s hard to see him maintaining his percent-style production without Wade out there to draw fire. Shaq will help in that respect, but as my FBB homies said, it’s hard to say if he can still kick old school. Especially if Wade throws in the towel for a hospital gown.

Someone else needs a hospital gown.

If you’re looking for someone to replace Wade - say, if you just traded away LeBron James to acquire him and now you’re worried about your team - you’ll probably have to look on teams that are not in Miami and not wearing Heat uniforms. Of course, with no obvious trade deadline opportunities, you’ll have to do some quick math to figure out how to have a chance in hell of hanging on. CBS Sportsline has these recommendations:

The best players out there who are owned in less than 50 percent of leagues on CBS SportsLine are Charlie Bell of the Bucks, Toronto’s Anthony Parker and Jose Calderon, Jerry Stackhouse of the Mavericks and Utah’s Derek Fisher. They are suitable injury replacements but not players you want to start on a consistent basis, especially for a playoff run.

Now, for the second presentation of our double feature, JR Smith. He’s probably not going to have a major impact since I’d assume/hope that he was a later round pick for most people. So, if your earlier picks were solid enough to hang onto until now, they should be able to at least make up some of the ground you stand to lose in the next 3-4 weeks.

Here’s my question, though, how does knee surgery put you out for 3 weeks, while shoulder surgery is potentially season-ending?? That just doesn’t equate in my mind.

And once again, there’s not actually that much to say about this situation. Yakouba Diawara and Linas Kleiza could see time at SG, but really, it’s just going to be Allen Iverson playing more minutes and getting the boost in fantasy value. Kleiza might gain some fantasy value if his minutes get up to the 30 minute mark consistently. He’s been given 25 - 34 minutes over the past 5 games and has gone for about 12 and 5 with a little over 1 three. That’s not bad, but his FG% isn’t great and he had only 2 steals and 0 blocks in those 5 games.

Finally, if it makes you feel any better about your team, I’ve got Wade, Smith and Baron Davis filling up my 3 roster spots in the Dropping Dimes league and Brevin Knight, Chuck Hayes, and Corliss Williamson on my bench in the HoopsAddict.com league. Yeah, I’m seriously thinking about Salary Cap games these days…