Give Me The Rock
this is fantasy basketball
It’s obviously been reported on just about every site that Greg Oden (#1 draft pick and presumed starting Center for the Portland Trailblazers) will miss the entire 2007-08 season while recovering from microfracture knee surgery.
I drafted Oden in an experts league about 4 days before the announcement that he would have exploratory knee surgery. As we all know, that led to the microfracture, for which the recovery time is 8-10 months. Never you mind, though. I do still plan on not sucking.
How’s that? Well, since it’s an H2H league: I picked up Elton Brand. That’s my strategy. There you have it. I wouldn’t recommend that strategy in a Roto league, unless your backup Center is very strong. Otherwise, by the time Brand comes back, you might be too far out for him to help you. Of course it’s also possible that someone took a flier on Brand with a late round pick, and he’s not available. If that’s the case, you’re basically forced to give up a projected Top 50 pick for a Top 120 or Top 150 pick (depending on how deep your league is). Time to start scouring the Interwebs for Fantasy Basketball Sleepers 2007.
In the aforementioned league, I was also fortunate enough to pick Brandon Roy, so that #43 pick becomes slightly more valuable since a few more points and rebounds will be available without Oden on the floor.
As far as the rest of the Blazers, Channing Frye will probably move into the majority of minutes at Center, allowing his game to expand. The Blazers have Joel Pryzbilla who was a huge block and rebounding machine a few years back. He’s never been very healthy, but if he can get back to 24 minutes and play at least 60-some-odd games, he’ll be a pretty valuable free agent pickup. I would wait to get him, and go with Frye first, though.
I’m going to say the real winner, though is LaMarcus Aldridge. He might be listed as a Center for the Blazers for a while, but with his body, he’s really more of a PF. It doesn’t really matter what he’s listed as, since he and Frye will be the front line for the Blazers regardless of which one is where. Aldridge is certainly gone if you’ve already conducted your draft, but if you’re still making you cheatsheets, move him up. He’s about #78 on our Mock Draft Round Up, and considering how he was playing near the end of last season (before getting injured), he’s easily Top 75. He was putting up double-doubles with 2 and 3 blocks on the regular while Zach Randolph was doing the same thing without the blocks. Swapping Randolph for Frye while subtracting (or just not adding) Greg Oden means huge potential for Aldridge.
Just for comparison’s sake, Andris Biedrins was #57 last season with only 9.6 pts, 9.3 rebounds, 1.7 blocks, 60% FG, and 52% FT. There’s no way Aldridge will shoot 60%, but he was at 50% last season, and his FT% was up at 72.
Oden Links:
Dropping Dimes Oden Article
ProFantasySports Oden Article
FantasyBasketball.com Injury Update
Fantapedia’s Late Round Big Men
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