Give Me The Rock
this is fantasy basketball
The Exodus from The East continues… CBS Sportsline has a recap of the trade that is sending Kidd to the Mavs for Devin Harris. They also have some fantasy analysis, from which I plan to borrow liberally…
Don’t expect Kidd’s Fantasy value to change significantly in Dallas. He is still worth starting as a No. 1 guard, and his points and rebounds should remain the same. There is a chance his assist total could decline because of Dallas’ offense — Harris was the team’s leader in assists at 5.3 per game — but adding Kidd will likely alter what the Mavericks do, so have no fear.
You can also expect Nowitzki, Howard and Terry to improve playing alongside Kidd, and Erick Dampier will probably see more minutes with Diop gone.
Yes, Kidd will still be good as your PG. Passing to Dirk Nowitzki, Josh Howard, and Jason Terry is at least as good as passing to Vince Carter and Richard Jefferson. Probably better. The rebounds might be harder to come by though, since Erick Dampier, Dirk, and Howard actually like to rebound. The 11 points should stay the same since Devin Harris was averaging 14 before his injury. It’s possible that Kidd could pick up those extra 3 points, but I would rate it as not likely, since Dirk, Howard, and JET are all high volume scorers on the team, and Kidd will probably be focused on running the offense.
With Malik Allen coming over to replace Diop, I don’t really agree with CBS’ assessment that Dampier will get more minutes. Allen was averaging 15 in NJ, while Diop had 17 in Dallas. If Dampier does get those extra 2 minutes, it’s not going to dramatically change his fantasy value.
For Dallas, nothing is really going to change. Dirk and JET are down in FG% this season, so maybe Kidd will be able to help them get back those 3 percentage points. No reason to try to trade for them now, though, and I don’t see any potential Free Agent Mavericks (maverick Mavericks?) gaining enough value to be worth picking up.
In New Jersey, Harris will have a lot to live up to as the Nets start rebuilding. He isn’t going to start averaging a triple-double, but he is capable of being a quality point guard.
Harris, who has missed the past eight games with an ankle injury, is averaging a career-high 14.4 points. He should do well paired with Vince Carter and Richard Jefferson, and consider Harris a No. 3 Fantasy guard going forward.
Don’t worry about Carter or Jefferson losing Fantasy value. They will continue to score, and their assist total could also rise.
The rest of the players involved in the trade have minimal Fantasy value. Allen will be a bench player in Dallas, as will George and Ager in New Jersey. Diop also joins a crowded frontcourt with the Nets with Josh Boone, Sean Williams, Nenad Krstic and Stromile Swift.
Hopefully Harris will be back from his injury soon (he’s on my GMTR Readers League team), because I’m predicting an increase in value for him on the Nets. Again, though, I wouldn’t go trading for him because he is still injured, and it could be that Vince Carter and Richard Jefferson decide to hog the ball for the Nets. But Harris is a quality player, and Nenad Krstic and Josh Boone are not as good offensively as Dirk Nowitzki, which will allow Harris the opportunity to up his already-career-high scoring.
CBS is right that Diop is headed into a crowded frontcourt, and I’d say Boone, Williams, and Krstic are all better players, which means if you’ve got Diop, it’s probably time to drop. You can wait a couple games, but if he’s not getting the minutes, they’re not going to come.
A lot of Carter and Jefferson’s value will depend on how well Harris can run the backcourt. He’s more of a scoring PG with his career high in assists coming this year at only 5.3 per game. It will be interesting to see if he is a good enough passer to up that number; even if he does, there’s no way he’s going to reach Jason Kidd levels, though. With the 5 rebound drop going from Kidd to Harris, there is some room for Jefferson, Krstic, and Boone to up their totals a bit. Boone is ranked 182 by Yahoo over the past month, but jumps to 54 if you look at only the last week. He’s probably been picked up if your league is competitive, but in shallower leagues, he might still be available.
Krstic’s minutes are supposed to go up after the All-Star break (according to Nets coach Lawrence Frank via Stats.com), so if he’s available, now might be a good time to take a flier on him. He’s been playing only 15-17 minutes a game since returning from injury, and has been fairly productive in that time. He did only play 26 games last season, though, so the injury bug looks like it might be a recurring character in The Story of Nenad.
If New Jersey can hang on in the playoff race (they’re currently in 7th) all of the Nets should be good because they’ll be playing hard to stay in the fight. If the loss of Kidd sends them down as a team, then I can easily see Vince Carter getting “injured” later in the season.
And finally, since people always like to put players in their new uniforms via Photoshop, I did that for ya:
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