Give Me The Rock

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

While my esteemed colleague at Backside Potential is using Derrick Rose as an excuse to show women’s posteriors, the magical, mythical Ryan Parker is writing tributes to D-Rose’s potential (and suffering).

I believe that pretty much sums up the Bulls 2008-09 season so far, and seems like a fitting way to end 2008 as a Bulls fan.

Image by Atomische.com via Flickr

Since it’s New Year’s Eve, I’ll go out by saying that there are some subtle nuances to fantasy basketball that I still don’t understand. I believe that these aspects are mostly mental and emotional, though, which again shows why if you want to be a true winner in fantasy sports, you must set aside any sort emotion and leave your ruths at the door.

Line of the Night: Jason Kidd (1.29) getting Line of the Night last night is a small example of what I described above. Kidd had 16 assists, yes, but paired that with 14 points on merely decent 45% shooting. He did also have 7 rebounds, 2 threes, 4 steals, and a block, while only turning the ball over 2 times, so with that kind of line, I know I shouldn’t be so surprised that he was the best of 174 players last night. But I have this notion of Kidd as washed up and past his prime, which is, actually, a more apt description for Steve Nash, who currently sits at #95 on the 9-category Player Rater, compared to Kidd, who is indeed a Top 20 player (#17). If you look at the 8-category rater, Nash jumps to 38, but Kidd also moves up to #11.

There is no emotion, there is peace.
There is no ignorance, there is knowledge.
There is no passion, there is serenity.
There is no chaos, there is harmony.
There is no death, there is the Force.

- The Jedi Code (Based on the meditations of Odan-Urr)

Honorable Mentions: Mario Chalmers (1.27) had a line that looks more like a LotN to my emotions: 21 points with 6 threes, shooting 78%; 3 rebounds, 8 assists, 3 steals, 0 turnovers.

Marcus Camby (1.09) pulled down 24 rebounds to go with 15 points, 3 blocks, and a steal.

Jason Terry (1.06) makes the list since he topped 1.0, but his 29 points on 5 threes and 52% shooting isn’t as appealing to my emotions as much since it comes with only 3 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 blocks, and a steal.

Andrew Bogut (0.99) was pretty close to the 1.0 mark with his 20 and 14 and 3 blocks.

Waiver Wire Line of the Night: Grant Hill (0.93) played 39 minutes to Matt Barnes’ 27. In those 39 minutes Hill (who is owned in 49% of Yahoo leagues, thus barely making the cutoff) had 15 and 7 with 6 steals. If you’re in a league with more than 12 teams that also happens to be in the 51% of leagues where Hill is available, he’s probably worth a pickup. Especially recommended for H2H leagues with daily lineup changes because of his inconsistency.

Michael Finley (0.80) had 4 threes, but I wouldn’t expect him to be near the top of the charts on a regular basis.

Luke Ridnour (0.79) who was one of the top players of December who might still be available in your league, is still only taken in 40% of Yahoo leagues. Last night he had 21 points, 5 rebounds, 6 assists, 2 threes, a steal, and even 2 blocks. He made 60% of his 15 shots, so he’s helping you out in every category except Turnovers (he had 3).

The Biggest Loser: Francisco Garcia (-0.45) has been back since the end of November without making it onto my fantasy radar (even though I drafted him in one league). He’s owned in 54% of leagues, though, which makes him significant enough to point out this line: 23 minutes, 3 points (1/5 from the field, 1/2 from the line), 4 rebounds, 1 steal, 1 turnover.

All Eyez On Me: It appears that the good holiday games were all used up on Christmas, but with Drew Gooden out, expect good things from Dwight Howard today as Orlando destroys the Bulls.

Golden State Plays: Oklahoma City. Not sure what to say about that, except if you’ve got daily changes, the Thunder players are probably good ones to make sure you’ve got in your lineup. If they had more quality run-n-gun type players I’d list some names for you. Side note: Golden Stats is only 4-16 on the road, while the Thunder are 2-14 at home, so this should be a real Battle Royale.

Dont miss a day of the Fantasy NBA. Subscribe to Give Me The Rock  right now. You can also get bonus (and easily digestible) content by following GMTR on Twitter.

Peace is a lie, there is only passion.
Through passion, I gain strength.
Through strength, I gain power.
Through power, I gain victory.
Through victory, my chains are broken.
The Force shall set me free.

- The Sith Code

Next time anyone wants to question any of the advice I give on GMTR, first check out a couple of screenshots I took today:

They’re purdy, huh? Yes, that’s right, I’m currently in first place in both the GMTR Readers League and the Monster League…

Of course, this is the first time I’ve mentioned either league since the beginning of the year. And it also happens to be the first week that I find myself at the top of the world in the Monster League, so yeah, the timing may seem a little suspect. But I just wanted to get in out there while I can and let everyone else in the leagues know they can suck it.

The Readers League

I’ve actually been in first place in the Readers League for at least a few weeks now. And I pretty much owe it all to an insanely good draft. Marion in the first wasn’t anything special, but here’s what I knocked off in rounds 2 through 11:

2. (20) Rashard Lewis
3. (29) Marcus Camby
4. (44) Antawn Jamison
5. (53) Mo Williams
6. (68) Jermaine O’Neal
7. (77) Andrei Kirilenko
8. (92) John Salmons
9. (101) Gilbert Arenas
10. (116) Shane Battier
11. (125) Raymond Felton

With the exception of Arenas, that is straight-up good drafting. I’ve only had to make 4 moves so far in the league, two of those guys – Spencer Hawes and Wilson Chandler – are still with the team. This is a team built for a championship, even as Fantasy BBall Jedi sits close by in 2nd place thanks to a resurgent Boris Diaw.

The Monster League

This league has been a bit more of a battle. My draft wasn’t as good (lucky) as the Readers’ League, as evidenced by my second half of the draft:

5. (98) Anthony Parker
6. (103) Shane Battier
7. (138) Hakim Warrick
8. (143) Andres Nocioni
9. (178) Darko Milicic
10. (183) Jamaal Tinsley

Besides Nocioni, this was a forgettable to near disastrous 5-10. The thought that Hakim Warrick could be my starting PF was an especially bad choice.

But once the season started I went to work. Someone quickly dropped Rafer Alston after his horrendous start to the year and I happy scooped him up in like the 2nd week. It’s not that Alston has even been good this year, but it is the Monster League dammit, and when recent free agent pickups include Kosta Koufos, Joe Smith, and Dominic McGuire, Alston starts to look like Steve Nash. Or is Steve Nash starting to look like Rafer Alston? I get confused.

Other than that, I’ve been trying to work the schedule/short-term adds as much as possible with the likes of Carl Landry, Jason Maxiell, Antonio Daniels and most recently, Rasual Butler. There are only two bench spots, so you can’t really get too creative. Although mad props to the the Drunk Knight for starting Chris Andersen this week. We roll like that in the Monster League.

My Monster team isn’t good enough to spend the rest of the year in first. I expect a knock down, ugly brawl all year long and the real possibility that Nels’ bites an owners ear off at some point.

Line of the Night: Stephen Jackson (1.15). Only 2 threes for SJax last night, but the 30/7/7 with 2 steals and 2 blocks capped an all around nice game for him. Thanks to Jackson and Marco “Rocky” Belinelli, the Warriors also had a rare nice night themselves, outlasting Toronto 117-111.

Honorable Mentions: Boy, am I glad I sat Andrei Kirilenko (1.14) this week because the Jazz only have two games. It’s not like 16 points, 13 rebounds, 3 steals and 3 blocks would have been helpful to my team at all; A very Antawn Jamison-like 30 and 12 for Antawn Jamison (1.04); all you need to know about Jose Calderon’s (0.95) night is that he had 16 assists; and Deron Williams (0.94) had 26 points, 4 threes, 6 assists and looked fabulous doing it.

Waiver Wire Line of the Night: Kyle Lowry (0.59) checks in with the 20th best line of the night thanks to (basically) a 12 assist game – his career high. He and Mike Conley had been competing all year to see who wants the Memphis starting PG job the least, but Lowry has put together a good run of games recently, so we may be seeing the slow burn of Mike Conley on his way out of the league.

Injury of the Night: Nene is hurt! Can you believe it! Ok, you probably can. And while it’s only supposed to be a stiff neck rather than something serious, you never know with Nene. While he was generally invisible yesterday, Chris Andersen (0.11) started at center for the Nuggets and played 32 minutes. Andersen could be a guy to stash on your bench while we all huddle around the radio waiting for the latest news on the Nene situation.

Biggest Loser: Old people. Steve Nash (-0.45) only played 9 minutes for Phoenix because of back spasms (he had 0 points and 2 assists) and Jermaine O’Neal only last 8 minutes before leaving the game with flu-like symptoms. I hear the elderly are susceptible to that kind of thing.

All Eyez on Me: The game I’ll be watching is – no surprise - Boston (28-4) at Portland (19-12). The Blazers are surely going to bring more game to the C’s than the Kings did on Sunday and Oden/Perkins is going to be a fun matchup to watch.

The other game to watch is Cleveland (26-4) at Miami (16-13), with the home-and-home. Ben Wallace cannot be stopped! Don’t even try.

My vote for best fantasy game of the night goes to New York (11-18) at Charlotte (11-20). As Nels has said, everything D’Antoni touches turns to fantasy gold (with the exception of the fantasy black hole also called Eddy Curry). New York is currently tied with Golden State for the league lead in pace and since the trade of Jason Richardson, Charlotte hasn’t been an offensive disaster anymore. They’ve scored over 100 points in 3 of their last 5 games (we’re grading on a curve here).

Don’t miss a day of the Fantasy NBA. Subscribe to Give Me The Rock right now. You can also get bonus (and easily digestible) content by following GMTR on Twitter.

HoopsAddict hosts a year-in-review Carnival of the NBA. It’s pretty much the longest (or largest) Carnival I’ve ever seen. Evidently, in addition to accepting submissions, Ryan went through BallHype and picked out the years most hyped posts. It’s almost overwhelming, really. Definitely worth checking out, though, if you want to see the Year That Was in Basketball.

Line of the Night: Josh Howard (1.46) put up numbers across the board, scoring 29 points with 5 threes on 50% and 100% shooting, then adding 9 rebounds, 7 assists, a steal, and 2 blocks. And while it’s no tremendous feat, the Mavericks proved they can beat the Clippers without Dirk Nowitzki.

Honorable Mentions: Kobe Bryant (1.38) took full advantage of playing against Golden State by scoring 31 points on 60% from the field. He also made all 10 of his free throws. Chris Duhon (1.21) had 17 points and 11 assists with only a single turnover. Let me repeat: Mike D’Antoni is fantasy magic. Carmelo Anthony (0.91) had a solid 32 points and 9 rebounds on 68% from the field (only 71% from the line, though). Troy Murphy (0.80) doubled up with 16 points and 16 rebounds and even made 2 three-pointers and had 4 assists. Let me repeat: Perfect Small Ball Center. LeBron James (0.78) only made 58% of his 12 free throws, but his 33 points, 6 rebounds, and 9 assists were enough to carry the Cavs to a comeback victory against Miami, allowing us to witness this moment:

Waiver Wire Line of the Night: Sasha Vujacic (0.51) played well above his season average of 15 minutes, most likely getting 31 minutes because the Lakers didn’t have too much trouble handling the Warriors. Sasha scored 17 points, including 4 three-pointers, and had 6 assists.

Another Laker, Trevor Ariza (0.49) was close to Vujacic, and a lot closer to his season average for minutes. Ariza played 25 compared to his season average of 24, and had 11 points, 9 rebounds, 4 assists, a steal, and 2 blocks.

The Biggest Loser: Michael Beasley (-0.56) wasn’t doing much to help the Heat against the Cavs. Beasley had 9 points and 5 rebounds, which would just be kind of an off-night if he’d shot better than 36% from the floor and 33% from the line.

All Eyez On Me: We know that Orlando (24-6) is a contender in the East now, and tonight they look to further assert that position with a win against former contender Detroit (17-11).

Phoenix (16-12) @ Oklahoma City (3-28) might yield some good fantasy performances with Amare Stoudemire dominating the inside and Kevin Durant working against less than stellar defense. Both teams allow 102 points per game.

The Golden Statement: The Raptors play Golden State tonight, so make sure that Jose Calderon, Jermaine O’Neal, Chris Bosh, and Jamario Moon are in your lineups.

Dont miss a day of the Fantasy NBA. Subscribe to Give Me The Rock  right now. You can also get bonus (and easily digestible) content by following GMTR on Twitter.

Line of the Night: A game after his 11 board/11 assist triple-double, Joe Johnson’s (1.19) encore included 41 points, 4 threes, 8 assists and a couple of steals as the Hawks outran the Bulls 129 – 117.

Honorable Mentions: It was a run and gun fest in Atlanta - Ben Gordon (1.08) hit 6 threes on his way to 33 points; 25 points off 11-20 shooting and 11 boards, 3 steals and 3 blocks for Kevin Durant (1.05); not to be outdone, Gerald Wallace (1.00) scored 32 points on 11-17 shooting and added 9 boards, 2 steals and 2 blocks in an overtime game against New Jersey.

Waiver Wire Line of the Night: Andray Blatche (1.1) is only owned in 20% of Yahoo leagues despite the fact that he is currently starting and seeing about 30 minutes a game in those starts. Yesterday, he grabbed a career high 15 rounds to go with 19 points and 3 steals against the OKC. Sure, it doesn’t help that his performances can charitably be described as a rollercoaster ride, but if you can hang on through the ups and downs, Blatche will deliver in the end.

Tyrus Thomas (0.62) went for 15 and 9 with 3 blocks in his first Deng-less game. As Nels mentioned, it’s difficult to ignore Thomas when he’s on. But then again, it’s difficult to ignore him when he’s off too. In fact, I’d imagine Tyrus Thomas is difficult to ignore in any situation.

12 points and 11 boards for Kyrylo Fesenko (0.45) off the Utah bench. With the Jazz entire frontcourt hurting, Fesenko is going to get some minutes in the short-term.

The Biggest Loser: What the hell happened to Charlie Villanueva (-0.7)? I wasn’t paying attention to the Bucks (I know) and all of a sudden Charlie is averaging like 10 minutes a game. He was supposed to be all over that PF spot this year and instead we see rookie Luc Richard Mbah a Moute starting. Mark it down – this is as good as Charlie Villanueva will ever be, which means he’ll never be worth your time in all but the largest leagues.

And on the way to the Bucks scoring 76 points, Michael Redd (-0.52) was 2-11 from the floor, scoring 4 points with 2 rebounds and 2 assists.

All Eyez on Me: Miami (16-12) at Cleveland (25-4) – The Cavs look to go 16-0 at home this season, while Wade looks to get in Lebron’s 5.

Denver (19-11) at New York (11-17) – Expect Carmelo Anthony back in the lineup for Denver. And he should be in for a sweet return as the Knicks have allowed 115 points a game in their last 5.

Sound the Golden State Alarm: Golden State (9-22) at Los Angeles (24-5) – Can the Warriors hold the Lakers under 90 points like they did to the Celtics? I would bet every thing I own against that happening. Expect big things from Derek Fisher. Why not?

Don’t miss a day of the Fantasy NBA. Subscribe to Give Me The Rock right now. You can also get bonus (and easily digestible) content by following GMTR on Twitter.