Just call me gramps – the kids these days with their tattoos and global business plans, I just don’t get it.

But you are correct that there are more rookies worth owning in recent years than I implied in this post. All the rooks you mentioned were worth owning at various points of last season, some all or nearly all of the year. As you said, there are a lot of rookies who have at least short-term value over the course of a season. My flip comment did not do the topic justice.

I’m not advocating completely ignoring rookies to go after the corpses of Ben Wallace or Kurt Thomas for the twentieth time. It’s just that most rookies have limited fantasy value or short flashes of usefulness. And much of it happens to be completely unpredictable. If CP3 doesn’t get hurt, then we never hear about Collison. In retrospect, who really cares? Collison was great and happened to be a rookie. But does that mean people should draft Avery Bradley because Rajon Rondo might get hurt? It’s impossible to predict events like that with any accuracy, which means a lot of those rookies’ value only came if you are lucky enough to win the free agent rush when Paul got hurt, or Tyrus Thomas got traded, etc.

The James Harden/Taj Gibson/DeJuan Blair/Jonny Flynn types operate on such the margins of fantasy usefulness that it’s tough to make a compelling argument for their usefulness over someone like Ryan Gomes or Matt Barnes. Yes, they were “useful” in the sense that they were worth owning in 14+ team leagues, but it’s difficult to get excited about them. Now I did say that that only 5-6 rookies were worth owning, so the egg is on my face. What I should have said is that only 5-6 rookies are worth worrying about/drafting at the start of the season. The rest will happen as the season plays out.

Just call me gramps – the kids these days with their tattoos and global business plans, I just don’t get it.

But you are correct that there are more rookies worth owning in recent years than I implied in this post. All the rooks you mentioned were worth owning at various points of last season, some all or nearly all of the year. As you said, there are a lot of rookies who have at least short-term value over the course of a season. My flip comment did not do the topic justice.

I’m not advocating completely ignoring rookies to go after the corpses of Ben Wallace or Kurt Thomas for the twentieth time. It’s just that most rookies have limited fantasy value or short flashes of usefulness. And much of it happens to be completely unpredictable. If CP3 doesn’t get hurt, then we never hear about Collison. In retrospect, who really cares? Collison was great and happened to be a rookie. But does that mean people should draft Avery Bradley because Rajon Rondo might get hurt? It’s impossible to predict events like that with any accuracy, which means a lot of those rookies’ value only came if you are lucky enough to win the free agent rush when Paul got hurt, or Tyrus Thomas got traded, etc.

The James Harden/Taj Gibson/DeJuan Blair/Jonny Flynn types operate on such the margins of fantasy usefulness that it’s tough to make a compelling argument for their usefulness over someone like Ryan Gomes or Matt Barnes. Yes, they were “useful” in the sense that they were worth owning in 14+ team leagues, but it’s difficult to get excited about them. Now I did say that that only 5-6 rookies were worth owning, so the egg is on my face. What I should have said is that only 5-6 rookies are worth worrying about/drafting at the start of the season. The rest will happen as the season plays out.

We're already at 11 people off the top of my head, but here are more that saw time on rosters in a standard 12-man league:
Casspi, Flynn, Jerebko, Lawson, Toney Douglas, Beaubois, Budinger…

I won't mention Thabeet.

Many names were people you weren't expecting either. Stop the bias though and get with the times. Rookies are making bigger impacts now because of financial reasons and they are more ready to play than ever before. Hate on Udoh, but the guy has serious offensive skills. I'm a huge proponent of age in evaluating players, and I know he's older, but he didn't start playing till he was in his teens and in Nellie's system, he's going to put up some numbers.

Love you!
Satten