Some start/sit questions for an avg-based weekly-lineup points league (all stats = 1pt, asts = 2pts, TOs = -1pt):1. Is it safe to start Kyrie in the above format? If so, do I start Dudley or P. George at my flex?2. Should I sit Brand, Beasley, or Trev Booker?3. Start MarShon or Teague?Thx, guys! You rock!

T-Booker, Sessions, Dudley, or JRich for the foreseeable future (asts = 2pts, other stats = 1pt, TOs = -1pt)?

i dropped teague to get hayward 3days ago. looking good for me. i like teague but he cooled off recently. also was lucky enough to pick up pek for varejao. should have i just held on to varejao? i can drop marshon for varejao.

If you can afford to wait until Varejao has his follow-up exam later this week, that would be the thing to do.

I’m pretty big on Klay Thompson… for next year. He doesn’t have the experience yet to be consistent, especially not with only 15-20 minutes per game. But after playing 15-20 minutes game this year, I think he could be a solid contributor next year. I would definitely not drop Bayless for him until he starts getting more minutes and doing more than just making threes (unless you’re okay with getting only an extra 1-2 threes on average per game with very little else in the way of counting stats).

Considering that Speights is only playing 21 minutes per game now and Zach Randolph is expected back pretty soon, I’d say this his prospects aren’t too good. If you have him, you can ride him until Zebo takes all his minutes, but I don’t think I’d go out of my way to pick him up at this point.

Perfect.  Thanks Nels.  The sites dedication to answering questions is something we all appreciate. 

I basically agree with everything Conrad said. Thompson’s minutes are all over the place – from the single digits into the 20′s – and he just won’t be consistent enough to be worth owning in all but the deepest leagues. I’d either wait it out for Bayless or look to pick up someone else. 

Speights I would stay away from. Those double-doubles look tempting, but he’s one of those bad girlfriend types who is going to burn you as soon as you pick him up. And that FG% is brutal for a big man. The nice rebounding numbers over the past few games can be attributed to the Grizz and their opponents having a few really horrible shooting games in a row.

As far as Varejao, I’ve heard 4-6 weeks for recovery myself. My general rule of thumb for injuries (especially this year) is to always assume the worst as far as the timetable goes, so a 6 week recovery would put him back on the court right before playoffs start in a lot of leagues. That’s a long time to hold onto someone like  Varejao unless your team happens to be in the top-third of the league right now. 

Although regarding #1, if you have to set your lineup today for the upcoming week, I’d play it safe and start George. 

1. I wouldn’t start Irving based on the available news. I’d go with Dudley and George instead.
2. I guess I’d go with Brand and Dudley… Beasley seems like he’s been hot but his 2-3 turnovers per game cancel out some of the extra peripherals.
3. I’d go with MarShon since he’s starting again now and Teague is not playing very well.

Yeah, I would not drop Dudley or Gooden for any of the guys you mentioned. Provided you can give up some threes, I would consider dropping Korver for Hayward seeing that Haywood is playing much better of late and Korver’s value is directly tied to how many threes he’s hitting in any given game.

According to my best guess, Chandler is still about a month away from stepping on the court, while Smith is a couple weeks away. While I’d rather have Chandler than Smith on my team, a month is a long time to stash Chandler. Maybe if he’s still hanging out on your wire next week…

Haha, completely opposite advice from Nels and I! I agree with Sessions to the point that Irving remains out, but after that he’s going to be competing for minutes with Daniel Gibson and Gee. 

 Patrick has the analysis program (which we hope to get up on the web eventually), but off the top of my head, I’d say you’re probably right about being short on steals and threes. Depending on which way you want to go with your team, I’d say you might want to consider swapping DeAndre Jordan out to stash Wilson Chandler.

Thanks for the insight.  I know Jordan’s been pretty weak overall especially in points and a bit in boards, but he’s the only player holding it down in shot blocking.  Without him, I pretty much will lose in shot blocking every week when I already have to give up TO’s.

Yeah, I guess with LeBron, Lowry, DWill, and LMA (4 Top 24 players) in a 12-team league, you have the luxury of trying to win extra categories. Most of the time I’m just happy if I have enough healthy players to fill a lineup.

Hey Nico! Here you go. Comparing your team to the average team in your league, this the percentage better or worse you are on a weekly basis compared to league average (with LaMarcus Aldridge). Note I am using the 2011-12 YTD stats with some adjustments for recent play over the last week or two. I really tempered back Lin’s projection assuming he falls back to earth, but if he doesn’t, you’ll look even better than this. 

pts 25%
reb 21%
ast 36%
stl 7%
blk 20%
to -37%
3pm -21%
fgp 8%
ftp 1%

So what this is saying, your team is 25% better in points than the average team in your league. All I have to say is nice team! Although you are technically weaker in steals compared to some of your other categories, threes and TOs are your only category that comes out as below average. I guess your FT% isn’t any special either, but the rest of the team is great. You’re not kidding when you say you are in good position to make the playoffs.

And here is what you look like with Dirk instead (assuming that Dirk bounces back mostly to what we expect).

pts 24%
reb 19%
ast 35%
stl 5%
blk 20%
to -35%
3pm -11%
fgp 7%
ftp 1%

Provided the Dirk we’ve seen this week is the one we get going forward, then the trade does indeed help you out in threes, although your still a bit below average in that category. As Nels mentioned, everything else pretty much stays the same, so I don’t see why you shouldn’t pull the trigger on that one provided you trust Dirk for the rest of the year. 

 h2h 14 team 9 cat..i was offered paul pierce for paul millsap..should i accept..my other bigs are dirk,anderson,ibaka,chandler and lopez

 Thanks pat..the problem i have is lopez will be returning soon and i cant play all my bigs cause i’ll have 6 bigs with only 5 spots left for them to fit..my other sf’s are hayward and corey brewer

 I don’t know who this “they” is but I think joining a public league is probably actually the worst way to start playing fantasy basketball. It’s always more fun with at least a few you know.

Good way to get some hardware in your Yahoo Fantasy Profile, though.

 OUCH. Erik must be some sort of fantasy prophet… he just picked up Kostas Koufos in the expert’s league team that we manage together. I suppose Koufos is a must add, at least in DTD leagues.

Last
week I needed to have a big shakeup to the back-end of my team, so I thought
now was a good time to ask how it stacks up again (assuming Augustin is
healthy). I ended up dropping Morrow, Stuckey, Camby, and Spencer Hawes and
adding D.J. Augustin, Chris Kaman, Channing Frye and Eric Gordon.

Here
is my team right now (10 Team, 9-Cat H2H):

Lebron

LaMarcus

Josh
Smith

Manu
Ginobli

Marcus
Thornton

Paul
George

Dorel
Wright

David
West

Channing
Frye

D.J.
Augustin

(Bn)
Jason Richardson

(Bn)
Kemba Walker

(Bn)
Chris Kaman

(Bn)
Samuel Dalembert

(IR)
Eric Gordon

I like my team right now, but I have several concerns.
Wright is losing a lot of minutes to Thompson and Rush. Dalembert and Kaman
both seem to be productive as long as they get enough minutes, but that can’t
be counted from either of them. And Walker and Augustin will likely hurt my
FG%, but seem too valuable to be dropped.

Would you drop any of these guys for these guys for Afflalo,
Amir Johnson, Morrow, Budinger, Shumpert or Gustavo Ayon (who I think would be
a great fit on my team). Also, is J.R. Smith a must add for my team when he
comes back, and who would you drop for him? 

Last
week I needed to have a big shakeup to the back-end of my team, so I thought
now was a good time to ask how it stacks up again (assuming Augustin is
healthy). I ended up dropping Morrow, Stuckey, Camby, and Spencer Hawes and
adding D.J. Augustin, Chris Kaman, Channing Frye and Eric Gordon.

Here
is my team right now (10 Team, 9-Cat H2H):

Lebron
LaMarcus
Josh Smith
Manu Ginobli
Marcus Thornton
Paul George
Dorel Wright
David West
Channing Frye
D.J. Augustin
(Bn) Jason Richardson
(Bn) Kemba Walker
(Bn) Chris Kaman
(Bn) Samuel Dalembert
(IR) Eric Gordon

I like my team right now, but I have several concerns.
Wright is losing a lot of minutes to Thompson and Rush. Dalembert and Kaman
both seem to be productive as long as they get enough minutes, but that can’t
be counted from either of them. And Walker and Augustin will likely hurt my
FG%, but seem too valuable to be dropped.

Would you drop any of these guys for these guys for Afflalo,
Amir Johnson, Morrow, Budinger, Shumpert or Gustavo Ayon (who I think would be
a great fit on my team). Also, is J.R. Smith a must add for my team when he
comes back, and who would you drop for him? 

No worries Greg. I’ve triple-posted on a number of occasions as well by accident. It’s an easy thing to do with this system.

So comparing your team to the average team in your league (assuming all your players are healthy – except for Gordon), this the percentage better or worse you are on a weekly basis compared to league average. Note I am using the 2011-12 YTD stats with some adjustments for recent play over the last week or two. 

pts 7%
reb 8%
ast -5%
stl -2%
blk 21%
to -2%
3pm 23%
fgp -1%
ftp 1%

So what this is saying, your team is 7% better in points than the average team in your league. Overall your big strengths are in blocks and threes and you above average in points and boards as well. You don’t have any huge weaknesses, although you’re below average in a few categories. 

It was recently reported that Eric Gordon will have surgery on his knee is going to be out at least another 6 weeks, so he can be dropped. Then you can move one of your other injured guys to the IR and pick up either Afflalo or Smith, who would decent fits with your team. While I’m not as excited about Smith as some other people, I do think he’s worth an add in anticipation of his return and he’ll be a plus points/threes/steals guy pretty much where ever he goes. 

I like Ayon, but I’m not sure if his minutes are going to be consistent enough to be worth owning in a 10-team league, even with Landry out of the lineup. 

I think all of the concerns you laid out are valid. Kaman had a huge night last night, so you may have caught a lucky break there. There are a number of decent players on your wire, so I might try packaging Walker with someone else on your team and trade for any type of 2-for-1 that’s going to give you a slightly better player. You have a number of not quite bad enough to drop but not great players on your team, so it’d be good if you to free up a roster spot for one of those free agent guys. 

 I think I meant to throw a smiley face in there. I was jk. But not rofl. And not about part where we’re going to try to do that.