NBA.com is focusing on their core competency and pounding out 14 fantasy draft cheatsheets with 4 more to come. There’s also an opportunity for you to become the NBA.com Fantasy Fan Blogger. Or you could just buy a cheap ass hosting plan, a semi-clever domain name, and start raking in the dough without the “help” of an editor.

I kid, I kid. I’m sure it’s a fantastic opportunity for someone who actually wants to be a writer. Or loves fantasy basketball more than I do. Like this guy who thinks that you shouldn’t take Gilbert Arenas with the first pick. He does argue his point well, though. And I didn’t. So, um, take that, Editor-wanter-man.

I thought I had more than that to clear out of my Starred Items… but I guess not. Dang. Guess I have to go back to the fantasy team previews, then, eh? I guess so…

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But anyway, Jeff over at HoopsAddict has info from Jon Loomer on NBA.com’s fantasy game for next season.

Jon himself has posted about the changes. The screenshots are really small though. I think you’re supposed to be able to click to enlarge them, but I couldn’t get them any bigger. HoopsAddict has a big version of the main league screen.

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First of all, fill out your bracket on BallHype.com. Somehow – I blame statistics – the more people that register, the less chance I have of actually winning. And you’d think, since I didn’t win a damn thing this season, that I’d be desperately trying to win something. But, I’m so over it.

Okay, but not over it enough to not go over it. Worry not, I’ll make it quick. From top to bottom:

• Kentucky Fried Basketball Association: 2nd place (of 16). I had the best record in the league and lost by 11 points to the guy with the second best record: 225 – 214. Those 11 points represent about 5% of the total score, so you can see how close it is. I blame Tayshaun.
• Dropping Dimes Experts League: 4th place (of 12). I was lucky enough to be in 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place for much of the season. Then editor_njt64 from TalentedMrRoto.com jumped 5.5 points in the standings on the last day of the season. Before that, I don’t think I’d seen anyone get more than a +2 on a given day. How the Hell did that happen? Seriously! I’d again like to place some of the blame on Tayshaun, but also, some of the fault is mine for hoping that Andre Iguodala and Jermaine O’Neal would play while I had Bostjon Nachbar and Travis Outlaw on my bench. Really, though, I’m satisfied with my effort. Since I’m now confident in my drafting ability, I will focus on my close out next season.
• HoopsAddict.com League: 19th place (of 24). This team was kind of like the Memphis Grizzlies of fantasy basketball… Injuries galore, and no good way to make up for them in a points league with 24 teams. I’ve ranted about that one before, so I’ll leave it at that.

And that’s that.

Now, I realize that Chicago is taking on the Defending NBA Champion Miami Heat, but the Bulls are in one of only two series that are being broadcast on ABC. So, really, the subtitle should read “Time to use the playoffs as an excuse to hit the bars for the nachos and the beers.” Nachos and Beers, Babies!

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Hooray for something!

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In the HoopsAddict.com league, my 3 bench spots are being taken up by:
18th pick Jason Richardson (5-7 weeks left)
31st pick Michael Redd (4-6 weeks left)
66th pick Brevin Knight (3-4 weeks left)

Pretty much I’m the Hornets right now. And picking up players is made all the more fun by the fact that this is a points league. So, I can’t even pick up any specialists to try to keep myself in competition for a few categories (as I could with H2H or Roto). I suppose I cursed myself by saying how I was playing it safe with Richardson and Redd as my first two picks, but it doesn’t get much more solid than 80, 82, 78, 72, 75 and 67, 82, 82, 75, 80. That’s only 21 + 24 = 45 games missed over the past 5 years for both guys combined.

So, what have I done to try to stay in the game? I picked up Rasual Butler, Ronny Turiaf, and Jason Maxiell. That’s right. That’s what it looks like in a 24 team league. And actually, the Butler pickup was a while ago, or I’m sure someone else would have taken him. I’ve also been playing Jannero Pargo while Chris Paul is out, but I’m sure I’ll have to find someone else when Paul gets back.

So what do you actually do when your Top 3 picks are out?

Well, as far as I can tell from anecdotal experience, you just pick up some other guys and hope you can keep yourself close. I’m sorry that there’s not better news. At least you probably don’t have a spreadsheet projecting that if everyone keeps up their average FPPG for the remainder of the games they have left before reaching the limit that you’ll end up in 14th place. Yeah, one spot up from where I am now. It’s okay. I see that as a challenge. That’s what fantasy basketball is all about.

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I played it a little safe and went with Jason Richardson and Michael Redd as my first two picks. In a league wtih 24 teams, you don’t want to waste your first round pick (I was picking at number 18). Of course, I didn’t want to waste my 2nd round pick either (at #31), so I picked guys that have been fairly healthy and that I felt would continue on to play at least 70 games this season. I was hoping (certainly unrealistically) that Allen Iverson would drop to 18 since he was actually the #2 player last season using this league’s scoring system.

I was able to pick up Brevin Knight, who is actually very highly rated using our scoring system (#24 last season) in the 3rd round (#66). I reached just a little for Chris Kaman, but I needed a Center and going for #85 at #79 is not what I really that much of a reach. With #113 I scooped up the #51 ranked player from last year, Luke Ridnour. Another couple steals with Raja Bell at #127 (ranked #101), then PJ Brown (Go Bulls!) at #166 (ranked #136) rounded out my starting lineup. At least we’re only starting 7 players. That was the one mercy provided in a 24 team league.

After my lineup was set, I put it on autopick and got Keith Bogans, Martell Webster and Rodney Carney. I’m praying Kaman doesn’t get hurt since PJ Brown is my only backup at Center. Yes, I’ll camping out in the free agent pool this weekend.

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But that won’t stop me from praising players across my 3 teams for their efforts last night:

Dwight Howard: 27, 11, 2 blocks, 1 steal… oh, and 9-10 from the free throw line! I’m quite sure I’m jinxing myself with that exclamation point. But, holy *moly* if he can even come close to that this season…

Luke Ridnour: 22 points, 13 assists! He got me 77 fantasy points over in the HoopsAddict.com league. For some perspective, LeBron averaged about 66 fantasy points last season.

Okay, really that’s just 2 players from 2 teams. Everyone else did more or less what I would expect from them. Unfortunately, that means if PJ Brown has another 4 point, 3 rebound game against Sacramento (hello, Kevin Martin), he’s going to cut get no matter how much of a Chicago Townie I am.

What else?

• Jason Kidd has a triple-double. Not too shabby.
• Shawn Marion was studly as usual.
• Everyone’s favorite “sleeper” Gerald Wallace was injured, but he walked off, so it hopefully wasn’t that bad.
• Eddie Griffin had 3 blocks to go with 8 points and 7 rebounds.
• Bonzi Wells didn’t play.
• Vince Carter: 25, 11, 6. I almost picked him a couple times. Couldn’t bring myself to do it.
• Deron Williams had 18 points and 10 assists. It’s no 22 and 13, but pretty close.
• Paul Pierce had 19 rebounds! Stop taking them all from Perk and Delonte! Gawd!
• Elton Brand is a stud.

The Lemony Snicket Knicks are 1-0 under Isiah, thanks to Q-Rich’s 31 points on 5-5 from 3-point land. In a series of unusual events, Eddy Curry played 41 minutes and grabbed 14 rebounds before fouling out. David Lee played 30 and had 13 rebs. (I wouldn’t expect that to happen unless Channing Frye continues to be almost entirely inefficient) Steve Francis has 2 points and 5 turnovers. And Renaldo played 8 minutes (and was almost as effective as Frye).

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Oh, and if you notice a distinct Bulls bent to this blog (I’ll be doing my part at the least), it’s because I’m marginally salty about not being invited to do a preview on NBAPreview.wordpress.com. I don’t care if everyone in all of my leagues knows I’m a townie, because I don’t let it cloud my judgement. To be honest, I have a Bull on each of my 3 teams, but it’s really more of a coincidence than any pretermination on my part: in my KFBA league, Ben Gordon was a good keeper pick for me; in the HoopsAddict league, I got Bad Bad PJ Brown on my team only because I couldn’t find anyone else to pick at 178 and he was autodrafted for me; my only real townie pick was in the DroppingDimes league, where I took Tyrus Thomas with my very last pick.

So, you can trust me to provide unbiased fantasy basketball coverage all season, but you can also trust me to Big Up the Bulls when I get the chance. Chi-town Basketball!

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My league participation limit is usually 2, but I joined the KFBA league in a moment of lack-of-fantasy-basketball-for-real weakness for #1. That was about a month ago. And I’d already called out Saeed from Fantasy Bull. So that hit my usual limit of 2 before the inimitables Dennis Velasco and Ryan McNeill asked me to join their experts and bloggers leagues respectively. (I don’t have a lisp, just a lot of S’s)

Dennis’ League, the Dropping Dimes Fantasy Basketball Experts League (here on out the Dropping Dimes Leaugue) includes such luminaries as:

1. Neil Tardy (Talented Mr. Roto / NBA.com)
2. Evan Silva (Rotoworld / USAToday.com)
3. Matt Satten (Pro Fantasy Sports)
4. Nels Wadycki (Give Me The Rock)
5. Mike Slane (ElevationMag.com)
6. Skeets & Tas (The Basketball Jones)
7. Richard Christ (Fantasy Sports R Us)
8. Brandon Haraway (The Fantasy Lounge)
9. Alvin Lai (DroppingDimes.com)
10. Dennis Velasco (DroppingDimes.com)
11. Scott Sargent (DroppingDimes.com)
12. Ron Chow (DroppingDimes.com)

A little turd falls out of me every time I read that list. I’m confident I’ll be able to not come in last. And that about it.

Anyway, the real point is that my team is called Give Me WLS AM 89, and coming up with that seriously drained all the creative energy I had when it came to team-naming. But there is a rash of creativity going around the hoops blogosphere. Since I just got the invite from Ryan (from the all new NBA.com Ultimate Fantasy Commissioner!) and he took the liberty of naming my team GiveMeTheRock.com, I’m hoping to take advantage of that creativity to help me come up with pretty much anything better than that for my bloggers league team. Unfortunately I have nothing more than a link to the site of the winner to give away. And maybe I’ll post whatever picture you want up here. Or something blog-related like that… I have nothing left to give.

So, let me just start things off – as an ex-Blazer fan – with Zach Randolph’s Hoops Family Share Plan. Go for it! Remember, you get pretty much any prize you want as long as it’s free!

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