With the amount of discussion that’s taking place over in this seemingly innocuous post, now seems like the perfect time to announce the GMTR Fora (aka the Midnight Snack Club Redux).

Head on over and sign up straight away! Then ask some questions! Or post some incites! Or even insights!

Join the Crowd!

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Anywho, today’s, or really this week’s, question comes from the Front Lines of Los Grizzlies de Memphis.

What’s the deal with Pau Gasol. How’s Hakim Warrick going to be when he gets back?

if this was Nels, he’d probably make some comment about the grammar in the above question, but my grammar probably ain’t all that good either.

You can bet that the Grizz are a bit anxious for Pau to get back. Check out that Pau-er he’s packing in those guns. Looks like an alien might bust out of that shoulder or something.

Anyway, Pau’s been cleared to practice, but only if there’s 6 people or less on the court. Stats.com says there will be an announcement about his status coming this week. So, it would probably be smart of me to hold off on actually doing the analysis until we hear about that. But I’ve got stuff to do the other nights this week… so, tonight’s the night.

Let’s just look at this practically. When Pau gets back, is it going to take something away from Warrick? Well, I mean Stromile Swift and Jake Tsakalidis are scoring 15 points (combined), so, if they never see the light of the arena again (probably for the best), Pau can take those points, and a little more without anyone even thinking something’s wrong (except for Strom and Jake). Now, except for maybe Chucky Atkins, I have to think that the guards on the team can’t really score any less than they are right now. So if Chucky stops chucking, that’s going to get Pau to 19-20 points a game, which is his average form last season, and Warrick hasn’t even had to sacrifice yet. H-Dub is only playing 32 minutes a game, and his backup is list as Lawrence Roberts.

Now, I’m not sure how someone goes 14-15 from the line and then sits out the next two games, but Lawrence Roberts has done just that.

So, pretty much all the minutes at C and PF are wide open for Warrick and Gasol. I do have to say, traditional thinking says that Pau coming back will make Warrick’s stats come down a skosh. But the guys only at 16 and 6, and there is not a lot of talent walking around that locker room.

Not packing much in the ladies locker room either, if you know what I mean. (Yes, it’s my unofficial job to scout the cheerleaders now – I suppose mabeuf could help, but he seems to have some serious reporting to do, and those other two are married so they can’t scout the cheerleaders without fear of the Wrath of a Woman Scorned)

Warricks FTs have been a lot better recently, and his FT%is pretty solid. I found him at number 102 on the GMTR fantasy basketball player rater (yeah, I know a think or two about search engine links). I have to think it’s a pretty solid bet he’ll end the season right around there.

Moving on…

Another letter in the mailbag was telling me to post the link to the Carnival of the NBA number … wait for it … 38! Might want to grap a non-fat soy latte before you sit down with that one though.

Also, someone sent me this clip of Ronny Turiaf powdering his hands. Maybe his palms are sweating because he’s nervous that he’ll actually get into the game. I don’t know… but if you feel the urge to send me something, who am I to stop you? As you can see, even if it’s not really worth posting, I’ll do it anyway! Here’s the direct to Rachel hotline… there’s a reason it’s called HOTmail. Let’s get it crackin!

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And here’s something that’s not fantasy basketball related, but really needed, since it’s Friday, and I’m sure we (by we, I mean me) need a diversion from the whole “Orange Roundie”-gate thing…

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Midnight Snack Club chat room should be on tonight… Talk about whatever kind of fantasy basketball stuff you want. Or NBA in general. Or anything else that you want.

Rachel’s “advice” column will start soon… but first she needs some letters from people asking for advice. No one has used the link on the right side to email her yet, so why don’t you be the first to give her a try. Take out the NOSPAM part and you’ll be good to go. She’s ready and waiting.

Finally, through all the fault of my own, Give Me WLS AM 890 is in 1st place in the Dropping Dimes Experts League. Of course, Baron Davis is out now, so we’ll see how long that lasts. Probably not for another 21 weeks.

Here’s the pictorial evidence, if you’re a true non-believer (click for the full size version):

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I digress…

In case the Tiered Rankings over at Fantasy Basketblog weren’t enough to satisfy you (and what fantasy freak is ever satisfied), Yahoo is posting their rankings by position. Not as nicely tiered, but done by position nonetheless. Maybe this is more clear for some of you, maybe less for others. Either way, it is what it is.

When the Editorial Advisor at the San Diego State University Daily Aztec says he knows nothing about fantasy football and that his writing isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on, his basketball sleepers are definitely something you should check out. I’m quite sure that not all of the players he picked actually count as sleepers (some are really just undervalued players), but you can read it, as I did, nonetheless.

And then you too can say nonetheless twice in one post. Try it. It’s fun. And even if it isn’t fun for you, I did it nonetheless.

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No real fantasy basketball incites today. There’s evidently some Agent Zero incites, though.

I could probably write something more about the Midnight Snacks in Midnight Blue over on the right, but I played some actually real basketball today, so I’m tired. So, if you’re reading in an RSS Reader, there’s a few new ones up there if you want to click through and check em out. Or else you can subscribe to the Midnight Snack in Midnight Blue feed.

And to southwest chicken wrap things up, a friendly reminder that on Sunday, you can pose all your fantasy questions to me (and maybe Dennis from Dropping Dimes, and maybe some other people who show up) in The Club (aka the Midnight Snack Club Chat Room). Yes, that’s right: Sunday night at 10PM CT you can find me in da club.

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For those who haven’t caught on yet, I’ve started a little group I like to call The Midnight Snack Club. If you’re wondering where the name comes from, well, it’s a not-all-that-imaginative fantasy basketball version of Jordan’s Breakfast Club. So, far, the club has one member. But that’s about to change…

Not only do you have the Midnight Snacks in Midnight Blue over to the right (they’re not sponsorsed links!), but there is an Official Midnight Snack Club Chat Room. It’s late notice for this week, at least, but I plan on being in the chat room every Sunday night (and maybe more often), starting at about 10 PM Central. So, not really Midnight… but kind of close. The idea is more in following with the Breakfast Club, in that it doesn’t so much have to start or end at a certain time, but just that you’re so freakin’ nuts about fantasy basketball that you’ll do whatever it takes to win. I’m hoping the chat room will provide for a unique real-time opportunity for fantasy basketball freaks (or even people who are in their first league ever) to meet, chat, set lineups, discuss possible trades, and come up with more buzzwordy phrases like unique real-time opportunity.

The password is “roc” – a nod to the Unofficial Official Give Me The Rock Spokesmodel. If you’d like to discuss the spokesmodel in the chat room, that’s okay too. See you there.

And if I don’t see you there, The Club (as it will now be known) will keep a history of everything that happened so you can view when you’ve got time. And you can post questions that people will see the next time they visit The Club. How’s that for pretty cool?

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But what are the Midnight Snacks? you say.

Quite simply, they are the 10 most recent articles that I have “shared” via my Google Reader. If you prefer to see these pop up in your Google (or any other brand) Reader, you can subscribe to this URL. And if you know how many links I have further down in the right-nav, you’ll know why it’s good to have me pick out the relevant fantasy basketball information for you. It’s what I do, and I love it. And now, it’s incredibly fast for me to gather that information, which means more timely consumption by you allowing for executive decisions to be made faster and with more precision and accuracy.

While we’re on the topic of Midnight Snacking – I will have another Midnight Snack Club announcement coming soon.

AND FINALLY! The “redesign” has another added benefit. The main column is now 40 pixels narrower! How is that a benefit? you say. Well, studies have proven that when reading on the internet (especially in sans serif fonts), you can actually read faster when the column containing the content is fairly narrow.

Chew on that.

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Not a lot going on tonight… probably cause there’s so much pre-season action distracting everyone and making people think that Adam Morrison is the next Larry Bird.

One person who’s not distracting anyone with his pre-season play is Stephen Jackson. Evidently he has been charged with talking about Fight Club.

Fantasy Basketball Guy is checking in, this time wtih 3-pointers and Blocks.

I can’t even remember if I posted this before, but Fantasy Basketblog has their Mock Draft going on.

CBS Sportsline has a mock draft as well.

Speaking of Mock Drafts, Give Me The Rock is going to publish (very soon, I promise) it’s very own Mock Draft conducted by PMad and Myself. But that’s not all. Our draft is special. Instead of making picks in a void, with teams we’d never have to manage, or engaging is some protracted ages-long pick-by-post affair, we’re going to make our picks, and then make it a competition. We each have 5 teams (it’s a 10-team league), and at the end of the season, we’re going to rank those teams Roto-style and see who the winner is. We’re not quite sure yet whether we’ll go with the overall winner, or the person who has the 5 highest ranking teams, or something else that we haven’t thought of yet, but since the scoring system is in place, the rest is really trivial. The point is, either PMad or I will win, and the other person shall lose. Possibly prizes/punishments include, but are not limited to:

• Buying the other person a copy of Hollinger’s Prospectus
• Going to a sports bar wearing the “wrong” team gear (might be too dangerous)
• Going to a sports bar wearing team underwear on head
• Paying for winner’s expensive dinner with wife to make up for all the times when the wives were tired of hearing about/dealing with fantasy basketball
• Having to create a podcast (something we really don’t even do here) saying how awesome the other person is at fantasy basketball

Feel free to chime in with any suggestions for prizes/punishments.

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Basketball Monster has their Projected Top 15 for 2006-07.

FantasyBasketballGuy chips in with Points leaders, Rebounds leaders, Assist leaders, Steals leaders.

Fantasy Basketblog is already pretty much caught up to us with their teams previews, adding the Toronto Raptors, Milwaukee Bucks, Orlando Magic, Los Angeles Lakers, and the Portland Trailblazers. They also started their Mock Draft, but it sounds a little too much like mock-draft-by-community. We’re going to have one here pretty soon that won’t have anything resembling this in it:

I’ve got the sixth pick in my draft and I’d take Brand before Wade as well. But a lot of folks seem to think he’s worth a top-five pick so we’ll put him at number six ahead of Brand.

If you’re going to take Brand, man, take Brand. I’m assuming people come here because they want my opinion, not what I think everyone else thinks (they can do that by visiting all the site I’m linking to here).

NBA.com also has some contributions in the team preview category: Utah Jazz, Houston Rockets, New York Knicks, Orlando Magic, New Orleands/OKC Hornets.

That’s the meat of it…

Other little nibbles:
Darius Miles is still rehabbing his knee. Of course, he’s someone I’d leave to another manager to pick anyway. All the more reason to do so.

BlogABull has a fantasy league… might still have some spots left…

Dropping Dimes breaks it down a little bit with their Point Guard preview, while CBS Sportsline breaks down the Centers.

JJ Redick is having some problems with his foot. Sounds like a Darius Miles kind of injury.

If you’re looking for a C2 later in the draft, you might want to note Robert Swift’s new look.

As Will says in the comments Andrew Bogut is out for 6-8 weeks, meaning he’ll mostly likely miss the first 2-4 weeks of the season.

And that’s a wrap. One of those KFC Snacker type wraps. This has been another edition of the Midnight Snack Club.

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