According to SLAM Online and BlogABull, and soon to be a few thousand million other sources:
The Grizz have traded Pau Gasol to the Lakers for Kwame Brown, Javaris Crittenton and two future first-round draft picks.
Talk about sell low. Jeez. Is that really all it took to get Gasol? The commentors over at Blog-A-Bull (hardest blog name to type) are having a cow (pun intended) about this trade. I’m with them. I like the Red Bull (Andres Nocioni) and his crazy high voice, but I would give him up along with 2 draft picks in a second.
Anyway, this is a fantasy blog, and the Bulls are in the crapper right now anyway.
Impact on the Lakers
Kobe’s jump to the number 2 spot on NBA.com’s ratings will probably be short lived. Gasol will immediately take some of the scoring load off of Kobe, and he’ll go back to playing more like he did before Andrew Bynum got hurt. Which is to say, probably still Top 10, but not #2.
Speaking of Bynum, his fantasy value takes a huge hit. But since he’s out till probably mid-March, it may not matter all that much. Gasol could be injured himself by then, so if you’re waiting with Bynum on your bench, don’t go drop him right now for any old chump off the wire.
I can see both Kobe and Derek Fisher getting more open looks from deep with Gasol in there now. So, if you need a few more threes, D-Fish is probably not a bad guy to pick up. Luke Walton is also an outside thread, but probably topped out last season with his 0.8 threes/game. Lamar Odom might be able to pick his outside shot up off the bench now, and get it back closer to the 1 three/game he had last season.
Hopefully (for me) Gasol will be able to bring his game back to its Top 20 style form. One (that one being me) would think with the best scorer in the league on his team, it would actually be pretty easy to just sit under the basket and get half of his 20 ppg off the boards. The other half of that 20 would come when he decides to score instead of passing to one of the guys mentioned above for a three point attempt.
And finally, since Kwame Brown is gone, I’m afraid that Ronny Turiaf will continue to be the only backup PF and C that the Lakers have.
Impact on the Grizzlies
Free Darko?
Seriously, the Grizz are throwing in the Rebuild flag with this trade. I don’t think Kwame’s 5.7 and 5.7 is going to win him any more playing time in Memphis than it did in LA. Maybe there won’t be so many people booing him?
Hopefully (for my wife) Darko is let loose to block 5 shots a game while scoring and rebounding in the double digits. I know it’s possible.
Mike Miller, Rudy Gay, Juan Carlos Navarro, and pretty much anyone else who actually plays in games for the Grizzlies gets a boost in value with this trade. Rudy Gay will probably benefit the most since he’s now THE MAN in Memphis.
I mean, I seriously can’t imagine that Memphis is going to give Kwame Brown 30+ minutes a game. This trade was obviously for the picks, and their just taking one in the pooper and hoping they can get someone of Gasol’s value out of the draft.
Line of the Night: Obviously, LeBron’s 51 points on 64% FG shooting with 6 threes is LotN (6.01). But he shot better from the field than from the line (59%), and only narrowly avoided getting a triple-double. I considered chastising and saying something like he was afraid if he got too many triple-doubles that he’d be labeled as a Point Guard, or The Next Jason Kidd. But I suppose the truth of the reason behind why LeBron hasn’t had a triple-double since Nov 25th is really because his teammates aren’t quite Vince Carter and Richard Jefferson. I realize that assists are harder to come by, especially for someone who’s 6′ 8″ and 250 pounds, but still LeBron is averaging only 2/10 less assists than rebounds so far this season. Really, it’s amazing that he can find teammates to make 7.5 buckets a game when you look at the Cavs roster.
Honorable Mentions: Richard Hamilton in a distant 2nd place with 4.70 (39 points, 6 assists, 5 threes); Antonio McDyess stole the ball 7 times and got 13 rebounds to take 3rd place with 4.62.
Waiver Wire Line of the Night: Juan Carlos Navarro was still available in a few leagues this morning, but with his 26 points, 6 threes, 4 assists, and 2 steals, he might not be around for much longer.
Others: Speaking of 26 points, Antoine Walker decided to score that many and add 10 rebounds to his 4 three-pointers; Sam Cassell went for 32 with 7 assists and 6 rebounds - too bad he’s probably too old to play 32 minutes a night anymore.
The Biggest Loser: Ben Gordon (1.48). This is sort of a Recent Achievement Award; Ben only played 15 minutes last night since the Bulls got blown out by Orlando, but in the game before that he had 29.5 minutes and went 3-13, and the game before that he was 4-13. And just when you thought it was safe to have Bulls in your lineup, Kirk Hinrich takes a day with back spasms. I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s been going on all season. I really wanted to look forward to going to the game on Saturday, too. Now I’m just a little scared.
At least I have something to look forward to, though…
Okay, so Gay (6.06) didn’t actually have the Line of the Night. And there were only 3 games yesterday, meaning even guys like Francisco Garcia (5.29) can make the top 10 and Kyle Lowry (3.63) can crack the top 20. But still, Gay’s 31 points, 4 threes, 7 rebounds, 2 assists, and 2 steals (not to mention 69% FG and 90% FT shooting) are a fantasy line to be reckoned with.
Line of the Night: And doing The Reckoning? Rasheed Wallace (6.40). Wallace had 23 points, 15 rebounds, 3 assists, 3 steals, and 2 partridges in pear trees. (I’m assuming that each partridge comes with its own pear tree) It had been a while (say, 2 months) since Rasheed had put up a line of domination like that one.
Waiver Wire Line of the Night: You know what? I’m going to go with Nobody. Only 57 players were rated fantasy-wise last night, and after looking at about 10 players who are on probably on the Waiver Wire, I’ve come to the conclusion that none of them are any better than anyone you should already have on your team. I mean, do you really want me to decide between Kyle Lowry’s efficient 8 points and 6 assists and Juan Carlos Navarro’s 10 points and 6 assists on 2-13 shooting?
The Biggest Loser: I know a lot of people were high on Jason Maxiell coming into this season (right? I didn’t make that up did I?), so let me bring everyone down a little here. Maxiell (1.90) checked in at #48 last night with 4 points on 2-8 shooting, adding only 2 rebounds, 1 assists, and a block. And that was in 28 minutes in a blowout win. According to Yahoo, though, his rank for the season is 137 against his O-Rank of 131. So much for Upside Potential.
So, Mike Conley got outplayed by a BOC Kyle Lowery last night. Not sure what it all means, but on our Mock Draft Roundup Conley is going at about 93, while on Yahoo, he’s down at 126. I guess if there’s a question mark, then the 126 number is more accurate. And shows what us “experts” know…
I’d say he’s more valuable now. As TheBurningRed said, he’s pretty much guaranteed the starting spot (I’m assuming he’ll start at SF since Walker was part of the trade, and James Posey is gone).
Penny Hardaway is too old and banged up to play more than a handful of minutes at SG or SF. Dorell Wright is the other option for the Heat, but they always seem reluctant to give him the PT, so I think the majority of minutes will go to Davis. And when Wright is playing, they could slide Davis to SG and give Wade some rest.
I’m not a big Ricky Davis fan or anything, and I still wouldn’t be drafting him, but I do think he’s worth more on the Heat (without Walker) than he was on the Wolves. Not a lot more… but a little more.
Davis is going about 59 on Yahoo and our Mock Draft Roundup… If you want to draft him, you can probably take him around there and feel good about your potential for ROI from him.
Patrick and I have decided to go from Worst to First with our fantasy team previews, so I’ll be kicking things off with the phantasmagorical Memphis Grizzles.
Conley has a good chance to be the starting point guard for the Grizzlies next season. He’ll be in a battle with Kyle Lowry and, to a much lesser extent, Damon Stoudamire heading into the season. Conley has the speed, athleticism, and pure point guard abilities to be the early favorite for the job in the Grizzlies’ new up-tempo offense. What he does lack is a consistent jump-shot, although he averaged 52 percent shooting on 7.9 field goal attempts as a freshman because of his ability to blow past defenders and score around the rim. His popular NBA comparison is Tony Parker, but T.J. Ford’s 2005-06 season would be a better standard in terms of expected first-year production.
Conley is worthy of a late round “rookie” pick. He’s certainly got some scoring options with Gay, Miller, Warrick, and Gasol out there with him. Should be some good assist numbers there.
As for everyone else:
Pau Gasol is a stud. He checked in at 21/19 on the Player Rater (the first number is with TO as a category, the second is without). That’s based on averages so it doesn’t take into account number of games played, but it’s obvious that Gasol is a 2nd round pick.
Mike Miller is a strong second fantasy option when you’re looking at the Grizz. He was number(s) 38/35 at the end of the season, making him a 3rd round pick in 12 team leagues. Hard not to be a good pick when you play 39 minutes a game. His numbers might be down since he played a lot of games without Gasol last season, but the minutes will still be there, and the 2.9 three-pointers are no joke. He was bombing threes all the way until he was injured.
Kyle Lowry was at 123/141, but his numbers will probably be down with Conley’s arrival, making him a late round pick at best.
If Hakim Warrick can increase his minutes and cut down on the turnovers, he could be a good late round pick. He was at 194 with TOs included, but up to 155 if you don’t have turnovers. As we all know, players usually cut down on their turnovers as they get more experience, so Warrick should be headed up the player rater if even if all his other numbers remain the same.
And now I kind of see why the Grizzlies were the worst team in the league last year. I mean, fantasy performance is not necessarily an indication of real life performance, but when your best fantasy player misses the first 2 months of the season, and you only have 1 other guy in the top 100, it’s certainly not a good sign.
Hopefully Patrick has his Celtics preview ready to go, because I’m about 5 days past deadline with this one. That’s what happens when no one wants to yell at you because you’re the owner’s son. Or cause you’re the owner.
Well, for starters, I am back. I was out of town for some time and followed that up with a brisk glut of over-working myself.
The Rockets made a trade!! With absolutely no fantasy impact. No one in the league was expecting the Rockets to utilize their expiring trade exception, but Jerry West helped the Rockets bewilder the league. Last night, they traded Scott Padgett for Jake Tsakalidis.
Pairing Tsakalidis with Spanoulis gives the Rockets both Greek players; Jeff Van Gundy comments…
“It will give someone for Billy to (complain) to, so that will be good,” coach Jeff Van Gundy said. “We’ll just sit him right over there and Billy can (complain) to him about how he’s getting (shafted). That will be good.”
Wow, as tactful as the Sex Pistols trailing the Queen on the Thames river. Already relegating Jake to the bench despite ripping off the Grizzlies. How could Jerry West pull the trigger on this deal? He gave up a whole .5ppg and .9rpg. Where does West expect to get that kind of production in garbage time of the Grizzlies blowout victories? Janeane Garofalo would be proud of that sarcasm, by the way, I always thought she was hot. So Janeane, if you happen to trawl fantasy basketball blogs and you see this, leave a comment. My inexplicable celebrity crushes aside, my favorite Houston eatery could not be more happy. Congrats Niko Niko’s on getting even more advertising ammo. The line may be more difficult to stand through than Tsakalidis is to spell, but waiting through it is worth the slice of heaven.
Damon Stoudamire (Mem - PG) Add
Charlie Bell (Mil - PG,SG,SF) Drop
I guess with Pau Gasol back Damon Stoudamire has someone to pass to. Funny that it was actually a different team that dropped Chucky Atkins above. Is Alexander Johnson still available? Anyone?
