Give Me The Rock » New Jersey Nets

Day 97 of 124: Gerald Wallace Is Back!

Nels — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 14:06:06 +0000

Line of the Night: The big multi-cat contributor we call Gerald Wallace (3.12) showed that he’ll do what he always does no matter where he goes with 24 points (2 threes; 8-9 from the line), 18 rebounds, 5 assists, 6 steals, and 1 block. Obviously it was the 18 rebounds and 6 steals that put him ahead of the pack last night (and let’s also remember the Nets are playing without Brook Lopez and let Gerald Green onto the floor for 26 minutes). But still, there were 12 games last night, so to break WARP 3 with that many players competing is a pretty impressive accomplishment.

Honorable Mentions: Carmelo Anthony (2.73) hogged the ball all the way to 36 points (24 shots from the field; 13-14 from the line), 9 rebounds, 5 steals, 2 blocks, and a 10 point loss to Atlanta. Too bad his contract will keep him from joining Steve Nash in Miami next year. Speaking of Miami, Dwyane Wade (2.65) scored 30 points (12-19 from the field), with 6 rebounds, 6 assists, and 3 steals. Chris Bosh (2.53) also had 30 points (11-18 from the field, 8-8 from the line), with 8 rebounds, and 3 blocks.

Brandon Jennings (2.42) seems to be doing okay since the Bucks traded for Monta Ellis. He scored another 28 points (3 threes, 11-17 from the field), with 6 assists and 4 steals. Despite 32 minutes, Ellis didn’t fare quite as well with only 13 points on 37% shooting and 5 rebounds.

Chris Paul (2.32) did his thing with 20 points (8-13 from the field), 14 assists, and 4 steals. He’s not tied for 3rd on the season with Kevin Love.

Joakim Noah (1.78) returned to doing his thing after a few games where he took it easy and let Luol Deng take over. Noah scored 19 points (7-11 from the field), grabbed 12 rebounds, dished 4 assists, and blocked 2 shots. Ryan Anderson (1.70) also got back to doing his thing after a few crap games with 21 points (3 threes, 6-6 from the line), and 6 rebounds.

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Waiver Wire Line of the Night: Marcus Camby (2.24) got the start and played 36 minutes against Marc Gasol (granted, he was coming off an injury) and ended with 7 points, 16 rebounds, 2 steals, and 6 blocks (43% owned). Houston got the win, so I think that may have settled the Camby/Dalembert battle.

Pick Up Lines: Just a quick reminder: Marvin Williams (1.61) is that guy who plays for the Hawks who shows up about every 3rd game and has a line like 13 points (5-5 from the line), 7 rebounds, 2 steals, and 2 blocks (16% owned).

Charles Jenkins (1.55) got another start for the Warriors, even with Nate Robinson back in action (relatively: he only played 11 minutes). Jenkins had 18 points (5-5 from the line), 12 assists, and 2 steals (4% owned), so maybe the Warriors are grooming him as a less expensive (or more effective) option to Robinson. If you are in a daily changes league, he’s probably worth a shot. Not sure that I’d chance him over a whole week, though – especially in the playoffs.

Another guy to keep an eye out for: Cartier Martin (1.30). In his second game of the season, Martin played 26 minutes, scoring 20 points (4 threes, 8-12 from the field), with 6 rebounds (0% owned). Martin is the kind of guy who pops up every season and some games, some better than others, but he can be relevant given enough time. The Wizards went small against a relatively short 76ers team, but after 19 minutes against a taller Indiana team in a much closer game, Martin only needs one more game to qualify as legit.

Biggest Loser: Jrue Holiday (-1.17) faltered after a string of very solid games with only 4 points on 2-8 from the field with 1 rebound and 4 assists. Not as highly owned, but much more talked about: Wilson Chandler (-1.09) also had a misstep after starting off with 6 solid games. Chandler managed only 6 points, 3 rebounds, and 5 turnovers. I’d continue to both of them, though, those two games aside.

In The Bonus: Yahoo has a guide to the Final Four for NBA fans. This is especially good for me since I think I’ve paid less attention to college ball this year that in any other. Time to cram for the NBA Draft exam…

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Daily rankings and stats come from the GMTR H2H Player Rater (beta version). They are based on the stat Wins Above Replacement Player (WARP) an estimate of the number of wins a player produces per week in H2H leagues over a replacement (waiver wire) player.

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GMTR Podcast #33: Breaking Down the Deadline Deals

Patrick — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 14:36:47 +0000

Erik and Patrick discuss all of the trades that went down before the deadline and what effect they have on fantasy value – especially for guys potentially on a lot of waiver wires like Kenneth Faried, Ekpe Udoh and Steve Blake. Also we talk about what to do with Stephen Curry and what to expect from Wilson Chandler now that he signed with the Nuggets. And finally, we throw out our weekly waiver wire recommendations.

Click to play or Download here (Right-click and Save As)
Or rock the GMTR podcast feed for iTunes.

Spoiler Alert Ahead!

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If you can’t listen to the podcast, here are our weekly waiver wire plays.

Shallow Leagues:

Nate Robinson
Klay Thompson
Jerryd Bayless
Wilson Chandler

Deeper Leagues:

Kenneth Faried
J.R. Smith
C.J. Watson
Tristan Thompson
Kirk Hinrich
Samardo Samuels

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Day 58 of 124: There Will be Blood

Patrick — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 15:25:10 +0000

Line of the Night: It certainly wasn’t as sexy as his 51-point game on Sunday, but Kevin Durant (2.72) continues to shoot lights out as he zooms his way past LeBron to the top of our player rater. Against the Hornets, Durant finished with stat filling 31 points, 3 threes, 8 rebounds, 4 assists and 2 steals. A quick look at GMTR’s new game logs shows that he actually hasn’t had a negative WARP game all season – which means even Durant’s off nights are still better than half the league’s on-nights.

Honorable Mentions: I actually feel bad for Jeremy Lin at this point. Well, as bad as you can feel for a dude who is going to make millions of dollars off Linsanity. I’m sure more than anything else the guy just wants to step on the court and play some basketball, and yet he’s been swept away in a whirlwind of media attention, none of which is his own doing as far as I can tell (it’s not like he’s stoking the fire Charles Barkley style or anything). Now enter Deron Williams, who has gone on a Kill Bill-like odyssey to take him down.

It appears that the tweets that Deron Williams (2.53) got two weeks ago after Lin burned him to start the Linsanity craze have been seared in his mind:

“When somebody says they destroyed you, and you watch the tape and you don’t feel like you got destroyed, you circle those games,” Williams said. “I took offense.”

Took offense he did. Williams came out for blood in this game and got it, scoring 38 points on 8-14 from three and adding 6 assists in 34 minutes on the court as the Nets beat the Knicks 100-92. The narrative of the day is going to be that Linsanity is on the decline (because it would sell newspapers, if they still existed), but Jeremy Lin (1.83) was still the best Knick on the court last night, scoring 21 points and adding 7 rebounds, 9 assists and 4 steals on the night. Even better is that he only had 3 turnovers. Things didn’t exactly mesh perfectly with Melo back on the court, but Lin is not to blame for that. More on Melo below.

***

Kyle Lowry (2.37) filled up the box score in a win over the Grizzlies with 24 points, 7 rebounds, 9 assists and 4 steals in nearly 47 minutes on the court. So much for the 25 minutes of run that Goran Dragic was getting per game a few weeks ago (he got 15 in the game). Meanwhile, Lowry has been playing 36+ minutes a night over the last week plus. Samuel Dalembert (-0.14) got his starting job back after being benched for missing a pre-game walk through over the weekend. He finished with a weak 9 points, 6 boards and 0 blocks in 20 minutes as his high flying act to begin the season is now well behind him.

Monta Ellis (2.09) scored 32 points, adding 4 threes, 5 rebounds and 4 assists in a win over the Clippers. David Lee (1.47) chipped in 24 and 13 in the game. Randy Foye might be starting for the Clips, but Mo Williams (0.76) is the guy really poised to benefit from the Billups’ injury, as he hit 6 threes on his way to 22 points in the game.

It appears that much needed rest Dirk Nowitzki (2.07) took a few weeks ago was exactly what the big man needed to turn his season around. Dirk scored 23 points and had a season high 16 rebounds in win over the reeling Boston Celtics. I love the C’s, but everyone is recording record high rebounding numbers against them this year. It’s almost like Jermaine O’Neal isn’t a good starting center anymore… Oh, wait…

It was a lonely bandwagon to be on last month, but I know Erik and I tried to stress the fact that Channing Frye (1.87) was a notorious slow starter over his career. And while a month is way longer than anyone should need to get things started, Frye has finally started producing at the level we expected this season. His 19 points on 4-7 from three with 11 rebounds and 2 blocks against the Wizards was one of his best games of the season so far. His history suggests that he’ll remain hot the rest of the year.

Andrew Bynum (1.85) had 14 points and 19 rebounds in a win over the Blazers. Nicolas Batum (1.85) made roto owners especially happy last night with 18 points, 3 threes, 6 rebounds, 5 assists, 2 steals and 4 blocks. Now that’s how you fill up a box score kids.

Tony Parker (1.76) had his third point/assist double-double in a row with 23 points, 6 rebounds and 11 assists against the Jazz. I’m smelling a career year from Parker. Big Al Jefferson led the Jazz with 20 and 11 in the game.

Orlando/Milwaukee was a rebound fest. Dwight Howard (1.04) finished with 28 and 16. Ryan Anderson (0.71) added 11 of his own. Ersan Ilyasova (0.65) had another amazing game with 15 points and 15 rebounds in 40 minutes on the court. He’s now averaging 12.6 rebounds over his last 5 games.

Finally, Derrick Rose (-0.07) returned to the Bulls’ lineup after missing 5 games with a sore back. He scored 23 points, adding 5 boards and 6 assists in the game. Now if he can just stay healthy the rest of the season, all will be good.

Waiver Wire Line of the Night: Rookie Kenneth Faried (1.87) is taking advantage of a Nene-less Nuggets team. Faried got the start at PF for Denver against the Timberwolves and finished with a double-double – 10 points and 14 rebounds, with 2 steals and 3 blocks. It’s his second double-double since Nene has been out of the lineup and with Denver playing two more times before the break, he makes a nice add this week if you’re looking to squeeze a few games in. Long-term once Nene gets back, he’s going to have a tough time finding the minutes to be worth owning in fantasy leagues.

Pick Up Lines: I actually picked up Matt Bonner (1.59) in one league last night before his 20 point, 5 three game against the Jazz because the Spurs have a unique Tuesday/Thursday schedule this week. Bonner has his ceiling as a player – he’s not going to do much other than hit threes and score some points, but he has his uses, especially if your team is playing very, very small and is punting boards/blocks.

Larry Sanders (1.37) is the latest Buck to seemingly come out of nowhere and put up a fantasy line that screams “pick me up”. With Luc Richard Mbah a Moute in some mysterious Scott Skiles doghouse (any Bucks fans out there feel free to help us out with this one), Sanders got a season high 28 minutes and finished with a double-double: 13 points, 12 rebounds, 2 steals and 3 blocks. This came after a game in which he played 4 minutes and racked up 2 fouls as his only stat, so I’d definitely wait on picking up Sanders until he consistently starts seeing time off the bench for the Bucks.

Ekpe Udoh (1.36) got the start at center for the Warriors and exploded, scoring a season-high 19 points (on 9-14 from the field), with 8 rebounds and 2 blocks in 38 minutes. Now before you go out and grab Udoh (too late?), as I mentioned on the comments of another post, Andris Biedrins missed this game with flu-like symptoms, which was the reason that Udoh got the start and saw so many minutes. Second, his per-30 averages suggest that he might never score 19 points again in his career. Even if he were to see 38 minutes a game the rest of the season, 8 and 7 is likely around what he’d average. Ok, he’d block 2-3 shots per game as well, which has it’s value if you are really looking for blocks on your team.

Quick Hits: Yes, Jannero Pargo (1.30) is still in the league and playing for the Hawks. He hit 5 threes against the Bulls on his way to 19 points and 5 rebounds. He’s averaging 11 minutes a game this season though, so stay away.

Ronnie Brewer (1.22) also had 13 points, 6 rebounds and 2 steals in that Bulls’ game. He is currently starting at shooting guard for the team, although his offensive game on most nights is about as good as mine. His upside is limited on his best nights and at his worst he’s a black hole for fantasy purposes.

After straight four games of fairly pathetic lines, Trevor Booker (1.15) scored 16 points and added 8 rebounds against the Suns. Andray Blatche should be back for the Wizards sometime soon after the All-Star break and Booker isn’t really setting the world on fire right now, so I’d only consider him in 14+ team leagues at the moment.

Steve Blake (1.02) hit 5 of 6 shots from three coming off the bench for the Lakers and scored a season high 17 points in 21 minutes. As much of a liability as Derek Fisher is at this point in his career, the Lakers don’t seem to think Blake is the answer at PG.

Biggest Loser: The much anticipated return of Carmelo Anthony (-1.10) to the Knicks lineup ended in a thud. While Lin continued to do his thing with Melo back in the lineup, Anthony showed the rust of a guy who just sat out 7 straight games. He did have 11 points and 6 assists in the game, but complemented that with 6 turnovers (including one where he dribbled the ball off his foot) and shot 4-11 from the field and 3-6 from the line. So, until Melo gets his game legs under him, it’s still to be determined how he and Lin are going to fit together.

A 3-13 shooting night for Nick Young (-1.24), who finished with 6 points, 2 rebounds and 1 assist against the Suns. Young has now shot 12-43 over the Wizards’ last three games

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GMTR Podcast #29: The GMTR Fantasy All-Star Teams

Patrick — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 18:41:32 +0000

In this week’s podcast, we discuss the latest injury news surrounding guys like Manu Ginobili, who left Saturday’s game with a strained oblique, as well as Nene Hilario and Drew Gooden. We also talk about the highly anticipated return of Brook Lopez, J.R. Smith, Wilson Chandler, Baron Davis and, of course, Carmelo Anthony and how that will affect Linsanity and the Knicks.

We also throw out some Eastern and Western conference fantasy teams by looking at cumulative WARP scores on the GMTR player rater. Finally, we give out our waiver wire recommendations for the week.

Click to play or Download here (Right-click and Save As)
Or rock the GMTR podcast feed for iTunes.

Podcast Links:

GMTR’s Sports Illustrated.com article running down our Fantasy Basketball All-Stars

Spoiler Alert Ahead!

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If you can’t listen to the podcast, here are our waiver wire recommendations.

J.R. Smith/Wilson Chandler
Isaiah Thomas
J.J. Reddick

Deep League Specials:

Corey Brewer
Tristan Thompson
Patrick Patterson

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Day 54 of 124: J.R. Smith Is Linsane

Nels — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 14:50:09 +0000

I hate to send people away to start a post, but I know if you really care, you’ll come back after you check out the Linfographic which I am linking to mostly because it’s called a Linfographic, partly because it’s too big to post here, and partly because How come no one ever mentioned that Rex Walters was half-Japanese? Also, Lin has been added to the Rising Stars Challenge on February 24th. (Also a change to that game, instead of rookies vs. sophomores, it will be two teams picked by Charles Barkley and Shaquille O’Neal – almost like a real life fantasy game!)

Let me follow that up with the news that J.R. Smith will sign with the Knicks. As the conservative/cautious one here at GMTR, I would wait to make any decisions regarding Landry Fields or Iman Shumpert until we actually see what the lineup looks like with Smith there, but my guess is that both of those guys are going to take a hit in their fantasy value. I’m not sure that the Knicks will be comfortable starting Smith out there with the still-turnover-prone Lin, but Smith will definitely see some big minutes off the bench. Smith might also be able to cut into Bill Walker’s burgeoning fantasy value (at least until Carmelo gets back at which point Walker pretty much goes back to 0).

(Updated with Stat Projection) One of the most frequent questions we get asked (it seems like) is how JR Smith will perform when he returns. Well, in 25 minutes last season with the Nuggets, Smith scored 12.3 points (1.6 threes, 43% from the field, 74% from the line) with 4.1 rebounds, 2.2 assists, and 1.2 steals. When Carmelo gets back, let’s assume he plays 34 minutes as he was before, that leaves 14 minutes at SF. Landry Fields will probably drop back to no more than 30 minutes per game at SG, so that leaves 18 minutes for Smith at that position. That’s 33 minutes total… but Bill Walker will probably still play 8-9 minutes per game even once Smith gets used to the system and worked into the rotation. That leaves Smith with about 25 minutes per game. And it makes sense. If I were the Knicks, I wouldn’t sign Smith unless I was planning to give him those kind of minutes and from the other side, Smith probably wouldn’t sign with the Knicks if he didn’t think he was going to get at least that much time.

So, I’d say 12 points, 4 rebounds, 2 assists, 1.5 threes and 1 steal is the bare minimum we’ll see from Smith. I think the biggest potential for increase comes in the threes, since he’ll have Lin distributing with Carmelo and Stoudemire (possibly) to take the attention of the defense. Perhaps that also means he’ll get up to 45% from the field (believe it or not, he’s done it before).

Line of the Night: Kris Humphries (2.21) was super-efficient for the Nets with 24 points (11-14 from the field), 10 rebounds, and 3 blocks, but …

Honorable Mentions: Danny Granger (2.16) led the Pacers to the win with 32 points (4 threes), and 5 rebounds. Luol Deng (1.92) also led his team to victory with 23 points (6 threes), and 10 assists. I’m not 100% sure, but I’m guessing that’s a career high in 3s for Deng and as a Bulls fan, I couldn’t be more happy to see him knocking them down like that. Speaking of knocking them down, a guy who usually knocks them down Paul George (1.90) only hit 1 three en route to his 11 points, but he contributed 5 rebounds, 5 assists, 4 steals, and 2 blocks, and the Player Rater loves the cross-category contribution.

Kevin Garnett (1.55) put up 18 points (4-4 from the line), 10 rebounds, and 2 steals and I guess it was the Free Throw shooting and the steals that put him ahead of what I thought looked like a more impressive Carlos Boozer (1.21) with 23 points (11-15 from the field), 15 rebounds, and 5 assists. Rajon Rondo (0.96) followed up his 35 points game with 17 points, 7 rebounds, and 8 assists. But again, the Bulls matched that with Joakim Noah‘s (0.88) 15 points, 16 rebounds, and 2 blocks.

The Clippers/Blazers game ended up at 74-71, so it’s not surprising to find the first line from that game this far down: Blake Griffin (1.04) scored 21 points (9-15 from the field) with 14 rebounds. The best line for the Blazers was Jamal Crawford (0.93) with his 19 points, and 2 steals.

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Waiver Wire Line of the Night: Shelden Williams‘s (1.15) last game with 10 points and 12 rebounds was actually more impressive, but with only 3 games last night his 8 points, 9 rebounds, and 3 blocks (2% owned) wins him WWLotN. Williams has been starting for the Nets, but it took him a while to get into what seems like his “game shape” and now it’s probably too late as Brook Lopez is expected back pretty much any day now (though I’d still probably wait a week if you’re in a weekly league). Fun fact: this actually not the first time we’ve tagged a post with Shelden Williams. I’m not going to look it up because I’m sure it’s not great to look at, but he did show up in the tag selector drop-down just now.

Pick Up Lines: There were a bunch of pretty crappy lines that I’ve omitted since they only really came up because some guys got a bit of extra run last night and there were only 3 games.

What I would look at is: Randy Foye (0.16) who played 32 minutes and even though he only had 6 points, 4 assists, and 2 blocks (18% owned), the whole Clippers team played poorly, and you can’t knock 32 minutes. And C.J. Watson (0.09) continued his “well, y’know, pretty good” filling in for Derrick Rose. Watson had 11 points (2 threes), 4 rebounds, and 3 assists (19% owned). The Bulls are still winning without Rose (see the lines above for Deng, Boozer, and Noah), so they’re certainly not in any hurry to rush him back, which makes Watson a “well, y’know, pretty good” fantasy play for a while longer still.

Biggest Loser: The Blazers and the Clippers both shot 38% last night, but at 90% owned and last place out of 58 players, Raymond Felton (-1.41) not only made 0 shots, but turned the ball over 5 times. Felton ended up with 0 points, 2 rebounds, 2 assists, 5 turnovers, and was 0-7 from the field.

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Day 25 of 124: One Painful Season

Patrick — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 14:32:40 +0000

Line of the Night: Monta Ellis (2.72) scored 30 points in a loss to the Nets, adding 5 assists and a category-winning 6 steals in 37 minutes on the court. If you were presented with a decision between drafting Monta Ellis and Stephen Curry before the start of the season, who would have thought that Ellis would have been the correct answer?

Honorable Mentions: Here is something you won’t hear often – the New Jersey Nets were the best team for fantasy purposes last night. Deron Williams (2.21) nearly triple-doubled with 24 points, 8 rebounds and 10 assists. Kris Humphries (2.33) added 18 points, 15 rebounds and 4 blocked shots. And MarShon Brooks (1.62) scored a career-high 22 points and added 8 boards and 6 assists in the game. Brooks has now scored in double-digits in the Nets last 7 games and is an obvious must own in all leagues. I am so glad I dropped him in one of the GMTR Readers’ leagues a couple weeks ago…

// sarcasm //

Joe Johnson (2.57) continues to perform like the old (and by old I mean young) Joe Johnson since the Al Horford injury. Last night’s line against the Blazers included 24 points, 4 threes, 7 rebounds, 5 assists and a couple steals. There are no red flags in his recent lines that would suggest he’s a sell high candidate. He’s simply taking more shots since Horford went down. LaMarcus Aldridge (1.39) fantasy-led the Blazers with 20 and 11 in the game.

***

Andre Miller (2.51) had by far his best game of the season with an overtime-assisted 28 points, 8 rebounds and 10 assists in 39 minutes on the court for the Nuggets. Miller also got a little extra run because Rudy Fernandez missed the game with injury. We have seen Miller explode a few times already this season only to settle back down in the Nuggets’ next game.

DeAndre Jordan (2.43) had 19 points, 9 rebounds and 5 blocked shots in a win over the Mavs. He’s now back to winning the battle of the blocks against JaVale McGee at 3.1 a game to McGee’s 3.0.

And in the battle of point guards who were off to slow starts but are now heating up, Russell Westbrook’s (1.76) 36 points and 7 assists was slightly more impressive than John Wall’s (1.31) 25 points, 7 boards and 8 assists. That is now 3 straight good-to-great games from Wall, who looks to be turning a corner on the season. OKC lost the game, but Kevin Durant (2.19) out dueled everyone in terms of fantasy lines with 33 points, 8 boards, 3 steals and 2 blocks.

Steve Nash (2.31) scored a season-high 26 points against the Knicks on 9-12 shooting, adding 5 rebounds and 11 assists in 38 minutes. And Amare Stoudemire (0.11) had his best game in a week with 23 points and 7 rebounds in the loss. Baron Davis can’t come soon enough for Amare.

And, of course, there is the beast Dwight Howard (2.26). In a night where there were some ridiculous rebounding numbers put up (including 19 by DeMarcus Cousins and 17 each by Love, Griffin and Chandler), Howard’s 25 rebounds were the most ridiculous of all. He also scored 24 points and blocked 3 shots in an overtime loss to the Spurs. Howard is now averaging 15.6 rebounds a game this season. Take that Kevin Love!

Waiver Wire Line of the Night: As long as we’re partying like it’s 2006, Tayshaun Prince (2.00) is swinging by that party with a 30-pack. Prince scored a season-high 29 points and hit 3 threes in a loss to the Wolves. That’s three straight 20+ scoring games for Prince, who seems to have broken out of his early season funk. Prince has never been an elite scorer – so I doubt he’ll keep this up – but is still worth a look in shallow leagues (he’s already 27% owned) as long as he’s rolling like this.

Pick Up Lines: Thanks to the Chris Paul injury, Mo Williams (1.89) returned from his own injury to play 35 minutes and score 26 points on 11-15 shooting. I have two thoughts on this. First, he got lucky that his shot was falling so well in this game, and second, he’ll continue to get some big run off the bench as long as Paul is out (see more on that below) so consider him a short-term add in most daily leagues.

It’s been a while since Anthony Tolliver (1.66) grace GMTR with his presence. But Tolliver came off the Wolves’ bench to go 3-5 from three and finished with 11 points, 5 rebounds and 2 steals. Meanwhile, Derrick Williams saw a measly 15 minutes off the bench and didn’t do much in the game. While we like Tolliver’s game as an incredibly poor man’s version of Ryan Anderson, he’s not seeing consistent enough minutes to warrant picking up.

Gary Forbes (1.37) got a season high 19 minutes and scored 18 points for the Raptors in a blowout loss to the Celtics 18 points. It was a blowout, so don’t read too much into it. On the other hand, fantasy-favorite James Johnson (-0.95) was given the start over Rasual Butler in this game. Unfortunately, he also played like Rasual Butler by shooting 1-7 from the floor and not doing much of anything else. Still, if you are a James Johnson junkie, I’d add him now as long as he keeps the starting job.

Speaking of new starters, Markieff Morris (-0.33) got the start for the Suns over Channing Frye. Morris lasted all of 5 minutes before leaving the game with a stomach virus, but he’s still worth a look in most leagues provided he keeps the starting job.

Trevor Ariza (1.16) is back after missing 8 games for the Hornets, scoring 18 points and adding 5 rebounds, 7 assists and 4 steals. That line is the ceiling of what you’ll get from Ariza, who can just as easily go 2-10 from the floor on any given night. If you can live with his horrible percentages, Ariza just might be hanging out on your wire after being dropped by an impatient owner.

Quick Hits: Mickael Pietrus (1.10) isn’t getting a ton of minutes for the Celtics, but 11 of the 14 shots he’s made so far this year have been threes and his role is slowly growing on a Celtics team that could use a little energy. Ok, a lot of energy. Last night’s 12 points and 4 threes is a line that plays in deep leagues.

Francisco Garcia’s (1.08) minutes have also been creeping up for the Kings. Last night’s 16 points, 5 boards, 2 steals and a block is a good representation of what you can expect from him at his best.

As much as we all love Gustavo Ayon (GUSTAVO!), the reality is that Jason Smith (0.76) is the new starting PF for the Hornets. He had 14 and 6 in 29 minutes on the court and is available in nearly all leagues provided your ok with his low upside.

And with Marcus Camby out for Portland, old man Kurt Thomas (0.55) has entered the Blazers’ starting lineup. He had 8 points, 9 rebounds and a block and makes an ok short-term play while Camby is out if you are really hurting for big men.

Injuries of the Night: Nicolas Batum left last night game against the Hawks after being poked in the eye by Tracy McGrady during the second quarter. According to Blazers Edge, x-rays came back negative for an orbital fracture and that the injury “isn’t serious”. Chris Haynes of CSNNW.com reported that Batum said he will play in Portland’s next game on Friday.

Rajon Rondo also left the Celtics game after falling on his wrist on a hard foul by Linas Kleiza when he was driving to the basket. The good news is that Rondo stayed in the game briefly to take his foul shots and is day-to-day with a wrist injury that could have been a lot worse.

In other injury updates, Derrick Rose’s injury is now being described as tuff toe. He’s described the pain as a 6 or 7 out of 10 and is questionable for the Bulls’ game on Friday. If he can’t go C.J. Watson becomes a great short-term play.

And Dwyane Wade owners have to be troubled by the fact that he’s dealing with both a sore left foot and a calf strain which kept him out of Tuesday’s game against the Spurs. He’s been day-to-day for what seems like the entire year and is officially questionable for tonight’s Heat game. It’s tough for find any more updates on Wade’s injury than that, but it’s easy to find a few dozen stories about his $230,000 birthday present. If Wade doesn’t play, look to see if Mike Miller can have a repeat performance of his game on Tuesday.

Chris Paul has missed the Clippers’ last 3 games with a strained left hamstring. According to Vinny Del Negro, Paul is currently day-to-day with no timetable for return. Randy Foye is starting in his absence, but has shot 29% from the floor in three starts. Mo Williams makes a much better pickup in Paul’s absence.

Biggest Loser: I feel like I’m picking on DeMar DeRozan (-1.43) at this point. It’s just that he’s owned in 88% of Yahoo leagues at the moment and his 11 points on 4-16 from the field with 5 turnovers was the single worst fantasy line out of 224 players last night. You would have been better off playing Jimmer Fredette (-1.17) and getting his 0-4 shooting in 6 minutes than DeRozan.

Bust Town; Population: Jared Dudley (-1.01). Dudley was mercifully removed from the Suns starting lineup last night in place of Ronnie Price. He played a total of 17 minutes and didn’t score, finishing with 1 board and 1 assist. Time to drop Dudley if you’ve been holding on to him in hopes that his shooting would improve.

***

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What a Blow, Bro! – Lopez out indefinitely

Erik — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 01:13:07 +0000

New Jersey Nets‘ center Brook Lopez has a stress fracture in his fifth metatarsal and is expected to undergo surgery. This sends the Nets’ trade prospects for Dwight Howard into limbo for now. There are varied reports coming from all around revolving on how long Lopez will be sidelined. For a safe estimate, to make your decisions for fantasy, assume he’ll be gone for about SIX weeks, minimum.

In the midst of this adversity, New Jersey jumped on a chance to acquire a “serviceable” big man. They trade for the Jazz’s Mehmet Okur for a future second-round pick and a trade exception.

Fantasy Impact:

Mehmet Okur, who has been widely undrafted in most leagues is now a must-add. So if you’re in a fantasy league that I happen to not be in, go NOW and grab Okur off the FA pool. He’s lost weight and has been reported to be 100% healthy.

Brook Lopez should be dropped in all daily changes leagues, unless he’s your keeper in a keeper league. You can stash him for the stretch run in fantasy playoffs if you want, but note that this will curtail your flexibility as he will be sitting in your bench for quite awhile. There is also the possibility that he might not play at all this season.

Kris Humphries now has an opportunity to work his butt off to get the most return out of his one-year deal with Jersey to get a big pay day next season. He can now be expected to be a double-double beast and should be drafted accordingly.

Okur’s departure slightly, very slightly, clears up the frontcourt log jam in Utah. This improves the reliability of Al Jefferson and Paul Millsap a bit and also speeds up the development of Enes Kanter.

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This Week’s Sign The Apocalypse Is Upon Us

Nels — Sat, 24 Sep 2011 13:32:03 +0000

No, I’m not talking about the NBA canceling a bunch of preseason games. We knew that was coming for weeks already, and if we didn’t, then we were just in denial.

No, I’m talking about the Hypocrisy that has grown to Epic Proportions. Proportions the size of Kim Kardashian’s ass.

You can click that to blow it up, but I’ll save you the trouble. It says “Khloe and Kourtney accuse Kris of using Kim for fame.”

If you aren’t over the fact that this sort of thing is on the cover of a magazine with national distribution while nobody in line at a grocery store will know that the NBA season isn’t going to happen, resulting in (something like) tens of thousands of people being put out of work, then you can just stop reading now.

If you want to know what brought me to the point of writing this post… think about that headline for a second, but replace any name that starts with “K” and isn’t “Kim” with “Somebody”: Somebody and Somebody (else) accuse (a third) Somebody of using Kim for fame. It’s pretty much a Mad Libs with an infinite number of possible answers that would actually end up being true statements.

E.g., Nels [co-author of somewhat popular fantasy basketball blog Give Me The Rock] and Kris accuse Khloe of using Kim for fame.

Seriously. Khloe needs to bow the F down to Kim and kiss her sister’s planet-sized rear end that she was able to land someone as rich (and actually fairly handsome) as Lamar Odom. Especially considering she looks like an uglier version of She-Hulk.

You think she could have scored an NBA player without her super famous sister? Come On Now.

Also, it’s a crying shame that the NBA was involved in basically the biggest wedding of the year and couldn’t capitalize on it for any sort of publicity. I mean, after the highest-rated Finals in years, they actually had people who don’t really care about basketball interested. Throw in The Fame that Kris is using Kim for, and you’ve got some actual hype going on… But no, the owners and players had to ruin all that momentum by acting like Khloe and Kourtney. Guess what guys? American Football is happening and by the time you decide to pull your heads from your planet-sized piles of money, all those casual fans you could have picked up aren’t going to care anymore and you’ll be back to trying to rub a couple nickles together to make a dime.

Actual Fantasy Stuff

Jason soldiers on with his Analysis of the Mavericks for Dime Mag
A new blog (to me at least) The Good Point has The Optimist’s Fantasy Basketball Primer
For those of you who joined a Fantasy Football league this year as a reaction to the dismal prospects of the NBA, fear not: I have started Fantasy Football Outsider so you can enjoy the same sort of rants, non sequiturs, and analysis you find here when there is actual fantasy basketball being played.

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Not a Bad Consolation Prize: Deron Williams Heading to the Nets

Patrick — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 02:24:39 +0000

The Russians have a long and storied history of coming in second place, so instead of moaning and bitching about his team’s inability to get Carmelo Anthony to agree to a trade, Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov immediately had his team shift gears and make an arguably more impressive move (at least in terms of cost/benefit ratio) by acquiring Deron Williams from the Jazz.

Coming on the heels of the Melo to the Knicks, the internet has again blown up with today’s surprising trade. Yahoo’s Adrian Wojnarowski broke the news that Deron Williams will be heading to the New Jersey Nets for Devin Harris, Derrick Favors, two future first-round picks and cash.

So, what are the fantasy implications of this deal?

New Jersey Nets

Here is the new depth chart for the Nets.

PG: Deron Williams, Jordan Farmar
SG: Anthony Morrow, Sasha Vujacic
SF: Travis Outlaw, Quinton Ross
PF: Kris Humphries, Brandan Wright
C: Brook Lopez, Dan Gadzuric

***

Both the Nets and the Jazz are in the bottom half of the league in possessions per game at 91.8 and 93.6, respectively (by comparison, the Knicks average 98.6 and the Nuggets 98.2). So neither player is heading to a significantly better or worse team in terms of pace. They also play the same position, so on the surface the trade doesn’t seem to affect their fantasy value in a significant way.

Both players had a tenuous relationship with their coaches/front office this season (or former coach in the case of Williams). Despite the fact that Williams is apparently not happy with the trade, it is possible both these guys come to their new teams slightly more motivated and ready to kick some ass. If you believe in that kind of intangible bullshit. Which I do. A little.

The best news for Williams’ owners is that the Nets are currently 29th in the league in points per game at 92.4, so they could use ball dominating PG who can score in much the same way that the world could use less Justin Bieber in it. And by that I mean desperately. The team’s third leading scorer is Anthony Morrow at 12.5 points a game. Williams comes to the team averaging 21 points and nearly 10 assists per game this season, and based on the collection of talent the Nets have, I would not be surprised to see his scoring numbers take a bit of a jump with a small decline in assists.

Of course, having a guy like D-Will barreling to the hoop also good news for the team’s spot up jump shooters, like Morrow, Sasha Vujacic and… Brook Lopez. Morrow especially could benefit from D-Will’s arrival, in the way that Raja Bell would have in Utah if he wasn’t 50 years old.

Unfortunately, not everyone wins in a trade. Even Jordan Famar’s biggest fans would admit his limited fantasy relevance has all but disappeared with Williams coming to town. The often injured Harris was averaging about 32 minutes a game this season. While Williams has had his share of injuries over the past few years, he’s been averaging nearly 38 minutes a game this season. Will that decrease under Avery Johnson? Possibly a little, but Lopez is averaging 34 minutes a game and Williams immediately becomes the team’s best and most important player. So in theory he should see at least as much court time as Lopez, if not more.

Overall, it will probably end up being a neutral fantasy move for Williams.

Utah Jazz

Here is more or less what the new Jazz look like.

PG: Devin Harris, Earl Watson
SG: Raja Bell, C.J. Miles, Gordon Hayward
SF: Andrei Kirilenko, C.J. Miles
PF: Paul Millsap, Derrick Favors, Francisco Elson
C: Al Jefferson, Mehmet Okur

Unless the Jazz have something else up their sleeves, Harris will become the team’s starting PG and does about 75% of what Williams does on the court. Harris has averaged 15 points and 7.6 assists in 54 games with the Nets, but he wasn’t loving his reunion with Avery Johnson and the team wasn’t loving Harris’ lack of commitment this season.

Again, on the surface, things don’t seem like they are going to change all too much for Harris. Harris gains a few nice offensive weapons in Utah, like Paul Millsap, Al Jefferson and CJ Miles when he’s rolling. So, Harris could see his assists jump up slightly on the Jazz, although 7.6 is already a career high for him. If his minutes increase back to 34-35 per game like he was averaging a few years ago, he could be in for a nice bump in fantasy value with stats up in the 18 point, 8 assist range. That’s all speculation at this point, so we’ll see how it plays out.

Any value that Favors had this season (which wasn’t much) is gone now that he’s clearly behind both Paul Millsap and Al Jefferson on the depth chart. But now that I think about it, this is usually around the time of Jefferson’s yearly knee blowout, so at least there’s that opportunity for Favors.

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Power your team Forward with Power Forwards

Nels — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 03:35:41 +0000

Breaking News Item #1: Anderson Varejao is out for the season. In our last podcast, Patrick defended JJ Hickson and now his argument looks prescient. Like he’s a Might Morphin’ Fortune Teller. I kind of want to say that Deep Leaguers can also consider Samardo Samuels and even Leon Powe but, well, yeah, there’s not a lot of big man options on the Cavs. Also, keep an eye on Manny Harris and Christian Eyenga (even though those last two don’t really have anything to do with the PF position, seems like they’re going to get some more playing time with Varejao sitting out).

Breaking News Item #2: Or, something that will become breaking news… Troy Murphy seems to be headed to the Pistons as part of the Melo-to-NJ deal. Pick his ass up.

The proposed trade will send Anthony, Hamilton, Chauncey Billups, Nuggets guard Anthony Carter and forward Shelden Williams to the Nets. The Nuggets will receive two first-round picks from the Nets, point guard Devin Harris, rookie forward Derrick Favors, guards Anthony Morrow, Ben Uzoh, Stephen Graham and Quinton Ross. The Pistons will get Murphy and Petro.

It’s probably a little early to count on the trade reinvigorating Derrick Favors, but he’s about the only other guy besides Murphy who might get a second chance once the dust settles.

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