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Day 43 of 170: No Really, Watch Out For the Grizzlies

Nels — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 15:02:40 +0000

Line of the Night: I’m not saying that Zach Randolph (1.44) and his 32 points, 14 rebounds, and 4 steals are the future of the franchise (though, he did make 11 of 11 free throws), but the Grizzlies (much like the Thunder) have a lot of good, young players.

Honorable Mentions: LeBron James (1.20) scored 41 points, but it wasn’t enough to beat Zebo’s Grizzlies. Bron-Bron made 4 threes and had 13 rebounds, also making 14-28 field goals, and 9-10 free throws. Bam, said the lady.

Dwight Howard (1.15) took the Clippers to school with 25 points, 11 rebounds, and 7 blocks! Seven!

Waiver Wire Line of the Night: Jarrett Jack (0.54) put up 17, 7, and 8 the day after I replaced him on my team. And meanwhile, the guy I dropped him for – Matt Barnes (-0.49) – had 0 points and 7 rebounds. Thanks dude. That would be good for The Biggest Loser if Barnes were owned in more than 13% of leagues. As for Jack, I’m going to wait. He’s only dropping those kinds of numbers every 2-3 games. Could be acceptable for a Roto team look to fill for an injury, but in H2H, it’s not going to work out so well.

The Biggest Loser: Anderson Varejao (-0.52) is only owned in 45% of leagues, but he played 30 minutes last night, so I’m going to count it. In those 30 minutes, Varejao scored 5 points and grabbed 6 rebounds. Now we see if that 45% gets lower.

All Eyez On Me: Well, I’m a little pissed that I didn’t get to mention the Bulls at all. Only because I was at the game, and it was one of my friend’s first Bulls game ever. Of course, they gave the Nets their second win of the season, but as I’ve thought (to myself) the entire season, the Nets really shouldn’t be as bad as their record. Of course, the Bulls probably shouldn’t be as good as their record.

Anyway, tonight… Cleveland will see if they can bounce back against the Rockets, and the Jazz roll into the City of Angels to take on the good team.

The Golden Ticket: New Jersey will follow-up their win over the Bulls with a home game against Golden State. I expect plenty of superfast, sloppy play. So, maybe some good fantasy games if you don’t count turnovers.

I’m taking the easy way out on the pictures today, and going with these Grizzlies Dancers from the 2009 tryouts:

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GMTR Watch List: Week Seven

Erik — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 07:13:55 +0000

My boys have got the daily round-ups covered nicely. But since we want your fantasy basketball researching experience to be as informative and productive as possible, we have decided to make some additions to the blog to give you that extra assist to get that slam dunk W. I will be chiming in weekly, probably on Saturdays, to provide advice for the upcoming week. Once the three of us get the content and its format in order, we should be ready to rock it out for you in time for your 8th week prep.

Another new addition will be the GMTR Watch List. Since I am the FA freak between the three of us GMTR guys, yes at times too impulsive for my good and success, I have decided to share my Watch List. These are guys you may or may not be considering to pick up any time soon. A lot of my inspiration comes from pick-ups across my eight leagues. I see someone pick-up a guy, it makes me give him a serious look. Sometimes, all it takes is for someone else to take the lead in order for people to give a particular player some extra attention.

Since I am also the “impatient one”, I will also be sounding off about players who are wearing my patience thin. Since these are just lists, you can take ‘em with a grain of salt. Especially since I am the one dishing them out.

For now let’s do a deep league special. These are some of the guys available or recently taken in an 18-man H2H league I am in. Some of them may even have 12-man-deep league value.

Earl Boykins, PG Washington Wizards - The Washington Wizards have a really thin backcourt, that has been trimmed down to its barest functionality due to injuries (Mike Miller, et al). They had to sign little guy, Earl Boykins for some support. Three straight games and double digits is kinda nice. He’s averaging 11 points and four dimes. So I think that makes him legit stream material for those extra passes.

C.J. Watson, G Golden State Warriors – I broke down my impression of his potential over at PITP.

Taj Gibson, F Chicago Bulls - If the Bulls ARE letting go of Tyrus Thomas, you should keep your eyes on this kid. He’s going to be a solid pick-up later on as he progresses. He’s getting better and frankly Brad Miller is just not cutting it anymore, to serve as an ample minutes threat.

Dahntay Jones, G/F Indiana Pacers - With Danny Granger out for four to six weeks and Mike Dunleavy still shaking off the absence-rust, Jones might just get more scoring opportunities in the meantime. He might serve as a functional source of points with reasonable percentages.

DeMar DeRozan, SG/SF/PF Toronto Raptors – He was labeled as raw from the get go, but the Raptors have opted to keep starting him. He’s put together a string of five games with double-digit scoring. His FT% is pretty sweet; 16 of 17 over his last three games. Keep your eyes peeled to see if his line diversifies.

Luc Mbah a Moute, F Milwaukee Bucks – He’s coming back off an injury, but has quickly been inserted back into the Bucks’ starting five. Watch if he gets some of his groove back. Drop Charlie Bell. Yes, EVEN if you are in a deep league.

Carlos Delfino, G/F Milwaukee Bucks – Speaking of the Bucks, Delfino has shown that he can be a consistent source of treys. His value might be short-lived as Michael Redd may return soon. Keep Delfino on your watch lists though as Redd’s return might be short-lived as well.

James Harden, G Oklahoma City Thunder – He’s probably on many people’s watch lists already as he’s steadily rising up the rankings. He gets plugged in whenever the Thunder need some extra scoring punch. Conversely, the few Thabo Sefolosha owners, myself included in an 18-man league, should keep an eye on Harden’s minutes and see if he’s stealing some of Thabo’s thunder.

Dorrell Wright, G/F Miami Heat - He’s back from injury and even posted a WOTN.

Stay tuned next week, as I chime in with the guys that are pissing me off. Here’s a bonus:

Anthony Parker, G/F Cleveland Cavaliers - He’s been a bad slump as of late. I’m not too impressed with his treys and steals contributions anymore. I do recommend dropping him for, say, Carlos Delfino perhaps.

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Day 42 of 170: All About Iverson

Patrick — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 15:32:16 +0000

Line of the Night: Chauncey Billups (1.38). Wait, isn’t this day supposed to be about the return of Iverson? Well, in a way. Billups and the Nuggets strolled into Philadelphia to face the new-look Sixers. The result was great for Billups, who played a team-high 42 minutes, scoring 31 points with 8 rebounds, 8 assists and 4 threes. He was also 11-11 from the line.

Honorable Mentions: Allen Iverson’s return was also good for Andre Iguodala (0.89), who scored 31 points while hitting 4 threes for the Sixers; considering he was playing against Golden State, Kevin Durant’s (0.74) 28 points on 9-24 shooting seems a little pedestrian, but I guess he did add 9 boards and 3 steals; and good to see that Ronnie Brewer (0.73) is still alive. The Jazz small forward got 43 minutes for the injury-plagued team and produced with a double-double of 17 points and 10 boards.

All About Iverson: The fans lapped it up, but in the end Allen Iverson’s (0.04) return was about what you’d expect from a guy who is still talented but hasn’t played much recently. His shooting touch (4-11 from the floor for 11 points) was off, but he compensated for that with 5 rebounds and 6 assists. Most encouraging for Iverson owners is that he saw 38 minutes on the court in his first game back.

Waiver Wire Line of the Night: 26 points in 30 minutes off the bench for James Harden (0.98), propelled by a 13-14 free throw shooting performance. Kevin Durant chalks up Harden’s good performance to him being more aggressive (and the career-high number of free throws shows that); I think it might have something to do with the fact they were facing the Warriors. Still, Harden’s minutes have been creeping up lately and he makes an interesting guy to keep watch on deeper leagues.

Matt Bonner (0.87) saw 32 minutes on the court compared to starter Antonio McDyess’ 15. And boy did he use that extra time well, scoring a career-high 28 points against the Jazz. Bonner was also 4-7 from three and grabbed 8 rebounds. He’s officially in the let-me-see-it-again-before-I-trust-you camp; and speaking of let me see it again, how about Samuel Dalembert (0.76). A big, fat disappointment so far this season, Dalembert still only scored 8 points, but grabbed 15 rebounds and blocked 6 shots for the Sixers. Maybe he just really, really missed Allen Iverson all those years like everyone else.

The Biggest Loser: Carmelo Anthony (-0.55) was on a mission. He was going to score 14 points against the Sixers no matter what it took. If he had to go 5-21 from the field and ignore the defensive end of the floor, so be it. But that 14 points is the sweet smell of success.

All Eyez on Me:

Phoenix (15-6) at Dallas (14-7) – A couple teams struggling with their offense despite having good records at the moment. Mavs Moneyball looks at the problem from Dallas’ perspective and points the finger at one very deserving player: JJ Barea. The answer might be rookie Rodrigue Beaubois, or considering his 8 seconds on the court on Saturday, maybe the Mavs have to suck it up and wait for Josh Howard to return.

Milwaukee (9-10) at Boston (16-4) – Who would you rather have on your team in a keeper league, Brandon Jennings or Rajon Rondo? CelticsBlog poises that question today (in a non-fantasy related manner, of course).

***

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Day 41 of 170: This space left intentionally blank

Nels — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 15:56:49 +0000

Just looking at the final scores and the basketball monster scores, last night seemed kind of ho-hum. So, let me interject my own personal record for yesterday: I watched 6 movies in 1 day. That broke my previous record of 5 in one day, set back in 1997. I would say it was a Lazy Sunday, but you have to get up pretty early to get in 6 movies. Needless to say, I didn’t watch any basketball yesterday. Perhaps that’s why my fantasy teams are all doing so horribly right now. It’s not like I even need Wolverin’s healing ability to help out with injuries. I just picked players who are not performing like I thought they would. Which is starting to actually be more frustrating than if I just had someone who was sitting on the bench in a suit for a while.

Line of the Night: Dwyane Wade (1.69) scored 34 points in 39 minutes, and also had 10 assists, and 4 blocks.

Honorable Mentions: Chris Douglas-Roberts (0.94) came through with the second-best performance, putting up 26 points, with 2 threes, 2 rebounds, 4 assists, 3 steals, and a block. Nothing too exciting, just one of those all-around performances. Ron Artest (0.91) also did a good job of multi-category contribution with 15 points, 3 threes, 3 rebounds, 5 assists, and 5 steals. He only shot 36% from the field, but… 5 steals. That’ll do it.

Waiver Wire Line of the Night: Do you remember Dorrell Wright (0.76)? He plays for the Heat. He’s gone from 8 minutes on December 1st to 28 minutes last night. And in those 28 minutes, he had 19 points (1 three), 2 rebounds, 5 assists, a steal and a block. His 69% just barely gets him in under Patrick’s 70% rule. And it looks like he’s currently available in EVERY Yahoo league there is. Of course, this was against Sacramento, who somehow have a 9-10 record despite being what I would call one of the weaker teams in the league. Maybe they have lax defense and allow a lot of good fantasy performances…

The Biggest Loser: Me and owners in 78% of leagues were kind of hoping that Spencer Hawes (-0.73) wouldn’t crap his pants to finish off the week (as he is all too capable of doing). We were, of course, let down by his 8 point, 3 rebound performance. Guess I’ll have to wait another couple games to try to ship him out as a attempt to dramatically restructure all of my losing fantasy teams. Which is, well, all of my fantasy teams.

All Eyez On Me: San Antonio and Utah looks to be the best match up tonight “record”-wise. Not sure that I’d actually want to watch that game, though.

The Golden Ticket: Greg Oden-less Portland heads into NY today. Let’s see if Pryzbilla and Brandon Roy can take advantage of lots of possessions to make their fantasy owners happy.

Denver is in Philadelphia. Is that irony or just coincidence? Or neither. Whatever the case, Allen Iverson’s 76ers will take on the only other team he actually played for. Boom, roasted.

Golden State rolls into OKC. Young Guns vs. Fast Team should be good for fantasy owners.

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Day 40 of 170: Who Had 12/5 in the When Does Greg Oden Get Hurt Pool?

Patrick — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 17:05:03 +0000

Line of the Night: Few players are as simultaneously good and bad as Boris Diaw (1.42). Diaw followed up a 4 point, 1-6 shooting night on Friday with a 28 point, 10-12 shooting, 5 three 2 block game against the Sixers yesterday. I’ll need to see him to that at least one more time before I’m ready to call it a positive trend for Diaw.

Honorable Mentions: It’s the academy award speeches of honorable mentions: Vince Carter (1.3) would like to thank the Golden State Warriors for allowing him to really explore the space on his way to 27 points, 5 rebounds, and 7 assists, while going 12-12 from the line; Chris Bosh (1.21) would like to thank the Chicago Bulls big men for sucking so badly on defense that he could score 25 points with 12 boards in only 22 minutes on the court; Dirk Nowitzki (1.09) would like to thank the Dallas Mavericks for letting him get in touch with his musical side, the 32 points, 9 boards and 4 blocks was just business as usual; Gerald Wallace (1.05) would like to thank his body for not betraying him on his way to another 24 and 14 double-double; Marcus Camby (0.99) would like to thank HIS body for not betraying him so he can continue to grab boards (17 yesterday); and Anthony Randolph (0.92) would like to thank the entire Warriors team for getting injured and Mikki Moore for playing like a 34-year old Mikki Moore, so that he’d finally get an opportunity to play and pull down a 28/13/5 in 35 minutes on the court.

Talk About Jumping Right Back In: In only his second game back after missing 7 weeks with a fractured hand, Kevin Love (0.85) notched his second straight double-double with 18 points and 10 boards in a win over the Jazz. Welcome back kid, the Wolves really missed you.

Waiver Wire Line of the Night: Willie Green (0.83). Jrue Holiday is now hurt, so Green played 40 minutes, scoring 26 points with 4 assists while starting at PG for the Sixers. And of course this is the last we’ll hear from Green this season as Iverson is set to join the team Monday. Thanks for the game, don’t let the door hit your ass on the way out.

Ryan Gomes (0.73) had a 23/5/5 in a start against the Jazz. That’s 4 good games in a row for Gomes, who must be feeling the pressure of Love’s return. Eventually Gomes will start to feel the squeeze of Love and will lose his hot shooting hand, so if you do plan to pick him up as a short-term move, the sooner the better.

D’oh: Greg Oden fractured his left knee cap in Saturday’s game against the Rockets and will likely miss the rest of the season with the injury. He was just starting to put in all together on the court too, averaging 11 points and 8.5 rebounds on the year. The Blazers will likely look to trade for a big man to replace Oden (I hear Al Harrington might be expendable), but in the meantime Joel Przybilla (-0.01) and his 3.6 PPG becomes a must add in nearly all leagues. Przybilla had 6 points and 12 boards in 35 minutes yesterday after Oden left the game with his injury.

The Biggest Loser: Besides all the Greg Oden owners? Probably Josh Smith (-0.72). Smith did have 12 points and 6 boards, but wasn’t very efficient in getting there – shooting 4-11 from the floor and 4-10 from the line with 4 turnovers.

Derrick Rose (-0.57) was also pretty awful with 9 points on 3-9 shooting and 5 assists in 28 minutes as Chicago got destroyed by Toronto 110-78.

All Eyez on Me:

Phoenix (15-5) at Los Angeles (15-3) – Kobe and the Lakers are coming off a buzzer-beating win over Miami. How do you put Kobe’s three pointer into words? This is about as close as you can come.

New Jersey (1-18) at New York (5-15) – Not much of a real NBA game, but probably a hell of a fantasy one. Can Chris Duhon repeat his strong 25 point, 10 assist performance? I put my money on unlikely.

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Day 39 of 170: But Did He Call Glass?

Patrick — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 15:33:58 +0000

Line of the Night: In case you were like me and missed the news about Chris Paul’s (1.52) return to the Hornets’ lineup last night because you were at a Christmas party for your wife’s company… well, he’s back. Paul didn’t show any signs of rust, in fact, he came close to a triple-double with 16 points, 15 assists and 8 steals against Jonny Flynn and the Wolves. He also played a game high 38 minutes. Of course, those 8 steals does your team no good when Paul is sitting on your bench. Damn Christmas party….

Nets Win! Next Stop: 64-18: Brook Lopez (0.99) powered the Nets to their first win of the year with 31 points and 14 rebounds against the Bobcats; Courtney Lee (0.97) did his part as well with 27 points, adding 4 steals in 33 minutes for the Nets.

And we can’t forget about Kobe Bryant (0.9), who banked (banked?) a three pointer at the buzzer over Dwyane Wade to give the Lakers a 108-107 win over the Heat. Kobes finished with 33 points, 7 boards and 3 steals.

Waiver Wire Line of the Night: Chris Duhon (1.08) is currently owned in exactly 50% of leagues, which is certainly higher than I was expected given the way he’s been playing recently. But last night was a good one for Duhon, as he dropped 25 points, 10 assists and 4 threes in 36 minutes in a win over the Hawks. With Nate Robinson racking up a second straight DNP in this one and Toney Douglas getting inconsistent minutes, it appears that Duhon’s stock is on the rise. I’m not saying go out and trade for the guy, but if you’re in desperate need of a PG, you could do worse.

If you like your waiver wire guys to be a little more, you know, available then let’s talk about Luke Ridnour (1.03). Ridnour who is only owned in 29% of leagues, brings so much baggage with him at this point in his career, I believe he owns his own moving truck to carry it around. But last night, Ridnour scored 21 points, with 9 assists and 3 threes coming off the bench against the Pistons. Compare him to teammate Brandon Jennings (owned in 92% of leagues) over the past couple of weeks and Ridnour comes out looking pretty similar. When (if?) Michael Redd ever comes back, Ridnour will see a decrease in minutes, but I’m really not biting my fingernails and worrying about Redd’s return at the moment.

The Biggest Loser: Russell Westbrook (-0.54). It was not a failure of epic proportions for Westbrook, it’s just that the Celtics did what they do to opponents and made him shoot badly (6-16 from the floor) and turn the ball over 5 times. He still managed 15 points and 4 assists, so there is a ray of sunlight in this biggest loser today.

All Eyez on Me: Provided you aren’t attending any Christmas parties (or maybe your Christmas parties are cool enough to show NBA games), check out:

Atlanta (13-6) at Dallas (14-6) – A potential bizzaro-world finals preview. And speaking of bizzaro, a very Merry Christmas from the Mavericks (courtesy of Mavs Moneyball). Ah, where did Dirk get that guitar?

Houston (11-8) at Portland (12-8) – While it is slightly ridiculous that the Rockets are 11-8 right now, their performance so far this season can truly be called a team effort. Ariza leads the team in scoring at slightly over 18 points per game, while Brooks, Landry and Scola are each averaging over 14. It’s just the kind of situation that Tracy McGrady is perfectly suited to fuck up.

The Golden Ticket: Orlando (15-4) at Golden State (6-12) – Thanks to all of the Warriors injuries, the 6-6 Corey Maggette played a little center in their last game against the Rockets. That might work against Chuck Hayes, but I’d love to see Maggette guarding Dwight Howard in this game. Anthony Randolph wants to return from his ankle sprain for this one, but check in on the situation before sticking him back in your lineup.

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Predicting Allen Iverson

Patrick — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 18:11:40 +0000

Nels has already touched on the Allen Iverson to Philadelphia move in The Not-Quite-Post Iverson Post. It seems that we generally agree on Iverson’s fantasy value with the Sixers and – at least from the way I read the post – Nels kind of began to talk himself into Iverson a little by the end of it.

And that’s kind of the funny thing about Iverson. I (and I think many others) just want to write him off as an over the hill trouble maker who should just retire so that we never have to hear about him for the rest of our lives. But once I took a good look at his stats, I saw that that they were not quite as bad as I remember. Yes, his numbers have fallen off from their peak, but it is easy to forget how good his peak was. Even as 34-year old malcontent, maybe Iverson does still have enough left in the tank to start for an NBA team. Reader wilsonchow commented on The Not-Quite-Post Iverson Post and gives us the hometown version of that argument:

AI can still play, period.
I’ve always thought he still has it, the whole “does he still have it” talk is really ridiculous…
His 07-08 stats: 26.4 pts, 7.1 ast, 2 stl, FG 45.8%
His career stats: 27 pts, 6.2 ast, 2.2 stl, FG 42.5%

That [07-08] was the last season AI was still a starter and his stats were even better than his career stats with higher ast and FG%. I agree his FG% will drop back to his career %, but he can still provide the same stats. I think at least 20 ppg is easy for him.

Let’s ignore Iverson’s career stats for now. Michael Jordan averaged 30 points a game in his career, but I wouldn’t want to throw him out on the court for yet another unretirement.

But how about the other point? A mere two years ago, Iverson averaged 42 minutes a game for the Nuggets and finished with 26.4 points and 7.1 assists over 82 games. Iverson regressed quite a bit in 08-09 with the Pistons, however, he was obviously not happy with his role on the team. Detroit also tends to be a horrible team for fantasy purposes*. The combination of those two things may have made Iverson look like he was about to fall off a cliff stats wise when he was really just in a bad situation.

So, despite wilsonchow thinking it is a ridiculous question, I still have to ask, does Iverson still have it? And what I really mean by that is what kind of stats should be expected from Iverson in his second go around with the Sixers?

To attempt to answer that question more accurately than my first half-asssed attempt, I took Iverson’s year-by-year stats and adjusted them based on two factors: 1) pace (or the average number of possessions per game his teams had), and 2) the amount of minutes he played per game on average for the year.

I graphed the results out by year taking Iverson’s adjusted stats and calculating them out as if he averaged 35 minutes a game his entire career. Why? Well, that is my rough assumption for what he will average with the Sixers while Lou Williams is out and it allows us to compare Iverson’s yearly stats on a level playing field. Here are his standardized counting stats (minus blocks, which he doesn’t really do).

Alright, you can see a number of cool things from these graphs.

Iverson had a peak (at least in terms of his scoring output) and he’s clearly past it: From 2000-2006, Iverson was able to average a pace-adjusted 25 points per 35 minutes of play. That number dropped to about 20 with the Nuggets and down to 17.5 last season with Detroit.
Iverson’s drop in scoring has to do with him making less threes… I have not done this type of thing with any other player, but Iverson’s scoring output looks to be strongly correlated with the amount of threes he’s making. That would obviously make a lot of sense since making threes is usually a popular way to score. However, to predict his value going forward, you need to know if his big drop in threes last season with the Pistons was a fluky thing, or if he’s taking less threes for good.
The rest of his stats remain strong: Iverson increased his assist rate beginning around 2003. It remained strong even last year. While his rebounding was never great even for a guard, it is still as good as it ever was. And while his steals are down off their peak, he is still averaging a very good 1.5+ per 35 minutes.

So, what can we expect from Iverson with the Sixers? Using a combination of regression and fuzzy math, you get something like this:

	Min	FGP	FTP	3PT	REB	AST	TO	STL	BLK	PTS	Fantasy Rank
Best Case	40	45%	80%	1.0	2.8	6.5	2.7	1.8	0.1	23.0	29
Likely Case	35	43%	79%	0.8	2.6	5.4	2.5	1.5	0.1	18.5	93
Worst Case	28	41%	78%	0.4	2.2	4.0	2.1	1.2	0.1	13.5	180

The best and worst case scenarios represent the reasonable upper and low boundary of Iverson’s potential. If you throw out last year with the Pistons and assume the Iverson is going to play big minutes for the Sixers, then it is easily possible that he averages well over 20 points a game. But on the flip side, if his performance last year was a sign of him getting old fast, then get ready for him to crash and burn. The likely case is that he continues the slow aging trend that began in 2006, but bounces back from an off year with Detroit where he never meshed with the style of the team.

So, I was never expecting to say this, but yes, I think Iverson still has it.

*Detroit had the second lowest pace in the league in 2008-09 at only 86.7 possessions per 48 minute game.

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Day 38 of 170: Vlad is Rad

Nels — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 14:49:06 +0000

Line of the Night: / Waiver Wire Line of the Night: Vladimir Radmanovic (1.17) is not the first WWLotN to also get the overall LotN, but he is the only player in the NBA with a VL in his name. He’s also the only player to get 20 points (4 threes), 8 rebounds, 6 assists, and 3 steals last night. Unfortunately, that performance wasn’t enough to get a W for the W’s. I’d argue that he’s trending upwards, but since he’s only owned in 5% of leagues, you can probably afford to wait another couple games to see if that theory holds.

Honorable Mentions: Carl Landry (1.02) (and the other Rockets) proved that the Warriors are still every bit as much fantasy gold as the team that is almost as far away as you can get in the NBA (that would be the Knicks). Landry had 22 and 9 with 2 steals and 3 blocks. Aaron Brooks (0.97) had 25 points including 5 three-pointers. Shane Battier (0.80) had 10 and 10 with 4 assists and 6 blocks.

The Biggest Loser: Richard Jefferson (-0.43) has turned into the opposite of fantasy dynamite. Last night he was even worse than that, though, shooting 23% to end with 6 points. He added 4 rebounds, 2 assists, and 2 steals. Yee-ha.

All Eyez On Me: A little bit of Miami at Los Angeles Lakers anyone? D-Wade, Kobe, Beasley, Bynum? Could be a 2011 Finals matchup (if the Heat end up with Chris Bosh, of course).

Also, Boston is in Oklahoma City, who is running around with a 10-8 record so far this season. The Kids Are Alright.

The Kids Are Alright – The Who

The Golden Ticket: New York is in Atlanta tonight, so Fly, Hawks, Fly!

Friday’s Tiny Dancer: Here’s Radman’s reward (click to enlarge):

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The Not-Quite-Post Iverson Post

Nels — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 03:13:53 +0000

Photo by Jesse D. Garrabrant/NBAE via Getty Images

Oh dear. Turns out someone wanted him. I’m sure we all know by now, and some of us even expect some sort of analysis from their fantasy experts.

Here’s what Patrick said:

My half-assed prediction? About 30-33 minutes a game while Lou Williams is out – 15 points, 42% shooting percentage, 6.5 – 7 assists, 0.8 threes, and 1.5 steals . That does make him well worth owning in fantasy leagues in the short-term, however, I do think things will get ugly fast when Williams is set to return. Maybe the Sixers continue to start Iverson when Williams gets back, I guess it depends on how he performs over the next few weeks.

Here’s what I say: I was planning on being less generous than Patrick, but then I read what he actually wrote. And here’s what I really say: Allen Iverson should give half (or maybe more) of his paycheck to Louis Williams for getting injured right when he quit the Grizzlies.

Okay, really…

I’m giving Iverson 17 points, but still at 42%, which actually means he’ll hurt you a bit more than what Patrick was thinking. Unfortunately, Patrick ignored the fact that Iverson shoots quite a few free throws at only about 78%. That’s probably enough to get you through, but since Iverson’s other strengths are Points, Assists, and Threes (sort of), he’s definitely a Small Ball type guard. And so, that FT% might come back to haunt you when you’re going against that team in your league with the 81% team percentage, and Iverson brings your 82% down to an 80%…

Of course, he’s probably already been picked up (or perhaps was never dropped) in anything but really shallow leagues, so this advice should probably be more of a “trade him or trade for him” scenario.

Unfortunately for me, I think Iverson will probably be about as good on the 76ers as he’s been his entire career. So, if you want that and realize that you’re basically renting him for 8 weeks (maybe less, maybe more), then go ahead and go for it. He’s got 8 weeks to play whatever fantasy basketball-ishly relevant kind of ball he’s going to play. At least I hope the Sixers plan on letting the Ghost of Sixers Past go his own way once the future of the team is back.

Go Your Own Way – Fleetwood Ma…

In the mean time, Iverson is an almost perfect stand in (somehow) for Baby Lou, so I actually don’t think that the rest of the teams stats will be affected.

(Courtesy of Seal.com)

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Day 37 of 170: Where The Nets Go 0-18

Patrick — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 13:24:29 +0000

Line of the Night: Jason Kidd (1.38). No, we’re not just recycling Day 35 from Tuesday. The ageless Kidd notches his second line of the night in three days with 16 points, 10 assists, 8 rebounds and 5 steals in a win over the officially historically inept 0-18 New Jersey Nets. The Mavs shot 80% from the field in the first half of this game and 59% overall, compared to 44% from the Nets (and that’s a good day of shooting for the Nets). I think at this point the Nets’ roster might as well pull a Ron Artest and start drinking during games.

Honorable Mentions: Kevin Durant (1.27) filled up the box score against the Sixers with a 33 point, 5 rebound, 5 three, 3 steal night; Marcus Camby (1.21) grabbed 19 boards with 5 steals against the Rockets; and Rashard Lewis (1.15) had a 20 and 11 with 5 threes against the Knicks.

Waiver Wire Line of the Night: I think it’s fair to say that most people had given up on Mike Conley (0.94). And rightly so – through the first month of the season Conley was averaging 8 points and 4.8 assists in about 27 minutes a game. But with Iverson officially out of the picture now that he’s signed with Philadelphia, Conley can stop waiting for the rug to be pulled out from under him and focus on playing basketball. In last night’s win over the Wolves, Conley got 33 minutes of burn, scoring 20 points while hitting 4-7 from three. More than 3 assists would have been nice, but we’ll take what we can get from Conley.

Desperate for Free Agents? Mickael Pietrus (0.58) got his 10th consecutive start at SF for the Magic and scored 17 points; and Chase Budinger (0.47) had 19 points and 5 rebounds in 27 minutes off the bench for the Rockets.

Yes, Heeeeeeeeee’s Back: Allen Iverson is returning to the Sixers after signing with the team yesterday. He’s expected to join the team for next Monday’s game against Denver and will start in place of the injured Lou Williams. While I am personally not in love with Iverson’s game, I guess you have to pick him up if he’s available in your league since he’ll be starting (and therefore happy) as long as Williams is out. But when Sweet Lou returns, things could be ugly again.

The Biggest Loser: I thought T.J. Ford (-0.67) might have gotten hurt when I saw this line: 0 points, 0-4 from the floor, 0 rebounds and 1 assist in 20 minutes. Nope, not hurt. Just all bad.

Chris Bosh (-0.62) wasn’t hurt either. Instead, he battled foul trouble early and then sat a lot of the second half as the Hawks ran away with a 146-115 win. Bosh finished with a season low 2 points, adding 5 boards in 16 minutes.

All Eyez on Me: Three games tonight:

Boston (14-4) at San Antonio (9-6) – In the epic battle of which team can be the oldest, the Celtics deftly countered the Spurs’ Antonio McDyess signing this offseason by bringing in Rasheed Wallace. And while the Spurs could argue they are basically getting what they expected out of McDyess, I don’t think there is any argument to be made for Sheed’s 9 points and 4 rebounds a game for Boston. Hopefully you didn’t draft Wallace expecting him to put up a line similar to what he had done with the Pistons.

Miami (10-7) at Denver (13-5) – It was somewhat of a shaky start to the year, but Michael Beasley has come on strong, scoring in double-digits in each of the Heat’s last 7 games. He’s also averaging about 9 rebounds a game over that span.

The Golden Ticket: Houston (10-8) at Golden State (6-11) – The Dream Shake looks at what is wrong with the Rocket’s defense. But what I really want to know is if the Warriors have even heard Don Nelson say the word defense at any point during this season.

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