Give Me The Rock

Believe it or Not, LA Just Got More Interesting: Artest to the Lakers

Patrick — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 13:59:56 +0000

It appears that Ron Artest has agreed to sign a three-year deal with the Lakers

Fantasy Implications: Apparently, Artest when all single white female on Kobe last year, expressing his desire to play with Black Mamba. If the man wanted it that bad, I’d expect Artest to be a good solider in the Kobe army, accepting his role on a stacked Lakers team. Artest was the number 1 option on the Rockets at times last season, while on the Lakers he’ll be – at best – option number 3. His minutes are also likely to see at least a small decline from the 35 he saw last year, especially if the Lakers resign Odom.

Artest’s three point shot has been improving with age (he was 40% from behind the arc this past season) and he could see a lot of open threes in that offense, but the rest of his stats will suffer from a reduced role on a team that has a scary amount of talent.

*****

And with Artest joining LA and Trever Ariza not feeling appreciated by the Lakers (especially after his stellar postseason performance) word is that Ariza will sign with the Rockets to replace Artest.

Fantasy Implications: Some nice ones here. With Tracy McGrady out until at least next February recovering from microfracture surgery and Yao Ming possibly out all of next season, Ariza will not only take Artest’s spot in the Rocket’s lineup, but will be counted on to do some heavy, heavy lifting for the Rockets both on offense and defense.

Of course, we have to lean a lot on Ariza’s postseason performance to project out what he might be able to do next season. For example, Ariza shot 48% from three during the playoffs, but during the regular season it was 32%. It’ll take a huge leap of faith for me to believe Ariza is really now a 48% shooter from 24 feet (or anything close to that). Still, while Ariza won’t be able to replace 100% of Artest did in Houston, he’ll definitely get an increase in playing time and should be put on your super secret sleeper list until further notice.

The Return of Vinsanity?

Nels — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 19:07:34 +0000

Since I have yet to really wrap my head around Richard Jefferson in San Antonio, and I feel that not all the much is going to change in the fantasy world with Shaq in Cleveland (but if you’re interested, Points in the Paint is covering that one with much thoroughness)… I was left with really no choice but to consider the ramifications of Vince Carter in Orlando (and those other guys in New Jersey). Do not by any means take this to mean that somehow Vince has been moved from my Do Not Draft list. No sir.

Orlando

Honestly, this is a great trade for the Magic. They give up basically nothing (I mean, they only traded for Rafer when Jameer got injured last season, so it’s not like he’s irreplaceable), and get a player who, while I’m loathe to admit it, is an All Star caliber player… as opposed to Hedo Turkoglu, who, I am not loathe to admit, I feel has been playing way out of his pay grade the past couple seasons. He’s basically a poor-man’s VC and they’d probably have to pay him like a normal-man’s VC to keep him, so why not just go with the more proven commodity and get the actual VC, right? I mean, Vinsanity has played 79.25 games on average over the last 4 seasons, while Hedo has gone for only 77.5. Now who’s more of an injury risk?

Holy crap. I’m sticking up for Vince Carter. Look there goes a pig! She has the wings!

So, fantasy-wise? I guess not that much is changing for the Magic either, really… Vince will take up Hedo’s position as “Waiter Behind the 3-Point Line and Intermittent Slasher and Crunch Time Shot Taker” and the rest of the team will pretty much not even notice except maybe there’ll be slightly more scoring and a different accent from that guy who’s not Dwight Howard or Rashard Lewis.

I guess this improves that fantasy standing of Mickael Pietrus who ~~might~~ should now get the start at SG with that guy who missed that alley-oop to win the game in the Finals out of the way.

New Jersey

So much potential. Now if only Jay-Z could convince LeBron to come to NJ in 2010.

Devin Harris and Courtney Lee is a pretty good backcourt to build on. Lee should see a big bump in fantasy value since the Nets are loaded up with a bunch of half-decent to mediocre players at the SG/SF position.

I’m hesitant to say much else since the Nets probably aren’t done dealing (I’m sure their fans hope they’re not). But so far, they’re saying that Yi Jianlian will be the starting PF, meaning he should be fantasy-relevant if for no other reason than he’ll be getting more minutes than their other big men.

Another thing to keep an eye on for the Nets is who steps into Vince Carter’s SF position. Sure, they re-signed Jarvis Hayes, but like I said, half-decent to mediocre. Could it be that rookie Terrence Williams will step up and join Lee, Harris, Jianlian, and Brook Lopez to form one of the youngest starting fives pretty much ever? Harris would be the old man on the block at 26.

Like I said, Potential with a capital P. But can they capitalize? (Oh, I kill me)

I’m sure that much more will be revealed in the coming weeks/months and we’ll figure it all out in the upcoming draft guide. Oh, yes, there will be a draft guide. And this year, I guarantee that it will not contain the magnitude of suckitude that last year’s attempt did. This year, we’re pulling an Orlando Magic/Cleveland Cavaliers move and bringing in some veteran players to make a run at the Draft Guide 2009 title. Of course, it’ll probably have Draft Guide 2009 in the name, so really, that’s the title right there. Done. Count it.

Give Me The Rock Fantasy Basketball Starts NOW!

Nels — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 14:28:24 +0000

I mean, if you want…

Tired of boring fantasy basketball and want a Real NBA challenge? If so play the Real NBA with PASPNs Mock GM Game

Fantasy players take over for an NBA team as of NBA Draft lottery 2009 and make trades, sign free agents, and then, based on your fictional offseason moves, compete in an 18-week real NBA-like head-to-head season. (8 division games, 4 non-division conference games, 6 out of conference games, 9 home games, 9 away games) This is as close to the NBA as it gets.

If you don’t want to be a GM, fantasy players have the option to create a sports agency, sign clients and negotiate bigger salaries for their clients.

The game is very Shakespearean in that it is a game within a game about a game. Mock GM mixes fantasy basketball playing with the realities of the business of basketball. The game is definitely not for the casual fantasy fan, but for fantasy players looking for something a little bit more challenging.

Instructions:

1. Register at http://paspn.net/default.asp?p=16&action=31
2. Then join the league: http://paspn.net/default.asp?p=90&gmaction=34&leagueid=5834&seasonid=53
3. Once the league officially begins, picking teams occurs on this page: http://paspn.net/default.asp?p=90&gmaction=4&leagueid=5834&seasonid=53

For more information visit http://paspn.net/default.asp?p=90&leagueid=5834

What Are People Talking About?

Is this the start of the real off-season?

Nels — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 04:53:08 +0000

Or do Shaq, RJ, and Vinsanity pretty much top anything else that’s going to happen this summer? Perhaps that question needs an actual poll…

So, as the period of Free Agency dawns like a black cloud across the country, here’s the news… and it sure doesn’t seem as exciting as The Trades…

Reputable news from CBS Sports.

nbaroundtable has been working hard the past few days (and perhaps longer than that – sorry guys, I haven’t been reading – and as I look at the links page, I fear that the GMTR blogroll just needs to be bombed into the stone age, y’know, like back to 1994 or so. I was looking forward to reading “NBA Without Cable” but that blog has been deleted – which actually makes me feel a little less morose about the state of our blogroll).

Lars Hanson at the BleacherReport has some Free Agent PFs. Although, he does say that Shawn Marion might sign with the Bulls, to which I respond, “Then why did they just draft 2 PFs?” (Granted, after being out of the country for more than 2 weeks, I really have no room to argue with anyone about anthing NBA related right now)

Who knew there was a clothing brand called Free Agent? I’ll sign with them! (Yes, I am going to nominate that for the Worst Pun of 2009 Award. Especially because I don’t even think it’s a pun.)

Fantasy Hall of Fame Vote: Class of 2008

Patrick — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 13:14:11 +0000

Thanks to some good advice, we are switching up the format of the fantasy HOF vote to more closely match that of the real HOF. For comparison purposes, it makes more sense to vote on a single class all at once (and makes my life easier as well). No worries though, the two individual votes that I’ve already posted will remain up and running, so if you still feel like voting for Webber or Abdur-Rahim, you can do so on their respective pages.

Vote yay or nay on Chris Webber
Vote yay or nay on Shareef Abdur-Rahim

Now, presenting the remainder of the class of 2008 (and what a sad, sad class it is).* It’ll get better, trust me, but if you feel like any of these guys listed below deserve to be inducted into the Fantasy Hall of Fame, get your vote on. You can always vote for none of the above if you feel like none of these guys are HOF worthy.

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

The Vitals

If you are curious, I’ve included a short rundown of each player with their career and peak stats, as well as their career and peak fantasy-related value.

Derek Anderson
Seasons: 11
Career Stats: 12 pts, 3.2 rebs, 3.4 ast, 1.1 stl, 0.1 blks
Peak Stats (Best 3 years): 15.3 pts, 4.0 rebs, 3.9 ast, 1.4 stl, 0.2 blks, 1.2 threes
Career Fantasy Value: 24.8 VOFRP (average of 2.3 per season)
Peak Fantasy Value: 5.1 VOFRP per season
Peak Fantasy Rank (Season): 44 (1999), 52 (2000), 55 (2002)

I actually liked owning Derek Anderson back in the day when he was on the Blazers. He did a little bit of everything and was sneakily decent in my opinion, which of course doesn’t add up to anything close to the HOF.

Penny Hardaway
Seasons: 14
Career Stats: 15.2 pts, 4.5 rebs, 5.0 ast, 1.6 stl, 0.4 blks, 0.7 threes
Peak Stats (Best 3 years): 19.5 pts, 4.7 rebs, 7.0 ast, 2.0 stl, 0.5 blks, 0.9 threes
Career Fantasy Value: 55.5 VOFRP (average of 3.4 per season)
Peak Fantasy Value: 8.4 VOFRP per season
Peak Fantasy Rank (Season): 5 (1995), 12 (1994), 19 (1996)

At his peak, Hardaway was a very good fantasy player (although he is not quite as spectacular as Little Penny would have me remember). He was consistently a 2nd round fantasy pick until he was forced to have microfracture surgery on his left knee at the age of 30. That basically was the end of his effectiveness both as an actual player and a fantasy player.

Robert Horry
Seasons: 16
Career Stats: 7.0 pts, 4.8 rebs, 2.1 ast, 1.0 stl, 0.9 blks, 0.7 threes
Peak Stats (Best 3 years): 9.4 pts, 5.0 rebs, 2.8 ast, 1.4 stl, 1.0 blks, 0.9 threes
Career Fantasy Value: 32.7 VOFRP (average of 2.0 per season)
Peak Fantasy Value: 4.9 VOFRP per season
Peak Fantasy Ranks: 31 (1994), 47 (1995), 59 (1997)

+1 for a 16 year career. Minus infinity for being a top 100 fantasy player in exactly 5 of those seasons.

Damon Stoudamire
Seasons: 13
Career Stats: 13.4 pts, 3.5 rebs, 6.1 ast, 1.1 stl, 0.1 blks, 1.4 threes
Career Fantasy Value: 44.4 VOFRP (average of 3.4 per season)
Peak Stats (Best 3 years): 18.9 pts, 4.1 reb, 8.7 ast, 1.5 stl, 0.2 blk, 1.8 threes
Peak Fantasy Value: 6.5 VOFRP per season
Peak Fantasy Ranks: 25 (1995), 32 (1997), 33 (1996)

It’s easy to forget this now, but Stoudamire busted out immediately after becoming the first ever draft pick by the Raptors, winning the rookie of the year award in 1996. His peak three seasons were his first three in the league, where he averaged that 18.9 point 8.7 assist line above. It looked like Stoudamire was in for a perennial all-star caliber career, but then he got traded to those famous Jail Blazers, ended up going to rehab for a few marijuana incidents, got benched for almost an entire season, then got kicked to the curb by the Blazers and slowly petered out of the league over the last few years.

Eric Snow
Seasons: 13
Career Stats: 6.8 pts, 2.5 reb, 5.0 ast, 1.2 stl, 0.1 blk, 0.1 threes
Career Fantasy Value: 13.0 VOFRP (average of 1.0 per season)
Peak Stats (Best 3 years): 10 pts, 3.4 reb, 6.9 ast, 1.8 stl, 0.1 blk, 0.1 threes
Peak Fantasy Value: 4.3 VOFRP per season
Peak Fantasy Ranks: 51 (2002), 80 (1998), 86 (1999)

Remember that year Eric Snow decided to score 13 points a game for some strange reason? That has to be one of the flukier fantasy years in recent memory.

Jason Williams
Seasons: 10
Career Stats: 11.4 pts, 2.4 reb, 6.3 ast, 1.3 stl, 0.1 blk, 1.7 threes
Career Fantasy Value: 32.2 VOFRP (average of 3.2 per season)
Peak Stats (Best 3 years): 12.5 pts, 2.6 reb, 7.7 ast, 1.4 stl, 0.1 blk, 1.8 threes
Peak Fantasy Value: 4.5 VOFRP per season
Peak Fantasy Ranks: 54 (2002), 56 (2003), 58 (2001)

One of the interesting things about this HOF vote is being able to take a close look at the stats for guys whose actual performance diverts wildly from the image in your head. For some reason, I remember Williams as the white chocolate assist-machine with a strong fantasy game. In reality, he was a decent but never great number 1 fantasy PG for maybe 3 out of his 10 seasons and was constantly hurt and missing games with injuries.

*If you’ve felt we’ve missed someone, leave a comment or send an email letting us know. Sam Cassell will be in the class of 2009, since he was finally waived after being traded to the Kings this past season. Antoine Walker could have been counted in this class since he didn’t play in 08-09, but he has yet to “officially” called it a career.

What Are People Talking About?

Turns Out They Don’t Make 7’6’’ People for a Reason: Yao Ming Could Miss 2009-10 Season

Patrick — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 19:13:51 +0000

: Image by Getty Images via Daylife

Timing, as they say, is everything. Going into the start of the 2008-09 season, we here at GMTR were pretty damn low on Yao Ming. He was a 7’6’’ monster with a history of foot problems: the man had averaged a mere 53 games a season over the previous three seasons. He had fractured his foot in February 2008 and missed the rest of the regular season and all of the playoffs. Then, only a few months after going through surgery, he declared himself fit enough to play in the Olympics for China.

I’m not sure how you could look at those facts and think Ming was in for anything other than another injury riddled year. Naturally, I stayed away from Yao this past fantasy season like he was the swine flu (and recommended that every else do as well) – then watched in dismay as he racked up an all-star caliber year while playing in 77 games. It absolutely made no sense.

But now Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports is reporting that it’s likely Yao could miss the entire 2009-10 season after re-fracturing the same bone in his foot as he broke last year. It appears that Ming did indeed come back from his surgery too quickly last summer, not allowing his foot to heal properly. Not surprisingly, the Rockets are being quiet about the subject for now.

We of course wish Ming the best and hope he can come back healthy (and anyone who’s played in a 2 center league has to agree with that). But it looks like the man’s feet may no longer be able to withstand the punishment of playing 82 games a year in the NBA.

Carnival Of The NBA #65

Patrick — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 12:36:14 +0000

Carnival of the NBA #65 is up over at Full Court Pest. In addition to some sweet NBA links (the Sports Agent Blog is infinitely more fascinating than the words “Sports Agent Blog” would have you believe) see the Pest expose the Bill Simmons as a Twitter plagiarist.

What Are People Talking About?

An NBA Draft Recap: Links Style

Patrick — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 20:39:24 +0000

I almost feel like a heretic for saying this, but I’m actually not a big fan of the NBA draft. At least the television watching part of it where guys I don’t really know get drafted at a glacial once-every-fifteen minutes pace for 4 hours so that I can catch a funny looking outfit or a bad draft pick in between 500,000 words from Stuart Scott. Believe it or not, my life is better than that.*

But while the spectacle of the draft is one of the most overrated things in the NBA, the reaction and analysis of the draft is important… well, kinda. This article by Jeff Andriesse of RotoExperts.com looked at the first round picks during the last decade who averaged 30 or more minutes per game during their rookie seasons. He found that just 29 rookies over the past 10 years averaged 30+ minutes a game (an average of less than three a year for the mathematically challenged). And if the experts are correct about the quality of this draft class, then we are probably looking at the under on the number of rookies who will significantly contribute to their team in 2009-10.

But in the spirit of at least one rookie in 09-10 being worth our fantasy time, what did some other, smarter, people have to say about the draft

Matt Buser did a live draft chat over at his new site, busersports.com. Man, that is the one draft related event I would have liked to been at if only to bombard him with questions like, “so, when this draft thing all gets sorted out, I think you and me should get an apartment together” and “did you get those panties I sent you in the mail?” Oh boy, I like Buser a little too much.

Bust a Bucket (home to the world’s greatest header) had another live draft chat with some of the basketball blogosphere’s best and brightest: A Stern Warning, With malice, T-Wolves Blog, BlueBlitz.Net, Hoop Heads North, and 2nd Round Reach.

Barley’s Mouth finishes off the live chat threesome with their own sick and twisted recap of the draft and follows it up with an ode to Michael Jackson and draft recap all in one. Like Michael, the recap is incredibly entertaining, but I wouldn’t leave your children alone in the house with it.

Speaking of Brendan at 2RR, he already has some preliminary day after draft reaction up including some smart words on the Nets. Although I’m not so sure about the Yi Jianlian part.

I’m not sure if Evil E sleeps or is even human, but he already has updated depth charts for every team in the league based on yesterday’s draft.

If you’re like me and don’t like to actually watch the draft, but still want to be able to speak coherently about it or drop some nuggets at your cocktail parties this weekend, then Empty the Bench has a great recap of the draft complete with honorary awards.

And while it’s still too early to grade the fantasy implications of the draft picks, it’s never too soon to grade the suits.

* Actually, my life is not better than that. Instead, I watched 4 hours of Michael Jackson music videos.

Introducing Barkley’s Mouth

Patrick — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 13:39:08 +0000

There is a new kid on the block and this one is loud, brash and has the balls the size of Sam Cassell. Oh, did I mention he’s wickedly funny too? Our friend Dennis Velasco has assembled a crack staff of writers for a new blog aptly titled Barkey’s Mouth. If there is any site that could encapsulate the essence of Charles Barkey’s mouth, this is the one.

We’ll let the site speak for itself:

Barkley’s Mouth is all about the NBA as we speak on what’s going down in the Association today, giving mad props to old school hoopdom, and slinging yang on what should be happening down the line. Our style is down and dirty, honest, and entertaining, just like Charles Barkley himself. Thanks for peeping what we throw down!

If you’re looking to waste a couple hours of your life while you’re at say, school or work, then check it out. I guarantee you’ll laugh your ass off… or at the very least have your sensibilities insulted.

Turns Out They Don’t Make 7’6’’ People for a Reason: Yao Ming Could Miss 2009-10 Season (0)

Fantasy Hall of Fame Vote: Shareef Abdur-Rahim

Patrick — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 00:00:21 +0000

The Vitals

Years Played: 12
Career Stat Line (pts/reb/ast/stl/blk/fg%/ft%) : 18.1 / 7.5 / 2.5 / 1.0 / 0.7 / 47% / 81%
Career Value Over Fantasy Replacement Player (VOFRP): 60.3
Career VOFRP (Game Adjusted): 58.1
Highest Fantasy Rank in a Season: 11th (1998-99).
Highest Fantasy Rank in a Season (on the All-Time list): 533

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

(my comments below in case you want to vote first)

The Bias

Abdur-Rahim has to be the poster child for good players who are stuck on bad teams. After being drafted by the Grizzles in 1996, he moved on to the Hawks in 2001, followed by the Blazers and finally the Kings (where he made the playoffs for the first time in his career… in 2006).

With post moves and a solid jumper, Abdur-Rahim came fully loaded with very good all-around offensive game. HoopsHype called him a “fake master” – but he could also do a little of this back in the day. In addition, Abdur-Rahim was money in the bank when it came to percentages, he finished his career shooting 47% from the floor and 81% from the line. It was too bad his defense was never quite up to the same standards.

Like our first HOF nominee, Chris Webber, Abdur-Rahim’s knees told him it was time to quit playing the game. Somewhat unlike Webber (in my opinion anyway), his career doesn’t scream HOF. He was very good for a long time, but even in his best year in 1998-99, he was not a top-10 fantasy player. His best season puts him at 533 on the all-time list, which is about 450 spots below Chris Webber’s peak. His game adjusted VOFRP is a very good 58.1, but it came from a sustained 10 year stretch of being a solid 2nd-4th round pick rather than any kind of fantasy dominance.

With Webber’s fantasy hall of fame induction looking unlikely, Shareef Abdur-Rahim’s chances of making the fantasy HOF seem about as good as his chances of making the real thing.

Give Me The Rock

Believe it or Not, LA Just Got More Interesting: Artest to the Lakers

Related Posts:

The Return of Vinsanity?

Related Posts:

Give Me The Rock Fantasy Basketball Starts NOW!

What Are People Talking About?

Is this the start of the real off-season?

Related Posts:

Fantasy Hall of Fame Vote: Class of 2008

What Are People Talking About?

Turns Out They Don’t Make 7’6’’ People for a Reason: Yao Ming Could Miss 2009-10 Season

Related Posts:

Carnival Of The NBA #65

What Are People Talking About?

An NBA Draft Recap: Links Style

Related Posts:

Introducing Barkley’s Mouth

Related Posts:

Fantasy Hall of Fame Vote: Shareef Abdur-Rahim

What Are People Talking About?