Sports Blog

Fresh off of fantasy baseball and right in the middle of fantasy football, the start of the fantasy basketball season could not come at a more hectic time. Yet, here we are in week one of the NBA schedule with a few days of games already under our belts.

An NBA season is a grueling, 82 game marathon. And while most fantasy drafts have already been completed, fantasy basketball, perhaps more so than any other fantasy sport, is all about picking up free agents early in the season. During the early parts of a season head coaches are experimenting with different lineups and figuring out how to best utilize new players. As a result, you will see certain players surprise you with great production and others disappoint you with poor production.

The key to winning in fantasy basketball is determining early on which players off to a hot start are for real and which ones are imposters. Conversely, it is just as important to figure out which players off to slow starts are most likely to turn it around. This week we will take a look at players off to a hot start that should continue to make a positive impact on your fantasy team.

As always, the players recommended here are available in a majority of leagues because you do not need me to tell you that Lebron James is going to have a good fantasy season.

PG Randy Foye, Washington Wizards (Owned in 27.4 percent of ESPN leagues): Foye is technically a combo guard, but he is eligible to start in fantasy at both guard positions. A good sign for Foye is that in the Wizards’ first game of the season — a game in which Foye came off the bench — he logged more minutes (30) than starting shooting guard Mike Miller (22). Although he isn’t quite the three-point threat that Miller is, the fact that he can take over point guard duty for Gilbert Arenas makes me believe that he will continue to log more minutes than Miller this year. Plus, with Arenas’ laundry list of injuries, it is not absurd to assume that Foye will find himself as the starting point guard sometime this season.

SG Stephen Curry, Golden State Warriors (Owned in 64.8 percent of ESPN leagues): Yes, I am well aware of head coach Don Nelson’s propensity for switching lineups more often than he does underwear, but Stephen Curry is too good to keep off of the floor. The rookie has a deadly outside shot and is somehow already more dependable than teammates Monta Ellis and Stephen Jackson, the latter of which is being actively shopped around the league.

SF Shane Battier, Houston Rockets (Owned in 54 percent of ESPN leagues): The fact that Battier is not owned in all but the shallowest of leagues is mind boggling. The Rockets are without their two biggest scoring threats (Yao Ming and Tracy McGrady), playing with a relatively inexperienced point guard (Aaron Brooks), and an offensively irrelevant center (Chuck Hayes). Someone has to put up fantasy points and they won’t all be coming from new teammate Trevor Ariza.

PF Yi Jianlian, New Jersey Nets (Owned in 5.3 percent of ESPN leagues): I’ll admit that he has been a mild disappointment thus far in his career, but let me remind you that he is only 22 years old and still learning the nuances of the NBA. He opened with a very strong game against the Minnesota Timberwolves (17 points, 12 rebounds, 2 blocks), and while it may be unrealistic to expect that level of production all season, I see him as a legit fantasy contributor in 12-team fantasy leagues.

C Marc Gasol, Memphis Grizzlies (Owned in 16.3 percent of ESPN leagues): The center position is arguably the toughest to fill in fantasy basketball, and this is especially true for leagues that require you start two of them. Gasol may not be as good of a scorer as Al Horford or the dominant shot blocker that Dwight Howard is, but he his above average in both and also grabs a lot of rebounds. The Grizzlies also have a lot of players that like to jack up a lot of bad shots early in the shot clock (Rudy Gay, O.J. Mayo, Allen Iverson, Zach Randolph), so if your fantasy league counts offensive rebounds as a category Gasol is even more valuable.

I try and I try, but NBA general managers just don’t seem to listen.

The Detroit Pistons pulled off a move of McHalean proportions Monday, signing Kwame Brown to a contract believed to be for two years and eight million dollars.

I have just one question … what in the heck are you thinking Joe Dumars?

First of all, one of the Ten Commandments in basketball operations is to never give money to anyone drafted by Michael Jordan. Secondly, while Brown came into the league as a number one overall draft pick with no ceiling, he is now a journeyman at best.

When did it become a good idea to give a NBA journeyman who will never be one of the seven best players on a championship team four million dollars a year? I know teams usually pay a premium for big men, but let me run down a list of overpaid centers and forwards that teams are currently wishing they didn’t have on their books (salaries rounded off):

Nazr Mohammed, $6 million; Ben Wallace, $14.5 million; Rasho Nesterovic, $8.4 million; Mark Blount, $8.5 million; and I could go on and on.

When the Lakers traded away Brown, it was one of the greatest moments in the life of a Lakers fan. Brown was an underperforming player who all too often played small in big moments. He was allergic to the rim, had poor hands, and left much to be desired.

At the same time I can’t help but feel sorry for him. After all, it isn’t his fault that he was drafted too high and put in a situation where it was nearly impossible to succeed. It’s not his fault that he wasn’t forced to play at least one year of college ball, which may have shown him that he needed more time to develop or at the very least let scouts know he shouldn’t have been a number one pick.

Still, I can’t help but hate the move. The Lakers tried desperately to move Brown and were lucky enough to land Pau Gasol. The Grizzlies, who gave away Gasol to get him, dropped him faster than you can say salary dump.

The Pistons, well, apparently they believe in charity. The only kudos I will give to Brown; apparently he is smart enough to take it.

Photo Source.

While this NBA off-season has lacked household names like Kobe Bryant and LeBron James, it has more than made up for its shortage of star power with exciting free agent dramatics.

Baron Davis kicked things off by leaving Golden State to play with his buddy Elton Brand in Los Angeles. Unfortunately for Davis, Brand decided to head to the Eastern Conference and pursue his title dreams with the Philadelphia 76ers.

This left the Clippers with quite a bitter taste in their mouth, but also a lot of cap room. They decided to use part of that cap room Wednesday by trading for veteran big man Marcus Camby. So just how much is the reigning NBA shot block king worth?

As it turns out, he’s not worth a whole lot. Denver traded the defensive guru for what basically amounts to a box of Cracker Jacks. For the rights of Camby’s services, the Clippers only had to give the Nuggets the option of switching second round draft picks in 2010. Go ahead and let that sink in for a moment.

The Nuggets were the eighth seed in the Western Conference last season and atrocious on defense, so it doesn’t make a lot of sense to get rid of their best defensive player. It does provide them with some much needed cap relief, but when that comes at the expense of a playoff berth, I’m not sure it’s worth it.

Although the Camby deal is hard to stomach, it’s not even the worst trade involving a Los Angeles team in recent history. Here are three recent trades that made the Camby-for-a-swap-of-draft-picks look like a genius move by the Nuggets.

3) The Lakers trading Shaquille O’Neal to the Heat for Brian Grant, Lamar Odom and Caron Butler. Although the Lakers decision makers wouldn’t say it, this trade was more about Kobe and Shaq feuding than anything else. The Lakers are now back in title contention, but Miami won an NBA championship while Kobe and company watched from the comfort of their own homes.

2) The Memphis Grizzlies trading Pau Gasol for Kwame Brown, Javaris Crittenton and two first-round draft picks. The Lakers received an all-star caliber big man without giving up any of their top-10 players, and the Grizzlies, well, the Grizzlies got nothing. Brown never lived up to potential and Crittenton is destined to be one of the most dynamic players in the Spanish league. The Lakers, on the other hand, are coming off of a trip to the NBA finals and look to make their way there a few more times in the coming years.

1) The biggest coup in LA history has to be the Hornets giving up Kobe Bryant in exchange for Vlade Divac. Divac was a popular player and solid big man, but Bryant has turned into one of the best players in the history of basketball. Divac will be remembered for teaching American basketball players how to flop while Bryant will be remembered for bringing three (and counting) championships to LA.

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There was some media speculation that the top of the NBA draft was facing a possible shake up, but the first three picks ended up playing out pretty much as most people thought they would.

The Chicago Bulls chose hometown hero Derrick Rose number one overall and it’s hard to argue that he is not going to be a star. One thing to consider, however, is that he lands among a Chicago backcourt already overcrowded with the likes of over-paid Larry Hughes, over-hyped Ben Gordon, and over-paid/hyped Kirk Hinrich. Plus Rose’s nickname is Pooh, making him the player most likely to have his name be the butte of a poor joke (or in this case pun).

Michael Beasley put all the speculation of Riley’s man crush on O.J. Mayo to rest when he was drafted second overall by the Heat. One thing he didn’t do is trick David Stern like he said he would. There were issues about his character going into the draft and I wonder if he was advised by his agent/entourage not to go through with the fake-handshake. Childish antics aside, he did set a record for college freshman by racking up an astounding 28 double-doubles last season and is sure to make an impact on the Heat from day one.

Here is when the draft got interesting. In front of a national TV audience and to no one’s surprise, Kevin McHale did something stupid. Despite my earnest pleas, he selected USC guard O.J. Mayo third overall. I can’t say that I was surprised – after all he did give away the beloved Kevin Garnett for 30 cents on the dollar – but at this point we all have to agree to call bad basketball decisions, McHalean decisions.

“Did you hear about that trade?”

“Yeah, it wasn’t just bad. It was a McHalean bad.”

The rumored Supersonics/Clippers trade fell through the cracks, then for some reason Seattle decided to draft Russell Westbrook about a million spots too high. Hyperbole aside (and this is coming from a Bruins fan), Westbrook wasn’t even the undeniable best point guard on his team last year.

UCLA’s Kevin Love went fifth to the Memphis Grizzlies, the place where good young talent goes to squander in irrelevance. The Clippers took sharpshooter Eric Gordon of Indiana seventh overall and I personally can’t wait for him to make his first all-star team as a member of another team.

The Bucks traded for offensive juggernaut Richard Jefferson, pairing him with Michael Redd and creating in theory a killer one-two punch. Then the Bucks made a truly McHalean pair of decisions. They drafted small forward Joe Alexander eighth overall and then proceeded to take small forward Luc Richard Mbah a Moute in the second round. That’s three small forwards in a span of 24 hours … what in the world were they thinking?

Other notables from the first round: Stanford center Brook Lopez dropping to 10, Arizona’s Jerryd Bayless falling to 11, Brook’s brother Robin Lopez rising to 15, and Georgetown big-man Roy Hibbert going 17.

Image Source:  Getty Images

 NCAA Championship Game
San Antonio, Texas 9:21 PM ET

Kansas Jayhawks at Memphis Tigers

This year’s Final Four in my opinion has not disappointed and I can’t wait for tonight’s championship match-up between Kansas and Memphis. Although my bracket had Kansas going up against UCLA, one out of two ain’t bad. Although I did get a bit nervous when North Carolina was mounting up a second half comeback.

I’ll be rootin’ for my fellow Alaskan Mario Chalmers and Kansas tonight at some local watering hole.

Who are you going for?  Let us know and don’t miss this big game, it’ll be on tonight at 9:21 ET.

This week in news and sports blogs around the Net:

• Jason Elam release his new book, “Monday Night Jihad” - Sports by Brooks
• One writer upset doctor didn’t screw up Dick Vitale’s surgery - The Sports Hernia
• The best and worst of the College Bowl Games - Rumors and Rants
• Top Ten Baseball Degenerates - Yankees Chick
• Top 7 players on Mitchell Report whose fame has changed - Joe Sports Fan
• Woman arrested for flashing the jumbotron at a Grizzlies game - Awful Announcing

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And in Smarter Sports we talked about:

• NFL Fantasy Stats of the Week
• “Don’t Stop Believin” Tony Romo
• Michael Jordan Laces them up, Practices with Bobcats
• Curt Schilling tells Roger Clemens to Prove Innocence
• Santa Brings the Pain! Kicks Robber While he’s Down