Preview: Week 2
As expected, week one was full of surprises and story lines with some of the League’s young players making serious noise. Denver’s Carmelo Anthony is off to an head start in the battle to secure this season’s scoring title, averaging 35.5 points in his first two games. New York’s Danilo Gallinari is proving why he deserved to be a lottery pick (and sleeper) draining a whopping five treys per in his first two games. Milwaukee’s Brandon Jennings put everyone on notice with his near triple double NBA debut (17 points, 9 rebounds, 9 assists).
With one exciting week down and many more to go, it’s never too soon to start planning for next week.
Week Two Schedules
Four Games: ATL, BOS, DEN, DET, LAL, MEM, MIN, NJN, NOR, NYK, ORL, PHO, SAC, UTA, WAS
Three Games: CHA, CHI, CLE, DAL, GSW, HOU, IND, LAC, MIA, MIL, OKC, PHI, POR, TOR
Two Games: SAS
Cut List
Antonio McDyess — It looks like it is going to take a front court injury to make Dice fantasy relevant this season. Feel free to cut bait on Antonio for a hot hand. Decision that much easier with the Spurs the only team playing two games next week (against Utah and Portland on the road; both teams play much better at home).
Peja Stojakovic — Apparently people drafted Peja this season and are still holding on to him (60 percent owned in Yahoo! leagues). Look for cheap threes elsewhere.
Corey Maggette — Maggette is still owned in the majority of Yahoo! leagues, despite his terrible start. While still providing help in free throw percentage, Corey has been a drag on field goal percentage due to his relentless chucking. In case you need any more convincing, Maggette still plays for fantasy basketball’s most frustrating coach, Don Nelson.
Watch List / Add List
* Note: Percentages in parentheses denote ownership rates in Yahoo! leagues.
Larry Hughes (38%) — While certainly not known for his shot selection (well, actually he is, for all the wrong reasons), Hughes is certainly a scorer. Hughes 2009-10 debut against the Sixers was a nice showing, dropping 18 points on .636/1.00 percent shooting, 1 three, 5 rebounds, 6 assists, 4 steals, 1 block and 4 turnovers. Still not convinced? Hughes is in a contract year this season (see 2004-05 season).
Kelenna Azubuike (37%) — Azubuike has quietly put together the same line that put him in the top-100 last season, giving him a Basketball Monster rank of 65th in per game value and a Ziguana rank of 71st in per game value. Kelenna will get you scoring on good percentages and will have a few big games this season. He also gets you solid defensive production from a guard-eligible player, which is always a plus.
Marreese Speights (30%) — If any of the bigs in Philly have benefited from Eddie Jordan’s much-heralded Princeton offense, it appears to be Speights (BBM: 38th; Ziguana 41st). Averaging a 16.7 points on a scorching .750/.824 percent shooting, 0.0 threes, 7.3 rebounds, 1.0 assists, 0.7 steals, 1.0 blocks and 1.7 turnovers per game. Obviously his field goal percentage will come back to earth but his offensive aggresiveness is paying dividends for owners. Pick him up while he’s hot.
Anthony Parker (30%) — With Delonte West making his triumphant return to the Cavs’ rotation, Parker’s top-100 fantasy value now faces stiffer competition. Definitely a situation to monitor and both players could end up canceling each others’ value out in the long in the dreaded time-share situation.
Ty Lawson (25%) — Think any teams are regretting passing on Lawson yet? If not, they will be. Outside of deep leagues and keeper/dynasty formats, Lawson is another guy to keep on your radar. If veteran point guard Chauncey Billups misses any time, run to the waiver wire and pickup Ty.
Hakim Warrick (24%) –Warrick will most likely carve out a decent amount of minutes in the Bucks’ front court rotation. Whether starting or providing a spark off the bench, Warrick should provide end of the bench fantasy value. Worth a speculative add if you have dead weight on your roster.
Terrence Williams (19%) — Another guy to pickup for speculative purposes is Terrence Williams. Playing for the woeful New Jersey Nets, he is slated to get plenty of burn as the Nets look to maximize their ping-pong balls next summer.
Chris Douglas-Roberts (11%) — Similar to Williams, CDR is also due for some big burn this season and has a chance to muscle his way into the top-100 (currently ranked 115th in per game value according to BBM and 111th according to Ziguana). With Devin Harris out for a few games with a minor injury (surprise, surprise), CDR should get a slight boost of minutes in the short term.
Stay the Course
D.J. Augustin — Augustin’s season has been a bit of a roller coaster already. He (and the Bobcats in general) laid an egg in Boston for their season opener. He followed up with a nice scoring outing against the New York Knicks, which should be taken with a hearty dose of salt. With that being said, it is a little too early to discard D.J. to the trash heap just yet. Give him another week before making any rash decisions.
Chris Andersen — The Birdman has disappointed fantasy managers so far this season. He was drafted as a one category contributer and has provided below average returns on managers; investment (0.5 blocks per game versus 2.5 last season). The blocks will return, as Andersen’s role is to be a game changing defender in the paint for the Nuggets.
Injury Adds
Rafer Alston — As alluded to earlier, Harris is out for an unknown amount of time with a ticky-tack injury. Nothing new here. In his absence, Alston stepped up dropping 20 points on .727/.500 percent shooting, 3 threes, 2 rebounds, 8 assists, 1 steal, o blocks and 4 turnovers against the Wizards on Halloween. Skip to My Lou is a nice short term add for scoring, assists and threes while Harris nurses his wounds.
Buy Low
John Salmons — At this point in the season, there are probably a decent amount of fantasy managers that are nervous with Salmons’ performance. His .172 field goal percentage is probably at the top of their list of worries. However, keep in mind that Salmons is still getting adjusted to being the Man with Ben Gordon now playing in Detroit. It is important to note that the Bulls only two games so far this season have come against Boston and San Antonio, two of the league’s best defensive teams out there. Time to send out lowball offers to Salmons owners before he drops his signature lines.
Sell High
Tim Duncan — It is completely conceivable that Duncan has already had his best game of the season against the Chicago Bulls (28 points on .684/.500 percent shooting, 16 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 steals, 3 blocks and 2 turnovers). The Chicago game should be considered an aberration with his other two performances more likely the norm. As the Spurs clinch a playoff spot, Duncan’s minutes will only decrease and surprise DNP’s will make him harder and harder to move. Sell him now based on his monster second game if you can find a decent deal.
November 1st, 2009 at 4:17 pm
I say hold on to Mags. Can still net you FT, PTS in bunches on any given night. Pretty atypical off the WW. And Harris is out only for a week. I’m diggin’ the Buy Low/Sell High segment, though.
November 1st, 2009 at 4:21 pm
Nvm about Harris. Just read update.
November 2nd, 2009 at 12:54 am
Two more short-term pickups: Andrey Blatche and Ryan Anderson are both on fire at the moment while filling in for Jamison (injured) and Shard (suspended). They both also have 4 games this week.
If they keep producing its always possible they could continue to get significant PT once AJ/RL return. At least that’s what I’m hoping
November 2nd, 2009 at 2:41 am
Absolutely right Andrew. I told plonden to include Andray – guess it’s some kind of bias.
November 2nd, 2009 at 10:01 am
mr. gm: Thanks. We might expand the Buy Low / Sell High going forward.
Regarding Blatche: I am, in fact, biased in this case. Biased against players owned in over 40 percent of Yahoo! leagues. I have included only players that are owned in 40 percent or less of fantasy leagues. Blatche currently stands at 59 percent ownership so in almost all competitive leagues he has already been swooped up.
Regarding Anderson: That is a legit pickup and he stands at only 18 percent ownership. Swoop him up!
November 2nd, 2009 at 11:16 am
I have Rush on both of my roto teams. Should I give him one more game to see if he can produce like he did towards the end of last season? I mean I passed on other guys like Galo and Frye, but then again Dahntay Jones is killing his value…
November 2nd, 2009 at 11:21 am
Nice list Phil. I really do think Buke deserves to be universally owned in standard 12×13 leagues though, not just a watch list candidate. He’s gotten the shaft in terms of minutes so far yet his production hasn’t really slipped. Hard to make any guarantees given Nellie, but I think it’s safe to say that his PT will only increase from here on out.
November 2nd, 2009 at 11:39 am
It looks like NRob is out indefinitely – which means Larry will get extra time at the 2 this week in NY. I doubt Toney Douglas will see much action.
November 2nd, 2009 at 7:29 pm
mr. gm: I’d say that depends a lot on who is on the waiver wire. But I wouldn’t blame you if you ended up cutting Rush for a solid pickup.
Justin: I’ve changed the section title from “Watch List” to “Watch List / Add List”. Going forward, we might make an effort to break the lists apart but I realized upon reviewing that the watch list and add list guys were co-mingled. Thanks for the heads up. And yes, Buke is looking like a solid add going forward and should be more or less universally owned in standard leagues.
November 2nd, 2009 at 7:31 pm
John-o: Scary as it sounds Hughes looks like he might be a decent play this week (it felt wrong just typing that sentence). I am certainly going to be watching his minutes closely tonight.
November 3rd, 2009 at 3:51 am
Yeah, lucky I’m not a Knicks fan (but I have a man-crush on Toney Douglas)… but I can’t believe Hughes is actually playing well. I was hoping that by saying good things about Larry that he’d fail me miserably and Toney would get 25+ minutes. Meh.
I love this quote from the Anti-Larry blog:
You remember the first time you picked up a basketball video game and you had no idea how to run plays, so you just gave the ball to your shooter and you ran around the court aimlessly until a defender was far enough away and then you jacked up a shot? THAT IS LARRY HUGHES!