Fantasy basketball update

I'm going to ease back in to blogging this week as things have slowed down at work and I'm getting things tidied up. Sure, its the silly season so there is plenty going on but I'll have a bit more time on my hands and will get back in to the swing of things.

Fantasy basketball has been going pretty well, for most of the last few weeks my team has either led or been top two in our league. I'd pulled off a couple of trades, firstly bringing in Kevin Garnett to improve my field goal percentage and decrease my turnovers but losing Jason Kidd in the deal. With the loss of Kidd's assists and steals I needed another point guard so over-paid a little for Mario Chalmers. Most people in the league were hanging on to their point guards so to get him I gave up Luis Scola and Lamar Odom. Scola was a great source of points and boards but with KG onboard he wasn't as valuable to me as he would be another team. I also wasn't playing Odom since Pau Gasol had returned and he had returned to the Lakers' bench.

All was going smoothly until ... I lost my superstar Danny Granger to injury. Danny had been great fantasy-wise, despite not shooting as strong a clip as he did last season. He was raining triples, scoring plenty and was a top ten ranked player with upside. He had been playing hurt since pre-season so hopefully the 4 weeks on the sideline will get him rested and back to 100%. In the meantime, I just have to hang on and hopefully stay at the top of the leaderboard.

Since my last updated, Tim Duncan and Nene have been my stars. OJ Mayo and LaMarcus Aldridge have lifted their game while Brendan Haywood and Anthony Morrow continue to over-produce. I'm still waiting for Russell Westbrook to find some consistency because he can be good but can be truly awful at times. I'm hoping someone from my bench can elevate their game a little and make the starting rotation ... players such as Ronnie Brewer, Larry Hughes, Mickael Pietrus.

Tim Duncan, my new fantasy team leader

Fantasy basketball update

Firstly, I need to apologise for my lack of blog updates of late, once every couple of days just isn't good enough and I know that. I've been flat out at work for the last two and a half weeks straight so I'm not getting a chance to read other blogs and stories like I used to when we're quiet. Saying that tho, I'm not really complaining as I'm back making good money again so I'm enjoying the busy period while it lasts!

Anyway, we're now almost one month in to the fantasy basketball season and so far my squad is performing quite well. I'm actually sitting in 2nd place in our league so I'm pleased with that but I've used more games than anyone else so I know that is playing a factor in my current ranking.

Danny Granger was my #1 pick and he's lived up to the billing so far. He's currently ranked 5th which is just higher than I drafted him. I think he's still got a bit of improvement to come as his fg% is lower than I would've expected. My second pick Tim Duncan is having his minutes limited by the coaching staff at the Spurs but is still getting it done from a fantasy perspective. He'll sit out occasionally to keep him fresh for the playoffs and to quickly treat any small injuries so he's a sell-high candidate right now.

My worst categories are field goal and free-throw percentage as well as turnovers. I don't have an outstanding free-throw shooter like Ray Allen, Steve Nash or Chauncey Billups and Jason Kidd has been awful from the field so far. My second year players OJ Mayo and Russell Westbrook have been erratic so far but have shown good signs and I expect them to improve as the season goes on.

My nice surprises so far are Anthony Morrow who was my last pick in the draft and is intermittently starting in Golden State. He has his off-games but he's currently ranked 45th which is a great result at this stage. Another over-performer so far is Brendan Haywood who has been really solid in Washington. I picked him up in the 12th round, he's currently ranked 78th and is averaging 11 points, 11 boards and over 2 blocks per game.

Over the next month I need to pull a trade to get better in my weak categories. A Ray Allen or Steve Nash would be a fantastic fit so I'll need to start working the phones and see what I can do.

Danny Granger, my #1 pick and superstar so far

NBA Fantasy Draft recap

After discussions on Friday night, its official ... the NBA Fantasy Draft is the BEST night of the year. Sorry Christmas and birthday, you lose.

As mentioned in my last post, I did some research and thought about my strategy for about 2.5 hours on Thursday night and a bit during the day on Friday. My plan was not to draft the best available player but instead look to build a team. A number of fantasy articles talk about grabbing as many point guards and power forwards as you can and then filling out your line-up with small forwards and shooting guards that can provide you with threes or give you forward or guard type stats (assists, boards, blocks, etc). This would be taken in to consideration when building my team as well.

The night started with me picking up a few of the boys in town where they had been having after-work drinks. Considering it was just before 8 when I picked them up, not surprisingly a couple were well on their way to drunk. We then met up with the others at a Mexican restaurant at Bulimba and enjoyed some beers and dinner before having drinks back here. A few photos from the night are on my Twitter profile.

When the draft positions were announced I was pleased to get the 6th pick having had the last pick last year. With this in mind I hoped someone like Dirk Nowitzki might slip in to my hands but he went in 5th so I instead went for Danny Granger who I owned for most of last season and I think is more dependable than Kevin Durant. Disappointing not to get a top level point guard or bigman with my top pick but Granger does it all so I'm pleased with that pick. Second round I wanted a quality bigman and the best available was Tim Duncan. Sure, he had some injury issues last season and he's getting old but he's consistent and the Spurs are doing their best to manage his health. By round 3 I wanted a quality point guard so it was between Kidd, Baron Davis, Rondo or Rose and I went with Kidd because of his ability to help with steals, boards, triples and assists. His average field goal percentage would be nullified by Granger and Duncan as my first picks.

From there, my later picks were:

• LaMarcus Aldridge
• Nene Hilario
• OJ Mayo
• Russell Westbrook
• Luis Scola
• Nate Robinson
• Lamar Odom
• Mike Dunleavy
• Brendan Haywood
• Anthony Parker
• Anthony Morrow

In review, I'm relying on Mayo and Westbrook to really step up from their rookie years. I hope Nene is at least close to the excellent fantasy season he had last year and Scola to step up even further in the absence of Yao Ming. My weaknesses seem to be fg% and ft% and I could use some more assists and triples. Hopefully my side can stay healthy and we'll see how the opening weeks play out.

Danny Granger, my #1 pick

Fantasy basketball

Its that time of year again and our league's fantasy basketball draft is tomorrow night. Its come around so fast and I've yet to do any work ... no pre-rankings done, no team or player research. Its time to get to work!

There can be a little east coast-west coast rivalry (can you tell I just finished watching Notrious on DVD?) in our league as most of the GM's are in Brisbane but a couple of the players (including the dominant force in the league) reside in Perth.

Last year saw the start of a cash prize for the top 3 teams and I didn't finish in the money. I struggled with injuries, made some bad trades and finished 7th out of 12. This year, its time to get paid.

The draft is the best part of the fantasy season. The plans for tomorrow night are six of us are catching up for Mexican and drinks down at Bulimba and then they're descending upon my place. As we have Perth GM's in the league, our draft is a late kick-off at around midnight our time so there will likely be more drinks here before things get underway.

Note to self: stop drinking before the draft starts so I don't make the same mistake as last year in thinking it ends in round 10 (it actually ends round 14).

Stephen Curry

Coming in to the draft, I'd heard about Stephen Curry. He was described as the "best shooter" in the draft and that's probably when I started to take a bit more interest in him. I've mentioned it before but a good basketball shooting tip is to watch great shooters in action, success leaves clues.

As I don't get to watch college basketball (although with One HD now I will be able to next season) and I tend to follow the NBA from a fantasy basketball perspective, I don't usually take too much interest in rookies until they have proved themselves in the big show. I didn't even realise until last week that Stephen is the son of former NBA great Dell Curry.

As mentioned last week, I was able to watch the NBA draft for the first time and heard the angry NY crowd go nuts as Curry was drafted by the Warriors, who got to pick before the hometown Knicks. I heard Dickey Vitale numerous times throughout the coverage shower praise on Stephen and say that the team's who didn't draft him were crazy and that he would definitely win Rookie of the Year.

So today, with the phone not ringing in the office, I decided to do some more research in to Stephen Curry.

Firstly, here's an excerpt from a great article by the crew at Dime (click on the title to read the full story):

Stephen Curry: Lethal Weapon | Dime Magazine (www.dimemag.com) : Daily NBA News, NBA Trades, NBA Rumors, Basketball Videos, Sneakers

“Nothing about my success here over the last three years has changed me at all, because I live in the moment,” says Curry. “I’m not worried about what’s going to come next. I’m not worried at all. I do everything one step at a time, and I try to be as confident doing so as possible.”

For Stephen to achieve everything he sets his mind to, he needs to believe it completely. And right now, he believes that he can do anything. That mantra is inscribed on the forefront of his sneaker, penned as “I Can do all things…” (Editor’s note: The full quote is “I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.” Philippians 4:13) Tomorrow won’t come across his radar until tomorrow. But when it rolls around, know that he’ll have the same confidence and faith that he has today.

And here's some video footage of him in action:

Scarface ... and the NBA

"In this country, you gotta make the money first. Then when you get the money, you get the power. Then when you get the power, then you get the women." (Tony Montana: Scarface)

One of my friends (Tux) has a theory when it comes to contracts in the NBA and in particular how it relates to fantasy basketball. His theory is that when drafting players you want to pick players who are in contract years. Therefore the reverse also applies ... don't draft players who have just received the big contract.

Tux believes that most players when they reach the NBA are motivated mainly by the money and in landing the big contracts. In contract years they step up their game and play flat-out every night. Once they land the money they aren't as hungry, don't put in the same level of effort and production falls the next year.

Normally, a number of my friends and I laugh off many of Tux's theories but this one is spot-on. So why am I bringing this up now? Well, in this NBA Championship Series there is an example of both sides of the ledger.

Exhibit 1: Lamar Odom
Contract status: About to become a free-agent
He struggled through much of the early part of the season adjusting to his new role of coming off the bench. When Andrew Bynum went down injured, Odom stepped back in to the starting line-up and stepped up his play. Fast forward to the Championship Series and Odom is playing out of his skin.

Exhibit 2: Andrew Bynum
Contract status: Just received a 3 year, $42 million contract extension
Bynum has struggled with injuries but when he was healthy last season he was putting up fantastic numbers. Great clips and averaging a double double. Fast forward to his return from injury this season and throughout these playoffs Bynum is averaging 6 points and just over 3 boards per game. Foul trouble, whinging about court-time and arguing with the coach.

I remember seeing a story about Bynum from the crew at Dime earlier in the year. When I saw this video I just shook my head:



Think I'm making this up? Here's an article from ESPN questioning Lamar's motivation. And here's one about some of the worst contracts in the NBA.

Kids, despite what you see in rap videos ... its not all about the money, the ring is the thing!

End of fantasy basketball season wrap

I haven't posted much about my fantasy basketball season lately and now that we're in to the real-life NBA Playoffs, our season is over. This was the first year that our league has chipped in money to put up some cash prizes and the pay out went to the top 3 (of 12). My team didn't make the money, finishing in 7th place. Congrats to two of my boys, Al and Mitch for their second and third placed finishes.

For most of the season I found myself at the bottom of the league so fighting my way up to 7th wasn't too bad a finish. A bit of luck and a few less injuries and I could've made it to 5th, oh well, there's always next year.

Looking back, I blame my lack of success on two players. My 3rd and 4th picks, Hedo Turkoglu and Carmelo Anthony. I owned Turk last season, he was outstanding and I expected similar if not an even better performance from him this year. I believe he may have had some niggling injuries but he let me down badly with his terrible field goal percentage and high turnovers. He also failed to deliver the point guard type numbers (high assists) that I expected from him. Melo on the other hand was held back by injuries and never really got moving (he played in just 66 games, down from 77 the year before). His field goal percentage, scoring and points were all well down from the previous season. Not good enough when you draft them 36th and 37th respectively.

On the upside, my superstar turned out to be Troy Murphy who I took with the 84th pick and when the season was over he was ranked 8th on averages. Every single stat category of his was up from the year before and when one of your centres can knock down over 2 triples per game that is gravy! Other good picks were Danny Granger at 13 who had a breakout season and Devin Harris at 60 who was excellent for the first few months of the season (struggled down the stretch). My boy Steve Nash got off to a slow start to the season but finished strong, as did Al Horford.

The free-agent pick-ups that did well for me this season were Joakim Noah and Ronnie Brewer. Noah was inconsistent early which saw a number of GM's pick him up and then drop him but he was outstanding for me over the last couple of months. He had a great field goal percentage, rebounded well and blocked a few shots which was exactly what I needed. Brewer was sneaky good, shooting good clips and getting active in the other categories.

The mistakes I made as GM this season were:

• Dropping players too quickly to try and combat the slow start (from Nash, Hedo and Melo). Names such as Rodney Stuckey and the surprisingly solid Steve Blake were early cuts from my squad that went on to shine for others. I also dropped Joel Przybilla when Oden returned but Joel continued to start and produce (for someone else).
• Due to injuries, I fould myself without many shooting guards so after stealing Marc Gasol off someone, I traded him for Quentin Richardson (who stunk it up for me and I quickly dropped him).
• I traded away Danny Granger (when he was at his peak and I thought was going to be rested because of some niggling injuries) for Kevin Garnett who played a few games for me and was then basically shut down for the rest of the year. Unlucky result but I did it thinking Danny was going to struggle and I wanted to improve my rebounding and field goal percentage.

My league is now counting down to the next draft night, probably the highlight of the fantasy basketball season.

Troy Murphy, a great shooter and my steal of the draft

Fantasy basketball update

I mentioned last month that the stand-out pick on my fantasy basketball team was Devin Harris, it seems that the crew at Dime agree with me (see article below).

From a fantasy GM's perspective, its nice to see two of my other guys mentioned in their "most improved" discussions. Danny Granger who is my top-ranked player and a strong performer of late, Troy Murphy.

Steve Nash has picked up his game of late but has also had to sit out a few games in the last week with nagging injuries. Horford is coming on strong and Turkoglu is finding some form as well. I picked up Joel Przybilla off the free-agent list and he's been quietly very good in the minutes he's been getting behind Oden.

The NBA’s Most Improved Player | Dime Magazine (www.dimemag.com) : Daily NBA News, NBA Trades, NBA Rumors, Basketball Videos, Sneakers

Is there anyone in the League even close to challenging Devin Harris for Most Improved? Check out his hit list this season: Just 14 games into this season he’s given Phoenix 47, the Jazz 34, Toronto 30, Atlanta 30 and 33, and Detroit 38 - all in the month of November.

Devin’s 24.8 ppg dwarfs his previous best of 15.4 ppg last season, and he’s still dishing out more than six assists per game and coming up with more than a steal per game. His explosion this season already has the Nets saying he’s untouchable.

The only guy we think you can make a real argument for ahead of Harris is Danny Granger, who is absolutely killing it as well. His 24.7 ppg crushes his career average of 14.4 ppg.

Other candidates: Ronnie Brewer, Paul Millsap, Spencer Hawes, Troy Murphy, Thad Young.

New fantasy basketball pick-up

After my recent fantasy basketball update mentioning I had work to do as the GM, it seems I've picked up a nice free-agent signing. Rookie DJ Augustin has seen some increased court-time due to an injury to star Jason Richardson. DJ wasn't great in his last game but today in his second start on my squad he was excellent! His line for today was: 25 points (8 of 11 from the field), 11 boards, 5 assists, 2 triples and an unfortunate 5 turnovers. Overall, very impressive from the youngster!

Now, I know Jason Richardson is back soon but apparently Larry Brown is high on the DJ so hopefully he continues to get good minutes, even off the bench. Click on the title below to read the full recap from the game.

Augustin, Felton lead Bobcats past 76ers 93-84 - NBA - Yahoo! Sports

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP)— D.J. Augustin scored 25 points and added a career-high 11 assists, backcourt mate Raymond Felton added 23 points, and the Charlotte Bobcats used their new speedy and tiny lineup to beat the Philadelphia 76ers 93-84 on Monday night.

The 6-foot Augustin and the 6-1 Felton had their best game together since coach Larry Brown inserted the rookie Augustin in the starting lineup three games ago. They helped the Bobcats snap a four-game losing streak despite another meek performance from Charlotte’s front line that somehow the 76ers couldn’t take advantage of.

Elton Brand had 18 points, but made only 6 of 13 shots and fouled out with under a minute left. Andre Iguodala added 17 points for the Sixers, who shot 40 percent and had their two-game winning streak snapped.

The Bobcats, who came in as the NBA’s lowest-scoring team at 86.7 points per game, shot 55 percent despite getting little from their frontcourt.

They got plenty from Augustin, the ninth overall pick in the draft.

Two games after he scored 26 points in a loss to Atlanta. Augustin hit 8 of 11 shots and 7 of 9 free throws. His jumper with 2:19 left gave Charlotte an 87-78 lead and Philadelphia couldn’t recover.

Fantasy basketball update

I was checking out my fantasy basketball team's progress this morning and noticed that really only two of my guys are performing up to expectations so far. My number two pick, Danny Granger is ranked 10 on averages so far and I drafted him 13th. The real stand-out so far tho is Devin Harris (pictured below) who I drafted 60th and is currently ranked 13th. Also doing well is Mickael Pietrus who I got with the 132nd pick and is ranked 80th.

My stars like Steve Nash, Carmelo Anthony and Hedo Turkoglu have been very disappointing so far. Nash's scoring and assists are down while Melo and Hedo have been woeful from the field.

I'm currently 9th in my 12 team league ... 2nd in ft% and triples, 4th in assists. I'm last in fg%, rebounds and steals. With some obvious deficiencies, I pulled the trigger on my first trade this week. I picked up Anthony Morrow off the free-agent list and after his two game explosion last week traded him for bigman Marc Gasol. Gasol should help me improve in fg% and boards whilst not costing me much.

With some solid cash on the line for the winner of the league, I have a lot of work to do as the GM.

Quality or quantity?

Sometimes quantity IS quality ...

I just finished listening to the last episode of the OT from John Rillie and DJ Rod (I can't believe Andrew Gaze has never heard of the show) and it reminded me of something I've been meaning to comment on. At the start of the show, the "dodgy accent girl" mentions that JR is the self-proclaimed basketball blogger of the year. Now ... that's quite a statement considering the number of basketball bloggers around the place, but JR definitely has claim to the title. One thing you want from a blog is regular posts, so check out John Rillie's blog and look at the blog archive on the bottom left hand side of the page to see how many posts he gives you a month. October isn't quite over but he's already done 32 posts, September 32, August 30, July 31. Consistent and impressive stuff JR! I have work to do to try and keep up but relatively speaking I've only just started (almost two full months now).

While we're talking about John Rillie, my last post showed how I went in my NBA fantasy basketball draft (don't forget I had to pick last), where's yours JR??

(JR's blogging form is as impressive as his shooting form)

NBA Fantasy Draft

Friday night was the big one, the live draft of our fantasy basketball league. I did my prep in the lead up to it reading a number of ESPN articles, Yahoo stories and some of the Dime posts.

Some of the boys descended upon The Shop early and we grabbed some Thai for dinner. Another couple joined us during dinner and we came back to the office to set up and have a few pre-draft drinks.

30 minutes before the draft begins the order is announced and unfortunately yours truly gets the unlucky last spot. The first spot is the poisoned-chalice, it sounds great because you get to choose the best player but then you have to wait until the end of the second round (in our league that's another 23 picks) before you get another pick. The final spot is tough because you get the 12th and 13th pick which means you miss out on the upper echelon of players (top 4 or 5) and after your first two selections you have to wait until pick number 36 before you're up again.

I had a strategy going in to the draft but found it very tough to get the type of players I was after. I was after point guards and power forwards but my picks just didn't seem to fall in to the right place to get the right value. I openly admit to over-paying for a couple of my squad but I was pleased to get my hands on a couple of players I really wanted.

So here's my squad and the position they were drafted:

12. Steve Nash
(I've never owned Steve, he's my favourite player, I wanted a top-tier point guard and he was basically all that was left. Taken a little too high but I'm ok with that.)
13. Danny Granger
(Also taken too early but has a good upside this season and should be the go-to guy for the Pacers)
36. Hedo Turkoglu
(I drafted Hedo in the 11th round last season and he was outstanding for me. He should be good again this year and will essentially play the point guard role.)
37. Carmelo Anthony
60. Devin Harris
61. Al Horford
(I needed a bigman and took Al a little early but he was solid for me last year and should be even better this season. The other bigmen options were more risky propositions so I'm ok with Horford here.)
84. Troy Murphy
(Murphy finished last season strongly and is tipped to be a bit of a sleeper this season)
85. Luol Deng
108. Nick Collison
109. Steve Blake
(I think the beers kicked in by this stage and for some reason I thought we were close to the last pick and I wanted another point-guard ... yes, WAY too early for Blake.)
132. Mickael Pietrus
(Potential sleeper and I was trying to load up on triples with Nash, Granger, Turk, Murphy, etc)
133. Chris Wilcox
156. Rodney Stuckey
157. Jason Maxiell
(Rodney or Jason should be the sleeper for the aging Pistons this season, if either of them are then they're a steal in the last round.)

I didn't want as many swingmen as I drafted so I need to trade for some dominant power-forward/bigmen. David West is high up on the hot list and the wheels are in motion already ...

(Can my boy Steve Nash lead my squad to the fantasy promised land, not to mention the cash prize that's up for grabs in our league this season?!)

The countdown has begun

With just over 7 days until the NBA season begins there's only one thing more exciting than opening night and that's our fantasy basketball league live draft!

Some friends and I have been competing in a yahoo fantasy league for the last 5 or so years and while the season is fun, the live draft is definitely the highlight! This year its a late draft for us (just days before the season tips off) and I've got most of the Brisbane entrants descending on The Shop (our office) on Friday night. The last couple of years I've done the live draft with my boys Tux and Eto before but with 7 people in the office the draft is going to be nuts! There's money up for grabs this season in our league so its time for me to find form again after a less than stellar couple of seasons.

I was tempted to take up John Rillie's challenge to compete in his league but to do well in fantasy basketball it requires commitment and I really only have the time to play in one league.

The secret to a good draft is preparation and I haven't done any yet ... so there's work to do over the next few nights.