The Lingering Injured
Carlos Boozer, Mike Dunleavy, and Josh Howard – Target Boozer in trades. When healthy, he can sometimes be slightly overrated, as he doesn't block much for a big man. In fact, last year, according to basketballmonster.com, he had negative value for three pointers made, assists, blocks, turnovers, and free throw percentage. Still, his huge positive value for field goal percentage, as well as his solid points and rebound totals more than made up for his negatives. Until his injury, he was putting up similar numbers this season. As far as setting lineups, the Jazz have three games next week and you should count on Boozer to play in zero of them. He's missed ten games so far and right now it looks like he'll be playing again after his 12th or 13th missed game.
Dunleavy has been in the top ten of the search market every single week of this year, which probably means his poor owners are obsessively searching for updates on his status. The latest is that he's going to test out his knee in a few days, but I wouldn't get your hopes up too much. Remember that in mid-November, he "practiced hard" for two straight days and "looked strong." So power to you if you decide to cling to your Dunleavy, as you certainly have more patience than me. As I said last week, I would leave Dunleavy on the wire in my ten-team league if some other owner were to drop him.
Howard has been out since mid-November. That's a long time. And before that he had a recurring wrist injury. And now he is out "indefinitely." You might consider waiting for him to have a few big games if/when he returns and then selling him off to the highest bidder.
The Latest Wounded
Nate Robinson and Elton Brand – Robinson has been having a very good year so far. The injury and re-injury to his groin will certainly slow down his momentum, and you have to think that the Knicks won't throw Robinson back out there until he's completely healed. He missed four games the first time he injured his groin, so I'll speculate that he'll miss double that this time around. One other word of caution on Nate Robinson: He shot 43% from the field as a college player and has never shot better than 43.4% in any season as a pro. His current 46.5% field goal shooting percentage might be a bubble waiting to pop. Still, Robinson is a guy who went to college on a football scholarship and then walked onto the basketball team and ultimately decided to go the basketball route, a decision that took some guts as NFL scouts liked him, but as you can probably guess, the 5'8" Robinson really had to prove himself on the court. So, maybe his ample amount of guts will help him shoot 3% better this year than any other year in his career.
Much like Boozer, I've been trying to trade from Brand. Philly is a bit of a mess, but the one constant has been that Brand is the focal point of the offense. He's currently day-to-day with a strained hamstring, and this makes him a decent bet to play Philly's next game, which isn't until Wednesday. Still, I wouldn't start him in weekly leagues. I tend to be cautious when it comes to injuries because I fear getting a goose egg from a roster spot.
Triumphant Return
Jared Jeffries and Andrei Kirilenko – In his first two games back, Jefferies has been averaging 6.5 points in 19 minutes of play. The best thing I can say about him is that coaches throughout his career have insisted on playing him at all. I'm a little baffled by the interest in Jefferies as he's a guy who did his most "damage" in his 2004-05 season when he averaged 6.8 points and 4.9 rebounds in 26 minutes of playing time. My guess is that some owners are after his rebound potential, as there are usually fewer than 25 guys on the waiver wire who are getting more than even five rebounds a game.
AK47 is one of those guys that some owners look and at shake their heads, as they remember how good he used to be, while others got him for relatively cheap this year and are fairly pleased with his current level of production. He really does a little of everything, but unfortunately the emphasis between "little" and "everything" is more equally weighted than some owners would like. In his first game back from his sprained ankle, he scored seven points, had five boards, six assists, two steals, and two blocks.
Eric Gordon better than Ben Gordon?
Eric Gordon – Status update: Eric Gordon is averaging 13.1 ppg as a starter so far this year. Ben Gordon is averaging 21.2 ppg as a starter. Last week, I guessed that Eric would end up being 80% as good as Ben this year. Eric is currently only 62% as good as Ben (at least when it comes to scoring).
Still, a good 32.5% of you are convinced Eric will be the better Gordon this year. You might be right, but I'm sticking to my 80%-as-good-as-Ben number.
Can We Agree to Forget and Forget?
Stephon Marbury – I said what I had to say about Marbury here. All sorts of rumors are flying around about him right now, but I continue to you advise you not to care, unless you like getting emotionally invested in soap operas. At this point, any value Marbury has is likely to be the backup point guard type.
Gilbert's Wax Statue is In Uniform; Gilbert is Not
Gilbert Arenas – When Gilbert says his knee is currently is the "high 80's" and that "if it were up to him he'd already be playing," you really can't believe him. I'm more inclined to believe his coach who says they don't yet have a plan for his return. Personally, I'm crossing my fingers for February. My birthday is that month, and getting Arenas back to his usual self would be an excellent birthday gift.
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