Boris Diaw – Diaw was my first major mistake of the fantasy NBA season. He was on the waiver wire in my ten-team league, and once there was a whiff of a rumor that he'd be traded, someone else in my league picked him up.* Man, I wish I had him now. Getting a guy free off the wire who is averaging 16.8 points, 7.8 rebounds, 4.2 assists, 0.8 blocks, and 1.4 3PTM is gold. Pure gold. Diaw is a career 50% FG shooter, and a career 70.3% FT shooter, which are great averages for a big man. Or for anyone. He's turning the ball over a lot (3.0 per game) but his turnovers will decline as he becomes more comfortable with his new teammates. It really looks like Diaw will mostly duplicate his 2005-2006 breakout season, only this time he'll score a few more points and hit a few more three pointers. Pure excitement!
Zydrunas Ilgauskas – After missing three games with a sprained ankle, Big Z returned to score 23 points. If you own Big Z, you've got to feel pretty happy about how his season is going. He's shooting over 80% from the line, over 50% from the field, and his scoring is up. But, perhaps more importantly, he's on a juggernaut of a team that will, on most nights score more points then their opponent. Keep an eye on the player who replaced him during his three-game absenence, though. I think you'll start to see Anderson Varejao (Big V?) begin to steal minutes from Big Ben, and if he does that he should be a guy who gets a double double on most nights.
Cautious Optimism
Dwight Howard – Someone needs to break the granny-style free throw barrier, and I'm here to suggest that Howard might be the guy. Consider: the guy who starts shooting his free throws underhand needs to not care what others think of him. Howard is doing dunks in superman capes and putting stickers on backboards. Cool? Sort of. Goofy? Definitely. If you are a Howard owner, just imagine how dominant Howard would be if he were shooting, say, 74% from the line.
As for Howard's health, he'd been a little off since his return from a "sore knee." There are some reports that he could battle knee soreness all year. I'm not convinced. Superman will be just fine. For me, the litmus test is whether or not Howard is blocking shots. If he stops blocking shots, be worried. But he has two blocks in each of his last two games. He'll be just fine.
Ron Artest in daily formats – Artest is playing through torn ligaments in his ankle. Sure, his game-time decision thing is a little annoying, but the bottom line is that if he plays, he produces. He's played in his last three games, so perhaps his ankle isn't bothering him as much any more.
Unmitigated Wariness
Gilbert Arenas – The Wizards have only won four of their twenty four games so far this year. It seems highly unlikely that Arenas will be back anytime soon. I don't own Arenas in any leagues, but I'd certainly be tempted to hold onto him if I did. There is a lot of doom and gloom surrounding Arenas' status these days, but at the end of the day I'd ditch the worst player on my roster for the potential of Arenas' unique combination of strong play and absurdity.
Ron Artest in weekly formats – Until Artest sheds this game-time decision thing, he's going to be completely unusable in weekly leagues. And get this: his ankle will bother him all year. If I owned him in a weekly league, I'd wait for him to string together a few good games and then sell him off to the highest bidder. Why? Even if he looks good now, you just know that he's going to aggravate his ankle again at some point in the season, and if you start him and he re-injures his ankle Monday, you will most certainly lose your weekly game.
Active Worry
Carlos Boozer and Elton Brand – Just two weeks ago, I was aggressively trying to trade for both these guys. Two weeks later, I wouldn't touch either of these guys with a ten-foot pole. Thank goodness all my trade offers were rejected. Brand might be back from his dislocated shoulder in one month, but when he does come back there is a 50/50 chance that he reinjures his shoulder and is out for the year. Boozer's situation is less defined but could also include surgery. Yikes.
Corey Maggette and Kevin Martin – Both are still out indefinitely. Maggette will start traveling with the team, but remember that he does have a hamstring tear, and so he should be out a few more weeks, minimum. Martin is a non-international man of mystery. All we know is that he's been out since November 9th and he feels pain all around his ankle.
Mike Dunleavy – Dunleavy briefly fell out of the Search Market top ten but returned with the news that he's been doing some on-court drills. His coach has also said that he he won't return until January, which optimistic folk might turn into "might" play starting in January. Temper your expectations. It is still unlikely that he takes the court at all this year. But I understand all the searches because if you nab Dunleavy up off the wire at just the right time and he does return, it would give your team a huge boost. At this point, however, I'd rather have nabbed Diaw off the wire.
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