NBA Search Market: Week 19

Kevin Durant – Have you ever been watching a really good DVD and been interrupted for a few minutes by a phone call from your aunt? Durant’s ankle injury is your aunt. And that DVD will continue to be good after you hit the play button to start it up again. I will admit that the aunt / DVD thing is pretty stupid, but it did give me fond memories of Larry Johnson back in the day.

Here is new, 2009-style version of the NBA Search Timeline:

The NBA Search Market Timeline on Dipity.

Cautious Optimism

Danny Granger – Granger was said to be out from 10-to-21 days. As of now, he’s missed 18 days. Rumor is he’ll be back on Tuesday. I wouldn’t dare start him in weekly leagues until I’d seen him play, but I would allow myself to begin to get teary-eyed when thinking about how much better my fantasy basketball team will be when Granger finally does return.

Caron Butler – Butler is back after missing a few games due to injury. Get him into your lineup as he has a four-game week this week. One more thing: I know most trade deadlines have passed, but if yours hasn’t I’d look to unload Butler. For a guy that was sometimes drafted late first round, early second round, he’s been pretty disappointing (he’s been somewhere around the 40th best fantasy basketball player this year), but perhaps there is an owner out there that will give you good value based on Butler’s cache.

Eric Gordon – Gordon returned after missing four games and scored an eye-opening 35 points. I’m not sold that his injury troubles are over, but his scoring outburst was certainly a good sign.

Zach Randolph – Randolph missed two games to be with his ill father. He retuned to post his usual 20/10 line. Carry on.

Jeff Green and Thabo Sefolsosha – Green, who has missed three games with a back injury, warmed up with the team on Sunday and nearly played. If I owned him in a weekly league, I wouldn’t start him this week, as he only has a three-game week and it isn’t worth the risk. Thabo missed a game with a knee injury, but he returned on Sunday and played 38 minutes. If Green and Durant miss a few more games, Thabo could end up being a great short-term play.


Pure Excitement


Unmitigated Wariness

Luol Deng – Until more news about Deng’s stress fracture is known, you should certainly keep Deng benched. Folks in weekly leagues should not start him. Consider him to be day-to-day with a possibility of being lost for the season. Not a good prognosis, but it could obviously be worse.

*Would you rather have Deng (over Antonio McDyess) the rest of the way? Give it a thumbs up or down.

Active Worry

Drew Gooden – So Gooden is a Spur. Interesting. Or is it? Buser thinks Gooden will only get about 20 minutes per game as a Spur. If true, this would make Gooden very uninteresting. Perhaps I’d be more interested in Gooden if I didn’t have the sense that he was losing a battle with a sports hernia. So I guess the only interesting thing that remains to be said about Gooden is the remarkable consistency with which he’s put up stats throughout his career. He might make his Spur debut sometime later this week.

Josh Howard – This just isn’t Howard’s year. He’s spent the last few days visiting ankle specialists, and if you own him right now, you should start preparing yourself for the possibility that he doesn’t play again this season. On the other hand, he’s currently day-to-day, and perhaps we find out on Monday that he’ll be fine. Let’s hope so.