Kevin Durant – Not all players returning from injury are equal. Some, like Granger (see below), will need a few games to play themselves back into a groove. Durant’s return, however, was a completely positive experience: he played 40 minutes, he scored 22 points, but most importantly, he looked healthy out there on the court.
Hedo Turkoglu – Hedo is another player who recently returned from injury. His first night back was also a good sign for his owners, as he played 37 minutes and was left in the game even when the game’s outcome was no longer in doubt. Before missing two games with his foot injury, Hedo was having one of the worst seasons of his career shooting percentage-wise. Hedo, who shot 45.6% last year, is shooting 40.8% this year. He’s showed signs of turning things around in February (he shot 43%, his best month of the season), so hopefully now that he is healthy he can get his shooting percentage back in the mid-forties where it belongs.
Monta Ellis – At the beginning of the season, there was a lot of doom and gloom being spouted regarding the injuries of the following players: Manu Ginobili, Gilbert Arenas, and Monta Ellis. Manu proved useful for a few months in the middle of the season but is currently dealing with a stress fracture. Gilbert proved completely and utterly useless. And Monta Ellis, now three games into his comeback, has been a complete godsend to fantasy owners trying to make a late playoff push. In his last game, Monta played 41 minutes and scored 26 points on 12-of-19 shooting. Gold.
LeBron James – Did it scare the absolute farts out of you when LeBron crashed into Grant Hill and hurt his knee? Me too. But you have no need to worry. LeBron just missed a triple double in his next game.
Here is the NBA Search Market Timeline:
Cautious Optimism
Danny Granger – Granger’s first game back was a little rough: 3-of-11, 10 points, 1-of-7 on his three point attempts. Granger has been out a long time, and so it could easily take him a few games to work himself back into shape. Expect a few choppy outings this week. I own him in a weekly league, and I kept him on my bench this week. Why? Easy. A quasi-healthy Granger can be dangerous to any owner hoping to have a chance to win the field goal percentage category. Granger could easily jack up a shot a minute in his next few games, and I highly doubt he’ll make more than 40% of them. Give him a week. After that, he should be good to go, just in time for the fantasy basketball playoffs, too.
Randy Foye – Foye is one of those players who plays best when he is in a groove. This year, that groove happened in January, when he scored 19.4 points a game on 44.8% shooting. In the eighteen games he’s played since January, he’s scored almost as many points per game, but his average shooting percentage has been below 39%. After missing two games last week with an ankle injury, Foye returned to the court to score nine points in 31 minutes. He should be back in the starting lineup on Tuesday, and while it is likely that he’ll resume scoring just under 20 points a game, I highly doubt he’ll get into any sort of groove that has him shooting 45% from the field.
Manu Ginobili – For those of you in weekly leagues, it is entirely possible that Manu won’t help you make the playoffs, as he will probably miss 1-2 more weeks. If, however, you have already made the playoffs, I am completely confident that Manu will help your team. The Spurs have a solid playoff schedule, and Manu has a knack for coming up big. I’m bullish on Manu. I don’t quite know why, but I trust that he will do everything he can to return and will play well the moment he steps back onto the court. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if Manu were to play in a game later this week.* We’ll see.
Unmitigated Wariness
Andris Biedrins – We’ve seen this before: Andris tweaks his ankle and misses a week. Given the fact that we are entering the final week of the regular fantasy season, Andris’ timing is a little annoying, but if you have a playoff spot locked up you should feel confident that Andris will be able to help your team come playoff time.
Active Worry
Marvin Williams – Marvin is going to missing 4-6 weeks with a back injury, thus making him irrelevant for fantasy purposes for the remainder of the year. We had such high hopes for Marvin at the beginning of the season, didn’t we? He’s still young, and so he could break out at some point, but it is looking increasingly likely that Williams is, at best, a 14/5 player. Again, he’s still young, so he could prove me wrong yet, but I’m certainly not going to go out of my way to target him in drafts for the 2009-2010 season.
Josh Howard – It’s not quite official yet, but it is starting to look like Josh Howard will miss the rest of the regular season. If you are in a tight battle to make the playoffs, you should strongly consider dropping Howard in order to pick up someone off the waiver wire who might help you win now.
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