NBA Search Market: Week 7

Pure Excitement

Gerald Wallace – Mr. Gerald Wallace has risen to the sixth slot of the NBA Search Market in Week 7, presumably because he missed three games while attending his grandmother's funeral in Sylacauga, Alabama. Well, you need not search for Mr. Gerald Wallace any longer, as his first game back featured a 22 point, nine rebound, three steal effort. Speaking of steals, Wallace is currently eighth in the NBA in steals on a per-game basis. Sometimes I wonder if Wallace's amazing steal ability keeps his shooting percentage artificially high, as his steals lead to lots of easy dunks. The NBA Hotspots site somewhat confirms this hypothesis, as he is 30-of-88 (or 34%) on shots taken from outside the key. I'm not really sure what this means, except that his shooting percentage might go down if he suddenly stops being the steals monster he's always been throughout his career.

Rodney Stuckey – Stuckey is starting! Stuckey is starting! Great news for Stuckey owners, but I think it is also great news for owners of any Detroit Piston, as well as any Detriot Piston fan. The Pistons are searching for their identity right now, and at this point it is unclear how long that process will take. With Joe Dumars involved, you have to feel good about the Pistons' chances of finding their identity sooner rather than later. And once it happens, and once each Piston is clear on what his role is, I think you'll start to see Stuckey turn the ball over less, dish out more assists, and have his field goal percentage increase. And I think you'll start to see the Pistons start to win.

Not every Piston fan agrees. A Piston fan friend of mine went to the recent Pistons-Wizards game, which also happened to be Stuckey's first start. He lamented the fact that the Pistons looked completely lost on the court. His thought was that Chauncey Billups had been responsible for the team's focus and that Rip and Sheed (who both had good games that day, statistically speaking) were in their own worlds without Billups, as they spent most of the game wrapped up in their own one-on-one head games (versus Caron and Blatche, respectively) against an inferior team. He doesn't think the Pistons can be fixed without another trade, and he might be on to something, as Sheed is reportedly on the trading block. Either way, I have faith in all things Dumbledore Dumars, and my sense is that Stuckey will grow to become the "fix" (or part of the fix) that the Pistons need.

Here is Stuckey's NBA Hotspot for the last ten games:It appears he's been pretty successful at getting into the lane and hitting mid-range jumpers. Also, for a guy who's been called Rajon Rondo-lite, he's actually starting to hit some three-pointers.

If you only click on one link in this column, make it this one. On second thought, maybe I shouldn't have put this link under the "excited" section.

Rotoworld's Steve Alexander was calling Stuckey the hottest sleeper in fantasy sports way back on July 24th of this year: "We still haven't seen the shakeup in Detroit that Joe Dumars promised, but there's a long way to go before the season starts. Stuckey is already possibly the hottest 'sleeper' in fantasy hoops, despite not having a starting slot secured. If the shakeup does occur, his stock will climb even higher. Stuckey is a guy I wouldn't be afraid to drop a seventh-round selection on this year, at least as of today." Now that is some excellent foresight. As a recent addition to the Stuckey bandwagon, maybe I'm over-compensating here, but Stuckey should be higher than 104th in the Season Pass top 200 rankings.* He should be, at worst, in that 90th slot right behind Beno. (Or maybe even 84th, as Steve originally predicted with his 7th-round pick suggestion, assuming he meant the 7th round of a 12-team draft.) Perhaps this is only a 14-spot quibble, but the point is that Stuckey's stock is soaring right now, at least in markets of my mind.

*Should Stuckey be ranked higher than 104? Give it a thumbs up or down.

Cautious Optimism

Nate Robinson – Nate is back! After missing seven of his last eight games with a groin injury, Robinson returned to the court and dropped 19 points on Sacramento. Last week I warned about Robinson's field goal percentage. This week I'll try to stay positive. Robinson's coach recently stated that the starting shooting guard spot will be Robinson's for the rest of the season. Which makes sense, as his only real competition, Cuttino Mobley, just retired due to a heart condition. This is great news for owners, as it seems like any player getting serious minutes in the Mike D'Antoni system is a fantasy all star. As an aside, is anyone else surprised, nay, amazed, to see Chris Duhon, he of 7.3 ppg, 4.8 assist career average, suddenly be a 12.1 / 8.6 guy? Duhon is only behind Chris Paul in total assists. Craziness. Anyway. Good luck trying to sell high on any Knick at this point in the season. You can always try, but my guess is that people won't really start to believe in any of the Knazin' Knicks until January, as that is the month when fantasy owners realize 1. Their team isn't as good as they thought it was and they need help and 2. The Knicks will have been producing for two plus months by then, and it is difficult to be a fantasy faker for two plus months. Update: Robinson will come off the bench for the next two games. Until he is a starter for a week or so, I'm going to keep him in this "cautiously optimistic" section.

Watch the Knicks score with ease.

Rotoworld's Ryan Knaus makes a great case for Robinson being a buy low candidate.

Dwight Howard In H2H Format – Howard has been a great head-to-head asset this year. That said, Howard recently came down with the dreaded "sore left knee" syndrome that has been going around the NBA. More alarming, perhaps, is the rumored oblique strain. Hopefully this is just a day-to-day thing (he is likely to miss his game on Monday at this point) and he isn't entering the late Shaquille O'Neal stage of his career already.

Carlos Boozer – I do not think you need to be wary of Boozer. Yet. Let me explain. You see, I have a theory, and it goes something like this: you should be worried about injuries that sound really harmless but keep a player out for a long time. Mike Dunleavy, for example, had "knee soreness," and now he hasn't played in a game yet this season. So it concerns me a little bit when Boozer is missing games because of a "strained" quad. Isn't a strained quad a fifteen-minute injury? It's essentially like bumping your shin: you think you're going to die when it first happens, but fifteen minutes later you're removing a beehive out of the attic at the behest of your spouse.

So the fact that he's missed thirteen games is concerning. They do this in the NFL a lot. A player will leave the game with a "bruised" arm and then you find out a day later a more accurate description is he "ripped his triceps muscle clean off the bone." Anyway, not trying to be needlessly alarmist, here. I still think Boozer will be back soon. But if he isn't back by next week, he's going to drop into the "wary" section below.

Unmitigated Wariness

Corey Maggette – I used to think that I could be a scout for the NBA. I watched tons of college basketball, and at that time I really didn't think it was that difficult to determine if a player was NBA-worthy. This changed after the 1998-1999 season when Corey Maggette was drafted after his freshman year at Duke University. Maggette had played only 17.7 minutes a game for Duke, and while his dunks were spectacular, he often looked lost on the court, especially during the NCAA championship game against UConn. And yet this was the guy that scouts had decided should be the thirteenth pick of the draft, one pick ahead of a starter on his own team, point guard William Avery.

Well, those scouts must know something, as Maggette is in the middle of his tenth productive NBA season, while William Avery is playing for, at last check, AEK Greece.

So, as you probably heard, Maggette is out indefinitely with a small tear in his right hamstring. This seems more likely to be something that will keep Maggette off the court for weeks or months rather than days and his injury is certainly cause for concern if you are his owner. But before we go and get teary-eyed about it, let's wait for a doctor to tell us how long it will take before he can come back.

Maggette's college stats, as well as a scouting report: "Weaknesses: Defense, decision-making, ability to play team ball, and hamstrings."

Even before Maggette was injured, some folks started to get tired of him: "Five games, five Golden State losses and a more than 2:1 turnover-to-assist ratio. Maggette's selfish play hasn't gone unnoticed by other players. According to sources, after the final buzzer against Boston, Celtics forward Kevin Garnett turned to Maggette and shouted, 'Way to get your numbers.'" Then again, anything Garnett screams while on the court should be taken with a grain of salt.

Are the Warriors better without Maggette?

Stephen Jackson – I wonder how many times a week Jackson's first name is incorrectly spelled as "Steven." Stop and think: do you have any friends named "Stephen?" And when you Facebook your friend Stephen, are you sure that you don't slip up and write "Steven" by accident? I don't want to make too big a deal out of this, but at the same time, I don't want to make Stephen Jackson angry. We all know what happens when Jackson gets angry. Jackson, who is trying to play through a few injuries, including a toe and an injury to his non-shooting hand, is the number one most-searched player on Rotoworld this week. So far, playing through his injuries hasn't been working so well as he's shot a terrible 30% in his last six games. Anyone else think he could miss a few games in the upcoming week? Consider yourself warned.

Steven, I mean Stephen Jackson and a friend. Apparently Jackson is a White Sox fan.

Free Darko says that Stephen Jackson sometimes strikes him "as really Jewish."

Active Worry

Dwight Howard In Roto Format – It is statistically impossible to win a roto format fantasy basketball league with Howard's 56% FT percentage dragging you down.* I have no proof of this, but have enough anecdotal evenidence that I feel confortable saying it as if I do have real evidence. Even though I have no evidence. Which I already said. Okay, maybe I'm wrong. But at the very least, I'd be surprised if you were able to win your roto league with Howard in your lineup.

*Is D-Ho nearly impossible to win with in Roto format?

Josh Howard and Kevin Martin – Out indefinitely. Two words no owner wants to hear. I wouldn't put these two players in Dunleavy territory yet when it comes to worry, but you should remain very concerned until you get wind of some sort of timetable for their respective returns. Both are intriguing buy low candidates. In fact, Steve Alexander calls Josh Howard "one of the best buy-low candidates of all time." I'm not quite as high on Howard, but if you can get him on the cheap...

Mike Dunleavy – Ten days ago we were told that Dunleavy was going to test out his knee in 10-14 days. No word on if that happened or if the idea was scrapped. What we do know is that our trusty Rotoworld news blurbs are openly admitting that Dunleavy might be out for the entire year. Yikes.

If you believe that Dunleavy's top five ranking each week for the first six weeks of the season indicated that fantasy owners still had hope in his return, then you should note that Dunleavy fell to ninth in the search market this week. I don't want to read too much into this, but perhaps owners are finally losing hope?

I lived in Durham, NC when Mike was going to college at Duke and I frequently saw him around town. One time I saw Mike at the Macaroni Grille. Another time I saw Mike at the movie theater. And yet, the thing that made the biggest impression on me was this picture of Mike getting kicked in the face by Ira Newble.

NBA Search Market: Week 6

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.

Hope that's difficult to believe in: Dunleavy's local paper says he's getting closer to returning.

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.

Gordon vs. Conley and Oden back in HS.

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.

Marbury and game theory.

Marbury on D'Antoni: "I wouldn't trust him to walk my dog across the street."

Free Darko defends Marbury.

Marbury a good fit in DC?



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.

A rap song about Agent Zero.

You tell us: When should Arenas return?

Interested in studying Gilbert?

Arenas' latest blog entry is about his Obama tattoo.