Entries from October 2008

October 30, 2008

First Day of School

Tuesday night’s opening trio of games was like that half-day you always got to start the school year. You’re in school but school hasn’t really started yet. Well last night, NBAU is officially in session with a full tilt of 12 games. Some observations…..
from Toronto @ Philly:

So much for Andrea Bargnani’s fantastic preseason. He was [...]

October 29, 2008

Early Panic and Undeserved Pats on the Back

Doesn’t that pretty much sum up how everyone feels after the first night? You’re either extrapolating the statistics to a) project how the players you picked are out for their worst season ever or b) figure how you managed the greatest draft of all time.
Don’t forget to contiually repeat “It’s only one game” if you [...]

October 28, 2008

Count the Ways: Reasons to Love the 2008-09 Fantasy Basketball Season

The season is finally almost here and while SI did a good job with its own list of NBA storylines, fantasy hoops has its own set of plots that are making hard to wait even one more day for the season to start…..
Andrew Bynum teaming up with Fu-Schnickens
OK, so maybe he’s not exactly like Shaquille [...]

October 27, 2008

Broken Ankles, A Balky Knee and the Matrix

Sunday night came my final draft of the season as I took part in the 14-team draft for the RotoEvil challenge. Trying to boil down the rules for the league as simply as possible, here it is:
There are actually two scoring systems at work: a standard eight-category roto league and a points league based on [...]

October 27, 2008

Give Me the Monster Migraine

I had the honor of participating in a 20-team draft run by the guys at Give Me the Rock on Saturday morning, despite it being the last weekend before my impending nuptials. How’s THAT for dedication?!
True, the future Mrs. was carping on how the draft was inhibiting our ability to get out and do the [...]

October 25, 2008

Did the definition of “definitive” change?

I hate to seem like I’m picking on a guy who basically pioneered a sect of internet sportswriting and has way more readers/success than I’ll ever hope to have (hell, whining about the Yankees would only get me so much exposure, while whining about the Red Sox makes you famous). Anyway, Bill Simmons has a piece [...]

October 24, 2008

Daily Roundup for Thursday, October 23rd

News is terribly slow in these last few days before the season starts, but…..
Amare Stoudemire discolated his left pinky in a preseason game. While I think this may be just a ploy to make me feel better about not getting to draft him in any leagues thusfar, it appears he’s going to be just fine.
Andrew Bogut [...]

October 24, 2008

Another Day, Another Draft

Took part in my longest-running league’s draft tonight. It’s a league of friends and co-workers in about its fifth season or so. It’s always fun drafting in a league full of people you know personally because the level of expertise varies wildly and some of the picks are truly shocking (i.e. Derek Fisher going in [...]

October 22, 2008

Give Me the Draft Do-Over

OK, I’m being a little bit hard on myself. I always have the opposite of Drafterglow, only seeing where my team’s holes are and imagining the worst possible season for each player. Keeps me from getting disappointed I guess.
Anyways, I took part tonight in my first live fantasy draft of the season (with others on [...]

October 21, 2008

Daily Roundup for Monday, October 20th

Word on the street is that Baron Davis will not miss any regular season time with an injured finger. Although the fact that an injury has already crept up on him makes me wary, I’m not going to alter his position in the rankings.
Deron Williams will be out “at least two weeks” with his sprained [...]

October 20, 2008

Hollinger is Breaking Out

Every sports site on Earth posts it’s list of breakout candidates before a season starts, but I hold John Hollinger of ESPN.com in higher esteem that others, especially based on last year’s list. He predicted Mike Dunleavy’s career season and his only real misfires were Darko and Bargnani.
This season, his All-Breakout Team includes Andray Blatche, Amir Johnson, Jordan [...]

October 20, 2008

The NBA, where SCHOENE happens

Kevin Pelton at Basketball Prospectus has introduced an NBA projection system he has named SCHOENE, which stands for “Standardized Comparable Heuristic Optimizing Empirical NBA Evolution”. These are not intended for fantasy purposes, but any in-depth analysis can certainly be used to help you build a strong team.
In addition to detailing the method of generating the projections, you [...]

October 20, 2008

2008-09 Fantasy Basketball Head-to-Head Rankings

The head-to-head rankings differ from the roto rankings in a couple of fundamental ways although they are not tremendously different.
Firstly, players that contribute heavily in only one category are generally ranked higher because team balance is less imperative in head-to-head. It’s more important to kill your opponent in as many individual categories, making one-cat wonders slightly [...]

October 20, 2008

Early report bad for Baron Davis

According to Boston.com, who you think would have other things to worry about what with the Sox losing to the Rays of all teams, a source says ”the Clippers are fearful that newcomer star guard Baron Davis could miss as many as 4-6 weeks due to a sprained ring finger on his left hand that could [...]

October 19, 2008

2008-09 Fantasy Basketball Rotisserie Rankings

After much blood (actually none), sweat (a little) and tears (didn’t cry but felt like it), here are the rotisserie rankings for the upcoming season. These rankings are based on a standard, nine-category (Points, 3-pointers, Rebounds, Assists, Steals, Blocks, FG%, FT%, TOs) league with 14 teams of 13 roster spots each. Anyone not on the [...]

October 19, 2008

Weekend Roundup

Before posting the rankings (possibly later today, screw football) and getting to the final team preview (sorry Agent Zero, you just have to wait), there has been a number of developments to be noted over the past few days.
As everyone has probably heard by now, Jazz star point guard Deron Williams sprained his left ankle in Friday’s [...]

October 18, 2008

Not dead – rankings to be posted soon.

Finalizing the rankings (and planning a wedding that is 16 days away) has made things a little hectic the last few days, but the rankings (both roto and head-to-head) will be up on Monday morning.
Thanks, FBJ

October 15, 2008

Utah Jazz 2008-09 Fantasy Preview

All previews follow the same format. I’ll be going in depth only on the players worth owning in a standard 12-team league, followed by players who you might consider as injury handcuffs/deep sleepers. As always, it starts with the most valuable player on the team:

Deron Williams (PG)
Helps: Points, Assists, FG%, FT%, Steals, 3-pointers
Hurts: TOs
Williams developed [...]

October 15, 2008

Toronto Raptors 2008-09 Fantasy Preview

All previews follow the same format. I’ll be going in depth only on the players worth owning in a standard 12-team league, followed by players who you might consider as injury handcuffs/deep sleepers. As always, it starts with the most valuable player on the team:
Chris Bosh (C)
Helps: Points, Rebounds, Blocks, FG%, FT%
Bosh can be a [...]

October 15, 2008

San Antonio Spurs 2008-09 Fantasy Preview

All previews follow the same format. I’ll be going in depth only on the players worth owning in a standard 12-team league, followed by players who you might consider as injury handcuffs/deep sleepers. As always, it starts with the most valuable player on the team:
 
Tim Duncan (C/PF)
Helps: Points, Rebounds, Blocks, FG%
Hurts: FT%, TOs
Conventional wisdom says [...]