After Shareef, Brad Miller, and KT, all they have is Brian Skinner and Jamal Sampson. JS hasn’t barely seen the court all year and has been mostly on the inactive list. Skinner, well, just isn’t very good.

In addition to frequent double-doubles and respectable percentages, KT gets a decent number of steals and has averaged over 3 assists/game as a starter. He has been contributing a lot of energy and has an excellent grasp of the offense. Plus, Shareef still can’t eat solid food and likely won’t be full speed again until at least March. I think KT keeps the starting gig through the season.

Next best is probably Drew Gooden, but be cautious because Varejao is about to return and there will be 3 guys to share minutes at the 4-spot (also Donyell Marshall). Marshall is the guy who will likely lose minutes at first, but this smells like a platoon to me. Especially with Alan Henderson also vying for minutes.

After those guys, roll the dice between Jefferson, Granger, and Atkins. But careful - the Pacers only have 11 games in the entire month of February! Atkins has the most experience but is small and soft. A lot of experts are enamored with Jefferson, and with the recent trade I can see him getting good minutes. But Granger has the best opportunity as long as O’Neal is out.

I’m starting to like Granger’s game…alot, but I’m worried about depth. It seems like Pacers have guys like Foster/Croshure/Pollard/Harrison to occupy the 4/5 and they have Peja to occupy SF, Jackson/Jones at SG and Tinsly/Sarunas/Johnson at PG.

Overall, where does Granger get 20, let along 30-35 minutes? It seems like he should be the starter at PF, but I doubt that that will happen anytime soon.

Argh…I guess I’ll wait and see if Nocioni gets more PT in his next game.

Thus right now I have one spot open to grab players off the waivers (two if you count Krstic, but I need someone with PF-C eligibility and Perkins is gone).

Drew Gooden
Al Jefferson
Chucky Atkins
Fred Jones
Danny Granger
Luther Head
Kevin Martin
Kenny Thomas
Jumaine Jones

Obviously slim pickings. Would giving up Nocioni for any of these guys be a smart move. I may not be able to get Gooden off waivers, but the rest of the guys are fair game.

Unfortunately, I didn’t get Raja Bell off waivers three months ago (I took James Jones instead…darn it), and I could use some three pointers.

Granger….if he could get 30 minutes, would be ideal with his combination of rebounds/threes for my team….but I just don’t know if that is going to happen.

Once again, any help is appreciated. Thx.

Over the past few weeks, Woods has quietly emerged as one of the only reliable offensive options on what’s turning out to be a frighteningly bad team. And, as I mentioned in an earlier post, Woods became a Knick at Brown’s behest so the coach figures to be more kindly disposed toward him than he might be to some of the other players.

Of course, we all know that Brown is a flake. But if his mental processess have even the faintest resemblance to what most of us would regard as rational human thought, Qyntel should continue to see 30+ minutes a night from here on out if he keeps up his solid play (after all, the fans in the Garden will need something to cheer for).

If that, in fact, turns out to be the case he would be more valuable than either Granger or Nocioni as Woods is eligible at SG while Granger/Nocioni can only be played at forward. And forwards who can give you 7-8 rebounds/gm are hell of a lot more common than SGs who do.

Nocioni and Granger seem pretty even to me - both very versatile players. This year Nocioni’s averaging
12 pts, 5 rebs, 1.3 3’s, 1.4 asts, 0.4 stls, 0.8 blks, 1.5 TO, 46%FG, 85%FT

With J.Oneil out for the season, I bet Granger will get similar #’s as Nocioni has, but with slightly less 3’s, slightly more rebs, and more steals.

Bulls are definitely frustrating to own, but so can rookies.

So in the end, I like Granger a tiny bit better, and I doubt he’ll be available on your waiver wire for much longer…

Qyntel Woods
Andres Nocioni
Danny Granger

Obviously Woods is a headcase and Brown is rotating lineups like no ones business, but if Qyntel sticks and gets 35 minutes then he could really become a solid player in the second half.

I currently have Nocinoni and I hate the Chicago share-time system…he’s only played five minuts in the first half. Will his value decrease. Right now I like the fact that he gives me decent points/boards and gives me threes. It fact, it’s very similar to Granger…

Granger, before O’Neal went down (and with the arrival of Peja) I figured he would be a non-factor. Now with O’Neal down, are the Pacers interested in playing Granger at PF?

Anyways, he seems to have done himself pretty nice the last few games, getting double-doubles while providing nice percentages and some threes..

The biggest question I have is should I drop Nocioni for Granger at this point, so should I let it play out some more. It is just frustrating when someone like Nocioni, who can put numbers up, is limited by the minutes

I hate to get rid of Murphy, especially with his upshoot in rebounds, but I have a huge hole at center after I heard Okafor is out for 5 weeks, leaving Kaman and Perkins as my big men duo. Also, I like Harrington, although he doesn’t have the value that a guy like Murphy does. And Odom is a perpetual annoyance with his spotty play and turnovers…whatta ya think?