Paul…no one knew what he’d do. What he is doing is putting up numbers rivaling LeBron and Wade’s rookie numbers. Six rebounds from a rookie point guard, especially of his stature, is amazing. Add his amazing steals to boot, and I’d say he’s the next Gary Payton type of player.

Diaw…opportunity is all he needed. I saw Diaw’s role in the JJ trade as a simple throw-in, having never really seen him play. Well, now we all know what he is capable of, and at times I’ve wondered which team go the better player out of the trade (well not really…but sort of). Diaw is one of those guys who is a threat to give you near triple-double on any given night along with steals and blocks. Adding in his good percentages and the fact that he can play any position on the floor, and he has been my favorite player this year by far…I should get a Diaw jersey.

Also, I just want to throw out the value of the Suns in Fantasy Ball. Many NBA teams don’t have a player who would be considered as a first-round pick. The Sun (Nash, Amare, Marion) have three legit top-10 type of players. Add this with the value of other players on the team (Bell, Jones, Thomas, Diaw, House) and it seems like whoever plays in the system will get stats, as the action play is just faster. Anyways, it is in stark contrast to a team like the Rockets, where only McGrady, Yao and Alston (maybe Wesley) are considerable for being on a fantasy team.

I’d actually think chris paul is a bigger surprise in the rebounding front. Getting almost 6 boards from a guy barely 6′ and whose job description probably includes hanging near the perimeter to prevent breakaways, in my opinion, is more surprising than getting 12.5 from dwight howard.

Another roster question…

Brian Cook and Kirk Snyder have both looked very impressive over their past five games:
Cook: 18 pts, 1.6 3pt, 5 rbs, 0.4 stls, 0.6 blks, 0.6 TO, 60%FG,100%FT, 29 minutes

Snyder: 18 pts, 1 3pt, 5 asts, 0.8 stl, 0.4 blk, 54%FG, 29 minutes.

The caveats are that C. Mimh missed all of those games for the Lakers, and C.Paul missed 3 of those games for the Hornets.

Any chance that either can put up a solid 2nd half of the season?

The Lakers are dying for a 3rd scorer. Could it be that Cook has begun to break out as that guy?

And Byron Scott seems to love Snyder’s agressiveness, and he has basically replaced all of J.R Smith’s playing time at shooting guard.

I’m in a 12-team league. Who’s more worthy of picking up? I like that Cook is a great 3pt shooter, but doesn’t hurt your FG% (or anything else for that matter)

And Pickup MAGGETTE

Hill has better percentages, but Maggette is a far superior player. First off, he scores more, gets about a three per game, rebounds more and most importantly gets more minutes.

Perhaps the most important factor is that Maggette, when playing is among the leagues best with FT%. Not only does he shoot a very high %, but he gets there a rediculous amount of times per game…meaning that it will dramatically help in FT%.

Hill is way over his prime and his FG% won’t help that much - Maggette is equal or vastly superior in just about every area.

Feel free to drop either of those guys to get him, as Corey will be more valuable than either while healthy.

Also of note, I wouldn’t be suprised to see his FG% go up, as this team is stacked and he should have better shot selection available than in previous years (Mobley/Cassell/VladRad help allow Maggette room to operate in the lane and spread the floor for better outside shots).

Roster move question of the day: Grant Hill and Corey Maggette are both available on the wire in my (fairly shallow) league. Should I pick one or both of them up? Scoring and FG% are probably my weaknesses right now.

I would probably be dropping Jason Williams and/or PJ Brown to do this (JWill has been awful lately and there are several PJ-caliber centers I could pick up later if needed).