Does anyone have any insight into the situation in Boston? First off, I noticed Gerald Green only played around 9 minutes tonight…was he injured?

Secondly, and more importantly, I noticed that Delonte West has started the last couple of games played. Does anyone know if this is a trend that is expected to continue? West was a great player last year is is definitely is that Battier/Childress mold of helping a good team out, but he’s struggled for PT this year.

Currently I have Matt Barnes on my roster in the “player of the moment” spot that has opened up due to Krstic going down for the year. Barnes is still playing with value, but I’m not sure how much PT he’ll get as Murphy and Ellis get back and Richardson gets healthy and plays more minutes. Should I cut Barnes and pickup West, who had quite the game tonight (but nothing unusual if you followed him last year).

Thanks.

To answer my own question and give you guys information, it looks like Delonte West is the Celtics starting PG again:

Last night, fans of Delonte West were excited to see Delonte resume his role as the Celtics’ starting point guard. Head Coach Doc Rivers decided to bench Sebastian Telfair “until the end of the season or until something else changes” because of his inconsistencies and lack of defensive skills.

I’m not sure if it was wise or not, but I just dropped Matt Barnes for him. I figure that Troy Murphy will probably work his way into the starting lineup, and if the Warriors get healthy then I only see Barnes getting about 20 minutes a game. Still a three-point specialist that helps out though, and he’ll be on my watch list, but West I think will be pretty decent as it sort of makes up for me dropping Jameer Nelson earlier this year. Hopefully he plays to his value like last year.

J - I think you made the right move. West is a proven commodity when he gets starter’s minutes, while Barnes may have been a flash in the pan. Pietrus is back and playing well, and T-Murph is due back today, so there probably won’t be enough minutes for Barnes to be consistent.

As for Gerald Green, I didn’t hear about any injury, but it looks as though his playing time is taking a hit with Wally and Perkins returning to action. So we should temper expectations a bit after last week’s ridiculous output.

BTW - Chris Paul is now slated to miss 4-6 weeks… his backup Jannero Pargo definitely has value, but is hardly a viable replacement.

I watched the Celts game last night.

Gerald Green wasn’t hurt, but he was clearly not in the flow of the game, so he got taken out early and Wally went in to try to provide some offense. Al Jefferson was getting double teamed everytime he had the ball and he was having some trouble passing out of them (as you can see by his 6 TOs), so Doc Rivers started Wally in the 2nd half instead of Green and started posting up Wally. It doesn’t look like Green will start falling into mediocrety though, he should have a few more good games before Pierce comes back.

Delonte West is a superior decision maker when on the floor compared to Telfair. Delonte’s also a better shooter than Telfair when given the open shot. West should’ve been starting a long time ago.

forgot to add that, when Pierce comes back and Perkins plays a few more games, it’s very likely we’ll see a starting lineup of West, Allen, Pierce, Jefferson, and Perkins on a lot of nights. Jefferson still seems undersized and he has to work extremly hard just to get a shot off against bigger shot blockers, evident by the other night when they played the Clippers, where Al’s 1st 5 shots were blocked by Brand/Kaman. His defense might also be a problem down the road because of his lack of size.

Hey FBBers, help me out of a bind here:

With the news that Paul will be out another 4-6 weeks, I now have all three of my bench spots occupied with long-term injured players, none of whom I can cut.

Here’s my “bench”: Paul, Odom, Josh Smith

…and here’s the rest of my lineup:

PG: D. Williams, Bibby
SG: J. Howard, Iguodala
SF: Garnett, AK47
PF: D. Howard
C: Biedrins, A. Jefferson

As you can see, Paul’s absence leaves me very thin at PG. Suddenly, I’m vulnerable in assists - a category I’ve won every week until now in my H2H league. Losing Paul’s 9 dimes/gm along with Odom’s 5/gm figures to make this a very rough January, indeed.

As many of you already know, I was very close to dropping Bibby a week or so ago due to my frustartion with his poor start. Well, he’s shown some real improvement in his last two games and there’s nobody really better on the wire, so I guess I gotta ride him out as my #2 PG. But his 3 assists last night didn’t exactly fill me with confidence that he’s gonna start dropping dimes like the US mint.

So: Whaddayall think about the possibility of dropping one of my big men - I was thinking Jefferson or Biedrins - for one of the following waiver wire PGs:

Marbury, Livingston, D. West, J. Nelson, Jack

Here’s my thoughts: I currently have a surplus of big men and am still dominant in the offensive reb, total reb, blk and FG% cats (hopefully Bibby doesn’t screw that one up) Jeferson, Biedrins and Dwight Howard are all essentially the same player, making one of them potentially expendable (even more so, when Odom/Smith returns). Of the three, I figure Howard has the most value as he is virtually guaranteed to get his 35+ mins going forward. But are any of the PGs I mentioned worth a Biedrins or a Jefferson? I’m not so sure.

Oh yeah, one other thing: If you’re thinking I should try to make a trade, don’t bother. The league I’m in is the most risk-averse bunch I’ve ever seen. Noboby - and I mean NOBODY - is willing to make deals in this league (only one trade completed all season) I’ve literally sent out about a dozen offers, all of which were either rejected or ignored. So it looks like it’s waiver wire or nothing for me.

I guess that, ultimately, my question is: In times of crisis, is it worth swapping a better player for a lesser one if the lesser one can help you better fill an immediate, gaping need? Or (in this case at least) am I better off just standing pat and taking my lumps until everyone’s healthy again? (I’m currently in third place)

Yeah, I know: Sux to be me, right now. But - if nothing else - I appreciate the opportunity to vent about all this. I feel much better now….

Of the W guards to add, I’d rank them like this:

Marbury
Livingston
West
Jack
Nelson

I like Livingston because he’s 6′7″ with lots of potential. I say wait a few games on West. I fielded him last year and always felt like he had great potential but was just underachieving. I don’t think he’s in the same league as Marbury and Livingston though.

Thanks, Ben.

Still not sure I’m gonna make the move. It’s tough to part with either Biedrins or Big Al. But if I do, I’d probably go with Steph or Shaun.

I just read that Billups is now going to miss 2 weeks with a strained calf. Jeeezuss; at this rate, it’d probably be a wise move to grab Viktor Khryapa - who figures to be the last man standing (hence, fantasy playoffs mvp) by season’s end.

I think Jefferson’s better than Biedrins, and that you could definitely justify dropping Biedrins for one of those PGs. Especially the first three in Ben’s list.

Jameer Nelson has gotten a slight uptick in minutes in his last two games, and his numbers have responded accordingly. He’s been such a disappointment this year — possibly this is what he needs to get back to his mid-round value. Remember he was really good in the second half last year as a starter.

What do you guys think about Marvin Williams? Whenever I watch games, the guy seems to constantly get into foul trouble, and rack up most of his stats during garbage time, which I don’t like. Admittedly, his rare potential for a block/steal/3 is nice, but he seems just as likely to gooseegg across the board.

In a h2h league I’m in, I’m consistently competitive in FT%, 3s, rebounds, assists, steals, blocks. A couple options on the wire for Marvin include his teammates steal-machine Claxton, all-around Childress, also, there is the recently recovered Turkoglu, Nene, Pargo, and Watson. I wouldn’t mind an extra helper in any cat, but I’m having trouble judging whether I should pick any of them up.

Wheh, my patience is being quite pushed, as now it appears Jason Richardson broke his hand. This makes my move to drop Matt Barnes last night, with the premise that the Warriors would get “healthy”, doesn’t seem quite so smart right now. Ah, who knows, maybe he’ll continue to do good and be able to pick him up again. Barnes vs. Delonte West is a really tough call now.

i’m a big fan of marvin williams, yes he gets in foul trouble but he’s also pretty much guaranteed PT as long as he’s healthy. still, short-term i think j-chill has more value.

jeremy, i’d take barnes over west right now especially with richardson out for a few months and pierce only out a few weeks…

bublitchki, i’m gonna talk about need-filling, actually, in my column tomorrow so just hold on a day!