Pickup: LaMarcus Aldridge
Drop:  Steven Hunter
Hunter hasn’t been all that terrible in his run as a starter, averaging 9.1/7.1/0.9 with 1.5 blocks on 52% shooting. But he’s really not helping you anywhere but blocks and this is the most you can expect from him and that translates into #140 on the 15-day rater. Aldridge is still stuck with just a small piece of the big man pie in Portland, so this is clearly a speculation pick up, waiting for that inevitable Jamaal Magloire trade. Aldridge reached double digits in five of seven games in the middle of January, but was back to irrelevance soon after that. Like many young bigs, he has a huge problem getting into quick foul trouble. And when you play on a team with three other 7-footers, that’s not a good thing. The rookie’s game still has plenty to like, but no doubt you’ll be seeing his name shortly in a future TR.

Pickup: Jorge Garbajosa
Drop:  Ruben Patterson
Garbajosa’s center eligibility is what was behind this pickup. The team that made this transaction is first in the league in both rebounds and blocks, and before picking up Garbajosa his only centers were Alonzo Mourning and Dikembe Mutombo. Not bad, right? Now that Shaq seems to be back he needed another person in the middle, and even though Garbajosa starts at SF, he’s got that eligibility. He seems entrenched in the starting lineup but had an incredibly lackluster January, putting up 6.2/4.1/2.2 on 33% shooting. Just amazingly bad. The 0.9 3s and 1.2 steals make it a bit better, but just a bit. He hit double digits just twice in the month and even with his center eligibility, it’s hard to see him being worth even a bench spot at this point. Patterson appeared to lose his starting job when the Bucks started to get healthy, but he was back in there when they got blown out by Orlando on Wednesday. He might stick there with Earl Boykins continuing to come off the bench, but with Charlie Villanueva and Mo Williams back, his opportunities will be much more limited. Patterson is basically playing to his career averages, it’s the increase in minutes that’s giving him a career high in points, assists and boards. He might put together some nice games and probably won’t hurt you too much if you really need to use him, but winning teams shouldn’t be relying on him at this point.

Pickup: Daniel Gibson
Drop:  Morris Peterson
Gibson has displaced Eric Snow as the starting PG for the Cavs, and in his first two starts he’s put up 15.5/2.0/1.5 with 4 3s in 27 mpg. The second round pick has shown impressive accuracy from outside, connecting on 47% of his 3s so far, and if he keeps starting and launching a half-dozen treys per game then he can be yet another waiver-wire 3-point option. He might be enough of a black hole in the other categories to not be worth the time, though. He’s averaging barely half a steal per 40 minutes, and isn’t going to rack up the assists either. He might be worth taking a chance on while he’s hot if you need help in 3s, but don’t expect any kind of serious breakout. We keep waiting for Peterson to get back into the starting lineup or get traded to a team that will start him, but it keeps not happening. It’s been a dozen games since he topped 30 minutes, and while he can still hit his share of 3s, his lack of PT simply makes him not worth having around.

Pickup: Gerald Green
Drop:  Mickael Pietrus
In the land of retarded stats, the one about the Celtics being 2-20 or whatever when Gerald Green receives 18+ mpg is one of the most retarded. Clearly those losses are because of Green, not because he is playing in place of the Celtics best player, Paul Pierce. Come on now. Green has made 16 starts on the season, seeing 31.5 mpg in those contests, which is a decent sample size. His line of 14.2/3.9/1.6 with 1.9 3s is pretty typical for a waiver wire option, especially when you factor in the 41% shooting. He shot 48% last year in limited action, which made us think he might be a rare high-percentage SG, but that’s not so clear anymore. It’s only his second season and he will continue to get better, but this is probably about as good as it gets for this year. Pietrus is another victim of The Whims of Don Nelson – he starts, he gets hurt, he starts, he comes off the bench, he starts. He’s putting up almost identical numbers as Green, except with an impressive 50% from the field that looks more like a mirage than a new trend. If he were assured 35 mpg he’d certainly be roster-worthy, but he’s not one of the players to trust on Golden State.

Pickup: Brendan Haywood
Drop:  Channing Frye
This is a move I made. Over the years there hasn’t been a single player who we’ve had more of a love/hate relationship with than Brenda(n) Haywood. So when he started playing some great ball lately I just had to grab him. I won’t give you an in-depth scouting report on Haywood, but I’ll say that he’s learning that he’s more likely to score when he goes to the basket, but that his few jumpers have been looking pretty good lately. He’s a really terrific defender and offensive rebounder, even if it does take him about 7 seconds to get a rebound and then throw three head fakes before dunking. I made this move before Antawn Jamison went down, but I’m not so sure his absence will mean bigger things for Haywood. What’s more important is that he continues to hold off Etan Thomas and receive around 30 mpg. Frye at least gave me one solid game when Eddy Curry was out, but he’s simply too low in the pecking order on the Knicks and David Lee is simply a superior player.

Pickup: Bostjan Nachbar
Drop:  Luke Walton
Here’s the problem with guys like Nachbar. He has a good game, you take notice. He has another good game, you officially start watching him. He has his best game yet, you snag him. Then you stick him in your lineup to try to catch the rest of the hot streak and he goes and gets the flu or something. I mentioned in the comments that I’m not a big fan of Nachbar, even with Richard Jefferson out. He’s still not starting, he’s still a career 38% shooter. Next. Walton’s injury makes him very droppable, because honestly he was droppable for most of January. His numbers were down in every category, even his solid percentages fell to 41/73. He’s #140 on the 30 day rater, which isn’t good.

Pickup: Paul Millsap
Drop:  Rasual Butler
BV swooped in on this one within an hour of Carlos Boozer going down, which tells you that even on a Saturday night, BV has easy access to a computer. But he deserves to have Millsap because he has been talking him up for a while, even telling me over the summer he wanted the Wizards to spend a pick on him. The numbers pretty much speak for themselves. Millsap’s averaging just over 16 mpg on the season, so double his numbers and you get 12.8/9.4/1.2 with 1.4 steals and 2.0 blocks on 54.5% from the field. Um, yes please. If you watched the Jazz/Spurs game on ESPN Thursday you saw that even though Millsap didn’t start he was out there the entire fourth quarter and he’s one of those guys who is simply always around the ball. About 40% of his boards come on the offensive glass, which helps him get some easy hoops. The Jazz will obviously miss Boozer a ton as he really opens up the floor by being such an inside presence. But if you’re a Boozer owner who quickly scooper up Millsap, the truth is you might not see too much of a drop off in productivity. It’s still an annoyance that he’s coming off the bench, as he could do some serious damage in 38-40 mpg, but you take what you can get from Jerry Sloan, I suppose.

Pickup: Marcus Williams
Drop: Randy Foye
Swapping rookie backup PGs that are receiving more and more time as the season progresses. Williams has hit double digits in his past five games, averaging 14/3/4.2 with 1.4 3s in just 22.4 mpg. Unless that last number goes up, the other numbers won’t go up and that leaves him as yet another player you can pick up for free who might give you some 3s and not much else. Foye is stuck in the same boat, not starting but seeing significant time. In January he averaged 10.5/3.4/3.1 with 0.9 3s in 26 mpg. What is alarming is that he averaged just 0.3 steals per game in the month, while shooting 39%. Not good numbers. He’s Minnesota’s finisher at PG for the most part, but it seems unlikely he’ll supplant Mike James any time soon, so expect the time share to continue.