Pickup: LaMarcus Aldridge
Drop: Keith Bogans
If Aldridge does indeed take over as the starting center in Portland he should be worth owning and using, but as much as I like the rookie’s game, it’s still hard to envision much consistency over the rest of the year. He gets into foul trouble on a regular basis; it’s easy to envision a bunch of games in which he picks up two quick ones and plays about 7 minutes in the first half. Zach Randolph and Brandon Roy are clearly established as the top offensive weapons on the team, so Aldridge will have to work for consistent offense. But he blocks shots and has solid percentages, making him a valuable commodity. In roto leagues it’s pretty common for teams to find themselves needing to make up games at center toward the end of the season. If that’s the case, a guy like Aldridge can be especially useful. Bogans’ first two games as a starter were very poor, but 17/2.5/3 with 3 3s in the last two aren’t bad. But then you put him in the lineup and he’s back to the 6/3/1 guy. Not worth it.

Pickup: Rajon Rondo
Drop: Tim Thomas
The steals are for real. Rondo had the reputation coming out of school and has certainly lived up to it. He has 10 games of three or more steals this season and only 8 games of 30 or more minutes. If he can stick in the starting lineup – he’s averaging 38 mpg as a starter in the last three – he can be a difference maker in that category. Steals is a category that can get bunched up around this time of the season. A player like Rondo can help gain two or three points on his own in the right circumstance. But he’ll need a few weeks to do that, and that depends on Paul Pierce. The way his recovery has been going so far, it wouldn’t be too surprising to see Rondo get that chance. Rondo’s has also lived up to his shooting reputation, which isn’t good news. His 41/63 percentages are lame and he only has 4 3s on the year, which hurts from a PG. He’s certainly a player to continue watching as he gets big minutes, to see what kind of numbers the future may hold. Tim Thomas’s last game shows why he can’t be trusted. Four straight games of at least 17, then a 3-point outing. Bench players are just too unreliable, and their hot streaks don’t always coincide with when you have them in your lineup.

Pickup: Shaun Livingston
Drop: Mickael Pietrus
When Livingston’s shot is falling it just makes him so much more effective. It sounds overly simple, but it’s true. The assists haven’t been there lately – just 10 in his last four games – but he’s re-earning the trust of Mike Dunleavy and his teammates and his playing time is on the upswing, seeing 25-28-30-37 minutes in the last four games. He’s been making up for the lack of assists with handfuls of steals, totaling 16 in the last 6 games. Still, unless he rejoins the starting lineup – ideally at the expense of Sam Cassell – it’s hard to see him having consistent value. This was sort of a make or break year for Pietrus and he certainly didn’t break. But it doesn’t look like he really made anything out of himself either. His combination of 1.3 3pg, 0.7 spg and 0.8 bpg makes you think he should have at least some value, and he does, but those numbers come with about 31 mpg. Can you really see Pietrus getting any more than that this year, or any other year?

Pickup: Rudy Gay
Drop: Andrea Bargnani
An exchange of rookies. May as well go with the one who’s starting, but we all know how it goes with Gay. Just type “gay transaction” into the search box, make yourself a John Amechi joke, and then read what I’ve written in the past on Gay. Because the same holds now. After a stretch of games in which he saw close to 30 mpg, Bargnani seems to be topping out around the 22 mpg mark. That’s a huge difference, the one between making a guy worthy of being on your bench and between being waiver wire fodder.

Pickup: Peja Stojakovic
Drop: LaMarcus Aldrige
Remember how last time I said Aldridge would be appearing in future TRs? Well, he’s here multiple times. As for Stojakovic, I’m skeptical. It doesn’t sound like he really wants to come back this year, there doesn’t seem to be much of a reason for him to come back. Personally, I wouldn’t be wasting a spot on him right now, especially as we move on in the year and those teams at the bottom of the standings stop making as many moves, leaving more quality options out there for the taking.

Pickup: Mickael Pietrus
Drop: Rajon Rondo
It must have seemed like a good idea at the time, I guess. Not so much a day later, I suppose.

Pickup: Matt Barnes
Drop: Charlie Bell
Barnes was back to borderline value the last two games with 11/4/2 with some help in steals, blocks and 3s. And he did launch 7 3s in just 24 minutes the other night. And I suppose if Stephen Jackson gets taken away in shackles he could be in for some good games again. But really, why even bother predicting anymore with the Warriors? I wouldn’t get too excited about Barnes right now, though. Just remember those glorious weeks around the new year. Bell’s had 31 starts this year in which he’s played a very healthy 37.2 mpg. In those games: 13.8/2.9/2.7 with 1.6 3s, 1.2 steals on 42% shooting. Yeah, that’s about right. Just enough to offset the bad shooting, nothing to really fall in love with. It’s possible he keeps his starting job when Michael Redd gets back, but if you need to drop him, he’s droppable.

Pickup: Marcus Banks
Drop: Jason Williams
BV had his preemptive strike on this one back on Wednesday. Williams had a decent little run – and that’s all it was, a decent little run – and has fallen to injury again. If he gets healthy for a stretch run, don’t forget about him.

Pickup: Ike Diogu
Drop: Matt Harpring
That game against the Grizzlies last week was a peek at Diogu’s skill set. He totaled 19 points on just 10 attempts from the field, hitting 6 of those and making all 7 from the line. He also grabbed 9 boards, blocked a shot and – of course – picked up five fouls, all in just 23 minutes. He didn’t get the start when Jermaine O’Neal sat out against the Sonics, and when he saw just about the same amount of PT in that game he hit only 2-of-7 and 5-of-8 for 9 points to go along with 10 boards. People compared Diogu to Elton Brand, at least as a best-case scenario, but to me it looks like Zach Randolph is a better comparison. It’s still hard to tell if he’ll be able to get any blocks, and it’s possible he’ll be a strictly points/boards/percentages guy. But let’s wait until he sees 35 mpg regularly for a long stretch before deciding that for sure. If Jeff Foster and Troy Murphy are healthy, Diogu still might need a bit more than a Jermaine O’Neal injury to have fantasy value.

Pickup: Luke Walton
Drop: Jerry Stackhouse
Walton should be back in another week or two, and he’ll certainly have his starting job waiting for him. Maybe his shot will come back with him. He dropped to 41% in December, and Walton has the kind of little-bit-of-everything game where if one of those little bits becomes a negative, that really hurts him. He could make a solid utility guy again in deep leagues by the end of the month. Stackhouse, bench player, inconsistent, low FG%, yadda yadda.

Drop: Bostjan Nachbar
That’s it. No pickup. Just dropping Nachbar. I loved that.

Add: Smush Parker
Drop: Mike James
This was a move I made. If there’s one thing I believe in, it’s the sunk cost. Not just in fantasy, but in most of life, too. I traded Marvin Williams for James a month or so ago, hoping James could snap out of his season-long funk. But that just isn’t going to happen. Should I hold onto him just because I traded for him? Would it make that trade look bad? Who cares? His future performance and his past inclusion in that trade are two completely separate entities and need to be treated as such. So rather than hold onto James for pride, I dumped him for Parker, who before a couple of off games was doing what made him so sneaky valuable last year. I picked him up in time for his game against the Wizards – knew there were going to be lots of points – and he came through with 20/3/3 with 2 3s and a steal on 8-of-16 shooting. Not eye-popping, but effective. He had a streak of eight consecutive games in double figures broken the next night, but he made up for it with 6 steals, the second time in three games he did that. He’s up to 1.6 spg on the season now after averaging 1.7 per game last year, and that’s where he needs the number to be to have value. His streak might be over and I pulled him out of the lineup for last night’s game, thankfully, but by all measures he has more value than James right now and for the foreseeable future.