Sorry for the delayed post this week folks. NBA All-Stars may have been chillin’ in Vegas, but I was tied up most of the weekend.
Here’s a quick look at week 2/19-2/25:
Four Games: Atlanta, Boston, Charlotte, Chicago, Detroit, Milwaukee, Minnesota, New York, Orlando, Phoenix, Sacramento, Washington.
Three Games: Cleveland, Denver, Golden State, Houston, Indiana, LA Lakers, Memphis, Miami, New Jersey, New Orleans, Philadelphia, Portland, San Antonio, Seattle, Toronto, Utah.
Two Games: Dallas, LA Clippers.
Plug ‘em in, Plug ‘em in:
Rudy Gay, GF: The rookie swingman has put together his best 5-game stretch of the season going into the break. Gay is averaging 19/6/1 with 2 threes, 0.8 steals, and 1.8 blocks over that span. With the Grizzlies’ season in the toilet (at 14-40), we can expect the former Husky to remain in the starting lineup going forward.
Randy Foye, G: There’s some serious potential for a huge second half from Foye in Minnesota. It appears that the T-Wolves have given up on Mike James as their starting PG. The rookie out of Nova makes for an excellent pickup or even a trade target before your league’s deadline. It doesn’t look like Foye’s recent brush with the law will have any detrimental effect on the court. Get him in your lineups for four very sweet matchups this week (@WAS, CHA, PHO, WAS).
Darko Milicic, FC: While generally considered a major bust as the second overall pick in the 2003 draft, Darko has really been limited due to his lack of opportunity over the years. Granted, you could argue that he wasn’t given the opportunity because he just wasn’t any good… but I don’t think that’s the whole story. Now that he’s starting and getting 35+ minutes per game, Darko should really surge in the second half of the season. Tony Battie is out with a broken thumb and will be lucky to ever start another game in the NBA. Battie is another one of those feeble “big men†in the Lorenzen Wright or Jason Collins mold who just doesn’t do much of anything. Darko should be more of a threat on both ends of the floor especially in the blocks department where he should swat 3+ per game going forward. He’s a great play with four games coming up.
Jason Kapono, GF: Probably one of the most outrageous statistical feats so far this season is Kapono’s 56% shooting from long range (89 of 159). I think it’s about time we start giving the former Bruin some credit… He has now started 24 consecutive games for the defending champion Miami Heat, in which he’s posting 15/4/2 with 2.4 treys on 55/91% shooting. J-Kap has held off the likes of Antoine Walker and James Posey to remain in Miami’s starting lineup and took another step to toward validating his status as a big league sharpshooter by outshining the likes of Nowitzki and Arenas at the 3-point competition over the weekend. While it will be nearly impossible to maintain his 56% three-point shooting, Kapono can be expected to deliver a solid second half. Plug him in for three tilts this week.
Who are your picks for a breakout or strong second half this season? Knight? Livingston? Aldridge? Blatche?
12 Responses to “Head-to-Head’s Up: 2/19-2/25”
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February 19th, 2007 at 12:06 pm
I’m gonna go with Jason Richardon. J-Rich’s been a forgotten man this fantasy season and little do people know, the 05-06 J-Rich has EXACTLY the same FG/FT/PTS/3PTM/REB as a 06-07 Tracy McGrady, with the exception J-Rich actually gets MORE 3PTM and LESS TOs. That speaks a lot about what a healthy J-Rich can do, and I expect a *better* 2nd half from him than 37%FG/13PTS
February 19th, 2007 at 12:14 pm
Thanks for all the posts. I picked up Rudy Gay last week and will not hopefully sit back and enjoy the ride. Besides Rudy, I’d predict that Nene will come on strong in the second half, though it’ll be interesting to see what happens in Denver when Iverson and Camby get back.
I’m #2 in an inactive 10 team league, largely through working the waiver, where I’m either 1st or 2nd in every cat except for fg%, ft%, and tos (all near the bottom). I’m not sure if I have enough to get over the top guy so I’m looking to improve by trying to trade Billups and Ben Wallace for Wade (whose owner is at the bottom of the league and needs help in every cat). My roster is:
Billups
Pierce
Kevin Martin
Mo Williams
Delonte West
Lebron James
Jermaine O’Neal
Dalembert
Nene
Collison
Rudy Gay
Ben Wallace
Al Jefferson
I’m tops in boards, steals and blocks. The other guy is tops in assist, fg% and points. And with Kidd, Nash and Deron Wililams, he’s leading in assists by a big margin. I’m not looking to beat him in those categories, but would like to stay competitve come playoff time.
Do you think Billups and Wallace for Wade would be a good deal or should I just stay pat. I’m thinking of picking up J-Rich, Steve Blake, Foye, or Marcus Williams off the waivers with the extra roster spot.
February 19th, 2007 at 12:49 pm
I would get rid of paul pierce…boston has lost too many games this year and they dont need to jeapardzie their draft pick…so pierce will not play for very long….
February 19th, 2007 at 1:38 pm
Billups and Big Ben are a bit too much for D-Wade. It’s not a bad trade but I feel you can get more for less. I’d definitely think about trading Pierce and another throw-in player for Wade. I would do the Ben/Billups trade on the condition you can still win your league in REB/STL/BLK without Ben to anchor those categories.
I just sent a trade proposal of Jason Richardson/Delonte West/Nene for Kevin Martin. I know that might be overpaying, but I’m hurting for %s and can just pickup Steve Blake for the lost asts and get my garbage spot back.
February 19th, 2007 at 3:25 pm
Also: Keep an eye on Jersey’s Marcus Williams… especially if the heavily rumored trade of Kidd goes down.
February 19th, 2007 at 4:22 pm
way to steal my next post bublitchki.
February 19th, 2007 at 5:05 pm
I already got marcus in one of my deeper leagues…..
February 20th, 2007 at 1:14 am
Alright, I thought about it, and it would be sacrificing too much for the cats I do best in. So I sent Pierce and Delonte West over. Hopefully, he’ll go for it.
The other owners are very adverse to trades though and are always judging/voting other people’s deals on “fairness”. There was a lot of griping about how my last deal wasn’t too fair for the other owner, Rashard Lewis for Pierce. The guy leading the way against it was the #1 guy and he was second at the time and actually dealt Mo Pete and Bibby for Kidd at the beginning of the year. And already, they’re getting on me for my number of transactions, even though it’s a daily no limit league.
There’s so many quality plays off the waivers, but I’ve plugged my garbage spot with Rudy Gay and I really don’t want to cycle him out. I wish there were a few more players or things were more active so that looking into the waivers isn’t always so tempting.
February 20th, 2007 at 3:56 am
I too have a similar problem of not having enough garbage spots. Right now, there are some great players in my league that are not picked up. Darko (who I drafted) and Rudy Gay are among these guys. Anyways, all of my players are pretty decent and I don’t know who (other than an injured Yao) that I could drop.
Oh well, I think next year I’m going to be looking to grab Gay as a sleeper. He’s good enough to where he should break out but hasn’t put up consistent enough numbers this year to really get ranked too high on the Yahoo! preseason rater.
February 20th, 2007 at 4:18 am
Hi, I was wondering if you guys can give me some advice. I’m in a H2H league (12 teams) and we play 9 categories (fg%,ft%,3s,pts,rebs,asts,stls,blks,to). Standard Yahoo rules. I’m tied in 6th place with 3 other teams (only 6 spots for the playoffs).
Here is my team:
PGs: Shaun Livingston, Andre Miller, Jarrett Jack, Steve Blake
SGs: Corey Maggette(SF), Wally Szczerbiak(SF)
SFs: Richard Jefferson
PFs: Elton Brand, Chris Webber(C), Amare Stoudamire(C)
Cs: Brad Miller, Marcus Camby, Samuel Dalembert
The 5 categories that I try to focus on are FG%, FT%, Rebs, Blks, Assists
Do you guys think I should drop any of my players for Randy Foye? I had a difficult time deciding between Foye and Blake last week, but I ended up dropping Grant Hill for Blake (since Hill will miss the 2nd game of back-to-backs, and Denver has more games than Orlando during the last few weeks.)
I considered dropping Szczerbiak for Foye, but I think I really need Szczerbiak’s freethrows to have any chance of winning ft%. Same thing with Maggette. I’m also hoping that when RJ returns in 2 weeks he’ll shoot at 80%ft again.
Now would you guys rather have Randy Foye or Steve Blake? Steve Blake has been awesome the past few weeks, but with AI back his stats will drop. Also, it’s rumored that Denver may make a trade for another point guard (I guess we’ll find out in 72 hours whether it’s true).
Randy Foye, on the other hand, seems to have a lot of upside. However, Mike James is still on the team… it seems like Foye will play about 25-30 minutes, which I consider not enough. Another good thing about Foye (at least on my team) is that Foye is SG eligible. I already have several pure PGs and my roster spots may get clogged during busy days. Who do you guys think will have more assists (Foye or Blake)?
I know a lot of this is just prediction, but I’d like to hear your opinions, thanks!
February 20th, 2007 at 6:39 am
mase, i’d hold off on foye. It looks like you’re really working with your bench spot here, not your starting lineup, and I think I’d rather have Blake on my bench than Foye. blake is more likely to have another stretch where he’s just impossible not to play, but i think foye will just sorta coast along in between bench and utility values. i also think blake will end up with more assists.
February 20th, 2007 at 7:46 am
Thanks bv, I feel the same way about Foye right now. I think I’ll keep an eye on him but stick with my current roster.