How convenient of DM to be unable to do a TR and ask me to pinch hit, on a week when our league has seen 32 players added, dropped or traded!  Needless to say, we’re not going to go through all of them, but here are a couple of highlights:

ADDED AND DROPPED
We saw a couple of guys get both picked up and dropped this week.  Hey, that’s the volatility of the NBA and when you’re in a competitive league, sometimes you gotta be quick on the trigger.  Among them:

JR Smith - He was dropped, obviously, because of the injury, and his previous owner picked up Brent Barry instead.  If Smith is due to be out a month, and his value is already slightly limited with both AI and Melo around, he’s not that tough a drop.  Brent Barry has been a classic ’sneaky value’ guy - tough to own because of his spotty points and productivity but he’s great in 3’s and percentages.  He’s the kinda guy you can’t own early in the year but as the season develops and you need help in specific categories he becomes a guy to seriously consider.

I turned around and picked up Smith a couple days later when it was revealed that he might only miss a couple of weeks.  I’m planning on making a big move in threes in the next two months and all I had to drop for him was Eddie House, so the decision wasn’t too tough.  I’ll stash him on my bench and hope for the best.  When healthy he’s been a solid fantasy starter in Denver and I’ve just decided to be patient with him.

DeShawn Stevenson - Stevenson has really shone since the All-Star break.  With 2 of the Wizards Big 3 hurt and the other struggling big-time, he stepped up and put together a nice string of games, 17/3.8/3.3 since the All-Star break with 1.5 3’s and 1.2 steals on 53% from the field.  However, with Butler and Jamison both due back tonight (thank god), it’s probably the end of that sort of productivity for DeShawn.  He was added in exchange for Chris Duhon last week, and then Wednesday he was dropped for Jorge Garbojosa - two guys who bounce on and off of waivers all the time.

Sam Cassell - just a case of poor timing for the guy who dropped him in favor of Earl Watson just two days before Shaun Livingston ruined his knee.  But hey, that’s how quickly value can change in this league.  One day you’re in a time-share, the next day the minutes are all yours.  Just ask PR, who picked up Cassell almost immediately after Livingston went down, only to see Cassell get hurt the next game.  Cassell should obviously still be on rosters as the groin sounds like a minor issue.

Steve Blake - PR actually dropped Blake to get Cassell, but in a league filled with UMD alumni, it was not too long before he was snatched back up.  Balke has been getting the jerk-around from George Karl but it’s pretty conceivable that he’ll be back in the lineup relatively soon, so this was a nice use of a garbage spot based on a hunch.  He was added in favor of Mackael Pietrus, who has struggled for minutes since the return of Jason Richardson, but now that Stephen Jackson is hurt he could be worthwhile again and might be picked up any day depending on how long Jackson will be out.

TRADES
A couple of trades this week so let’s get down to it:

Joe Johnson for Mehmet Okur - This is one that I made, giving up Johnson.  Here’s what led me to do it, because i know that Johnson is more valuable than Okur overall.  One, I’ve got a 200-assist buffer on either side of me in the standings, so Johnson’s assists will do me no good from here on out.  Two, i’ve been forced to play Mikki Moore lately thanks to Emeka Okafor being out, so I really needed a center.  Three, if I was going to give up Johnson I was going to need some threes in return because as I stated earlier that’s a spot I can make a move in.  Four, the Hawks won’t be competing come April, whereas the Jazz will, so I like Okur’s chances of playing out the season better than Johnson.  Finally, I’ve also got a 400-point buffer on either side of me in the standings so the drop there won’t hurt either.  So there you have it.

Mike Bibby, Ray Allen, and Chris Wilcox for Chris Paul, Lamar Odom, and Luke Walton.  Ah, the validation.  Last week I talked about Ray Allen and said he was a risk for contending teams because he’s on a bad team and might not play the whole season.  About a month ago I warned that a guy like Allen was a good bet to sit out the last week or two of action.  So when I saw a guy make a trade for Bibby, Allen, and Wilcox - all three of whom are on struggling teams - I said to myself, “hmm…pretty risky there.”  This trade went through yesterday at 5 PM.  About 6 hours later the new Allen owner was kicking himself as Allen sat out with a sore ankle, the sort of thing that I’m betting he would play through if the Sonics had anything to play for.  Let that be a lesson right there as we head into the fanasy trade deadline.