The New York Knicks may be able to sign David Lee to a one year contract but it should be a hefty one. There is nothing new in regards to a long term contract for David Lee and the Knicks. Lee and his agent feel that a one year contract may work but the Knicks are going to pay him what he feels he is worth.


I don’t understand why no other teams have made a real run at signing Lee to an offer sheet. He can rebound and score and is a high energy guy and a fan favorite. Maybe he’s asking for a little too much but it seems a little odd that nobody has made a move for him. In the end he’ll probably sign a one year deal with the Knicks and have to try his luck next year. At least we know what to expect from him in the D’Antoni offense.

Lamar Odom is reportedly entertaining an offer from the Miami Heat to join Dwayne Wade and try to help the Heat return to the NBA Finals. There just seem to be too many problems with this scenario for me to believe that he would actually sign with the Heat.


First, Odom would be taking a pay cut of roughly $9 million. The Heat can only offer him a little above the mid-level exception which would be just below $6 million a year. Where as he already had an offer from the Los Angeles Lakers at $9 million a year for three years that he sat on for too long before the Lakers decided to pull the offer off of the table.


Second, Dwayne Wade may be on his way out the door himself for free agency after next season. He has said that he would sign an extension if the Heat committed to rebuilding toward a Championship, but he would leave if they weren’t able to convince him that they were truly making the effort. Is signing Odom enough for Wade or would he need the Heat to do more? Does Odom want to risk being locked into a contract and be stuck on a team without a bonafide star should Wade choose to leave?


My money is on the Lakers resigning Odom to a contract around 4-5 years for $35-40 million.

Apparently the Los Angeles Lakers are going to sign Ron Artest and they are going to do it very soon. At least that is what Artest is saying. Artest told cbssports.com “I’m definitely going to L.A. — to sign, yeah, Lakers, Lakers, Lakers. I’m in L.A. right now.” I guess Trevor Ariza and Lamar Odom are now free to seek other employers. Artest will be cheaper than the cost of keeping Ariza and Odom but is the savings worth the risk? How will Artest react to L.A.? He will be in the spotlight and that may be a problem for the “charismatic” player.


If Artest can harness his temper (which he was able to do for the Houston Rockets for the most part), he could be on his way to a Championship. Or, he could implode again and be on his way to a trade halfway through the season. This should get very interesting.

With the trade of Brad Miller and John Salmons to the Chicago Bulls, the Kings have some players that will be in line to get some serious playing time. Francisco Garcia jumps out when thinking of someone who might benefit from this trade. Over the last three games Garcia has averaged just under 15.7 ppg, just 4.3 rpg, 2.3 apg, 1.7 spg, 2 3ptm and 2 bpg. He has shown that he can run the point, play the 2 guard or even the 3. he is a jack of all trades and with consistent playing time down the stretch he should produce some very nice numbers.


Drew Gooden when healthy is a nice source of rebounds and a decent source of scoring. he doesn’t offer much more but he is a threat for a double-double almost every night.


Andres Nocioni will see playing time at the PF position and will be used to spread out the defense. He is having a terrible year but maybe a change of scenery can inject some life into him. Truthfully, he really isn’t worth owning in very many leagues.


Jason Thompson is a player that will get extended looks for the remainder of the season. The Kings will want to see what he really can do since Gooden will be gone next year to free agency. Thompson could be in line to raise his scoring and rebounding along with his blocks if he does in fact receive an increase in minutes down the stretch.


Spencer Hawes should receive a boost in minutes also. That would be nice for his owners because he is already a decent source of blocks and those will only go up with more playing time. All of this depends on how much PT Gooden sees. He is in a contract year and will demand to play but the Kings need to see what their younf big men are capable of. So, I think they will use the rest of the season as a tryout for next year.

It is looking more and more like the Phoenix Suns might be considering star PF Amar’e Stoudemire. Stoudemire has shown that he is not happy with his lack of involvement in the offense. After their last game against the Warriors, he had this to say about the lack of pick and roll plays setup just for him. “It is harder,” Stoudemire said. “When you’re in the flow, everything flows. When you’re not, sometimes it’s hard to get involved.”


With an option in his contract allowing him to opt out for the 2010 free-agency pool, he will most likely take advantage of the teams that don’t get LeBron James, Dwayne Wade or Chris Bosh. The Knicks would be the perfect destination for Stoudemire and it makes sense for both sides. The Knicks could offer a package built around David Lee to land Stoudemire. That will give them value in return for Lee that won’t spill over into the “Summer of LeBron” in ‘10. Stoudemire would be reunited with D’Antoni and the offensive attention that he so desires. The Suns would be able to sign Lee at a fraction of what Stoudemire makes and would probably get some decent draft picks out of the deal. There is no reason for a deal like this to not happen.


These next few games leading up to the All-Star break will determine a lot for the Suns on whether or not they will actually break up their team even more. They have a 3 game road trip against Detroit, Philly and Cleveland before they head into the break and those 3 games will tell us whether the Suns will be active or not. If Stoudemire ends up in New York, you can bet his fantasy value will go through roof. If you own Stoudemire keep your fingers crossed and if you don’t own him, try to get him on your team because if is traded to NY he will be unstoppable once again.

Due to some computer issues mentioned below, I wasn’t able to do a TR on Friday, so here’s a brief look at some players picked up lately. Except more of these types of columns in the season’s final month, since waiver wire scrounging is about all that’s to be done now.

Randy Foye
Sunday’s Timberwolves game was a pretty good encapsulation of how the team’s PG situation has been all year. After a couple of very solid games off the bench in which he averaged 18/3.5/4.5 with 1 3 and 1 steal in 32.5 mpg, he earned his spot in the starting lineup. So then what happens? He puts up a 3/2/1 stinker in 15 minutes while Mike James scores 18 with 11 assists in 32 minutes off the bench. Both players have been better when coming off the bench, but neither have really been that great at any point in the season. The Wolves aren’t going to drop out of the playoff race until at least the last few games of the season, so there won’t be any “playing for the future.” Coach Randy Wittman will just be looking for the best lineup that can help his team earn the honor of getting humiliated by the Mavs on four consecutive evenings in April. As we near the end of Foye’s rookie year, it’s hard to be too impressed. The team was hoping he’d be a legitimate star, but Foye’s no youngster, at least in NBA terms. He’ll be 24 when next season starts; he’s the same age as Ben Gordon, for example. Gordon put up 15.1 ppg in less than 25 mpg in his rookie year; Foye’s working on 9.2 ppg in just about 22 mpg. The two players are similarly built with similar games, so I’m just throwing that out there. If he’s really the reason why the Wolves didn’t go after Allen Iverson, or some other stars … well, just another reason Forbes might have been a bit off.

Tim Thomas
At this point in the season teams start to make pickups based on needs, and Thomas is so locked in from 3-point land right now that he makes a fine pick up. He’s averaging a very solid 30 mpg so far in March and has been under 25 minutes just once since the all-star break. He’s knocked down 17 3s in his last five games after an uncharacteristic cold spell which saw him hit just a single three-ball in the previous four contests. That sort of hot and cold production obviously makes him a risky play, especially because, as always, he gives you little else besides those 3s. But in a tight race in roto leagues, he can be a difference maker.

Jorge Garbajosa
Last week I mentioned that it might be time to give Garbajosa a shot based on his unique ability to fill games at center and help out in 3s. But in the two games since his 20-point, 4-3s performance he’s been back to the same Garbajosa that we’ve seen for most games since the all-star break. There’s still slight reason for encouragement, and that’s because the minutes seem to be there, but he certainly has a tenuous grasp on those right now. He played nearly 36 minutes on Friday, his most in almost a month, but was back down to 25 on Sunday. That was in a blow out to the Knicks, though, and only Chris Bosh and T.J. Ford saw more than 26 minutes for the Raps in that game, so it’s hard to tell too much there. The fact remains that Garbajosa’s had exactly one productive game in his past 8, so if you have him and he doesn’t come through next time out, it’s probably time to forget about him until next year.

Ime Udoka
Certainly one of the feel-good stories of the year, here. An undrafted free agent who probably would have been content to become a 10-day contract guy for a few years, instead he’s started every game this season for the Blazers. That doesn’t mean he’s had much in the way of fantasy value, as his 9.0/3.8/1.5 line will attest, but in the past few weeks he’s been unconscious from long range, connecting on 2.4 per game in March while shooting an absurd 68%. He’s actually playing fewer minutes in March than any other month this season, but with all those 3s finding their way through the net he’s fantasy relevant for the first time. Still, when you’re fantasy upside is that of Bruce Bowen, it’s hard to get too excited. As we saw with Luke Walton earlier this year, those great three-point percentages that come out of nowhere have a way of balancing out. He’s a legit #73 on the 15-day rater, so if you really want to give him a shot you can, but it certainly won’t get better.

Gerald Green
TR regular Green has been playing solid ball lately but this pick up was a spec pickup hoping that Paul Pierce might actually shut it down like he talked about a few days ago. If shutting it down means scoring 30 and beating the Spurs, then maybe more players should shut it down. It’s quite possible that Pierce sits out the last few games of the season, but I wouldn’t be too worried about him until that second week of April. Which means you probably don’t have to worry about Green until then. He’s still capable of exploding for a big game, but promises to be inconsistent. The big question with Green going forward is whether he can be a high percentage shooter or if he’s just another 42% gunner. The 48% he shot during his rookie year looked nice, but considering it was on not even 150 total shots we knew better than to expect that was his standard. His lack of boards for a player of his size is also a bit disappointing. He’s got many of the skills necessary to be an asset to both the Celtics and fantasy players, but he still needs plenty of consolidation. He won’t turn 22 until the middle of next season, so there’s still time.

Channing Frye
Man. So my home computer is fucked. I’ve been without it since Thursday morning. So Friday as I was leaving work, I knew it’d be my last time to do fantasy-related stuff until Monday morning. (Not the best situation to be in when trying to hold on to a tenuous lead and prepare for multiple fantasy baseball drafts.) I thought about picking up Channing Frye but for whatever reason I didn’t. Now I have no Frye, but still have goddamn Stromile Swift on my team. Fuck. Might Frye try to erase a season of disappointment in the final month? Back-to-back 20-point games while averaging 42 mpg is a damn fine way to start. Frye hasn’t been very productive at all this season, but just as important has been his rapid slip down the totem pole in Manhattan. But the Knicks are a depleted squad right now and need players who can score, especially with Eddy Curry going through his most prolonged slump in a while. The Jerome James/Malik Rose experiment at PF seems to be over and Frye looks to be the main until/if Quentin Richardson can go again. Frye’s had plenty of chances in the starting lineup this year, but without David Lee around to steal minutes, and without big scorers Jamal Crawford and Richardson, he not only has an opportunity but the Knicks actually need him to come through. I like the LaMarcus Aldridge comparison I made recently, because both a tall, center-eligibles who like taking jump shots and rarely get to the line. Frye blocks considerably fewer shots, but as long as he gets 17 attempts per game – he thrives on consistent looks – he’s a good bet.

We’ll keep it simple this week and just focus on some of the guys recently picked up.

Jeff Foster
Well, the inevitable Jermaine O’Neal injury happened on Wednesday night, which should open up some PT for Foster. Forgive me if I can’t get too excited about his prospects, though. We know full well what Foster can do; put him in the starting lineup and give him 30+ minutes and he may very well grab 17 boards, but he’ll do that while giving you absolutely nothing else. He’ll grab the occasional steal and if he’s lucky will be of minor help in FG% thanks to some putbacks, but his game is just extremely limited. In roto leagues, many teams are scrambling to find players to use up their extra games right now, especially at center, so that makes Foster a somewhat more attractive option. It would be a lot more fun if Ike Diogu got those minutes, but he seems to be an afterthought on the Pacers, just like he was on the Warriors.

Antoine Walker
Walker couldn’t break the 20 minute mark in the first four games after Dwyane Wade went down, but he’s back in Pat Riley’s good graces for now and is averaging 28.3 mpg off the bench in the last three contests. It’s still not quite enough to do much damage, as players who don’t receive big minutes need to be efficient to have value, and Walker’s season percentages of 41/40 don’t exactly scream efficient. He might be good for some cheap 3s, but as long as he’s coming off the bench you can probably do better.

Anthony Johnson
I really don’t want to talk about Johnson, because he was a big reason the Hawks – missing three starters and without Josh Smith for much of the night – knocked off a full-strength Wizards team on Wednesday. Ugh, just disgusting. Down to a three-game lead over the Heat with 7 of the next 9 on the road … yeah, that’ll turn out well. Anyway, Johnson, the neckless one. As long as Speedy Claxton stays out of the picture, Johnson should be a pretty valuable commodity. He took his spot in the starting lineup and played a total of 76 minutes in his last two, averaging 17.5/2/3.5 with 2 3s and 1.5 steals. He’s a classic example of the Temporary Point Guard Solution that we spent a ridiculous amount of time talking about in his blog’s early days. With Joe Johnson out for a while there are plenty of minutes and points to go around, and the new Johnson should benefit. If you need PG help and he’s out there, grab him and hope Claxton is content collecting paychecks and wearing suits for the next month.

Eddie Jones
The second of three Heat players we’ll talk about. Jones seems to have taken a whirl in the rejuvenation machine over the past couple of games, averaging 22/2.5/4.5 with 5 3s, 3 steals and a block on 65/80 shooting in 36.5 mpg. Yeah, lines don’t come much better than that. Jones is pretty old, but he hasn’t played too much this season so he should have his legs despite it being almost mid-March. He’s always had sneaky value because he simply gets 3s and steals when he sees minutes, so as long as he keeps playing, he should be worth starting. Don’t expect shots to keep falling at the same rate they have been, though. He’s valuable because more than half the shots he takes are 3s, not because he connects on a high percentage. He can help your team, especially with Jason Kapono out, but if he starts missing lots of shots he could do some damage.

James Posey
Hey, whaddya know?! Another member of the Heat. Jason Kapono’s injury could lead to Posey having some nice value, especially for his 3s and steals, making him similar to Jones. He wasn’t too impressive in his first start, but played 37 minutes and hit a 3 to go along with a steal and a block. He shoots 3s almost exclusively in Miami, and with big minutes can have the occasional monster game from behind the arc. He’ll have some clunker games, but his big games with 3+ 3s and steals each can make up for those.

Juan Dixon
As we enter March Madness it’s nice to see our old friend Juan Dixon return to fantasy radars. He’s been a quick and easy fit in Toronto and ended up starting in just his sixth game for the team in the wake of Anthony Parker’s injury and Morris Peterson’s ineffectiveness. In his last three games he’s averaged 18.3/4.7/3.3 with 1.3 steals and 1 3. Solid, but that’s about as good as it gets for Juan. He’s never hit as many 3s as you’d think, and his boards and assists have never been noteworthy. That means he needs many minutes to be a fantasy factor and the 34.7 he’s had the past three games does the trick. With Parker on the verge of returning Dixon’s run might be an especially short one.

Drew Gooden
Gooden’s durable and has some nice skills, but he just can’t get enough PT to ever make a real difference. This is Gooden’s fifth season in the league and he’s never been below 26 mpg, but has never been above 31 mpg. He’s forever in between those two numbers, teetering on the edge of fantasy relevance. He recently went through one of his most prolonged stretches of ineffectiveness, being held in single digits for seven straight games before breaking out with 22 and 10 in a win against the Pistons. Gooden has started every game he’s played in this season and the Cavs are winning, so it doesn’t seem like there’s any reason to make a change. In January Gooden averaged 12.9/8.6/0.7 with 1.2 steals on 49% shooting, and there’s a chance he could have a stretch like that again. One alarming stat on Gooden – he hasn’t blocked a shot in 21 games. 21 games. Coming from a PF, that’s just remarkable.

John Salmons
It seemed like Salmons would be a nice addition after Ron Artest had his annual implosion, but that hasn’t been the case yet. The minutes have been there – 35.5 in the past two games – but that’s about it. Salmons strength this year has been dishing dimes, and the 6.5 he’s averaged in the past two contests aren’t that much of a fluke. As a starter this season his numbers are decent – 11.9/4.4/4.0 with 1.3 steals, 0.6 blocks, 0.5 3s on 48/81 shooting – so it’s worth giving him a few more games to get into an offensive groove with Artest out of the picture. That said, it’s clear that he’s not going to replace Artest’s numbers and that Kevin Martin and Mike Bibby are the main benefactors of Ron-Ron’s continued insanity. As long as Salmons is starting and playing around 35 mpg, he’s a decent risk to leave in most lineups.

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.

Pickup: Eddie Jones
Drop: Channing Frye
Last night was a sort of extreme example of what to expect in Dwyane Wade’s absence for Miami. The game was nowhere near as close as the final 12-point margin, but we saw Shaq be the main threat until things got out of hand, Jason Williams tried to pick up some of the slack, and one of the random bench players had a nice game, this time being James Posey. Jones got 29 minutes off the bench but didn’t do much with it except grab steals. He also hit a 3, and it’s those 3s and steals that have made him sneaky valuable the last few years. If he can make his way into the starting lineup he might be worth a roster spot, but even that’s not a definite. Frye will be picked up again shortly, most likely the next time he scores 20, and it will be by a team who needs help in the middle.

Pickup: Ryan Gomes
Drop: Speedy Claxton
With Wally Szczerbiak back down, Gomes should be able to keep his regular PT. That means he’ll be able to put up numbers that look just good enough in the box score to keep him around, but in reality aren’t helping you much. His 21 and 7 against Phoenix was the result of seeing 41 minutes and playing Phoenix. The three previous games he averaged 12.7/5.3/1.7 and that’s maybe a bit low but closer to what he’ll be doing. Paul Pierce is back and playing like Paul Pierce, Al Jefferson is locked in as a top threat and Delonte West is playing great ball lately. That leaves Gomes as the #4 option, so that limits his already limited upside to begin with. I had him on my team for a while before dropping him last week and the way it is with Gomes is that if he makes half his shots he’s not a bad use of a utility slot, but if his FG% isn’t a positive, he’s just not worth having around. Back to back scoreless games seemed a fine reason to cut Claxton. His lost season doesn’t seem like it will be found.

Pickup: Kurt Thomas
Drop: Wally Szczerbiak
After a fantastic November – 20.2/3.6/2.0 with 1.7 3s on 47/90 shooting – it’s been pretty much a lost season for Szczerbiak. Injuries were certainly a concern for him coming into the season, but after appearing in 80 total games in the 02-03, 03-04 seasons, he rebounded with 153 total in the last two seasons. But his ankles are giving him fits and as the season starts to get into its final weeks it likely won’t take much to keep Wally on the bench. His shooting touch has been off since he’s been playing so on and off, but his skills don’t seem too diminished. It’s hard to tell what kind of role he’ll have next year, but don’t completely give up on him, even if it means keeping him in mind for the final rounds. Thomas came back from injury and went right into the starting lineup with Boris Diaw out and did all that could be expected from him – grabbed some boards and that’s about it. Just 8 total points in 25 mpg in the past two contests, no blocks, 19 total boards. If that’s what he does as a starter without Diaw, you can be pretty sure that he’s not going to have much value.

Pickup: Mike James
Drop: Shaun Livingston
A couple of the bigger PG disappointments of the fantasy season right here. Livingston had a nice stretch of play off the bench and was rewarded with a return to the starting lineup and promptly scored 8 points in two games that saw the Clippers total just 154 points. That’s not going to get it done, so he was back on the bench for the last two. The Clippers have been painfully mediocre all year, but the weak bottom half of the Western Conference is keeping them right in the running for the final playoff spot, as they are tied in the loss column with the Warriors. It would almost be better for everyone involved if the Clippers just dropped out of the race and let Livingston get a full shot as the starting PG for the last 30 games or so, but that doesn’t seem to the be case. Sam Cassell has played just 57 minutes in the last three games, so the opportunity is there for Livingston, but as we pretty well know by now, consistency hasn’t exactly been his strong suit so far in his career. He’s been racking up steals lately and can do the same with assists if he gets consistent minutes. Even though it’s James who has been the better player over the past few games, I’d still probably rather have Livingston. I was there for James’ 20-point game against the Wizards and it was mostly the result of shooting lots of free throws, and it wasn’t like he was being all that aggressive. Backing that up with 17 and 5 in 24 minutes is solid, but as long as both he and Randy Foye are healthy and Marko Jaric is lurking in the background, none of them have much upside.

Pickup: Erick Dampier
Drop: Sasha Pavlovic
Erm, yeah. Kinda sucks to sometimes need two centers, doesn’t it? Dampier’s the same stiff he’s always been and he isn’t even blocking shots these days. His February line of 6.5/7.2/0.5 with 0.7 blocks on 71% shooting (on 3.5 attempts) looks like an Andris Biedrins rookie season line, minus the blocks. It’s good for a sparkling #162 on the player rater over the past 15. Is he really the best center option out there in our league? Scary, but Steven Hunter might be the only better option. There’s a reason I might be holding onto the newly center-eligible Anderson Varejao even if he will be back on the bench when Zydrunas Ilgauskas comes back. As for fellow Cav Pavlovic, well, he could sort of become a Matt Harpring type if everything goes exactly right, but it’s hard to see that happening.

Pickup: Speedy Claxton
Drop: Peja Stojakovic
Claxton probably has at least one very solid stretch left in him. He’s proven that he’s simply not healthy enough to be counted on for the long-term, but it’s likely he’ll have a two week stretch where he’s a top assists and steals man. In a three-game stretch from Dec. 15 to 20 he averaged 13.7 points, 10 assists and 3.7 steals. The problem, of course, is that it’s tough to know when that effective play will happen. Perhaps with a little rest from the all-star break he’ll be able to rejoin the starting lineup next week and reel off a few good games. Maybe not. If Tyronn Lue’s around, it won’t be as easy. He’s still a better use of a spot than Peja.

Pickup: Matt Carroll
Drop: Brendan Haywood
This was a move I made. Antawn Jamison’s injury actually hurt Haywood, as it has led to Eddie Jordan using more of his bench, and Haywood’s losing minutes to Michael Ruffin and Darius Songaila, even with Etan Thomas on the sidelines. Carroll’s still putting up some solid numbers, but basically I just need his 3s, and I don’t mind his FT%. Right now I have 423 3s, giving me 6 points in that category, one 4 ahead of the person with 5 points. The team with 9 points has 436 3s, only 13 ahead of me. Carroll can singlehandedly – I hope – make a difference there. I’m also holding on for dear life in FT%. I’m at .790, then it goes .788, .787, .782, .782. I need all those points, and Carroll’s a top 25 in FT% value this year.

Pickup: Sasha Pavlovic
Drop: Jorge Garbajosa
This is a good example of a pickup I don’t like it, similar to Bostjan Nachbar a few weeks ago. A bench player who is a historically bad shooter has a few hot games, nails a bunch of 3s, and gets picked up. So what did he do in his first game in this guy’s lineup? He put up 4/0/0 with a 3 in 17 minutes. Last night’s 11/3/2 wasn’t too much better. It was pretty clear he wasn’t going to get a starting job, which made it pretty clear that his hot streak wasn’t going to last. I expect him to hit the waiver wire pretty soon. Garbajosa’s been a TR regular lately, as that center eligibility and those 3s make him look good for a while. He’s #93 on the 15 day rater, so he’s got some value and will probably be picked up soon.

Pickup: Channing Frye
Drop: Sarunas Jasikevicius
Frye’s been picked up a bunch of times this year, which means that he was dropped a bunch of times. He’s been one of the bigger mid-round disappointments this year, honestly. He showed plenty of ability in his rookie season but has regressed across the board. His PT has been inconsistent, but he’s actually seeing nearly 2 more mpg this year. Most numbers are slightly below last year’s totals, with the biggest drop in points and FG%. The occasional big game and his center eligibility makes him an intriguing option, but the Knicks have actually established an offensive hierarchy, and Frye isn’t near the top of the list. Eddy Curry and Jamal Crawford are clearly the top two options on this time, Stephon Marbury is the guy with the ball in his hands the most, David Lee is the cleanup man and Quentin Richardson has some big games. That puts Frye way down on the list. Last year he thrived when he got to shoot as much as possible, and that’s just not happening this year. It seems wrong that Jasikevicius saw just 6 minutes on Wednesday with Baron Davis out, but so is life with Don Nelson. His rate numbers during his brief stay in Golden State have been fine, but the PT just doesn’t seem to be there.

Pickup: Ruben Patterson
Drop: Speedy Claxton
We keep waiting for Ruben’s run to end, and it just keeps stretching on. He went four straight games of 16 points or less, but then had a two-game stretch of 27.5/11.5/4.5 with 4 steals. Sad thing was he probably got dropped a few days earlier and was on the free agent list when they happened. In his last three it’s been 14.3/4.3/3.7 with 1.3 steals on 62% shooting, the same numbers that made him a playable utility guy for almost the entire season. He’s the #81 rated player on the season in non-turnover leagues, which by the numbers is 7^th round production in 12-teamers. It’s been a good season for Ruben, so don’t count him out yet, even with Michael Redd scheduled to return within a week.

Pickup: Anderson Varejao
Drop: Ryan Gomes
This was a move I made. Gomes is one of those guys that gets lots of minutes and puts up good enough box scores you make you not want to drop him. But he’s simply not that valuable of a player since he has to always be efficient with his scoring to make up for his lack of peripherals. Anderson Varejao was scheduled for two starts in place of Zydrunas Ilgauskas, I’m in a super tight race for rebounds, so I made the move. Two games and 28 rebounds later I’m happy with my move. If you have the roster spot to play with, I’m a big fan of taking sure thing productive games when you can. It was clear with Big Z gone that Varejao would log heavy minutes and put up numbers. He saw around 37 minutes in both games and was good for 12/14/1 with 2 steals and 1.5 blocks on 50/67 shooting. He played exactly like he should have. Good for him.

Pickup: Jason Williams
Drop: Matt Carroll
Not so sure about this one. Williams is in the same league as Claxton, likely to be very useable for a very short span, but a bad bet long term. Williams has less upside than Claxton because he doesn’t have the ability to dominate a single category, but can be a fine source of assists and especially 3s when things are going right. He might be back after the all-star break, but who knows how long for.

Pickup: Derek Fisher
Drop: Ike Diogu
There are some extra points to go around with Carlos Boozer out, but Fisher doesn’t seem to be much of a beneficiary. Another one of those guys with too small a window. He had games of 37-37-42 minutes, gets picked up, then goes down to 31-25. Fisher hasn’t his 3 3s in a single game this year and has only three games with a pair.

Pickup: Andray Blatche
Drop: Mickael Pietrus
We’ve talked enough about Andray lately.

Pickup: Chris Duhon
Drop: Earl Watson
Another move to pick up of a hot shooting bench player, so you know I’m not in love with it. Watson’s back on the bench in favor of Luke Ridnour, as it ought to be, and Duhon is certainly back in the mix for Chicago, but he’s still not worth it except in very deep leagues. In eight February games he’s averaging nearly 29 mpg and is putting up 12.5/2.4/4.5 with 1.5 steals and 1.9 3s. It’s good enough for #65 in the past 15 days, but it’s very hard to see it lasting. Plug him in the lineup and what happens? Wednesday’s 6/3/5 games. Duhon does seem to be consistent with his 3s, but as we’ve discovered over time in TR, guys who hit 3s are readily available.

Pickup: Randy Foye
Drop: Marcus Banks
I was sitting at the computer waiting to pick up Foye, but I didn’t pull the trigger and BV did about an hour later. He’s got the starting job, but that doesn’t mean Mike James and Marko Jaric have disappeared. It’s only been two games, but Foye has averaged just 29.5 mpg in his first two starts, good for 9/5.5/5.5 with just one total steal and block, no 3s. I expect Foye to have some huge games as long as he keeps his starting spot – which looks likely – but he won’t be consistently great. With some regular playing time it will be interesting to see if his steals numbers get any better, because that’s one aspect of his games that’s really been lacking so far. Banks has actually been surprisingly effective in Steve Nash’s absence, mainly because of hot shooting. His 20-of-32 from the field over the last three is obviously an anomaly and he hasn’t done much else to give him any value.