• Gerald Wallace is out indefinitely with a collapsed lung and broken rib, courtesy of a flagrant foul by Andrew Bynum (you can watch the video here). There is no timeline for G-Wall at this point, but count on it being a while. What also remains to be seen is if Bynum is given any kind of suspension – he clearly (1) leaned into the ‘hit’ and (2) made zero effort on the ball, so you can argue that in today’s NBA it might be deserved. There’s no singular anticipated recipient for Wallace’s minutes – figure on Larry Brown divvying them up between a combination of Adam Morrison, Shannon Brown, Juwan Howard, and DeSagana Diop, depending on matchups and performance.
• His unfortunate foul aside, Bynum posted his fourth straight double-double (24 points, 14 boards) and had six blocks – over the past four games, he’s averaged 26 points on 65 percent shooting, 13.5 boards, and 3.5 blocks. He’s now scored in double figures in 11 straight games, averaging 20.3 points on 61 percent shooting, 8.1 boards, and 2 blocks during that stretch – during that time, those numbers have been good for a rank of 30 on a per-game basis.
• Mo Williams went for a career-high 43 on Tuesday, the most points ever scored by a teammate of LeBron James, and has stepped up his production in general since Delonte West suffered his wrist injury. Over the past seven games, Williams has averaged 24.9 points on 48 percent shooting, 3.7 threes, 4 boards, and 5.1 assists, while making 28 of 31 free throws (90 percent). On a per-game basis, he’s the 14th-ranked player in impact over that stretch.
• In other Cavs’ news, Zydrunas Ilgauskas returned to practice on Monday and wants to play Thursday, but Mike Brown still isn’t sure and plans to be cautious with his big man.
• Mickael Pietrus returned from his wrist injury on Tuesday and was big-time (27 points, 3 treys, 10 boards, 4 assists, 1 steal, 1 block) in a big-time blowout of the Pacers (135-111). While you shouldn’t let this performance skew expectations, it certainly makes sense to get Pietrus back on rosters for some threes, points, and occasional steals/blocks moving forward.
• Chalk it up to an adjustment process for the Grizzlies? Denver didn’t exactly play good basketball (.444 FG%, 14:27 AST:TO) and still beat Memphis by 15 at home on Tuesday. The numbers for the Grizz tell the story: .375 FG%, 17:26 AST:TO, and 15 blocks against. Mike Conley was a minus-27 in his 28 minutes, making two of nine shots and balancing four assists with four turnovers. Rudy Gay was horrific, making just five of 14 shots and turning the ball over six times. Marc Gasol didn’t score and grabbed two boards in 20 minutes. This was a really bad team before they had to deal with implementing a new system mid-season, so it’s not going to get any better any time soon.
• Andrei Kirilenko‘s fantasy owners should be bracing for bad news. His problematic right ankle has caused him to miss four straight games and he was administered a third cortisone shot on Monday – now he’ll take a few more days to decide whether or not surgery is the necessary route. All parties were hoping that a surgical procedure, while inevitable, could be put off until the offseason, but the discomfort has recently made playing impossible. If he were to have surgery, the preliminary timetable for recovery is three to four weeks.
• Apparently Ron Artest‘s ankle feels “great” today and it’s a “great, great sign” that it’s gotten better. Color me skeptical. Also in that blurb – Yao Ming will play Wednesday “for sure.”
• With Andray Blatche out two to four weeks with a knee injury, (very) deep leaguers will want to consider picking up JaVale McGee. Keep expectations modest: in 13 starts on the season, McGee has averaged 6.4 boards, 3.5 points, and 1.4 blocks in 15 minutes. With that said, the Wizards are just about out of bigs and McGee has per-30 minute averages of 12.1 points, 7.7 boards, 0.9 steals, and 2.1 blocks. Darius Songaila will also figure in the playing time situation.
• In other young Wizards’ starters news: Dominic McGuire posted another unconventional line on Monday (4 points, 1 board, 7 assists, 0 turnovers, 4 steals, 1 block) to push his averages over the past five games to the following: 5 points on 43 percent shooting, 6.8 boards, 4.2 assists, 2.2 turnovers, 2.4 steals, and 1.4 blocks.
what up booz!? i love ur articles once again and VERY interested to see who tops the curry line!
Bynum should be punished for that shot on GW. looked like Fedor putting out Arlovski the other night (that’s some MMA for those of you who don’t know). i don’t think he intended to hurt him, but he certainly didn’t try to NOT hurt him either, and he’s too big of a guy to throw his elbows around like that.
im lookin for the next millsap…wheres he at booz?
aren’t we all… i’m not sure who takes the mantle from millsap as ‘most likely to succeed as a starter’, but guys like louis williams, rudy fernandez, and jason maxiell come to mind. one guy who i’d love to see starting on a regular basis – ronny turiaf
cmon rt. ya, he was hit hard, but thats part of professional sports. g. wallace is way too fragile for a man his size! good thing hes playin in this era, not the 80′s, the bad boys would of loved him! lol. i think everyone would agree…thats what centers are for and every team needs one ( that is a guy whos gonna put some fear into anyone driving to the hoop). i hope the nba doesnt get to carried away and gives bynum a fine, nothin more. good to know the outcome of the fedor fight. anyone who is familiar with mma knows he’s one of, if not the best heavyweight in thre world!
I agree it is part of professional sports: Football, Hockey, and MMA. i have no problem with hard fouls but when you’re 300+ pounds you can’t just go through a guy without pads like a safety taking out a WR over the middle. i wouldn’t call for more than a fine and/or a 1 game suspension since i don’t know of any history of goonery for AB, but you can’t compromise the health of the players like that (even if GW is one of the most fragile players in the league). i believe that K. Malone should have been suspended for all those elbows he threw, to give you an idea of my general stance on that kind of play. and yes, fedor is nasty (although he was getting beat b4 the KO).
I don’t think Bynum should get suspended at all… yes it was probably a flagrant foul but it just looked like he reacted to the drive thinking about blocking it but then was too slow and backed out at the end. Unfortunately, Bynum is a very big guy and very strong so when he raised his arms to protect himself, GW caught an elbow to his chest.
That’s why it looks like to me… he certainly doesn’t deserve a comment like “a hockey goon”. It sucks that this happened but I hope nothing will come of it; he’s playing really well as of late.
Bynum should not be suspended. I was expecting to see Wallace get blind-sided or clotheslined. Bynum really did nothing other than slide in front of Wallace and start to put his arm up at the last second… It’s not like he swung at Wallace or anything.
Wallace is made of glass, we all know that. He’s been offered to me twice this year and I’ve rejected both times because I knew he would inevitably be injured.
And on an important note… He needs to do something about that Coolio hairstyle, it looks so ridiculously bad.
some interesting takes and obviously it’s subjective. watching the last slow-mo replay, it’s seems pretty clear to me that bynum was in complete control of his actions – he stepped, raised his elbow, leaned into it, and was well in position to absorb the hit. i’d be more willing to say there was some follow-through before i’d say he was ‘backing out’ or ‘trying to protect himself’
and wallace’s injury in this case has ZERO to do with his penchant for it. hold up your arm and give yourself a few taps where g-wall took that elbow – it’s a sensitive area when you do that, let alone when you are moving forward at full momentum and a 275 lb person throws an elbow there. do you think you get a collapsed lung from being injury-prone?
You make a good case for Wallace, but I’m not buying it. I looked at the play again. Bynum didn’t get in front of Wallace in time, he initially went for the ball, but Wallace jumped and raised the ball above his head. Bynum never left his feet. It looks like Bynum is throwing an elbow just because you see his elbow point up. But what do you expect, Wallace was elevating when Bynum’s elbow hit Wallace, so it’s going to pull the elbow up.
It’s not Bynum’s fault he’s 50 lbs heavier than Wallace. If someone runs into Shaq at full speed and get’s hurt in the process, it’s not Shaq’s fault.
Freak injury or not. He’s injury prone.
the difference between running into shaq and shaq running into you is pretty substantial
Fine.
But Wallace is made of glass. There’s plenty of big collisions every night, and Wallace is the only one who ends up with a collapsed lung.
Wallace obviously needs to learn the power of chi. I’ve seen a guy get punched in the throat by 3 guys at the same time and it does nothing to him.
I don’t think Bynum should be suspended. Sure, he could have made more of an effort to go after the ball, but I think he was trying to wrap Wallace up to prevent the easy bucket. After all, what did Wallace think was going to happen driving the lane with two bigs parked in the paint? They weren’t going to just stand around and let him dunk without moving to contest or at least foul him. That’s why his nickname’s “Crash”; he’s always driving too strong to the hole regardless of the defenders in the area. Next thing you know he’s slamming into trees like stormtroopers in Return of the Jedi. Not guilty, your honor.
I like to see some effort and desire to the win, especially because it is still regular season, but i got G. Wallace on my roster so im not too happy about it anymore.. jeez Bynum, should have slapped him around a lil bit not take him out for couple of months..
I may be the only person to notice this since I have both on my team, but Lebron and Chris Paul seem to get triple doubles together…
Paul got a triple double on 12/30/08, then Lebron gets one on 1/2/09.
Lebron got one on 1/13/09, then Paul got one on 1/14/09.
Paul got one on 1/26/09, then Lebron gets one 1/27/09.
Hopefully for my fantasy team’s sake, they’ll continue to answer each other’s triple doubles for the rest of the season.
that’s probably as rare of a pairing as you’ll find in fantasy, for obvious reasons. congrats for that, at least
just wondering if I can get in your league if they let you get Paul and LBJ on the same squad????
It’s a keeper league and I also have Durant and Bosh.
We might be replacing a new manager, so if you’re seriously interested. I’ll let my commish know. It’s a 3 sport keeper league.
nba, nfl, mlb????
Yeah. And I think some of them do a NHL league together, but it’s not a keeper. I don’t know anything about hockey, nor do I care about hockey so I don’t play in that league.
5 keepers in basketball.
5 keepers in baseball.
3 keepers in football.
Ashley, if you’ve got C-Paul and LeBron, you can win your league with Pervis Ellison as your starting center.
About the Dunleavy/Anderson shpeel…Knowing which categories to put the most effort into is HUGE in roto leagues. If you have points to gain in blocks, keep Anderson in there until Dunleavy hits his stride over an 8 game stretch.
Roto and H2H are completely different things, especially with game maximums involved. It’s worth alot of attention, especially when you’re down to splitting hairs over your last starter.
A team with Dwight Howard, Rajon Rondo and Josh Smith is a sick base for a H2H team, but good luck winning a roto league with those 3 all on your team unless it’s at least 30% inactive teams.
Another question: In roto leagues without a turnover category, how much do guys who are top 10 in TOs go up in value? And how much do guys like ‘Sheed and Von Wafer go down?
I’m in 3rd place. Next year will by my year. I’ve traded away too much overall talent this year to get stud keepers.
1st place has Wade, Caron Butler, Mo Williams, David West, Brand, Stuckey, Shaq.
2nd place has Nash, Tmac, Iguodala, Amare, Devin Harris, Rashard Lewis, Harrington, Dwight Howard, David Lee, Tony Parker
The bottom teams in your league must not have shit.
The last place team is kinda tanking. All his keepers are injured. He’ll have two 1st rd picks and two 2nd rd picks in the draft that he’s gotten from some trades. He has Kevin Martin, Baron Davis, Carlos Boozer, Gerald Wallace, Yao Ming, Oden, Jason Richardson, and Eric Gordon.
9th place – Bynum, Calderon, Rudy Gay, Monta Ellis, Peja, Jason Terry, Brook Lopez, Gilbert Arenas.
8th place – Brandon Roy, Vince Carter, Duhon, Garnett, Nowitzki, Biedrins, Ray Allen, Jameer Nelson.
I wouldn’t consider that shit. Everyone in the league has pretty solid teams, 5 solid keepers atleast. It just depends on who stays healthy.
I have the best keepers with Lebron, Durant, CP3, Bosh, and Westbrook… But I’m losing this week to Kobe, Duncan, and Billups. So just because I have really good keepers, doesn’t mean I’m guaranteed a championship every year.
daniel,
basketballmonster has your answer…
http://basketballmonster.com/playerrankings.aspx
a few interesting links that were passed on to me:
http://www.intelihealth.com/IH/ihtIH/WSIHW000/9339/23665.html
“…a collapsed lung usually will return to normal within 48 to 72 hours. Recovering from a collapsed lung may take up to several weeks.”
http://www.sportsinjuryclinic.net/cybertherapist/front/chest/ribfracture.htm
“If it is not a severe fracture then you should be back in action from between 3 to 6 weeks so long as you rest.”
God damnit… No Danny Granger. That pisses me off. Where was the update on him Buser!!
I’m just kidding, no way to know if the only place that shows it is the team site 20 minutes before tip.
keep in mind that the team has no reason to not give him as much time as he needs – the pacers play back to backs on fri/sat against mia/nyk, so don’t think of him as anything other than questionable right now
http://blogs.indystar.com/pacersinsider/archives/2009/01/you_better_hope.html
Thank you.
wow, GW looks like will be out 3-6 weeks. I sense a strong buzzindex drop. And MB, i agree it looks more like a follow through than what I had said before. Nevertheless it looks unintentional on Bynum’s part.
great site you got here buser…
i come here to you and everyone else for a little bit of advice and suggestion…
standard h2h + A/T, PF, and TECH *dont y the other 3 CATs was included*
heres my team
tparker, aparker, LBJ, hinrich, ellis, bigZ, kaman, pgasol, blopez, rondo, rallen, dunleavy, posey…
i just pick up posey since redd got INJ… for his 3s
im looking to drop posey and dunleavy… or either… for a bigs or another G/F
and heres the thing with love producing do you see him dropping off…
and also whats up with dunleavy… i know granger is killing… should i waste my time on him or what…
thanks for your time buser..
first thing i’ll say is that with those settings, in general, you want to overload your team with guards because (1) bigs foul more often and (2) guards dominate A:TO
you are probably at a point where you should consider punting 3ptm. i would think about dealing guys like allen and posey (whose strength is mostly wasted for you) for some help in steals, FT%, or just in general elsewhere. kaman is a low AST:TO AND high fouling big, so it’s a double-whammy there
hey Buser i dropped Blatche to pick up Pietrus in my head to head league? do you think i did the right thing? i considered dropping him because i read from the news that he’ll be out for 4 weeks and i still have 4 centers in my team(B.Miller,Dwight,Bogut,Nene)
yeah blatche wasn’t quite at a high enough level that waiting around for him to return was a necessity. just keep tabs on his recovery and for a heads up when he’s starting to get closer to coming back
Is it still possible for Larry Hughes to get traded? He’s the only FA I’m keeping an eye on now.
slim pickings eh? the trade with new jersey looks questionable now and there’s not exactly a huge market for his services otherwise
http://blogs.nypost.com/sports/nets/archives/2009/01/moving_on_they.html
Do you think that Eric Gordon is going to drop in value with BD back? I know he will probably shift to the SG spot but he likes to have the ball in his hands a lot like Baron. So is Gordon’s prowess short-lived or does he carry on?
Yeah, I definitely feel that Gordon value will take a significant hit in the next couple of weeks as the Clips “real” starters get back in the mix. So much of Gordon’s value is in the amount of shots he takes and B-diddy and Z-bo will be getting there fair share of shots as they get eased back in. Camby was getting a fair amount of shots also before he got injured and not to mention Kaman will be back in a few weeks as well. I’d hold on to him over the next couple of weeks in case another injury bites which is pretty much inevitable with the Clips but I’d also consider dropping him depending on whose available on waivers.
i think it’s somewhat inevitable. looking at his january numbers:
21.4 pts, 15.9 FGA, .419 FG%, 1.8 3pt, 6.9 FTA, 4.3 ast, 2.9 to, 1 stl, 0.5 blk
the pts will come down via his FGA and FTA taking a hit, but his FG% could improve with davis taking some heat off of him. maybe the defensive numbers come up a bit when he isn’t so heavily relied on in the offense? that may be wishful thinking – i wouldn’t pull the plug, but be ready for the numbers to come down in general
I just picked up Domenick McGuire the other day, and yesterday he comes up with probably his best line of the season: 545 1.000 0 16PT 5RB 3AS 1ST 1BL 1TO. Although, as you state, his lines are typically unconventional, is worth it as a low end keeper, or more appropriate for streaming at this point? He probably won’t keep up at 16 pt per game level, but how do you see his upside?
yeah considering he’s scored in double figures three times in 21 starts, he’s not going to start lighting it up any time soon. but he’s got an interesting mix of skills and athleticism and you have to like the numbers in his final season at fresno state:
13.5 pts, 9.8 reb, 3.6 blk, 0.9 stl, 3.3 ast, 3.7 to
i think by the end of the season he’ll have warranted consideration in standard leagues
Jason Thompson? Thoughts? Need a consistent rebounder.
Just traded Millsap for Lewis.
Lineup: Nelson, Wade, Calderon, Marion, Lewis, Bosh, Camby, Hilario, Peja.S, Marv. Williams, Bargnani, Iverson, Maggette, Pietrus, Bonner.
If Jason Thompson has enough value who would u consider dropping for him?
i think it’s safe to drop bonner from that squad and pick up thompson. you are just fine in 3PTM and pick up boards and scoring