I was a guest on RotoRadio on Monday, a podcast run by RotoExperts.com. Topics included the top five overall picks, how to handle Dwight Howard, where to draft Rashard Lewis, the buzz around Anthony Randolph, and the Memphis Grizzlies, among others. Click the play button on the widget below to listen.

• In the wake of averaging 562 three-point attempts in a three-season stretch from 2004-07, Gilbert Arenas says he’s “trying to take less than 100″ this coming season, opting instead to attack the basket and shoot “for percentage”. Um, say what? Fantasy owners investing in the second round had better hope for a shooting percentage in the mid-50′s in the (unlikely) scenario where he’s only offering 0.5 threes per game.

• Al Jefferson lost 31 pounds this off-season, going from 293(!) to 262, in the hopes that it will help his knee get to and stay at 100 percent. He figures to be at least somewhat limited in camp as a precaution.

• Things continue to deteriorate in Golden State. An eventful media day included Stephen Jackson reiterating his trade request because he feels the team “keeps taking steps back”.

“Every year I’ve lost somebody that I felt helped me get to that, with Baron (Davis), Jason (Richardson), Al (Harrington),” Jackson said. “It felt like I’m next. You know what I mean? It feels like we’re not getting better.”

Monta Ellis spiced things up when he replied “Can’t. We just can’t” to a question about his sharing the court with Stephen Curry. He compared when he played with Baron Davis to the potential pairing with Curry:

“You’ve got a nine-year veteran who’s been in the game, who understands the game, knows how to play the game, and he’s a big body. You can’t put two small guys out there and try to play the 1 and the 2 when you’ve got big 2 guards in the league. You just can’t do it. OK, yes, we’re going to move up and down fast, but eventually the game is going to slow down. You can’t do it.”

(more…)

* Sign up for a busersports.com invitational league in the new forum here. Adding your performance record to the Yahoo! Fantasy Profile Registry is the first part of the registration process – if you have yet to do that, please visit this forum thread for instructions.

** All mock draft arrangements will now take place in the forum, as well. Sign-ups for the next mock are currently underway…

*** The latest ADP Report (updated today) can be found here. And a printable draft sheet can be found here. Feel free to bookmark, as those links do not change.

The message board is up and running and can be found at the following link: http://busersports.com/forum

It is not a WordPress board, so you will need to (re-)register once you make the jump over. And please keep in mind that, since it has just gone live, it may still have some kinks that need to be ironed out. Let’s call this our beta phase. Please use the “Site Questions, Comments, and Suggestions” forum at the bottom to report any issues, as well as propose any ideas for making the board a better place to post.

And be on the lookout as I start organizing the busersports.com invitational leagues within the next few days – the forum will make it much easier to get it done.

NBA camps are opening as we speak, and over the coming weeks we’re be breaking down all the specifics to get you prepared for your drafts. For now, however, let’s cast a wide net and get a refresh on off-season of player movement, project what Round 1 might look like in your league’s draft if it were to happen today, and take a look at the major storylines for each team heading into the 2009-10 preseason.

Changes of Address – a run-down of notable players with new digs

• Vince Carter (from NJN to ORL)- takes over Hedo’s high-usage role with Magic; poised for another big season, with plenty of motivation on a contender near his hometown

• Hedo Turkoglu (from ORL to TOR)- don’t expect a drop-off in offensive counting stats, but his roller-coaster FG% is a bit harder to gauge

• Charlie Villanueva (from MIL to DET) – will play a ton and has career per-36 averages of 18.2 points, 1.2 threes, 8.6 boards, 0.8 steals, and 0.8 blocks

• Ron Artest (from HOU to LAL) – a great mutual fit; he brings intensity they need and their stable of talent should help him improve his efficiency

• Shawn Marion (from TOR to DAL) – the glory days have passed him by, but the long-time No.1 fantasy pick should flash plenty of game playing off Kidd and Dirk

• Emeka Okafor (from CHA to NOR) – is there any reason to see sharing the court with CP3 as anything but a positive?

• Ben Gordon (from CHI to DET) – back to super-sub role behind Rip after starting 76 games and averaged 37 minutes last season

• Andre Miller (from PHI to POR) – Miller will help the Blazers speed up their plodding offense and frees Brandon Roy to concentrate a bit more on scoring the ball

• Shaquille O’Neal (from PHO to CLE) – healthy and motivated in the wake of Kobe Bryant’s fourth ring, but regular-season numbers are not the focus here

(more…)

Here are the links to two weekend mock drafts:

Mock #29 (standard h2h) – Saturday, 9/26, 12pm PT/3pm ET
Mock #30 (standard roto) – Sunday, 9/27, 12pm PT/3pm ET

The usual disclaimers apply: Please only sign up if you can and will fully participate – autopicks serve us little-to-no purpose. Please wait to sign up if you aren’t sure about your availability as opposed to filling a spot “just in case”. And if you do sign up and then realize that you can’t participate for whatever reason, please remove your team and give someone else the opportunity to join. The password for all mock drafts is “busersports”. Click the “Test Your Computer” link on the right side of the page if you have yet to take part in a draft – it’s not completely unusual for someone to experience issues with the applet.

And it’s recommended that, instead of relying on the MDC ranks, you download and/or print a draft sheet, available here (links in the “File” drop-down menu).

The folks over at Mock Draft Central have noticed how much we’ve been utilizing their mock drafts and have graciously offered free premium access through October 12 to busersports.com users. All you need to do is post your MDC username in a comment below and I’ll pass it along. Once I’ve added your username to the list, I’ll delete your comment.

Advantages to the premium access include the ability to create custom mock drafts, unlimited participation in MDC mocks, and access to their detailed draft postion reports. You can view the full list of benefits here.  I encourage you all to take advantage and spread the word about MDC’s great product.

Note: try to post something like “My MDC username is _____” instead of your username only. Some of the initial one-word posts were getting filtered as spam.

Join me for a chat on Thursday (3pm PT, 6pm ET). We can cover a wide range of topics, and I’ll let all of you dictate where the discussion goes for the most part – we can cover specifics about past mock drafts and the current ADP spreadsheet, the big stories leading into the opening of NBA camps, specific players or strategies as draft prep ramps up even further, etc. We will also set the stages for the busersports.com invitational leagues. I hope you can join me!

Here are the links to two more mock drafts, one Wednesday evening and one Thursday mid-day:

Mock #27 (standard h2h) – Wednesday 9/23, 4pm PT/7pm ET
Mock #28 (standard roto) – Thursday 9/24, 11am PT/2pm ET

The usual disclaimers apply: Please only sign up if you can and will fully participate – autopicks serve us little-to-no purpose. Please wait to sign up if you aren’t sure about your availability as opposed to filling a spot “just in case”. And if you do sign up and then realize that you can’t participate for whatever reason, please remove your team and give someone else the opportunity to join. The password for all mock drafts is “busersports”. Click the “Test Your Computer” link on the right side of the page if you have yet to take part in a draft – it’s not completely unusual for someone to experience issues with the applet.

And it’s recommended that, instead of relying on the MDC ranks, you download and/or print a draft sheet, available here (links in the “File” drop-down menu).

Here are the links to two mock drafts for Tuesday, 9/22.

Mock #25 (standard h2h) – 11am PT/2pm ET
Mock #26 (standard roto) – 4pm PT/7pm ET

The usual disclaimers apply: Please only sign up if you can and will fully participate – autopicks serve us little-to-no purpose. Please wait to sign up if you aren’t sure about your availability as opposed to filling a spot “just in case”. And if you do sign up and then realize that you can’t participate for whatever reason, please remove your team and give someone else the opportunity to join. The password for all mock drafts is “busersports”. Click the “Test Your Computer” link on the right side of the page if you have yet to take part in a draft – it’s not completely unusual for someone to experience issues with the applet.

And it’s recommended that, instead of relying on the MDC ranks, you download and/or print a draft sheet, available here (links in the “File” drop-down menu).

Given the small amount of players with PF- or C-only eligibility in the Yahoo! game, I’ve grouped the two together for our purposes here. Keep in mind that players with (SF,PF) eligibility will also be shown in the list below. You can check out the latest version of the ADP spreadsheet here. Players that are being drafted before I’m comfortable taking them are identified in red, potential value picks are in green, and preferred deep targets are in blue.

(more…)

Please only sign up if you can and will fully participate – autopicks serve us little-to-no purpose. Please wait to sign up if you aren’t sure about your availability as opposed to filling a spot “just in case”. And if you do sign up and then realize that you can’t participate for whatever reason, please remove your team and give someone else the opportunity to join. Here’s the upcoming schedule:

Mock #21 (standard h2h) – Thursday, 9/17, 11am PT/2pm ET
Mock #22 (standard roto) – Thursday, 9/17, 4pm PT/7pm ET
Mock #23 (standard h2h) – Friday, 9/18, 11am PT/2pm ET
Mock #24 (standard h2h) – Friday, 9/18, 4pm PT/7pm ET

The usual disclaimers apply: the password for all mock drafts is “busersports”. Click the “Test Your Computer” link on the right side of the page if you have yet to take part in a draft – it’s not completely unusual for someone to experience issues with the applet.

And it’s recommended that, instead of relying on the MDC ranks, you download and/or print a draft sheet, available here (links in the “File” drop-down menu).

The ADP spreadsheet on google docs has been updated to reflect recent drafts, and I’ve also dropped a few of the earliest mocks from the equation to keep the info a bit tighter. You can check out the spreadsheet here.

Below you’ll fin the ADP info for all SF-eligible players, broken down by round. I’ve identified players that are going a bit earlier than I’d prefer to take them in red and players that I see as potential value picks in green.

(more…)

Let’s get those mock drafts – and subsequent ADP info – rolling again. Here’s the upcoming schedule:

Mock #15 (standard h2h) – Thursday, 9/10, 5pm PT/8pm ET
Mock #16 (standard h2h) – Friday, 9/11, 2:30pm PT/5:30pm ET
Mock #17 (standard roto) – Saturday, 9/12, 11am PT/2pm ET
Mock #18 (10-team h2h) – Monday, 9/14, 4pm PT/7pm ET
Mock #19 (standard roto) – Tuesday, 9/15, 11am PT/2pm ET

The usual disclaimers apply: the password for all mock drafts is “busersports”. Please only sign up if you can and will fully participate; autopicks serve us little purpose, so wait to sign up if you aren’t sure about your availability as opposed to filling a spot “just in case”. Click the “Test Your Computer” link on the right side of the page if you have yet to take part in a draft – it’s not completely unusual for someone to experience issues with the applet.

And it’s recommended that, instead of relying on the MDC ranks, you download and/or print a draft sheet, available here (links in the “File” drop-down menu).

The poll regarding anticipated return on investment from the top 12 point guards by way of average draft position fostered some very good discussion, so let’s keep it going. You’ll find an ADP breakdown for shooting guards below, as well as a new poll to the right. Let’s talk reaches, value picks, and potential draft strategy in general for the position.

(more…)

Mock #14 is complete, with standard h2h assumed as the scoring. Here are links to pick-by-pick results (also posted below) and team results.

(more…)