Knicks Dancers

New York Knicks Preview

Will Randolph and Curry coexist AND succeed? Will Stephon Marbury retain his elite PG status? Will David Lee repeat his waiver wire hall of fame status of last year? These and more are all the questions that surround the Knicks this year. They believe in themselves, but should you believe in them?? Isiah loves redundancy. The last major trade he did was getting Steve Francis, when he already had Marbury. How did that work out? Oh, he traded Francis for Randolph when he already has Eddy Curry!! I don’t understand it, but maybe this one will work better. Actually, Curry had a bum shoulder and he’s never been the type of player to play through injuries, which would actually work out great for the Knicks. That would give Randolph the low block, where he’s much better than Curry at scoring AND rebounding, and it would force David Lee into the starting lineup. The Knicks would be a much better team if they had those two starting and playing the bulk of the minutes. Bring Curry off the bench for crying out loud, but Isiah won’t do that. He gave up too much for him (two top 10 draft picks). Enough about my thoughts, let’s look at it:

Projected starting lineup with last year’s stats:
Stats follow this format – Points, Rebounds, Assists, Steals, Blocks, FG percentage & Minutes

PG – Stephon Marbury
16.4 – 2.9 – 5.4 – 0.96 – 0.14 – 42% & 37 min

SG – Jamal Crawford
17.6 – 3.2 – 4.4 – 0.97 – 0.14 – 40% & 37 min

SF – Quentin Richardson
13 – 7.2 – 2.2 – 0.73 – 0.14 – 42% & 33 min

PF – Zach Randolph
23.6 – 10.1 – 2.2 – 0.78 – 0.22 – 47% & 36 min

C – Eddy Curry
19.5 – 7 – 0.8 – 0.42 – 0.49 – 58% – 35 min

Key Bench Players

David Lee
Jared Jefferies
Ranaldo Balkman
Nate Robinson
Mardy Collins

They can score, but can they stop anyone?? Their system is not exactly set up to “outscore” their opponent, so I have my doubts.

PG
Stephon was once one of the best PG in all of fantasy basketball, averaging 20 points, 8 assists and 3 boards per game, but he has been 16 points, 6 assists and 3 boards the last two years. Granted, he has been battling some injuries, and sharing duties with Steve Franchise (though he was barely on the court as well). I don’t expect him to go up to 20 ppg, because they have two very good low post scorers, so he won’t be asked to score as much, and I don’t see his assits going up to either because he’ll be passing into the post a lot, which isn’t condusive to dimes. Basically, he should have about the same year, maybe marginally better. Nate Robinson is the backup and I love his confidence and atheltic ability, but he’s another scoring point guard. In fact, when he’s on the court he dominates the ball and takes away from the game plan of feeding the bigs down low, so I think his minutes will be limited, unless he can learn to pass first and not worry about proving that he belongs in the league by scoring every chance he gets.

SG
Jamal Crawford is a very underrated guard in fantasy. You can get him late and he’ll give you 17, 3 & 4. That’s pretty good for a number two guard. The bad thing with Crawford is his consistency. He’ll give you a great game, followed by a HORRIBLE game. You never know what you’re going to get. Mardy Collins will be backing him up, but there’s not much value there.

SF
Quentin Richardson has the talent to be a very good fantasy player, and he is in spurts with his scoring and rebounding, but on this team, this year… he won’t be. He’ll have a few good games, but not enough to make it worth owning. Jared Jefferies and Ranaldo Balkman are backing him up, but the same goes for them. Don’t draft any of these players.

PF
Zach was dominant in Portland averaging 23 & 10, but he needed 19 shots per game to do that, AND he camped out on the low block to pick up a lot of easy rebounds. He won’t get either of those two luxuries this year, unless Curry goes down with an injury (which is likely). I see 18 points and 8 or 9 boards per game, which isn’t bad, except that he won’t give you ANYTHING else in the other categories. No assits, no steals and no blocks. He’s an average forward at best. UNLESS Curry goes down with an injury, then he’ll be the same Zach he’s always been. That’s why I’m saying draft him. He is by far the best Knick to own this year, just don’t spend a high pick on him.

C
Eddy Curry will score around 16 – 19 points, but he won’t grab more than 7 boards, and he won’t pass the damn ball and he won’t block a freaking shot and he won’t steal a ball, so… stay away!!! I actually want to talk about David Lee here. He’s damn good, no doubt about it. He shoots 60%. Hustles and grabs boards at a phenominal rate. He averaged 10 points and 10 boards last year with only 30 minutes per game. How many minutes will he get this year? I imagine less. Probably around 25 or so, which is a shame. He should be on the court more than any other player on this damn team. Which is why the Knicks will go nowhere this year.

So the Knicks are thinking playoffs and I’m saying, HELL NO!! Zach Randolph, Stephon Marbury and Jamal Crawford are the only players worth owning (oh, and David Lee if Isiah gets smart). However, like I have said more than a few times here, if someone goes down (Curry) with an injury, then Zach and David will BALL!

76ers Dancers

Philadelphia 76ers Preview

We all know the 76ers traded away the most popular and arguably the best player in francise history, Allen Iverson. Remarkably, they won more games without him last year, thanks to AI Jr, Andre Iguodala. He’s a stud, plain and simple. They also got Andre Miller in the deal, which is tremendous. Andre is one of the most underrated point guards in the league. The problem with the 76ers is that after Iggy and Miller, they don’t have another player that would start on a majority of NBA teams, well that’s not true. Dalembert would start for a majority of teams, but after being in the league for 5 years he’s never lived up to his promise. Maybe this is the year. Still, once you get past those three, not another player on this team would even crack the starting lineup of another NBA team. They are all good role players, which would be nice, if you had 2 or three superstars to lead them, which the 76ers do not. Let’s look the team:

Projected starting lineup with last year’s stats:
Stats follow this format – Points, Rebounds, Assists, Steals, Blocks, FG percentage & Minutes

PG – Andre Miller
13.4 – 4.4 – 7.8 – 1.38 – 0.13 – 47% & 37 min

SG – Willie Green
11.3 – 2.1 – 1.5 – 0.76 – 0.05 – 41% & 25 min

SF – Andre Iguodala
18.2 – 5.7 – 5.7 – 2 – 0.43 – 45% & 40 min

PF – Reggie Evans
4.9 – 7 – 0.70 – 0.64 – 0.24 – 54% & 17 min

C – Samuel Dalembert
10.7 – 8.9 – 0.80 – 0.57 – 1.94 – 54% & 31 min

Key Bench Players

Rodney Carney
Kyle Korver
Louis Williams
Thaddeus Young
Jason Smith
Calvin Booth

PG
Andre Miller is a very good point guard. In fact, he’s at his best when he’s one of the best playmakers on his team, because he has excellent court vision and is stupendous at dripple penetration and dishing out to the open man. His best years were when he was in Cleveland, because they needed him to truly run the offense. He made guys like Lamond Murray, Wesley Person and Ricky Davis (before anyone knew who the hell Ricky was) matter. Andre averaged 16.5 ppg, 10.9 assits with 4.7 boards that year (01-02 season). I expect something simliar this year. The assists won’t be above 10, but they will likely be around 9, and Andre is an excellent rebounding point guard, so he’ll be over 4 boards per game. His scoring will also be needed this year, so he’ll average 15 – 16 points. Using this logic, I wonder who will be the “Lamond Murray or Wesley Person” of this year??? That’s what makes this team so interesting from a fantasy perspective. I see Louis Williams as the backup PG because he had an excellent summer and they need to develop young talent this year, and Kevin Ollie…. really??

SG
This is the mystery position. Who will start? I think Willie Green has the upper hand because of his experience, but he didn’t really do much last year to warrant another shot at it. I would have Rodney Carney starting here, becuase he’s their best young talent behind Iggy. He has a nice three point shot and it super athletic. Carney and Iggy could really lead this team, if Carney is able to develop into what a lot of people see. Maybe that’s why Willie will end up starting. Maybe Carney needs more time before he’s thrown into the fire??? This is only his second year, so he’s got time. He’ll be very very good. Kyle Korver is the third man here, but he’ll also play some three (as will Carney). Korver has a gorgeous shot, but he doesn’t bring much else to the table, and he tends to force his shot at times.

SF
I could write a disertation about Andre Iguodala, he’s that good. What surprised most people (not me or anyone else who followed his first two years in the league) was his scoring ability. Experts like to focus on his passing, his hustle stats, or his defense; which are all great, but his scoring gets lost in the fray. Well, not anymore. He can flat out light it up. He was only one of 4 players to average at least 18 points, 5 boards and 5 assists per game (Kobe, LeBron and T-Mac were the other three). The last 29 games he averaged 20, 6.7 & 6.1. He scored 20+ points 33 times and 30+ four times. He also recorded three triple doubles and was only one of just four players to have multiple triple doubles last year. So why not expect 20, 6 & 6 this year with 2 steals!!! That is incredible, and he’s only 23 years old. Thaddeus Young will back him up, who is also a good young prospect.

PF
Reggie Evans is a great hustle guy, who loves to rebound, but he won’t give you anything more than that. He is best served as a role player off the bench, so it will be interesting to see how he handles a full time role. He has the ablility to be one of the top rebounders in the league; we’ll have to wait and see. Jason Smith is his backup and the player they drafted for the future. He has a great shot, and is a good rebounder. It will be fun to watch him as he progresses.

C
Samuel Dalembert is a mystery. He has the talent to be one of the leading rebounders in the league, much like Tyson Chandler was last year, but Dalembert’s offensive game is much better than Chandler’s, so the question is…. when will it all click with Sam? This is his 6th year, so I hope he it all comes together now. Sam is routinely injured, although he did play all 82 games last year, but he is bothered by a stress fracture in his foot right now and is missing preseason games. He’s actually one of my favorite sleepers, so I pray he gets it done. Plus his team REALLY needs him.

Although this team is young, they have a good coach in Maurice Cheeks and they have a lot of heart. It wouldn’t surprise me if they built on their win totals from last year and won close to 40 games, BUT it also wouldn’t surprise me if they only won 25-30 games. From a fantasy perspective, I would only draft Iguodala, Miller and Dalembert and take a flyer on Carney or Jason Smith in very deep leagues. Reggie has value as well, if all you care about are rebounds.

Raptors Dance Team

Toronto Raptors Preview

Toronto is being touted as the Suns of the east, and that is very true. Everyone is writing, “They won’t sneak up on anyone.” That’s right, but they didn’t win 47 games by sneaking up on people, they won because the are good, and they will be even better this year. That’s not to say they will be 3rd in the east like last year, because the east has gotten much better, but they will be very good. Bargnani is developing nicely, and Kapono only helps their cause. The points guards are the best combination in the league and Anthony Parker is a great role player for this team.

Projected starting lineup with last year’s stats:
Stats follow this format – Points, Rebounds, Assists, Steals, Blocks, FG percentage & Minutes

PG – TJ Ford
14 – 3.1 – 7.9 – 1.35 – 0.11 – 44% & 30 min

SG – Anthony Parker
12.4 – 3.9 – 2.1 – 1 – 0.15 – 48% & 33 min

SF – Jason Kapono
10.9 – 2.7 – 1.2 – 0.57 – 0.03 – 50% & 26 min

PF – Chris Bosh
22.6 – 10.7 – 2.5 – 0.57 – 1.3 – 50% & 39 min

C – Andrea Bargnani
11.6 – 3.9 – 0.8 – 0.49 – 0.82 – 43% & 25 min

Key Bench Players

Jose Calderon
Juan Dixon
Carlos Delfino
Joey Graham
Jorge Garbajosa
Rasho Nesterovic

PG
TJ Ford is extremely talented and his stats woud be better, if he got more minutes, but that’s not going to happen because he has the best backup point guard in the league behind him, Jose Calderon. They are both extremely effective at running this offense, and their strengths are each other’s weaknesses, which is why they work so well together. Even still TJ is a good point guard to have on your team. You can see above that he’ll give you decent points with good assists and decent rebounds for a guard.

SG
Anthony Parker won’t give you much in the way of fantasy, but he’s great for this team in real life. He shoots a great percentage for a 2 guard and does whatever the team needs him to do on any given night. Juan Dixon will be the primary backup here, and he was well worth the trade for him. He can score and run the offense, but he won’t have much value in fantasy leagues. Carlos Delfino is the third man off the bench at SG because he hasn’t proven that he can be consistent in the NBA, so I have little hope for him, although he has the talent.

SF
Kapono was their big free agent this summer, so he will be starting, which is good, this was their weakest postion last year. He has an excellent 3 point shot, and he can score in other ways as well, but that’s about all he’ll give you… scoring. Joey Graham is the backup, and a good one at that. He is much more athletic and will crash the boards more than Kapono, but he doesn’t have the shot or the scoring ability of Kapono.

PF
Chris Bosh is the man! He’s one of the few 20/10 guys in the league, and he’s extremely versitile. I always hope for more assists, but I can’t complain since he’s blocking shots now. He is a true allstar and the heart of this team. Jorge Garbajosa will be coming off the bench and he’s a perfect fit for this team. He does a little bit of everything, but he won’t get the minutes, so he’s not worth a draft pick.

C
I’ve been impressed with Andrea Bargnani’s development. He’s a deadeye from three with a quick release. He can also take you off the dribble and finish at the rim as well. I would like to see more boards, but that may take a little more time. People are labeling him as a breakout candidate this year, and I agree somewhat. He’ll improve dramatically, but he won’t give you the boards you need from this position, no assists, blocks or steals. Basically, he’ll only give you scoring and threes this year, so if that’s what you need, then he’ll be great.

Scoring System

We have been in one fantasy league – Katy Legends – since 1999. Through the years we have adjusted and manipulated the scoring system. It is actually one of the most unique scoring systems I’ve seen. I guess the best way to describe it is… a Total Points scoring system. Here’s how it works (it’s quite simple):

A player gets plus or minus points for everything they do on the court. From the obvious stats like points, rebounds and etc to minutes played and missed field goals. We even have bonus points for double doubles, triple doubles (Jason Kidd was number 6 overall last year due in large part to his 12 triple doubles) and we even have a HUGE bonus if a player actually gets a quadruple double. We also deduct points for things like disqualifications, technical fouls and flagrant fouls. The accumulation of these points gives the player his total fantasy points for that particular night. In fact, here is a break down of our scoring:

Three Pointers Made 1 points
Assists 2 points
Blocks 3 points
Double Doubles 10 points
Disqualifications -5 points
Ejections -10 points
Flagrant Fouls -5 points
Free Throws Made 1 point
Free Throws Attempted .25 points
Missed Field Goals -.2 points
Missed Free Throws -.5 points
Minutes .1 point
Offensive Rebounds .5 points
Personal Fouls -2 points
Points 1 point
Quadruple Double 110 points
Steals 3 points
Triple Doubles 30 points
Technical Fouls -5 points
Total Rebounds 2 points

You can have up to 8 players active every night. 1 C, 2 F, 2G & 3 flex players. At the end of each night the system adds all the points each active player has given you for that day and that’s your total. The team with the most total points at the end of the regular season wins! It’s that straightforward.

We don’t like Head to Head leagues because it largely depends on how many games your players have that week, and we don’t like rotisserie leagues because it doesn’t encompass everything the players do on the court. Plus, rotisserie leagues give too much value to things that don’t mean as much in the real world of basketball. For example, yahoo came out with its preseason rankings:

http://sports.yahoo.com/fantasy/nba/news;_ylt=Au21ZncbBfiRMNF2.mJar5BNC5kB?slug=bf-bigboard-basketball

They have Dwight Howard ranked as the 47th best player in fantasy! ARE YOU KIDDING ME!! I will freely admit that I like D12 much more than most people, but that is ridiculous. Last year he averaged 17.6, 12.3 (3.5 offensive), 1.9 with 1.9 blocks and 60% field goal percentage, and he’s only 21 years old and had a horrible coach!! BUT he is ranked that low in rotisserie leagues because his FREE THROW percentage is only 59%. That will absolutely kill you in that category, so you can’t draft him very high, unless you are willing to loose that cat. It’s stupid. Simply stupid. This is like Shaq, before he got old and fat. His best statistical year was the 99-00 season. He averaged 29.7, 13.6 (4.3 offensive), 3.8 with 3 blks. His field goal percentage was 57%. BUT he was not the number one rated fantasy player in preseason, as he was in real life, because of his poor free throw percentage of 52%. That is a complete joke and not realistic. Every single NBA team would have LOVED to have Shaq on their team in his prime. Hell, most want him now and he’s well past the stage of the MDE status that he glossed himself with.

I’m not saying that Dwight Howard is Shaq (Not yet at least), but what I am saying is that roto or “8 cat” leagues do not correctly identify the most valuable players in the game. We feel like our system does just that. It gives a premium to players who dominate in the paint where the baskets are easier to make, and it rewards the hustle stats more than others (offensive rebounds, steals & blocks). It also punishes a player who hurts his teams with excessive fouls, technicals or ejections. It truly covers everything a player does on the court!

That being said, we plan on doing an experiment this year. We are going to join a rotisserie and head to head league and compare them to our league throughout the season. This will help us decide if our system really is the best, or if we are just extremely partial!