FanHouse Chris Douglas Roberts

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- Desperation oozed from every pore. If New York-area basketball hasn't reached its nadir, it's only because the NBA has a silly rule that some team must win. Otherwise, who knows how low this charade might go? The players might be the ones slipping paper bags over their heads, to match the fans' embarrassment as they sit in the stands and try not to rubberneck.

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Who's Got Next is a weekly look at some of the top players widely available on the waiver wires.

Obviously the biggest story this weekend was the injury to Chris Paul. We're now hearing that Paul is going to miss close to a month. That's the worst possible news. There's now way to replace a loss like that, but I already gave you a few tips on which point guards you should look to add in Paul's absence. So take a look at a few of those suggestions.

Now that we're looking at him missing up to a month, though, it might be time to make a move. I'm not sure how long you can live with Darren Collison as your point guard.

This waiver wire post focuses on which players to add, keeping in mind the schedule for the week ahead. It's slime pickings this week, but I can assure you that with the Timberwolves slated as the only team to play twice this week we can go ahead and knock Oleksiy Pecherov off the list.

Monday, the Nets faced practice without Devin Harris (groin), Courtney Lee (groin), Chris Douglas-Roberts (swine flu), Jarvis Hayes (hamstring), Tony Battie (knee), and Yi Jianlian (knee).

That's six guys, three of whom are considered vital components of the young and struggling team, leaving the squad eight players available for practice. And practice they did. Fortunately, one of Yi Jianlian's old nemeses was available to fill in and help out.

That's right. The Chairman was replaced by The Chair.

H1N1 has hit the NBA. The Nets announced Saturday afternoon that starting two-guard Chris Douglas-Roberts has come down with the dangerous virus, putting the player out of action and the rest of the team at risk.

Though the Nets have stunk, Douglas-Roberts has had a solid start to the season, a follow-up on a disappointing rookie campaign in which the University of Memphis product got little opportunity for New Jersey. CD-R missed Friday's game at Philadelphia with flu-like symptoms ... a rather prophetic diagnosis.

The Nets are limited to eight or nine players due to injury (Courtney Lee tweaked his groin Friday), so the team can't exactly afford to lose any others to illness. There have been no reports of the virus spreading in Nets locker room, and Nets PR says every precaution has been taken.

Later in the evening, Douglas-Roberts tweeted that he was in good spirits as the Nets hosted the Celtics: Let's go Netttsss!!! Cheering from the bed. I'm the flyest person who will ever have Swine Flu.

You kids and your Twitter. There's something about 140 characters to get your point across that just seems to make sense. The whole idea got me thinking that instead of dragging out some fantasy basketball column that you'll likely just skim over, what do you say I give you 50 fantasy basketball tips and observations in 140 characters or less. You have no vote in this matter, so you're getting them anyway.

These tips are not only designed for those of you who have yet to draft your fantasy teams, but they're also for those who are looking to improve on their post-draft squads. Hopefully this is a helpful way to get out as much information as possible while keepin' it mainstream.

FanHouse previews all 30 NBA teams in advance of the 2009-10 season.

The Nets finished last season with a 34-48 record, and then went ahead and traded their second-leading scorer, Vince Carter, to Orlando. Yet they head into the 2009-10 season with more optimism than a team in their position should rightfully have.

Hey, that's the wonder of cap space. Virtually all of what New Jersey had done over the past two or three seasons has been leading to the summer of free agency in 2010.

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This week, FanHouse is taking an early look at the top teams heading into 2008 with a BlogPoll decided on by our college hoops bloggers. To help with the team capsules, we've brought in some of the top fan bloggers around the internets to give us insights on their teams.

Today, we have enlisted Chris Vernon of Fox Sports Radio 730 AM in Memphis and Verno's Blog to break down the Memphis Tigers.

The way the season ended for the Memphis Tigers last year was totally devastating. Memphis ended the season 38-2 and many in Memphis still have a hard time thinking about the 38 wins. Rarely has there been such an amazing season that brought upon such intense disappointment.

Now that Derrick Rose, Chris Douglas Roberts, and Joey Dorsey have NBA contracts and Memphis looks to who will replace much of what made the team such a success in the previous few seasons. While Rose was only in Memphis for one year, CDR and Dorsey were key components of a team that went to the Elite 8 twice, and the Final Four (and championship game) once. With Dorsey in the middle, and Douglas Roberts on the wing, Memphis went 104-10 over the last three seasons.

Chris Douglas-Roberts didn't anticipate to freefall all the way to the 40th pick last week, but he plans on making the team who passed him up pay. "Big chip. Big. That's the biggest motivation I have. Getting picked 40, I'm gonna write a book," he said during his introductory press conference.

According to multiple published reports, CDR refused to work out for teams with a low first-round pick, apparently taking for granted that he'd be long gone before they'd have a chance to draft him. Once he slipped a few spots below what he anticipated, he was stuck in no man's land with a bunch of teams he shunned no longer showing any interest in him. Fortunately he had worked out for the Nets before the draft, though at the time he was thinking they'd take him 21st overall instead of 40th.

In any case, a lot of people have chided CDR for his arrogance, citing the fact that it cost him a chance at the guaranteed contract all first-round picks receive. But if CDR is half as good as he thinks he is, this will end up being a blessing in disguise.

You see, second-round picks who blossom into stars end up making the big dollars a lot sooner than their first-round counterparts. Gilbert Arenas, Mehmet Okur and Carlos Boozer are all examples of players who broke the bank after proving themselves their first two years in the league, quickly making up all the money they lost and then some. Had they been first-round picks, they wouldn't have had a chance to test the open market until after their fourth year in the league.

There was an interesting piece from A. Sherrod Blakely yesterday which discussed one of the possible reasons that Chris Douglas-Roberts fell all the way out of the first round to become the 40th overall pick in the NBA Draft. Basically, Blakely thinks that the fact that CDR was in the business of turning down workout requests from teams (like the Pistons) who were drafting in the area that he was projected to go in hurt his draft stock, and ultimately meant that Roberts, like a lot of athletes, just didn't get it.

The thing that disturbs me - and I would imagine, most fans - is how a lot of these soon-to-be-millionaires just don't seem to get it.

Playing in the NBA is more than just a job; it's a VIP pass into a lifestyle that few ever understand and even fewer gain admittance into. So to see draft prospects take all this for granted, before they even get to the league, is disturbing.

Blakely is speaking from the Pistons' perspective here, but given how far CDR fell from his projected first round draft spot (most mocks had him in the 20-25-ish range), it's likely that many other teams shared these feelings. Plus, the few teams that CDR did decide to work out for had less than glowing reviews. The biggest knock on him was that he wore down near the end of the workouts, and that he wouldn't be ready to contribute big minutes in his first NBA season. You would think a player would go through as many workouts as he could to dispel those negative perceptions, but obviously CDR (or his people) didn't feel it was necessary.

And as far as Roberts' thoughts on the Pistons? He supposedly made it clear to people on draft night that he had no interest in playing for Detroit, because he didn't feel that he fit with their style. I'm guessing he might have a difference of opinion if asked today, considering being drafted by the Pistons at 29 would have meant guaranteed first round money for the next three seasons.

Crystal Ballin' takes a team-by-team look at what should, could, and probably will happen in the June 26th NBA Draft.

After making big moves last summer (handing Rashard Lewis the keys to the bank, hiring Billy Donovan, cutting ties with Donovan, hiring Stan Van Gundy), the Magic have to settle for small tweaks this summer. Fortunately, after winning 52 games, that's all this team really needs to remain a contender.

Picks: #22

Needs: The Magic essentially start two small forwards in Lewis and Hedo Turkoglu, so getting a legitimate power forward (with more offensive upside than Tony Battie and more physicality than Brian Cook) to help Dwight Howard bang down low should be high on the list. Also, the two-guard spot has been a revolving door between Keith Bogans and Mo Evans, and former lottery pick JJ Redick doesn't appear to be anywhere close to being the long-term solution.

Best case scenario: Finding their shooting guard of the future ... and today. Evans is an unrestricted free agent, Bogans is entering the final year of his contract and Redick looks like trade bait, which means any shooting guard drafted has a better than even chance at opening the season in the starting lineup. A guy like Brandon Rush (who shouldn't be available) would be ideal, but even Courtney Lee and Chris Douglas-Roberts would be a nice fit.