Home Delivery is your morning roundup of last night's action in the NBA from a fantasy perspective.
The Knicks bench came up big as they erased a 19-point deficit in the second-half on their way to picking up their second victory of the season. Al Harrington led the way with 26 points on 8-of-13 shooting, while Larry Hughes added 22 points, 10 rebounds, seven assists and three steals. Hughes has trumped both Nate Robinson and Toney Douglas at the 'two' and continues to look like a safe add.
Danilo Gallinari's big goose egg was overshadowed -- literally? -- by the return of every Knick fan's favorite big man, Eddy Curry. Big Slacks had 10 points and four rebounds in 12 minutes coming off the bench. Mike Breem said it best when he insinuated that the Knicks were going to start giving Curry more playing time in order to showcase his "talents" with the hopes that someone will bite on his contract. That says a lot, doesn't it?
For the Pacers it was Danny Granger who led the way with 33 points on 12-of-18 shooting and five treys. He wasn't very helpful in the second half, scoring just three of his 33 in the final two quarters.
Home Delivery is your morning roundup of last night's action in the NBA from a fantasy perspective.
The first thing I thought of while watching the Warriors-Cavs game was: The Seven Samurai. And the tag-line for the film is nearly perfect -- "The Seven Warriors Who Became the Seven National Heroes of a Small Town." OK, so maybe we can take out "national heroes of a small town" and replace those words with "fantasy contributors for one evening."
Last night the Warriors went into Cleveland with just seven active players. Each, however, posted double-digit point totals, with Monta Ellis leading the way -- 23 points, eight assists, and three steals. Anthony Morrow looked pretty good himself, dropping 18 points and hitting four of his seven three-point attempts. All in all, you can't go wrong this week adding Morrow, Anthony Randolph, Stephen Curry or Corey Maggette. I'm still not sold on Mikki Moore or Vladimir Radmanovic, but I'm sure that will change over time.
The Sixers have been struggling with a bit of a controversy towards the future of their frontcourt. Elton Brand has been significantly limited this season coming back from his injury. The Sixers have reportedly gone so far as to pursue a trade for the former All-Star, a report Sixers GM Ed Stefanski has denied. Adding to this issue has been the remarkable play of second-year man Marreese Speights, who is averaging 20 points, 9.8 rebounds, 1.4 blocks per 36. He's been electric, and a huge factor in the Sixers' wins.
So, naturally, he's out 6-8 weeks with a MCL tear. Because life is brutish, nasty, and short.
Court Vision is a breakdown of the weekly schedule to help you set your fantasy lineup.
The Golden State Warriors continue to warm the hearts of fantasy owners in need of a helping hand. Just look at what Brandon Jennings did to the Warriors last night -- 55 points on 21-of-34 shooting (61.8-percent), seven treys, five rebounds and five assists. There seems to be a running theme with young players performing at their peak against Golden State.
In the Warriors past five games, three rookies, a sophomore and a Danny Granger each led their respective teams in scoring. Jennings with his 55 points, Tyreke Evans dropped 32 points, Jonny Flynn had 19 points and Danilo Gallinari had 19 and 10 against the Warriors. This must kill Stephen Curry who is not seeing the early minutes most expected him to get.
At any rate, it's nice to see the Golden State Warriors show up on the schedule when you're looking at your weekly matchups. Let's see who gets the lucky draw this week.
Home Delivery is your morning roundup of last night's action in the NBA from a fantasy perspective.
It was all Phoenix last night as the Suns beat the Hornets 124-104. The Suns scored 101 of their points in the first three quarters, so you can tell where this is going. Steve Nash needed just 23 minutes to post 12 points and 10 assists. Amare Stoudemire added 21 points. Even Goran Dragic got in on the fun adding 14 points, seven rebounds and seven assists. Unfortunately, Alando Tucker was the only Sun held scoreless. On the bright side he wasn't the worst player in the game. That honor goes to the player responsible for last night's lotto line.
On the other side of the ball Chris Paul played inspired ball after Steve Nash called him the best point guard in the league. Paul had 25 points on 9-of-16 shooting with four treys, six assists and four steals. Chris Paul is making 2.2 threes per game and is shooting 63-percent from the floor in his first nine, which is making him the clear-cut No.1 player in all of fantasy.
ORLANDO -- Elton Brand sure seems like a nice enough guy -- respectful, courteous, thoughtful, engaging. He works hard, too.
Yet he also is beginning to look like an albatross hanging around the neck of the Philadelphia 76ers, the guy with the contract that will prevent them from building a serious contender in the coming years.
Brand, 30, is starting his 10th season in the league, but just the second year of that five-year, $80 million contract he signed as a free agent two summers ago. Although the Sixers were convinced that signing him was wise back then, they are having serious reservations now about the move.
It's one painful decision they would like to have back.
The power forward position is the deepest of all positions. Much like I mentioned how many of the the best power forwards are eligible at center, many small forwards and centers have dual eligibility at power forward. The range of ability consists of some of the league's best rebounders, scorers, three-point specialists, and efficient shooters. Some fantasy owners load up on power forwards and slot them into their center and utility positions. This position runs so deep, so deep that 50 players may not be enough to cover each and every fantasy relevant power forward. The depth leaves great value toward the end of drafts, but there's no reason to sleep on the players atop the draft board.
Again, I followed Fleaflicker's fantasy basketball positional eligibility. The rankings are based on standard, 8-category head-to-head (H2H) scoring: points, rebounds, assists, blocks, steals, three-pointers, field-goal percentage, and free-throw percentage.
Fantasy Basketball Rankings: C | PF | SF | SG | PG
PHOENIX -- The Sixers almost came back from an 18-point deficit in the final eight minutes on Friday against the Suns, but the guys usually on the end of Phoenix's bench -- Dan Dickau, Carlos Powell, et al. -- were able to hang on just enough to secure a two-point victory.
Marreese Speights, a second-year player who averaged just under eight points and four rebounds a game last season, was a big reason for the Sixers' strong comeback. He scored 15 of his game-high 32 points in the fourth quarter, while also finishing with 12 rebounds and two blocked shots.
Even though this is the preseason, it was still a career game for Speights, and one that you'd think his new head coach, Eddie Jordan, would be excited about. But that wasn't exactly the case.
Several NBA players missed significant parts of last season because of injury. Here's a quick rundown of how some of them are doing with training camps set to begin next week for most teams:
Gilbert Arenas, Washington (knee): He's had three surgeries on his knee in a year and a half, but Arenas said he'll be ready for the start of training camp. Of course, he took things a step further by saying that had he continued to rehab in Washington, instead of working with trainer Tim Grover in Chicago, he wouldn't have made it back as fast.
Let's take our attention for a moment off the NBA playoffs and look ahead to the 2009-10 season. It was a tough year for several players around the league. So tough, in fact, that they'll have some bouncing back to do next year.
Here are five players – and a sixth man -- who should have the most to prove in 2009-10:
--Tracy McGrady, Houston Rockets. Technically, a team with McGrady on the roster – this year's Rockets – advanced to the second round of the playoffs. That would be a first. Except we all know McGrady didn't play in the postseason and wasn't around down the stretch for Houston.