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.
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.
Home Delivery is your morning roundup of last night's action in the NBA from a fantasy perspective.
The lesson in last night's game was: what goes around comes back around. Just 24 hours after punishing the Hornets with a 124-102 victory, the Suns went into the Staples Arena and ended up on the other side of a lopsided loss. The Suns shot just 36.5 percent from the floor and pasted 12 assists to 13 turnovers. It was a pretty ugly game as each Phoenix starter played less than 25 minutes. On the bright side, Louis Amundson made sure that the Los Angeles fans went home taco-less.
Steve Nash had just five assists. There's really no need to read to much into this one. It was a road loss against the Lakers after playing on back-to-back nights. We won't hold this one against you, though owners have to be dissapointed with how the Suns performed.
Andrew Bynum returned to action for the Lakers to drop 26 points on 13-of-18 shooting. He also pulled down 15 rebounds and blocked three shots. This is great news for Bynum owners. You can know breathe easier.
College basketball is back, ladies and gentlemen! That means it is time for the first ACC Power Poll of the season. Most of this is based on projections, theories and guess-work.
There is always one team that surprises us each year (Miami was that team last year) and one that disappoints us (NC State). Let's begin!
1-North Carolina: There hasn't been a favorite this heavy in a long, long time.
2-Duke: Remember that the Blue Devils were a game from winning the ACC last year. Gerald Henderson is my darkhorse for ACC Player of the Year.
3-Miami-FL: The Canes have a great shot at the ACC Championship and a deep run in the NCAAs.
With the fall beginning and college basketball just around the corner, it's time to look back at what our favorite teams did during their summer vacations. Some did some good things; some had a bad time. So let's look back at who did what in our How I Spent My Summer Vacation series.
Today's look is the Atlantic Coast Conference.
Roy Williams Hits Jackpot When All His Guys Return
The Tar Heels were at quite the crossroads. After a great season ended with a disappointing loss to Kansas, Tyler Hansbrough, Ty Lawson, Wayne Ellington and Danny Green all decided to take a look at the NBA Draft. Hansbrough decided to come back, but the other three entered the draft with the opportunity to come back to school if they didn't like their draft status.
If any or all left, the Heels were facing some uncertainty heading into the season. Yes, they'd still be a good team but they'd have a few holes.
In a somewhat surprising move, all three Heels decided to come back for one last hurrah. That means Ol' Roy gets everyone back from that Final Four team (sans a transferred Alex Stepheson and a graduating Quentin Thomas -- both role players). They also bring in three McDonald's All Americans.
Robert "Tractor" Traylor hasn't appeared in the NBA since 2005, but after several stops in Spain, Puerto Rico, and, well, the courthouse, he's hoping to return to the Big Show by earning a roster spot in Summer League. I caught up with Tractor after the Cavs' game yesterday and talked about where he's been and what his future might hold.
Matt Watson: Your career has taken a little bit of a detour. Do you feel like you're on the right path again?
Robert Traylor: Yeah, I think so. I think with this point in time, this opportunity to come out and play in the summer league has given me a great opportunity to get myself back to where I want to be and hopefully be in the NBA when the season starts.
MW: Playing in Spain and Puerto Rico, how does that compare to the competition you face out here?
RT: It's a lot different, but I think in Puerto Rico the competition is actually great. You've got a lot of great players over there. We played a lot of games, like 32 games in 61 days.
Congratulations to NC State's J.J. Hickson, who was drafted by the Cleveland Cavaliers with the 19th overall draft pick in last night's NBA Draft. Hickson was the lone wolf of sorts -- the only ACC player to be drafted in the first round.
As I said a couple weeks ago, the league is in a bit of a crisis mode about why they've been in a down period and creating only one first rounder was a sign of that. However, ACC Now points out this is the third time this decade that only one ACC player was taken in the first round ... and it may be a great sign.
For the third time this decade, the ACC had only one player taken in the first round. It also happened in 2000 (Georgia Tech's Jason Collier) and 2004 (Duke's Luol Deng).
Those seasons were also the smallest overall draft classes for the ACC. Only two players were drafted in 2000 (Duke's Chris Carrawell was the other) and four total in 2004.
This 2008 draft also was small, overall (UVa's Sean Singletary, Maryland's James Gist and Va Tech's Deron Washington also were drafted last night). Now, what happened in the college basketball seasons after the 2000 and 2004 drafts? Oh yeah. An ACC team went on to win the National Championship.
That would be NC State's J.J. Hickson, who some feel brought down the program last year. Oh, he was a heck of a player ... but the team's chemistry (which was so high at the end of 2006-2007) was just missing.
"It's going to be my way and that's it," Lowe said. "It's real simple. They're the players and I'm the coach and they're going to do it my way. And if they don't. They're not going to want to be here."
"In my dictionary, chemistry only means one thing and I'm going to stay away from that," Lowe said, then later offered his definition. "It's just players not accepting and players being selfish."
There were some cryptic signs that Lowe doesn't mind Hickson leaving ... though he tried to duck answering any direct questions. But he did find time to blame media attention, parents, girlfriends and AAU guys as clutter around the players' psyches.
I like Sidney Lowe and I think he's a good coach. But Raleigh is a very fickle place when it comes to their coaches and Lowe just struck out with his first NBA-talented player and his ability to incorporate him into his team. His upcoming season will see a lot of juniors and seniors in his rotation ... and hopefully he can recapture the magic of February/March 2007.
You want another sign showing the decline of ACC basketball over the past few years? How about that the ACC had just one underclassman declare (and keep his name in) for the NBA Draft this season.
That guy is J.J. Hickson, and there is even a line of reasoning that NC State may be better without him.
There really were just a few really outstanding seniors leaving (Duke lost DeMarcus Nelson; Virginia lost Sean Singletary). There is a chance where the ACC will have no players taken in the first round of the draft (Hickson is the lone hopeful).
Typically, the ACC fills the draft up with all kinds of talent.
Last year, three ACC players were lottery picks ... part of six total that were taken in the first round.
Three players went in the first round in 2006.
In 2005, seven players went in the first round. (five went in the lottery; three went in the top five).
In 2004, only Duke's Luol Deng was taken in the first round.
Remember, that was mostly when high school players also were in the draft, meaning less spots for colliegate players. So, what could the upcoming ACC season look like?
If you read articles all over the internets, you would assume that North Carolina will crush everyone on their way to a National Championship. That could happen, but that really is selling the ACC short. There are some really good teams who have high expectations as well.
"I would say that I'm definitely in the draft. I came out just testing the waters but since I'm hearing a lot of good things about my game I'm not going to pull my name out."
"I'm not really hearing anything, but I think I've given a bunch of good showings. I'm coming in here and I'm trying to impress the scouts and that's why I think I'm going to keep my name in. I think I'm having good showings."
Now this announcement came courtesy of the Phoenix Suns official web site after Hickson worked out for the team. Phoenix has the #15 pick in the draft and it's curious that he'd choose to make this announcement now. After all, it really wasn't any shock that he'd keep his name in the draft ... just that he chose now to make it official.
He has worked out for Sacramento (#12, #42, #43), Seattle (#4, #24, #32) and Cleveland (#19) with trips to Denver (#20) and Philadelphia (#16) coming up. NBADraft.net has him selected with the final pick in the first round (Boston) while DraftExpress has him as the first pick of the second round (Minnesota).
Home Delivery is your morning roundup of last night's action in the NBA from a fantasy perspective.
Who's Got Next is a weekly look at some of the top players widely available on the waiver wires.
Home Delivery
College basketball is back, ladies and gentlemen! That means it is time for the first ACC Power Poll of the season. Most of this is based on projections, theories and guess-work. 
With the fall beginning and college basketball just around the corner, it's time to look back at what our favorite teams did during their summer vacations. Some did some good things; some had a bad time. So let's look back at who did what in our 
Notes from a trip to the 
Congratulations to NC State's 
This is how screwed up the ACC has been: 
You want another sign showing the decline of ACC basketball over the past few years? How about that the ACC had just one underclassman declare (and keep his name in) for the NBA Draft this season.
