FanHouse Pau Gasol

Picks and Roles provides all the vital information you need in making those tough lineup decisions for the week ahead.

This week we have four teams -- Kings, Bucks, Pacers, and Wizards -- who play just two times. Aside from the obvious guys like Danny Granger, Gilbert Arenas and Caron Butler, I would only consider Tyreke Evans and Andrew Bogut as players to slot into your lineup. Obviously, since most of us play in a "two center" league, if you have to start Roy Hibbert I could see you making the case.

Jason Thompson is another guy on the fringe this week. He's starting to look more and more like a top 50 fantasy baller this year. Brandon Jennings would be another guy you could consider. Though if it comes down to a point guard who plays four times and Jennings, you have to take the four games. Same can be said about Thompson and the other fantasy fringe players. Maximize your games played, it's Fantasy 101.

---

---

One of the things that makes the Lakers one of the league's best teams is the size and skill of their two biggest frontcourt players, Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum. But Gasol has yet to play a game for the team in this young season, and now it looks like Bynum will miss some time as well with an elbow injury.

Both players are listed as doubtful for Friday night's game against Memphis, and if neither ends up being able to go, the Lakers will be forced to use some rather interesting lineups.

Home Delivery is your morning roundup of last night's action in the NBA from a fantasy perspective.

Surprisingly, the Timberwolves were able to make a game out of last night's contest against the Celtics. The C's pulled it off in the end, but the T-Wolves kept it close from the opening tip, and actually had the lead for most of the game.

The star of the game just so happened to be Oleksiy Pecherov, who I mentioned in Tuesday's post as a guy to add in deep leagues. Well, standard leagues, it's time to become acquainted with Mr. Pecherov. He posted a game high 24 points on 9-of-14 shooting with eight rebounds, one three-pointer and a steal. You won't see him lead the T-Wolves in scoring often, but he does have the ability to put up 15 points on a given night, adding some nice range for a big man.

The Celtics were led by Rajon Rondo who had 18 points, six assists and three steals. I'm standing by my claim that he's going to lead the league in steals. Kevin Garnett added 12 points, 11 rebounds, three blocks, a steal and a burning desire to win.

It's becoming more and more frustrating as the list of "questionable" players for opening night continues to grow. The case has been made that maybe the preseason is too long -- about four games too long.

Who would have thought that of the past three No. 1 overall draft picks only Greg Oden will start the 2009-10 season with a clean bill of health. Blake Griffin is reportedly sidelined for up to six weeks with a stress fracture in his left knee, while Derrick Rose is questionable after injuring his ankle early on in the preseason. Rose is likely to play on opening night, but his action could be limited as he nurses his ankle back to health. In other news, future No. 1 pick John Wall is not serving much better. Advantage, Oden.

With less than 24 hours to go before your lineups are required to be set in stone for the week, it's only right that we discuss a few of the "questionable" lineup decisions you might need to make based on injuries and matchups.

---

---

I suppose you can say I own far too many fantasy basketball teams. I just finished drafting my eighth team, with three still pending and one currently in progress -- it's a 30-team experts league draft. Enough is enough, right?

I figure that if I talk the talk, I should at least walk the walk.

Recently I was a part of an experts league draft started up by fantasy guru Dave Gawron over at RotoCommunity.com. The league consisted of 12 fantasy experts, each from a different fantasy publication or Web site.

I had the 11th pick in the draft, which seems to be my lucky number. After the jump I'll let you in on what I was thinking as I drafted and show you how I put my strategy to work.

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

The Lakers are coming off of a championship season, and are the favorites to take home the title again in 2010. But with the virtual trade of Trevor Ariza for Ron Artest, along with the media circus created by Lamar Odom's whirlwind marriage to a reality television personality, they've certainly inserted enough wild cards into their stacked deck to make even the most die-hard of fans question the team's ability to repeat as champions.

---

---

The center position is often considered the thinnest position. Possibly because most leagues require you to start at least two centers, or maybe it's because once you get past the first 12 or 15 centers you start seeing players queued up who have some serious deficiencies in their game. The one saving grace is that many of the league's top power forwards are also eligible at center.

You'll often hear guys strategize about getting out of the draft with a few centers who can rebound, block shots, and shoot a high percentage from the field while doing limited damage to their team's free-throw percentage. That's not so easy to do, however. The strategy here is to find a center who has limited free-throw attempts. If you're drafting Dwight Howard you have to be careful of his 59.4 FT% since he gets to the line 10.8 times per game. On the other hand Andris Biedrins' 55.1 FT% is manageable because he got to the line just 3.5 times per game last season.

---

---

FIBA's final international tournament of the summer, Eurobasket, ended with Spain winning its first continental championship. Pau Gasol won the tournament MVP award as Spain knocked off Serbia in the title game. Spain, the No. 3 team in the world according to FIBA's rankings, won the 2006 World Championship, but had never won Europe.

Spain actually coasted through the early rounds before obliterating Greece in the semifinals and Serbia in the finals. Serbia may have been the surprise of the tournament, though. After taking gold at the 2002 World Championships, the Serbs have been on a shocking downward trajectory ... until this tournament, where the team cut through competition with ease. (Serbia actually kicked off the tournament with a big win over Spain in round play.)

More doom and gloom from Western Europe, where Pau Gasol has raised the stakes in his battle with Tony Parker to give his NBA bosses heart attacks. Parker tweaked an ankle a few weeks ago, relegating him to shrunken duty with Les Bleus as France attempts to qualify for September's Eurobasket tournament.

Gasol can go one better: he suffered ligament damage in his left index finger, requiring immediate surgery. He'll be off the court for three weeks, and his participation in Eurobasket (where Spain finished with silver in 2007) is in question.

As we all attempt to grok Ron Artest: Los Angeles Laker, much will (rightfully) be made of the strange relationship Kobe Bryant and our antihero Artest enjoy. Off the court, the stars claim to be best friends. On the floor, there has been some serious (and recent!) bad blood.

But in real basketball results, Pau Gasol might be the most endangered Laker in all of this. Kobe ain't giving up shots to Ron-Ron ... but someone will have to, unless you think Artest -- who has in the past placed himself in the same league as Kobe and LeBron James -- will shave half his offense to become Trevor Ariza II. I sincerely doubt our protagonist will be so generous. So the Laker attacker who requires the ball to be fed -- Pau -- figures to suffer.