Fantasy Island

Fantasy Basketball: Thursday Night Action

Here's the biggest news from Thursday night's action:

-- Rasheed Wallace has been somewhat disappointing this season, even if he does qualify at the center position. But tonight against the Spurs, Sheed came alive with 23 points, 15 rebounds and three blocks. His numbers are up in the month of January and lets hope that continues.

-- The Suns were a shell of a team tonight against the Jazz as Shawn Marion (elbow), Steve Nash (flu) and Grant Hill (appendectomy) all did not play. Not surprisingly, the Jazz cruised to a 108-86 win. Marion and Nash are expected back soon but Grant Hill will miss at least two weeks after surgery.

-- In the same game, Jazz center Mehmet Okur had 22 points and 17 rebounds. Okur has been hobbled by injuries all season and it was the first time he cracked double digits in rebounds since November 7th.

-- John Salmons (28 points) and Francisco Garcia (22 points) owners should enjoy tonights big performances aginst Memphis because that will change when Mike Bibby and Kevin Martin return probably some time next week.

Fantasy Basketball Waiver Wire: T-Wolves aplenty....

The Minnesota Timberwolves have been a veritable goldmine for fantasy owners this season. Sure, they're the worst team in the NBA, but what do we the fantaysy community care? They routiniely produce big numbers, you just have to watch the trends. Here's the latest on the T-Wolves and a few others to keep an eye on.

Craig Smith, Minnesota: I'm officially off the bandwagon here. He's just too inconssistent and right now just isn't getting any minutes.

Rashad McCants, Minnesota: He continues to light it up from downtown so continue to ride the wave.

Marko Jaric, Minnesota: His last three games, his minutes have been way up and so have his numbers.

Anthony Carter, Denver: Chucky Atkins just went down with a big injury, and Carter is putting up sick assist numbers. Go get him now while he's still out there.

Juan Carlos Navarro, Memphis: Don't be fooled by his 20-point outburst a few days ago. His minutes are too volatile to expect any real consistency. Only worth owning in deep leagues.

Fantasy Basketball: Conley Getting PT

Memphis Grizzlies' rookie point guard Mike Conley was a popular preseason sleeper before he A) hurt at the start of the season and B) relegated mostly to the bench when he was available.

But in his first game back from injury on Jan. 2nd, Conley was inserted in to the starting lineup and put up a very enticing line in 35 minutes: seven points, eight assists, six rebounds and three steals.

His line in the Jan. 4th game against Boston was less impressive (10 points, 4 assists), but the key here is that the talented Conley got lots of minutes with another 35.

It's unlikely that many owners were stashing Conley on their bench, so he could still be available. Conley is a very nice pick up right now, especially if you need a point guard.

--- Tyson Chandler has been a beast in the New Year, following up a Jan. 2nd 15 rebound performance with a 22 point-22 rebound outing on Jan. 4th against Golden State (Golden State being the team in the NBA least concerned about defense). Chandler has been his solid rebounding self this season, averaging 12.3 per game. A must play at the center position.

--- With Tracy McGrady nowhere to be found in Houston, enigmatic guard Rafer Alston has picked up the scoring slack in a big way. by scoring 60 points over his last three games. If your league mates are slacking, he could be available on the waiver wire.

--- There are fewer players more frustrating than Rashad McCants, or any Timberwolve for that matter. McCants and his young cohorts seem to alternate big games on a nightly basis. Case in point, McCants went off for 34 points last night. Rashad has talent and is a great sourse of three's, but has been very inconstent. See also Craig Smith, Ryan Gomes and Marko Jaric if you want further proof. The only truly reliable player for Minnesota has been Al Jefferson, who has been absolutely beastly.

Fantasy Basketball: Who's Hot

Andrew Bynum, LA Lakers - The big man has been a breakout player this season and you have to think he'll only get better. Has averaged 20.5 points and 10.5 rebounds over his last four games as he attempts to move in to the elite of fantasy centers.

Carmelo Anthony, Denver Nuggets - Over the past week he is averaging 33.7 points per game. For a while it appeared he was taking a back seat to Iverson, but Melo has exploded recently for some real big games.

Antawn Jamison, Washington -  Continues to be underrated and taken for granted in most fantasy circles. Great numbers over the past week as he's averaged 27.7 points and over 11 boards.

Joe Johnson, Atlanta - The Hawaks first option has been a scoring and assist machine while pouring in the three's. Over the last week has averaged 29 points and eight and a half assists.

Marvin Williams, Atlanta - He's been an impressive scorer this year and has four straight games over 40 points.

Rashad McCants, Minnesota - The second year player had been heating up and draining lots of three's before cathing the flu earlier in the week. He's streaky as hell, but he's available in plenty of leagues.

Chris Kaman, LA Clippers - By now we all know how good he has been, but his numbers have simply been unreal of late. Averaging 22 points and 14 and a half boards over the past week.

Andre Miller, Philadelphia - His assist numbers are down, but his points are way up. He's scored 20 or more points in four of his last five games and is averaging 22 points per game over the past week.

Amare Stoudemire, Phoenix - Recorded his first double-double in ages on Dec. 22 as he scored 28 points and had 11 rebounds. Is getting healthy and his recent spike in scoring proves it.

Fantasy Basketball: Memo to Nets...Play Sean Williams

If you've watched the New Jersey Nets at all this season, it's pretty obvious that they're a bad team.

Remember, this is a team that has lost twice to the Knicks this month. That could be grounds to be thrown out of the NBA, I have to look in to that.

The Nets are a bad team in real life, but they've got some guys who are producing (and could produce) some real nice fantasy numbers. Richard Jefferson has been phenomenal, Jason Kidd is always good, and if Lawrence Frank has any smarts, he would give rookie Sean Williams as many minutes as possible.

My buddy and I were watching the Knicks-Nets game the other night and were amazed that the Nets were not giving Williams more run.

Well, last night, the Nets played WIlliams for over 40 minutes and the kid produced 11 points, seven rebounds and EIGHT BLOCKED SHOTS. Not bad. Now c'mon Frank, keep the rook in the lineup.

Fantasy Basketball: Captain Kirk back on track...

Kirk Hinrich was a major disappointment for the first month of the season, but he's showing every indication of turning it around. Over his last four games he's scored in double figures three times and has 28 assists.

Hinrich is too good to stay down for too long, so nice job if you stayed the course or acquired him cheaply via trade.

- Hakim Warrick has put up two straight solid games for the Grizzlies. That's because he's finally got some minutes with Stromile Swift out with an illness. Let's hope he's earned some permanent run with the Grizz. I snatched him up in one of my leagues and am hoping for the best.

- Hours after posting about my high hopes for Craig Smith, he went out and dropped 36 points on Tuesday. Of course, he followed that with an eight-point performance the next night. It's never easy for fantasy players. Minnesota is such a young team that playng time is bound to be volatile. Here's to hoping Smith has earned and can keep some minutes.

- Here are two stat lines from Thursday night you won't see again soon: Kareem Rush scored 22 points against the Bulls and Kirk Humphries scored 16 points and had 12 boards against the Mavericks. Can you say FLUKE?

- Paul Millsap had a big game in the absence of Mehmet Okur. If Okur misses an extended period of time Millsap should benefit Big Time.

- Joel Przybilla had his second straight game with 10 rebounds on Thursday. Watch to see if he continues to play because he fills up the stat sheet with blocks and rebounds.

Fantasy Basketball: Craig Smith coming alive...

Minnesota's Craig Smith has been a big contributor lately, and I was able to pick him up today in both of my leagues.

On December 6th Smith had 20 points and nine rebounds and on December 8th he had 16 points and eight rebounds. If he continues to get minutes, he should produce so I am psyched to see what Smith can do from here on out.

-- Another pickup I made today which was Portland's Steve Blake. Blake is reliable for three-pointers and a solid amount of assists. Anything else you get tis gravy, and he was better than some of the other stiffs I had sucking it up on my bench.

Fantasy Basketball: Juan Carlos Cools Off...

Juan Carlos Navarro of the Grizzlies was one of my favorite waiver wire pickups so far this year. He hit the three consistently and every night seemed to offer up a new surprise with lots of rebounds or assists.

Well, Navarro has cooled off considerably lately, having scored only four points in his last two games. That hurts, and it means I was forced to cut him in one of my leagues. I held on to him in another, deciding to give him one last shot tonight. We'll see, but I'm not optimistic.

Fantasy Basketball: Headaches for Kidd Owners?

Jason Kidd reportedly sat out last night's loss to the Knicks with a "migraine headache".

But, rumblings are that Kidd is actually "On Strike", sitting out in hopes of getting a beefy contract extension or a trade. This should be interesting.....

Kidd has always had some issues if it's wife abuse or whatever. He is a weird guy so this news doesn't surprise me if it is in fact true.

Fantasy Basketball: Bibby and Injury Issues

The news came down recently that Mike Bibby will not rush back from his thumb injury. Us Bibby owners who have been patiently waiting will have to wait another 5-7 weeks until he returns.

If you're languishing at the bottom of the league, like I am in the league in which I own Bibby, it's time to make a move on him. I can't afford to wait any longer and I offered him up for Rajon Rondo to the guy who is winning the league. I think that's more than a fair offer, but it was rejected.

I refuse to drop Bibby so I just offered him for Jordan Farmar. Let's see what happens.

The bottom line is that when you're in the bottom of the league, and you're being hammered by injuries, you can't wait for guys to get healthy. You have to make a move before you get too buried.