Midseason confessions

Yes, I did drop Bostjan Nachbar for Tyronne Lue. My excuse was that I needed another point guard. I understand that is absolutely no excuse.

Yes, I did bid for Boris Diaw in a salary league and give him $11.2 million dollars for four years, Your Honor...

Yes, I did think that Mike Dunleavy would have a breakout season this year and I drafted him in the 9th round in a draft.

Yes, Your Honor, I did think that Larry Hughes would be healthy and worthwhile this year and I drafted him in the 6th round in a draft.

Yes, I even thought that Michael Finley was worth drafting in a deep league. I am guilty as charged of being rather stupid at times during drafting season.

On the other hand, I targeted Leandro Barbosa, Kevin Martin, Monta Ellis, Jarrett Jack and Emeka Okafor at higher than average positions and they have all turned out to be great bargains.

But, grabbing free agents at the right time is the key to winning in fantasy leagues. The smart guys got Matt Carroll and Jason Kapono and Ruben Patterson just when they became fantasy relevant. Very few teams are so good you don't need to tune them up as the year goes on. You lose Nenad Krstic and you pick up Mikki Moore before anyone else and you keep on truckin', but you hesitate and you wind up stuck with Etan Thomas.

~~~~~~~

Words to the wise:

Jerry Stackhouse is relevant again. Dallas is going to depend on him for scoring off the bench for the rest of the year.

Phoenix always has six decent fantasy players. Right now, James Jones is the last good one. But monitor this, because there are other candidates that are hungry for JJ's minutes. With Kurt Thomas on the shelf, a stumble by James could give Jumaine, or Jalen or even Marcus Banks a shot at minutes.

Minnesota and Memphis are still in real flux concerning rotations as new coaches settle in. I like to eyeball their boxscores to look for trends. For instance, right now Eddie Jones is getting minutes and points for Tony Barone. This may be a trend, so in deep leagues I would advise grabbing EJ if you can. He'll give you points and threes and steals if he's allowed to get time on the court. Craig Smith could be a big winner of PT now that Randy Wittman has the Minnesota reins.

Portland and Seattle can drive fantasy players nuts. Is Luke Ridnour ever going to get minutes again? Who the heck is playing center for Portland? I hesitate to make any recommendations for these two teams...but I will caution you that 'Shard Lewis will be back soon and shortly thereafter both Wilkins and Gelabale will lose a lot of PT.

This would be a good time to sell Kwame Brown for anything you can get for him. I have seen Andrew Bynum improving by leaps and bounds, it is hard to imagine that Brown will re-take his starting spot. Another Laker to sell high? Luke Walton. Yeah, he's played well but Lamar Odom is going to function much as Luke did, only Odom is a better player.

Boston has found that Sebastian Telfair is no better suited to start for them than he was for Portland. Rajon Rondo and Delonte West both fit the Celtic plan far better. Don't expect Bassy to be worth much of anything the rest of the year. Plan on Ryan Gomes and Al Jefferson to remain worthwhile when Paul Pierce gets back, but not Allan Ray. AR shoots with Antoine Walker-like accuracy but he's a whole lot smaller and doesn't have a post-up game, isn't much defensively and cannot rebound or pass with expertise...other than that, he is okay I guess.

Don't hang onto Matt Barnes (too many ex-Pacers) or Tim Thomas (way too inconsistent).

Do take a chance on Jose Calderon and Brendan Haywood and Paul Millsap.

Enjoy the game, I'm out like Miami's chances of winning the division!