Fantasy Basketball News, Notes and Rumors (7/13/10)
Jul 13, 2010 Blog
Some early week fantasy news and notes from around the NBA:
Josh Childress – Signed with Phoenix, 5 years, $34 million. Childress spent the last two summers playing with Greek team Olympiakos after spending the first part of his career with the Atlanta Hawks. Childress ends up in a decent fantasy situation on a running Suns team, but he’ll likely be in a 6th man type of situation. He is a good passer and should help your FG%. The real question now is how many minutes Childress gets. Nash and Richardson will man the backcourt, while newly acquired Hedo Turkoglu will grab a majority of the minutes at SF.
Hedo Turkoglu – Turkoglu gets his wish to escape the Raptors and now moves to a team with an offensive system much more suited to his skills. Turkoglu can be a ‘point-forward’ type player and his assist numbers should climb back up to where they were when he was with Orlando. He should also get his scoring average back up in the 15-18 point per game level. Turkoglu is going to be undervalued in fantasy drafts this year after a poor season with Toronto.
Al Jefferson – There is a deal in place to send Jefferson to the Utah Jazz, but the details are a little sketchy at this point and these things can sometimes fall apart just as the Chandler/Diaw/Calderon trade did yesterday. Paul Millsap can’t be too happy with this pickup by the Jazz. Either Millsap or Mehmet Okur are going to lose a big amount of minutes with the arrival of Jefferson. Big Al’s fantasy value is somewhat uncertain since I’m not sure what kind of minutes he is going to be given. He’s a poor defender and had a subpar fantasy season last year as he tried to recover from ACL surgery, but Utah would be a great spot to energize his game.
Darko Milicic – I guess Minnesota is serious about Darko. The trade of Jefferson opens up fantasy minutes for Milicic, Beasley and Love. Good luck with that move Timberwolves.
Udonis Haslem – It looks like Haslem is taking a paycut and staying with the Heat to try and grab a ring. He can put up double-doubles consistently and can be effective from either the PF or C position. The Heat’s chemistry will also be improved with Haslem’s character and work ethic.
Derek Fisher/Steve Blake – Well, Blake had some fantasy relevancy for about 3 days. It looks like Fisher will return to the Lakers, sending Blake to a reserve role. Leave him on the waiver wire to start the season. Derek Fisher, on the other hand, will continue to start. Fisher will also likely win this season’s ‘Bruce Bowen’ award for the least amount of fantasy production from an NBA starter.
Roy Hibbert – Hibbert’s knee injury turned out to be nothing more than a mild strain. He’ll be back to basketball activities soon.
Ekpe Udoh – Will have wrist surgery and be out 4-6 months. Tough break for the guy, but he wasn’t going to have much fantasy relevancy anyway. At least Don Nelson won’t have any temptation to take minutes away from David Lee now.
Ben Wallace – Signed a two year deal to stay in Detroit. He should continue to grab rebounds through his craftiness, even though he had some problems with the knees last season. He’s a last round pick at best.
Jordan Farmar – Not sure what Farmar was thinking by going to New Jersey. He’ll be stuck behind Devin Harris without much hope of seeing meaningful minutes.
Leandro Barbosa – Barbosa goes to Toronto as part of the Hedo Turkoglu exchange. It’s probably a positive move for his fantasy value as he could step into the SG spot, moving a weak DeMar DeRozan to the bench.
Tyson Chandler – Traded to the Dallas Mavericks in exchange for Erick Dampier, Matt Carroll and Eduardo Najera. Alexis Ajinca also goes to Dallas. The move is not going to help Chandler’s fantasy value since he now has to split time with Brendan Haywood. The move, along with his history of injuries, may make him undraftable.
Erick Dampier – The move from Dallas to Charlotte can only help Dampier’s fantasy value now that he escapes the timeshare with Brendan Haywood. However, it’s possible that Dampier gets bought out and becomes a free agent. If he stays with Charlotte and gets the starting spot, then Dampier is probably a decent number two center on most fantasy teams.
Zydrunas Ilgauskas – He’s going to follow LeBron to Miami where he will rotate with Udonis Haslem and Chris Bosh. Ilgauskas’ fantasy glory days are long gone.
Quentin Richardson – Signed with Orlando. Could get you some fantasy threes, but that’s about it. Waiver wire material.
Rumors:
As far as I can tell, Jose Calderon is still with Toronto and Boris Diaw is still with Charlotte.
Al Harrington to the Nuggets or Mavericks.
Luke Ridnour to Minnesota.
Juwan Howard to Miami.
Raja Bell to the Lakers.
James Jones to San Antonio.
Tony Allen to Memphis.
Nate Robinson to the Celtics.
Brad Miller to Houston.
Tags: fantasy basketball