Bench Stackhouse
Week Two is the first full slate of NBA action, with 12 teams playing four games each, compared to only one four-game team in Week 1. Position battles, minute-shares and injuries are still dominating coaches' minds and wreaking havoc on fantasy lineups. If your team is languishing near the bottom of a roto-league, or if you are stinging from a razor-thin margin of defeat in a head-to-head league, don't worry: more games means more opportunities for your team to prove its worth (of course, if you drafted poorly it could be worth very little, in which case you'd better hit the waiver wire and start barking about trades on your league message board). Check the lists below to see how many games your players have this upcoming week, then read on for specific advice about who it would be smart to Start, and who should be entrenched on your Bench.
TWO games: Warriors, Lakers
THREE games: Celtics, Bulls, Mavericks, Pistons, Pacers, Grizzlies, Heat, Timberwolves, Bucks, Nets, Knicks, 76ers, Trailblazers, Kings, Jazz, Wizards
FOUR games: Hawks, Bobcats, Cavaliers, Nuggets, Rockets, Clippers, Hornets, Magic, Suns, Spurs, Sonics, Raptors
START
Peja Stojakovic: That's right. Last week Peja was featured in this column as a Bench candidate, because of the extremely high risk associated with his back injury. Would the Hornets' take Peja along slowly, unwilling to risk aggravating the injury? Or would they give him significant minutes, allowing him to rack up threes, points, and just enough rebounds to keep owners grumbling but contented? It appears the latter option is winning out, as Peja logged 31 minutes in his first game of the season and finished with 19 points, including four threes. He was also solid again on Friday night. In a four-game week, he should have plenty of opportunities to reclaim the form (more specifically, the shooting stroke) that made him an All-Star in the past. Now that we know Peja will be getting plenty of minutes, you might as well use him before he re-injures himself and ends up 'back' on the bench. Get used to the bad puns, they just keep coming.
Two-Game Studs: This week, the Lakers and Warriors each play two games, which means that owners of
Kobe Bryant,
Baron Davis and
Monta Ellis have a choice to make; to start them, despite their weak schedules, or to bench them. Playing anyone with a two-game schedule is inherently risky, since one lousy performance could ruin their fantasy value. But in the case of star players, guys guaranteed to get tons of minutes and opportunities, the gamble is high-percentage. The Lakers have two home games, against the Hornets and the Timberwolves, and Kobe should easily convince Lakers' fans to drop the 'B'; that is, turn their booing into oohing.
Baron Davis leads the Warriors against the Cavaliers and Mavericks in two home contests, and should dominate weaker point guards in both matchups. The catch here is the number of teams with four-game schedules. Can Kobe double
Matt Carroll's or Damien Wilkens' per-game output? Possibly. Can
Baron Davis double
Raymond Felton's or
Jameer Nelson's per-game output? Probably not. In other words, although Kobe and Baron are both safe starts this week, they may not be your best options if your team is loaded with four-game players.
John Salmons: Last week I recommended that you plug
Francisco Garcia into your lineups, and he remains a solid fill-in.
John Salmons, however…well, if he is still available in your league, please stop reading, go pick him up, then post a gloating (if belated) message to your sloppy league of underachieving owners (Such anger! On opening day I dropped Salmons in two leagues in favor of
Jason Williams…what can I say? I get impetuous.) With
Mike Bibby out six-to-ten weeks and
Ron Artest suspended through next week, Salmons has a chance to establish permanent value for an offensively-challenged Kings' squad.
Quincy Douby is no quick-fix for the Kings, and the recently acquired Spurs' cast-off
Beno Udrih is questionable even if he weren't nursing a finger injury. This lucky Salmons is swimming downstream all week: he faces no serious competition for minutes and should have a fine, balanced fantasy line to prove it.
Hedo Turkoglu: Turkoglu has a great opportunity in Orlando this season. Surrounded by a young, talented roster looking to push the tempo, Turkoglu merely needs to maintain an accurate jumpshot from beyond 20 feet to have solid value. Eight and nine-category league owners will be pleasantly surprised; while he won't overload any one category, Turkoglu is a relatively versatile forward. With very little competition for minutes, in a four-game week, heed-o my advice and get Turkoglu in your starting lineups.
Al Horford:
Zaza Pachulia is expected to miss the first week or two of the season with lingering leg and ankle injuries, which pushes rookie
Al Horford into the role of starting center for the Hawks'. Horford has had the 'NBA-ready' seal of approval applied ad nauseum, and after leading the Hawks in rebounding this preseason, he seems ready to prove it. He also had nine points, 10 boards and a block on Friday, which was a nice start. With a favorable four-game schedule ahead of him this week, Horford looks like a fantasy-ready starter already.
Larry Hughes: Larry is lurking on lots of waiver wires, a Hughes without a home, waiting for someone to whisk him away. Have fantasy owners given up hope that he can shoot above 40% from the field, average anything near two steals per game, and get back to the mediocre rebounding skills of his prime? After last year's atrocious numbers, skepticism is understandable, even necessary. But this year, Larry is fully healthy and when healthy has always been a tenacious defender (he had seven steals in his first game this season). Even more important, he is playing at his natural position, shooting guard, whereas last year he was forced to play in a sort of mutated point guard spot. The clincher is that the Cavaliers play four games this week. Let go of your skepticism, trust in the Cavaliers' overall lack of depth and talent, and stick Hughes in your lineup right away.
Udonis Haslem: As the embattled, frequently incarcerated hip-hop artist DMX famously insisted, "Let's dial up a fact list": 1) The Heat suck without
Dwyane Wade, 2) Haslem is playing utterly uncontested minutes right now (center
Mark Blount is his backup), 3) in 31 minutes per game last year, he averaged 10+ points and 8+ rebounds, meaning that 4) Haslem is a double-double machine with the key in the ignition. In a three-game week, Haslem looks like a smart start.
BENCH
Jerry Stackhouse: Years ago, in an effort to save space and thus cut costs, Beckett (sports cards) price guides began listing only the values of star players, while all other players were deemed to be either 'commons' or 'semi-stars'. Stackhouse is a semi-star through and through. After suffering through some lousy situations (see:
Michael Jordan-era Washington Wizards) and injuries, Stackhouse is poised to ride out his career as a productive role-player in the Mavericks' loaded lineup. Stackhouse is starting this year, which ought to increase his value, but it's no sure thing.
Josh Howard will be back for all of next week's games, meaning minutes between Stackhouse,
Jason Terry and
Eddie Jones will be even tighter than they were this week. Stackhouse is almost too consistent; you will never look at a box-score and be surprised at how well Stack did. He deserves to be owned in most leagues, but until Howard is inserted into the lineup and we see how the minutes-share will play out, he is hardly more than a semi-starter.
Antonio McDyess/Jason Maxiell: For years, the Pistons' starting five have been one of the most consistent fantasy lineups in the league. With the departure of
Ben Wallace last year, however, they began quickly molding guys to fill his fro-shaped void: ultimately
Rasheed Wallace took over as center, leaving rugged veteran
Antonio McDyess and fresh-faced
Jason Maxiell to fill in at power forward. Both are great players, and consequently they are killing each others' value. Maxiell has greater statistical upside and less injury risk, but McDyess has the starting job. It isn't advisable to drop either guy from your team, not yet at least, but until one of them averages over 25 minutes per contest, you can't rely on the Pistons' power forwards in a three-game week.
Stromile Swift: I can't believe that I didn't recommend
Stromile Swift be benched last week, so I need to seize this opportunity to say exactly what's on my mind: his name may be Swift, but his brain? We aren't so sure. Apparently Stromile has one of the lowest basketball IQs ever recorded, so that despite his imposing size and athleticism, he just can't sustain good play for very long. In fact, Grizzlies coach Marc Iavaroni had slated Swift to start on opening night, only to shuffle him to the bench before even one game had been played. This is a guy who couldn't outperform
Jake Voskuhl a few years back, so there is no reason to believe that he will overtake
Darko Milicic this season. If you misinterpreted Swift's strong preseason and picked him off the wire (or worse, drafted him) it is time you put him right back on the scrap heap. Swiftly!
Nenad Krstic: The Nets play three games this week, and while Krstic will be a solid three-game start very soon, this isn't his week. The Nets are wisely limiting the young man's minutes as he recovers from knee surgery, and he played less than 20 minutes in the season-opener. Have patience, and keep Krstic benched this week. On a side note, he makes for a gutsy buy-low candidate as many owners will be frustrated by his limited playing time.
Desmond Mason: Two of the Bucks' three games next week are against very good defensive teams, the Spurs and the Rockets (they also play the Raptors). Mason is the Bucks' starting small forward, but
Bobby Simmons is competing with him for minutes and, ultimately, the starting job. Simmons is a more physical and versatile player than Mason (both in fantasy and reality) and as long as he doesn't re-aggravate his heel injury, he should render Mason useless (from a fantasy perspective) in no time. If Simmons is still on your league's wire, now might be the time to swap these two players. Remember: if you do decide to start a Mason, you must expect him to lay bricks.
That will wrap up Bench/Start for Week Two, hopefully you take something from it (besides the stale taste of lousy puns) and it helps you win your league. Unless of course you are in a league against a certain savvy owner named "Mr. Supersonic", in which case you should ignore all of the advice above, definitely start
Stromile Swift, and willingly concede defeat.
I always love to get questions, comments, or if you prefer, extremely long and deranged attacks on my character, so please send it all my way at
ryanknaus@gmail.com
Good luck this week, in fantasy and reality! (again, unless you are against me, in which case I hope to destroy you)