Dear RotoRob.com,

I need some advice about some trade offers in my NBA dynasty league. Again, we have a 20-man roster and only draft rookies. I have the No. 2 pick in my draft and with the big two (Derrick Rose and Michael Beasley) available, I have a number of scenarios given to me from my league mates inquiring about the availability of the pick.

My guards right now are: Jose Calderon, Beno Udrih, Randy Foye, Kirk Hinrich, Rajon Rondo, Joe Johnson, Jameer Nelson and Monta Ellis.

My power forwards and centres are: Chris Bosh, LaMarcus Aldridge, Charlie Villanueva, Linas Kleiza and Andrew Bogut.

And Greg Oden will be added to my 20-man list before the draft.

I have been offered Brandon Roy and Rodney Stuckey for the chance to draft Beasley or Rose. Other picks involved would be my No. 10 and his No. 19.

I have also been offered No. 6, No. 12, No. 14 and a player to be considered for the No. 2 and No. 10 picks.

A third offer is Andrew Bynum or Thaddeus Young for the No. 2 pick. This offer comes from the guy that has the No. 1 pick in the draft.

I really like Rose and would love to add him to my group, but Beasley is also an intriguing prospect to add to my bigs.

Any thoughts on what might be the best avenue?

My other good players are Kevin Durant, Danny Granger, Luol Deng and Mike Dunleavy, Jr.

My PG situation is up in the air with Calderon asking either to be the starter or be moved. Will Foye be the PG for Minnesota? Can Udrih stay at the point for Sacramento? And can Hinrich come back from what was possibly his worse season ever?

Thanks.

Daryl

Daryl,

If I had your team I would want Rose more than Beasley. You have the forwards and centre in Bosh, Aldridge and Bogut and a crap load of so-so PGs to follow. Beasley would get lost in your shuffle, but Rose would fill the glaring weakness that I see.

Roy and Stuckey for Rose doesn’t help. Roy is more of a two-guard that can get assists and Stuckey has yet to really show us what he can do.

Three picks for two means you get deeper, but not really better as you drop out of the top five and only gain two guys in the middle of the top 10-15. So, two so-so guys and a possible impact player at six for Rose? No thanks. If he was that good he would have went top five, so No. 6 doesn’t impress me too much.

Bynum should be okay after his surgery, so if you’re sold on his recovery, then he’s an option. Do note that the Lakers haven’t slowed down offensively at all without him. As for Young, he isn’t very good and there ain’t no way in hell I let the guy picking No. 1 also get the No. 2 anyway!

From the sounds of it, the PG job in Minny is Foye’s, unless of course, the team opts to move him and pick up Jarred Bayless in the draft, something that’s being discussed as a possibility.

I wouldn’t count on Udrih, however. There’s talk the Kings are targeting Texas PG D.J. Augustin in the draft. Another possibility is they make a deal with the Raptors for T.J. Ford. Either way, many believe Udrih, as good a job as he did this year, is ticketed for the bench in 2008-09.

I can’t imagine Captain Kirk not bouncing back, but the question is where will this recovery take place? One rumour had Hinrich being included in a deal to Miami for Dwyane Wade. I doubt that will happen, but it’s quite likely Hinrich will get moved, and that actually may be a very good thing. A change of scenery could do wonders for him after such an awful season.

June 3rd, 2008
Categories: BASKETBALL, Dear RotoRob, RotoRob . Author: RotoRob . Comments: No Comments

Dear RotoRob.com,

The question is: How to I stay in first throughout the season?

Here’s my roster:

C Geovany Soto
1B Prince Fielder
2B Ian Kinsler
3B Garrett Atkins
SS Orlando Cabrera
OF Carl Crawford
OF Jeff Francoeur
OF Josh Hamilton
UT Ryan Zimmerman
UT Edwin Encarnacion
BN Ryan Church

P Joakim Soria
P Bobby Jenks
P Ervin Santana
P Max Scherzer
P Dustin McGowan
P Tim Lincecum
P Josh Beckett
BN Jair Jurrjens

DL Wandy Rodriguez
DL Noah Lowry

Rocknfunk

Rocknfunk,

Have the best team. Don’t ride the waiver wire like it is the city bus. Too many stops on and off usually means you pick someone up after they are hot and they will cool off the second you get them. The waiver wire is like the stock market — and most people don’t make good day traders because they buy when it is doing good which means they missed the buy low point and bought it on a high.

Look to trade someone that is overvalued like Church or Santana. They are doing great — in May. But, their three-year splits show they are most likely going to slump back down to Earth pretty quickly. But low, sell high. Pick up the break-out guy, but don’t jump on everything that looks good over the past week. Look at the past month and see what the difference is between the week and month totals.

May 29th, 2008
Categories: BASEBALL, Dear RotoRob, RotoRob . Author: RotoRob . Comments: No Comments

Dear RotoRob,

Francisco Garcia has been dropped in my dynasty league. I have some candidates for dropping to pick him up:

Kirk Hinrich
Nate Robinson
Jameer Nelson
Jordan Farmar (I hesitate to drop him, because I think he is talented enough when given the chance)
Thabo Sefolosha
Linas Kleiza
Charlie Villanueva

Do you think any of these guys are worth keeping at all?

Daryl

Daryl,

I worry about Robinson and Hinrich the most out of those guys. N-Rob is just so small and the Knicks don’t seem to have enough faith in him to play him constantly. Hinrich may be about as good as he is going to get right now. I’m not sold on Robinson as a PG because all he does is score. He doesn’t get numbers in assists or steals and that is what makes a PG. I don’t care if he’s a former Slam Dunk Champ – dunk him off your team. As for Captain Kirk, he was a massive disappointment and he did a great job of dragging the Bulls down with him this season.

May 3rd, 2008
Categories: BASKETBALL, Dear RotoRob, RotoRob . Author: RotoRob . Comments: No Comments

Rasho Nesterovic, right, isn’t the long-term solution at centre for the Raps, but that doesn’t automatically mean Andrea Bargnani is, either. (Frank Gunn, Associated Press)

Dear RotoRob,

Let us switch gears here. I am looking at guys from other teams right now that haven’t played to their potential (at least in my mind) to maybe try to pry them away from a few owners. One guy I am targeting is Andrea Bargnani.

What do you think of his progress going forward?

Thanks.

Daryl

Daryl,

I think this was the season he was supposed to do it and he didn’t. Rasho Nesterovic (who has an $8.4 million player option for next year) is 33 years old next month and Bargnani is 23 right now, so I think Bargnani is still the Raps’ idea of the centre of the future for them, but he is looking a lot like a 10-11 point/3-4 rebound guy to me. Maybe he steps up his play and gets better, but I think of him more as Darko Milicic (except with more points and less rebounds and blocks) than Zydrunas Ilgauskas. But the similarities (young, European big man who has yet to approach his lofty expectations) are striking. Obviously, Bargnani has a ways to go before he really is the next Dirk Nowitzki.

I have no doubt that Bargnani will get better – remember how long it takes big men to develop — but it doesn’t look like he will get a lot better than he is right now. Did he simply slump all year, or is he just a bust? It’s too soon to tell.

Some guys to look at next year are Francisco Garcia, Jason Maxiell, Devin Harris if you can get him, Ramon Sessions and/or Chris Quinn. Bargnani is the popular pick for people because he is the name, but I think what you see is what you get with him and if you are happy with a centre that nets you the rebounds of a PG, then go for it.

April 29th, 2008
Categories: BASKETBALL, Dear RotoRob, RotoRob . Author: RotoRob . Comments: No Comments

We received several season-ending letters from our basketball readers this week, mostly related to our Daily Dose wrap-up, in which we picked the fantasy studs and duds of each NBA team.

Dear RotoRob,

Typically I don’t quibble and just enjoy the articles, but Mehmet Okur over Andrei Kirilenko for Utah’s “dud†is arguable and Jason Kapono over Andrei Bargnani for Toronto is just flat out wrong. Bargnani was drafted by many to be a No. 2 centre and taken as early as the fifth round, while Kapono was a back-up forward at best and wasn’t drafted in many leagues.

I definitely commend the rest of the picks for duds since they are guys that hurt squads and weren’t just nobodies.

Nashua

Hi Nashua,

You weren’t the only one to suggest that AK-47 should have gotten the call as the Jazz dud (see below), but here’s my reasoning:

While Kirilenko still hasn’t come close to getting back to his peak years (2003-04 to 2005-06), he was much better than last season’s disaster. Note that AK-47 set career highs in FG percentage and 3-point percentage, played more games, got more PT and, other than his blocks, everything else was up. Yes, his rebounding numbers were again greatly disappointing, but Kirilenko was up in FT percentage, steals, assists and points.

Okur, on the other hand, while hardly a major flop, did backslide for the second straight year. First off, for the first time since arriving in Utah, he wasn’t durable, missing ten games. Additionally, he experienced declines in MPG and blocks (he’s almost a non-factor in this department now). His free throw attempts per game were down significantly as was his scoring (a decrease of 3.1 PPG). Hence, he got my vote.

As for the Raptors, I agree that Bargnani could have easily taken this one, especially given the expected growth in his sophomore year. However, he stayed healthy, improved his FT shooting and saw an improvement in his assists. Was his year a disappointment? Yes, absolutely. But Kapono completely tanked, and simply didn’t play enough to be of use except in super deep leagues. Like I said, Bargnani is an excellent choice, and now that I look again and consider everything, I am swayed that he probably screwed more owners than Kapono’s precipitous fall did.

Just wanted to let you know that I had Okur on my fantasy team this year and right before the trade deadline in mid-march I received and offer of Al Jefferson for him. I would be stupid not to take it right? Well, because I am a Jazz fan I held off and Memo came up huge for me in the playoffs. Not only did he solidify my rebounding - he was in the top five in rebounding in the last three weeks of the regular season - but he allowed me to sneak out a huge upset in the semis because he helped me get the 3 pt category. That 3 pt category determined the victor.

Memo had a horrible stretch in the middle of the year, but when the playoffs came he was, as they say, “Money!”

I’d say the bigger dud on the Jazz this year was Kirilenko.

Steve

Hi Steve,

Fair enough, Okur’s stretch play was definitely a factor, but I was looking at the entire body of work. See above for a more complete description of that.

I won my championship and wanted to say thanks for giving me better advice than those guys at NBA.com. Y’all should really apply for their jobs.

Thanks to y’all I snatched Elton Brand and Brandon Roy off the waiver wires in addition to Chris Quinn, Ramon Sessions and Channing Frye.

Meanwhile Kobe Bryant, Andre Iguodala, Lamar Odom, Nick Collison, Shaquille O’Neal and Andris Biedrins brought home the title for me in a 12-team H2H league.

I’m 300 smackers richer. See y’all when fantasy football starts!

James

Hi James,

Y’all are welcome, my man! We’re here to help.

April 23rd, 2008
Categories: BASKETBALL, Dear RotoRob, RotoRob . Author: RotoRob . Comments: 3 Comments