Fantasy Basketball

This post is in response to a question a reader posed regarding the "games played" strategy in roto leagues. For those who may not be familiar with what I'm talking about, most standard roto leagues mandate an 82 game 'cap' at each position. Which means, you are only allowed to have an active player in your point guard position for 82 games. You can use the games whenever you want, with whichever player you choose. But, once you hit the 82-game mark, be it in February or April, you can no longer start a player at the point guard position.

This rule is put in place to keep owners from 'streaming' -- this means keeping owners honest and not having them add and drop a handful of players each night just to accumulate stats. Certain head-to-head leagues use an add/drop cap, usually at five moves per week.

Simple enough, right? But the question remains, what's the best strategy for using your games played? How do you manage the totals? Some people have different ways of approaching the games played strategy, but I'll give you some tips that I feel work best -- at least for me.

Home Delivery is your morning roundup of last night's action in the NBA from a fantasy perspective.

After starting the game 1-for-10, Kevin Garnett finished strong hitting four of his last five field goal attempts, including the game winner in overtime. Paul Pierce lead the way for the Celtics scoring 33 points, while Rajon Rondo just missed posting a triple-double going for 14 points, nine rebounds, 10 assists and four steals.

The Knicks with another one of those famed moral victories, were led by Al Harrington's 30 points off the bench and David Lee's 22 points and 15 rebounds. The Knicks are 3-10 on the season, yet they lead the league with seven moral victories -- two more than the New Jersey Nets, yet almost as many as my fantasy football team.

Court Vision is a breakdown of the weekly schedule to help you set your fantasy lineup.

The Nuggets have arguably the most favorable schedule with home games against the Nets, Knicks and a home/road series against the T-Wolves. For starters, the Nuggets have won 15 straight home games, while averaging 117 points per game at home. Then there's the fact that Minnesota is allowing 114.4 points per game on the road, while the Knicks yield 105.5 points away from The Garden.

And do we need to get started on the Nets? Yes, the 0-13 Nets. New Jersey is 27th in the league offering 8.8 steals per game and 25th in opponents rebounding at 44.6 per. With that, Kenyon Martin made top of my list in this week's waiver adds. Look at Ty Lawson in deep leagues as well. Chris Andersen should tattoo the Knicks on the defensive end of the ball. Eh? Tattoo? Get out of my way, I'm on fire!

With that, let's break down the schedule.

Who's Got Next is a weekly look at some of the top players widely available on the waiver wires.

Larry Hughes owners let out a sigh of relief on Friday when news dropped that the Knicks were no longer interested in signing Allen Iverson. It seemed to me that we would have seen his name on a majority of waiver wires come Saturday morning if the Knicks did happen to pull the trigger on Iverson. And given that fact that Hughes has been stellar of late, providing 14.2 points, 4.4 rebounds, 4.2 assists, 2.3 steals and 1.3 treys over his last ten, losing his production would have been disappointing. Now, though, with Nate Robinson on the Mike D'Antoni's s-list, Hughes should start getting a serious look and his ownership percentage should see an increase into the upper-80s, possibly the 90s.

What I'm getting at is, go pick up Larry Hughes. The Knicks play four times this week, and I suspect Hughes to get the bulk of the minutes at the 'two' going forward.

Looking at the schedule for Week Five, here are a few guys available on most waiver wires who are worth giving a look.

Home Delivery is your morning roundup of last night's action in the NBA from a fantasy perspective.

Kobe Bryant told Craig Sager last night that is was good to have Pau Gasol back. I couldn't have said it any better. Gasol was indeed back, and back in a big way -- game-high 24 points on 9-of-15 shooting, 13 rebounds and a blocked shot. The early effects of Gasol returning played out in the frontcourt: Andrew Bynum went for 11 points and eight rebounds in 25 minutes, while Lamar Odom came off the bench to play 25 minutes and put up 11 points and eight rebounds. A thoughtful gesture, considering Gasol has played eight full seasons, prior to this one, and missed the first 11 games before making his return. It was definitely his night.

The NBA's leading rebounder, Joakim Noah, pulled down 15 boards to go along with 12 points, four steals and two blocks. He's having a great season. The same can't be said for Derrick Rose, though he did come on last night and score 20 points and dish six dimes. Let's hope this gets him going.

Home Delivery is your morning roundup of last night's action in the NBA from a fantasy perspective.

The Knicks bench came up big as they erased a 19-point deficit in the second-half on their way to picking up their second victory of the season. Al Harrington led the way with 26 points on 8-of-13 shooting, while Larry Hughes added 22 points, 10 rebounds, seven assists and three steals. Hughes has trumped both Nate Robinson and Toney Douglas at the 'two' and continues to look like a safe add.

Danilo Gallinari's big goose egg was overshadowed -- literally? -- by the return of every Knick fan's favorite big man, Eddy Curry. Big Slacks had 10 points and four rebounds in 12 minutes coming off the bench. Mike Breem said it best when he insinuated that the Knicks were going to start giving Curry more playing time in order to showcase his "talents" with the hopes that someone will bite on his contract. That says a lot, doesn't it?

For the Pacers it was Danny Granger who led the way with 33 points on 12-of-18 shooting and five treys. He wasn't very helpful in the second half, scoring just three of his 33 in the final two quarters.

Home Delivery is your morning roundup of last night's action in the NBA from a fantasy perspective.

The first thing I thought of while watching the Warriors-Cavs game was: The Seven Samurai. And the tag-line for the film is nearly perfect -- "The Seven Warriors Who Became the Seven National Heroes of a Small Town." OK, so maybe we can take out "national heroes of a small town" and replace those words with "fantasy contributors for one evening."

Last night the Warriors went into Cleveland with just seven active players. Each, however, posted double-digit point totals, with Monta Ellis leading the way -- 23 points, eight assists, and three steals. Anthony Morrow looked pretty good himself, dropping 18 points and hitting four of his seven three-point attempts. All in all, you can't go wrong this week adding Morrow, Anthony Randolph, Stephen Curry or Corey Maggette. I'm still not sold on Mikki Moore or Vladimir Radmanovic, but I'm sure that will change over time.

I was working on a Hoops Heist post to give you a few players to target on the trade market, but I had to switch gears as the injury news this afternoon started to pile up.

Jameer Nelson underwent an MRI this morning and we're now hit with the news that he needs to have arthroscopic surgery on his left knee. It is estimated that Nelson will miss four-to-six weeks. Now what? Well, if you're a Nelson owner it would be in your best interest to pick up point guard Jason Williams, then stand back and reassess.

Jason Williams propped up his fantasy profile in the season opener against the 76ers with 15 points, five assists, and three treys. Since then it's been a mixed bag. Williams' minutes have declined to the point where he hasn't hit the 20-minute mark in any of the previous five games. Now, however, it would seem that he's a lock for at least 25-plus minutes, with Anthony Johnson willing and able to fill in as the back-up. But what should you expect from Williams as your newly acquired point guard?

Home Delivery is your morning roundup of last night's action in the NBA from a fantasy perspective.

Well that was one busy Monday, wasn't it? And to think, we only had three games on the schedule.

Monday afternoon we learned that the Warriors had traded Stephen Jackson to the Bobcats for Raja Bell and Vladimir Radmanovic. The early fantasy implications on this one were on display Monday night as Jackson was in uniform and in the starting lineup for the Bobcats. He had a typical Jackson line: 13 points on 4-of-14 shooting, one three-pointer, nine rebounds, two assists, two steals and four turnovers. Some things remain the same.

The implications in Golden State won't necessarily be known until Tuesday night when the Warriors play the Cavaliers. Then again, it's never a given when you're talking about Don Nelson's rotation. One night Raja Bell might be in; the next he's out. Stay tuned.

Oh, yeah, and Allen Iverson and the Memphis Grizzlies parted ways. It might be safe to drop Iverson outright, unless of course the Knicks come to the rescue. Isn't that something the old regime would have done?

Home Delivery is your morning roundup of last night's action in the NBA from a fantasy perspective.

Aaron Brooks led the Houston Rockets to a 101-91 victory over the Los Angeles Lakers last night. Brooks dropped a game-high 33 points, hitting five three-pointers, grabbing six rebounds and dishing four assists. The Rockets out-rebounded the Lakers 60-38, while holding them to 38.1-percent shooting from the floor.

Andrew Bynum led the way for the Lakers with 21 points, 11 rebounds and five assists. Kobe Bryant left them game late in the fourth quarter. Initial word was that his knee was that it might have been a bruised knee. Then word came out that it was a groin strain. It looked more like a bruised ego to me, but what do I know about knees and groins?