Trendspotting: Week 20
by Kish Patel — March 13th, 2006
As hoops news dries up, so does this column… But have no fear. We will vigilantly monitor the Scrub Radar for this one final week. We’ve got sprained ankles in Philly, foot fractures in Chitown, and the Hills are alive with the sounds of hernia operations.
Boston: Perk and Jeff are back healthy and making their alma maters proud, but with the way Gomes is playing, Raef Lafrentz seems the likeliest candidate for a hit in playing time and value.
Chicago: Songaila goes down with a fractured foot… Minutes for Sweetney? Fat chance. Come on, somebody had to say it. Look for Nocioni to uptick on this bit of news.
Cleveland: LeBron, 24 of 28 from the line is great. But as my father would say, what happened to the other 14.3%?... Someone explain to me why Varejao is pronounced with an “n” on the end. Is this some kind of Brazilian code? Did no one tell Rafael Araujo?
Dallas: Josh Howard was back for a half before calling it a night. Devin Harris goes down again, and doesn’t sound too optimistic about hurrying back. This after he teased us with a start and a nice line. With Adrian Griffin also getting hurt, Marquis Daniels has an opportunity to shine once more.
Denver: Reggie Evans with 20 boards and not a single point? A man who can bang but just can’t score.
Golden State: Mickael Pietrus sprains an ankle and it’s the triumphant return of Thugleavy. 6 points!!! Okay, maybe not. At least Fish has had some value due to the very slow recovery of Baron Davis. Hey Baron: no point guard should be shaped like Jerome James. I’m just saying.
Houston: T-Mac is out five weeks, but as we said last week, Keith Bogans isn’t exactly fantasy gold.
Indiana: Just as soon as I mentioned Danny Granger fading, he gets inserted into the starting lineup. Tough to say if his value will hold, but with Indiana’s strong H2H schedule he’s worth the risk.
LA Lakers: Continuing the theme of the foot injury is Chris Mihm. No word yet on severity but Kwame Brown may see some time in his stead.
LA Clippers: An astute reader pointed out that Cuttino Mobley might have his value affected more than Vladimir Radmanovic in the event of Corey Maggette’s return, and this has certainly proved to be the case so far. With Radmanovic eating up some of the shots and playing for a contract, he actually ends up hurting both Maggette’s and Mobley’s value.
Memphis: Jake Tsakalidis is coming on strong and hopefully will see more consistent minutes down the stretch. The tough thing with these good teams (see Dallas, San Antonio) is that they’re so deep that their coaches have the luxury of going to anybody they want… Eddie Jones returned from a foot injury, proving that people do recover from this strange epidemic.
Minnesota: I’m not sure what Casey’s doing with his guards in Minny. Looks like Jaric’s had a fire lit under in him and might have sporadic value at best. This of course hurts Marcus Banks, who this week followed one of his best games as a Timberwolf with one of his worst.
New York: Larry Brown, it was fun while it lasted. I don’t know if we’ll see you again next year, but at least you and Starbury can spend the summer hitting the links and strengthening your father-son bond. Maybe Franchise will get jealous and we’ll have an even better soap opera next year. One can only hope.
Orlando: With Grant Hill looking more and more unlikely to return anytime in the future, Turkoglu solidifies some value. Hedo had a very solid line in his most recent start.
Philadelphia: Cheeks is starting Hunter over Dalembert, and it’s hard to argue with the move when the team is winning. Unless of course you own Dalembert. Since AI went down with a sprained ankle, and Ollie is out with a sprained ankle, maybe Sammy can pick up some time at the one. He could probably pick up twenty to thirty blocks a game against opposing point guards.
Phoenix: Raja Bell got his clock rung Sunday against Portland but no word yet on his status. This might give James Jones a few more minutes and help Tim Thomas get some more shots.
Seattle: Johan Petro is providing Robert Swift owners with a conundrum: to swap or not to swap? Tough call. Petro’s been solid and Bob Hill seems to have a thing against guys in masks.
Toronto: Charlie V’s been slowing down lately, but keep your eye on Joey Graham. He played very well on Sunday, and Mitchell might decide to slide him some more minutes.
Utah: Boozer continues to come off the bench but it seems like just a matter of time before he’s in the starting lineup.
Well, that wraps it up. The regular season is just about at its end, and this means that fantasy hoops will soon come to an end. This will be the last of the Trendspotting columns. Hope you enjoyed them, have a nice summer, and please remember: practice safe fantasy sports.
