Il Mago ("the magician" in Italian) will have to pull out all his tricks this season as the unquestioned man-of-the-hour in Toronto. (bargnani.com)

Depth chart:
PG: Jose Calderon, Jarrett Jack, Marcus Banks
SG: DeMar DeRozan, Leandro Barbosa
SF: Linas Kleiza, Sonny Weems, Julian Wright
PF: Amir Johnson, Ed Davis, Reggie Evans, Joey Dorsey
C: Andrea Bargnani, David Andersen, Solomon Alabi

Relevant fantasy players and projected draft positions/per-game stats:
Andrea Bargnani – F/C (Rd. 3-4): 20 Pts, 1.5 threes, 7 Reb, 1.5 Blk
Jose Calderon – PG (Rd. 9-11): 11 Pts, 1 three,  6 Ast
Jarrett Jack – G (Rd. 9-11): 13 Pts, 1 three, 5 Ast
Leandro Barbosa – G (Rd. 10-12): 14 Pts, 1.5 threes, 1 Stl
Linas Kleiza – G/F (Rd. 10-12): 12 Pts, 1.5 threes, 4.5 Reb
DeMar DeRozan – G/F (Rd. 10-12): 10 Pts, 1 Stl
Amir Johnson – PF (Rd. 12+): 14 Pts, 5 Reb, 1 Blk
Ed Davis – PF (Rd. 13+): 5 Pts, 5 Reb, 1 Blk (continue reading…)

New uniforms, new look: D-Will has a new lineup to lead this season. (NBA.com)

Depth chart:
PG: Deron Williams, Ronnie Price, Sundiata Gaines
SG: Raja Bell, Othyus Jeffers
SF: Andrei Kirilenko, Gordon Hayward, C.J. Miles
PF: Paul Millsap, Jeremy Evans
C: Al Jefferson, Mehmet Okur

Relevant fantasy players and projected draft positions/per-game stats:
Deron Williams – PG (Rd. 1): 19 Pts, 1.5 threes, 3.5 Reb, 10 Ast, 1 Stl
Al Jefferson – F/C (Rd. 2-3): 19 Pts, 10 Reb, 1.5 Blk
Paul Millsap – PF (Rd. 6-7): 14 Pts, 7.5 Reb, 1 Stl, 1.5 Blk
Mehmet Okur – F/C (Rd. 9-10): 10 Pts, 1 three, 5 Reb, 1 Blk
Andrei Kirilenko – F (Rd. 9-10): 12 Pts, 5 Reb, 3 Ast, 1.5 Stl, 1.5 Blk
Raja Bell – SG (Rd. 12+): 10 Pts, 2 threes
C.J. Miles – G/F (Rd. 13+): 9 Pts, 1.5 threes
Gordon Hayward – G/F (Rd. 13+): 8 Pts, 1.5 threes (continue reading…)

KD vs. Natalie P: Who ya got? (Marc Lecureuil/Getty Images for Nike, OLYCOM/bauergriffinonline.com)

Hurricane Earl be damned — it’s Friday and we’re on the cusp of Labor Day weekend, which means it’s time to bust out the big guns for this week’s edition of Fantasy Friday.

The ladies continued their winning streak last week as Jennifer Aniston edged out Danny Granger. This adds to the heap of victories for the gals, which includes Jessica Alba beating Dwyane Wade, Jessica Biel defeating Dwight Howard and Kristen Stewart vanquishing Dirk Nowitzki.

The men will have to do their best to notch their first win, so who better to take on that task than the projected king of fantasy basketball this season? It’s with great pride and hope — along with a fluttering heart — that I present to you this week’s matchup: Kevin Durant vs. Natalie Portman. (continue reading…)

The good news is McGee and Blatche are two of the most promising fantasy players this season. The bad news is they're on the Wizards. (Keith Allison/Flickr)

It’s time to pump out concise rundowns of each NBA team from a fantasy basketball perspective. Give Me The Rock and Fantasy Basketball Daily are among the sites already getting started, and keep an eye out for others — the more resources you read, the better. We’ll be going in reverse-alphabetical order. These will all assume nine categories in 12-team leagues.

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Depth chart:
PG: John Wall, Kirk Hinrich
SG: Gilbert Arenas, Nick Young
SF: Al Thornton, Josh Howard
PF: Andray Blatche, Yi Jianlian, Trevor Booker, Kevin Seraphin
C:  JaVale McGee, Hilton Armstrong

Relevant fantasy players and projected draft positions/per-game stats:
John Wall - PG (Rd. 5-6): 17 Pts, 4 Reb, 6.5 Ast, 2 Stl
Gilbert Arenas - SG (Rd. 6-7): 19 Pts, 2 threes, 3 Reb, 4 Ast, 1.5 Stl
Andray Blatche - F/C (Rd. 6-7): 16 Pts, 8 Reb, 2.5 Ast, 1 Stl, 1 Blk
JaVale McGee - C (Rd. 9-11): 8 Pts, 8 Reb, 3 Blk
Yi Jianlian - PF (Rd. 10+): 10 Pts, 6 Reb, 1 Blk
Kirk Hinrich - G (Rd. 13+): 9 Pts, 1 three, 1 Stl
Josh Howard - G/F (Rd. 13+): 10 Pts, 3 Reb, 1 three, 1 Stl
Al Thornton - F (Rd. 13+): 11 Pts, 4 Reb (continue reading…)

Acid test, indeed. I just wish more real people were around to test the acid with me. Wait, that's not -- oh, nevermind. (dok1/Flickr)

I’ve been a big fan of Yahoo’s Fantasy Basketball platform for nearly my entire fantasy basketball life, so when they unveiled the auction draft format this year, I was quite intrigued. I’ve always wondered about auction drafts and imagined that they’d be lots of fun, but I just never got around to them.

But since Yahoo introduced it and after reading Patrick’s case for auction drafts at Give Me The Rock, I just had to try one. So tonight, I entered a mock auction draft — $200 to spend, 12 owners (six real, six automated), head-to-head format and 13 roster spots (PG, SG, G, SF, PF, F, C, C, Util, Util, BN, BN, BN). It started out well but around 20 minutes into it, the other five real owners set themselves on autobid and I was left all alone, which explains why I still had $15 after I filled out my roster, was able to nab Paul Pierce, O.J. Mayo, Andrew Bogut and Blake Griffin at such insanely low prices, and kind of lost focus with my last batch of picks. So yes, the results below must have one o’ these bad boys appended to it:

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(continue reading…)