fBasketballBlog

My list of the top 10 fantasy power forwards for 2010-11 is now live over at DimeMag.com. (It’s based on nine categories.)

Here’s a preview:

1. Dirk Nowitzki
2. Pau Gasol
3. David Lee
4. Amar’e Stoudemire
5. Josh Smith
6. Chris Bosh
7. Carlos Boozer
8. Tim Duncan
9. David West
10. Hedo Turkoglu

Feel free to comment here or there about the list.

Will you be shocked when you find out where LeBron is drafted? (Keith Allison/Flickr)

I’m of the mind that it’s never too early to participate in fantasy basketball mock drafts, so when Henry at Weakside Help reached out to me with the idea of partnering on a drafting adventure, I was amped — Robin Lopez amped.

Here’s the deal: We’re working with a 12-team head-to-head league with nine categories (FG%, FT%, 3ptm, Pts, Reb, Ast, Stl, Blk, TO) and 13 draft rounds. I’m taking the first round, Henry takes the second, I take the third, etc. Each round will consist of picking players in the order we see fit while making sure we’re building 12 viable teams as best as we can, sprinkling our comments along the way.

Got it? Good.

Without further ado, let’s dive right into the first round of our fantasy mock draft: (continue reading…)

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  Could this be the face of this year's biggest fantasy sleeper? (It's Rodrigue Beaubois, by the way.) (Keith Allison/Flickr)

  Having a hard time keeping tabs on all the player movement in the NBA this summer? ESPN.com has you covered with this helpful chart.
• Matt Buser at Yahoo! Sports has an updated fantasy basketball Big Board. See how it compares with my top-25 list.
• If you want to see how players are doing during this year’s NBA Summer League games, head on over to NBA.com for a list of statistics. So far, DeMarcus Cousins (16.5 points, 11 rebounds per game), John Wall (21.0 points, 9.0 assists, 3.5 steals per game) and Reggie Williams (23.8 points, 5.3 rebounds, 3.3 assists per game) are faring well. We’ll break down the potential ramifications of Summer League once all the games are played.
• David Lee vs. Amar’e Stoudemire: who ya got? Tom Lorenzo at FanHouse mulls this question over and comes to a tough call. (I’m taking David Lee, though as Lorenzo astutely points out, that will hinge on how well Andris Biedrins plays this season.)
• It’s looking more and more like Shawn Marion will be coming off the pine in Dallas this season, making way for Roddy Beaubois to start at SG for the Mavs. While this is bad news for Marion’s already tanking fantasy value, Beaubois immediately becomes a sexy sleeper pick.
• Nels at Give Me The Rock has posted his preview of the Oklahoma City Thunder, armed with a song parody and guidance on where to take Kevin Durant, Jeff Green and Russell Westbrook.

It's almost the hour that LeBron's been dreaming of for years. New York: get ready to be disappointed! (Flickr/david_shankbone)

It’s almost here. No, not Justin Bieber’s 18th birthday – the official start of this summer’s NBA free agency season, of course.

While many of us are probably ready to just get it all over with already, if you’re a fantasy addict you’re already thinking about how decisions made in the next few days will affect their draft positions in the fall.

Here’s a quick look at this blog’s very first and very own “Volatility Index.” Taking into account factors like probability of landing with certain teams and potential teammates next season, this is a list of projections about how volatile each of these key fantasy players are on the eve of free agency, along with a quick and dirty prediction of where each player will actually land. We’ll use a scale of 0 (fantasy value totally stable) to 10 (fantasy value totally unpredictable). (continue reading…)

Lee was downright mean this past weekend and had one of the more gargantuan triple-doubles this season. (Noah Graham/NBAE via Getty Images)

Weekend Wonder: David Lee averaged 33 points, 15 rebounds, 7 assists, 0.5 steals and 1 block in two games. One of those games was a monstrous 37/20/10 line against the Warriors on Friday. Lee shot 58 percent from the field and 93 percent from the line in those outings.

Noteworthy Lines:
Taj Gibson (4/2) – 7-13 FG (54%), 14 Pts, 16 Reb, 1 Ast, 1 Stl, 4 Blk, 1 TO

Anthony Morrow (4/2) – 16-23 FG (70%), 3 3ptm, 35 Pts, 6 Reb, 3 Stl, 1 TO

Andre Iguodala (4/3) – 9-14 FG (64%), 11-14 FT (79%), 4 3ptm, 33 Pts, 8 Reb, 11 Ast, 5 Stl, 1 Blk, 3 TO (continue reading…)