fBasketballBlog

Ellis was a professional thief last night. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

Beast of the Night: Monta Ellis put up 30 points, one rebound, five assists, six steals and a block, and hit two three-pointers last night against the Nets. He shot 55 percent (11-20) from the field, 86 percent (6-7) from the free-throw line and had three turnovers. Ellis is having a solid season for the most part, especially if your league doesn’t count field-goal percentage (41 percent) and turnovers (3.9 per game). Even when Stephen Curry returns, Ellis’ value should remain intact.

Lines for Discussion:
Dwight Howard: 9-15 FG (60%), 6-10 FT (60%), 24 Pts, 25 Reb, 1 Ast, 1 Stl, 3 Blk, 2 TO; his fantasy value is improved from last season, mostly thanks to more assists (2.4 per game versus 1.4 last season) and fewer turnovers (3.3 per game versus 3.6 last season)

Andre Miller: 12-20 FG (60%), 1-2 FT (50%), 3 threes, 28 Pts, 8 Reb, 10 Ast, 2 Stl, 3 TO; he’s averaging 10.5 points, 3.5 ‘bounds, 6.4 dimes, 1.3 thefts and 0.5 treys

Serge Ibaka: 3-5 FG (60%), 6 Pts, 10 Reb, 1 Stl, 2 Blk, 3 TO;this was Ibaka’s first time grabbing double-digit rebounds this season (continue reading…)

That about sums up Diaw's monstrous start to the 2011-12 NBA season. (Kent Smith/NBAE via Getty Images)

This will be a new weekly series of posts that differs from the “Buy Low, Sell High” posts from last season. The “buy, sell, hold” ratings should be approximately interpreted as follows:

• Buy: the player is a solid trade target because his value is underappreciated yet reliable, or because he’s in a slump
• Hold: if you own the player, try to hold onto him, either because he’ll maintain solid value or to see how his value stabilizes before dealing him away; if you don’t own the player, wait until his stock drops a bit or until his uncertain value is clearer before trying to get him in a trade
• Sell: don’t believe the player’s recent production and sell high if you own him

With that, here’s the stock watch for Week 1: (continue reading…)

Lawson is a fantasy beast, through and through. (Flickr/Keith Allison)

Beast of the Night: Ty Lawson finished with 25 points, four rebounds, three assists, eight steals and two three-pointers last night in a loss to the Trail Blazers. He shot 63 percent (10-16) from the field, 75 percent (3-4) from the free-throw line and had two turnovers. Lawson is off to a very solid start in his first three games of the season. Though he’s not dishing out many assists (3.0 per game), he’s shooting like a center (62 percent from the field), hitting threes (1.7 per game) and thieving like Winona Ryder (4.0 per game). There’s little standing in his way to giving his owners top 30 value this season.

Lines for Discussion:
Deron Williams: 2-12 FG (17%), 6-8 FT (75%), 10 Pts, 4 Reb, 7 Ast, 2 Stl, 1 Blk, 6 TO; flawed lines could be the norm for D-Will this season

Dwight Howard: 7-9 FG (78%), 2-9 FT (22%), 16 Pts, 24 Reb, 3 Ast, 3 Stl, 3 Blk, 3 TO; I don’t think he wants to play in Jersey anymore

DeJuan Blair: 8-17 FG (47%), 6-8 FT (75%), 22 Pts, 12 Reb, 1 Ast; some steals and blocks (zero total so far this season) would be nice (continue reading…)

Williams and Lopez carry the weight of the Nets' fantasy appeal, which may or may not be a good thing. (D. Clarke Evans/NBAE via Getty Images)

Depth chart:
PG: Deron Williams, Jordan Farmar, Sundiata Gaines
SG: Anthony Morrow, Marshon Brooks, Stephen Graham, Sasha Vujacic*, Ben Uzoh*, Mario West*
SF: Damion James, Travis Outlaw
PF: Kris Humphries*, Brandan Wright*, Jordan Williams
C: Brook Lopez, Johan Petro, Dan Gadzuric*^

* unrestricted free agent
^ locked into overseas contract with no opt-out clause (continue reading…)

In "2011-12" we might witness fantasy basketball in its truest form.

The NBA lockout has been about as horrifying as sitting in between two of your friends who spontaneously decide to make out with each other in public. Of course, if those two friends were the NBA Players Association and the NBA owners, maybe it wouldn’t be so bad.

Before you start thinking too much about James Dolan getting intimate with Derek Fisher, let’s move on to the point of this post.

Fantasy basketball is, thankfully, immune to such silly things as lockouts. But what the NBA lockout does mean is that any projections made for what we call “2011-12″ are made for a season that might not happen. In other words, we’re making forecasts about fantasy basketball for a season that might not even exist — a season that may be, in fact, a fantasy.

A fantasy within a fantasy — fantasy basketball in the truest sense.

Without further ado, here are my early rankings for the top 150 fantasy basketball players in “2011-12.” (continue reading…)