Let me add a big qualifier here: the following line (through one half of play) is the Gold Standard, thus far, for players drafted in the 9th Round, and then unceremoniously dropped before they played a single game.

• Jason Terry:   60% FG, 100% FT, 1 3-Pointer made,  17 Pts., 1 Board, 3 Dimes, 4 Steals, 1 Block.

Mr. Terry is an 8-category contributor tonight, with half the game remaining.  Lights Out can defend his decision all he wants; I maintain, however, that he could desperately use a guy like Terry on his squad.  Furthermore, he secretly regrets this decision.

Maybe Terry was not a “system” player for him.  Maybe Terry didn’t fit into his “grand plans”.  When he lies awake at night, does Mr. Light ever realise that his grand plans need a shakeup?  For many years now, Mr. Light’s fantasy seasons have played out like the movie “Groundhog Day”;  a guaranteed declaration that “this is my year”, with each new season, is money in the bank.  The annual unfulfillment of this declaration is money in the bank also.  As is a laundry list of blunders, such as prematurely dropping the aforementioned Mr. Terry.

On a night when Amare scored 49, Tony Parker established the early-season gold standard in box scores, with his .611 FG%, .900 FT%, 2 Three-pointers, 55 pts., 7 boards, 10 dimes- line for the night. His goose-eggs in steals and blocks can be forgiven, due to his sheer six-category dominance. The categories that have relegated him to second-tier PG status in the past: no 3-point shooting (3 in last two games), and mediocre FT shooting, were overcome on this night. It’s obviously way too early to state that Parker’s overall shooting has jumped to the next level, but, damnit, what a performance!

Update: Amare’s .810 FG%, 1.00 FT%, 49 pts, 11 boards, 6 assists, 5 steals, 2 blocks, line from tonight, is probably the actual “gold standard” so far. Damn! But I chose to talk about Parker instead. So deal with it, Quinn.

Although I own Parker in another league, the often-bungling Black Fraze is this league’s owner, sporting the sheepish grin after this performance. Incidentally, Fraze has improbably assembled a decent-looking squad, maybe even a #4 or a #5 seed, the presence of Hinrich notwithstanding.

Other observations:

• the usually move-judicious Show squad is tied for the lead, with the judicious-to-the-point-of-lunacy Lights Out squad, with 5 roster moves after 8 days. I predict that Anthony Carter will be the next Lights Out roster casualty. While the Show may not have any obvious future roster casualties, he appears to have 6 or 7 players competing for the last 3 spots on the bench.
• TME injury update. Injury-prone Ginobli and Maggette are out. Camby has returned with limited effectiveness. D. Williams could return Friday. The Uber-Man of injury, Tracy McGrady, remains “healthy”, for now. TME’s amazing, near-miraculous run with injury-prone players two years ago, may have induced him to abandon logic, and conclude that “once you have one injury-prone player, might as well snatch up as many as you can”. We shall see how this plays out.
• L’il Nate went off tonight, doing almost all of his damage in the second quarter. 5 3’s, .75 FG%, 1.00 FT%, 24 pts., 3 boards, 5 dimes, 2 steals.