• Parity in the TT League?  A glance at the standings in the TTL might suggest that there’s a gulf between the haves and have-nots, with my Flambuoyant squad and the two newcomers counterposed with the wretched Hamertime, Dark Night, and Show organizations.  I maintain that this gulf is not nearly as wide as it might appear, with injuries, and matchup vagaries playing a large role in the standings to this point.  It’s only mid-week, but Lights Out is getting throttled by the perennially hapless Blountman, Mclovin is getting handled by the witless Fraze, and Yes We Can is behind the woodshed getting spanked by the suddenly resurgent Hamer.  I’m in a tightly fought 4-4 battle with the now healthy (aside from  T-Mac’s predictably sore vagina) TME squad.
• Pink Slips issued.  My free advice was a one-time feature, as many of the slackers have been kicked to the curb.
• My favorite stat of the week.   Kelly Dwyer, writing for Yahoo notes: “Chicago’s coaching staff is brand new, and though they’ve had all summer and a month into the season to find out that Richard Jefferson abuses Andres Nocioni every time he sees him, it’s still early. Those game tapes cost money, you know. And they’re soooo bor-ing.How Nocioni could end up a -18 on the game in only 12 minutes of play seems pretty shocking, but that’s how bad it was. Combine his one-point, one-rebound, three-foul, two-turnover performance with Drew Gooden needing 11 shots to score two points (Drew has missed all but one of his last 17 shots), and you can see why Chicago fell a little short.”
• Jason Terry has fallen to #20 in the Yahoo rankings.  I’m not complaining.  Meanwhile, Measley Beasley has fallen to #121.  While we all know that these rankings are far from gospel, they give a rough estimate of a player’s fantasy worth in most formats.  Will Beasley’s numbers go up, even while coming off the bench?  They very well could.  Will I regret issuing him a pink slip? Possibly.  Beasley is a scorer, and occasionally a rebounder; he’ll hit a three or block a shot every once in a while.  Right now, he looks like a poor-man’s Glenn Robinson with uncertain playing time on the horizon.  Dropping him was a gamble, and I might come to regret it-  meanwhile, TME is at the back of the waiver line….

I think it’s safe to say that there is much less luck involved in fantasy basketball than fantasy football.  Over the course of an 82 game season, your top players will get their numbers, unlike fantasy football where 1st round picks constantly underperform (see LaDainian Tomlinson, Brian Westbrooke, Stephen Jackson).  In basketball, you can put your guys in a position to win, but sometimes players don’t get their averages and you lose.  It’s extremely devastating when this happens on a Sunday.  Over the past four weeks, TME!!! has lost 3-4 points due to herculean efforts by the opponent and sub-par performances by players in my organization.  This post is not about crying over spilled milk, it’s just a  testament to the fact that anything can happen on a Sunday.

In Week 1, I thought I had a 5-3 victory in the bag over Lights Out!. I had a 16 point lead so all I needed was Jamal Crawford and Mike Miller to outscore Quentin Richardson and Ryan Gomes.  Well, Q-Rich goes off for 28 points, J-Craw scores 1 and the rest is history; I have to settle for a 4-4.

Two weeks later, I’m in a tight, tight battle with The Show.  Going into Sunday, points, assists and rebounds are in play.   To be fair, I did win by one assist, but I lost by three points, thanks to a 4th quarter 3-point explosion by Steve Nash and 5 points from that bum named “Raja Bell.”    Also, the underperforming Mike Miller plays 34 minutes and explodes for 8 points.

This past week, I’m up 5-3 going into Sunday with 3 categories in play.  i pick up Hughes and J.R. Smith for some added 3-point and scoring punch, yet Fraze astutely picks up Andrea Bargnani (not sure if I would have wasted a waiver request, but that’s an article for another day).  Well, K-Mart goes off for a season-high 26 points, Tayshaun Prince chips in 20, Bargnani scores 14 (7-8 in garbage time) and I get zero production from Maggette, Smith, Udrih and others.  Result - a 3-5 loss.

Crazy, unexpected things happen on Sundays and you have to move 0n.  Aerial Flambouyance was knocked out of playoffs because Chuck Hayes recorded a career high 5 steals on a Sunday.  TME!!! was denied an opportunity to go for his 3rd ring in 4 years because Mike Miller and Jeff Green combined for 10 3’s on a Sunday.  The Show lost two categories this past Sunday because Randy Foye decided to do his best Chris Paul imitation.

All you can do is put your team in the best position to win and hope for the best.

I woke up this morning to sunny skies. Haven’t seen that for a while. Shortly thereafter I went to the window and this is what I saw.

Then I did what I normally do when I wake up: check how my team performed the night before. When I went to bed, I was up 6-2 with my matchup against The Mighty. When I saw the standings, I had slipped to being down 3-5.

To top things off, Jason Terry is still going off. What a shitty day. (And now it’s snowing for real.)

It makes me feel bad, in a way (maybe), to keep hammering on Mr. Light’s ineptitude.  Circumstances, however, have forced me to provide an update on Mr. Jason Terry, the player who was drafted with the 81st pick (for a league in which 130 players are rostered at all times),  and then was contemptuously thrown under the bus by Mr. Ray Light before he had played a single game.

Terry’s Wednesday night performance alone could have prompted this posting:  31 points, on 62% FG-shooting, 75% FT-shooting, 2 three-pointers made, 2 boards, 4 dimes, and 3 steals.  But Terry followed it up tonight with this performance, marred only by his FG shooting:  20 points, on 40% FG-shooting, 100%  FT-shooting, 3 three-pointers made, 6 boards, 5 dimes, 3 steals and 1 block.

I believe Lights Out! may have cited Terry’s lack of a starting spot as the reason for dropping him.  Anyone, however, who has done a minimum amount of homework over the years would know that Terry has often come off the bench, and sometimes started, during his productive tenure (fantasy-wise) with Dallas.  He has filled both roles this year as well.  Finally, I should mention that I was chastised by some (including Mr. Light I believe?) for using a #2 waiver priority request on Mr. Terry.  The #1 priority holder (TME) is still out there waiting….. waiting……. waiting…….  Maybe a player like a Bogut, Cuttino Mobley, or Thaddeus Young will fall from the sky in early March.  Will it have been worth it?

Matchup Note: Aerial Flambuoyance is currently hanging on to a 4-4 tie with the insurgent Yes We Can! organization.  The upstart had a big games-played advantage (front-loaded no less) going into the week, and had seemingly locked up boards and dimes by the close of business on Wednesday.  A 5-3 Flambo victory appears to be a remote possibility, but I would count my blessings if I walk out of this one with a 4-4.  The GP advantage notwithstanding, the YWC (Yes We Can!) squad is a very formidable newcomer, and has to be considered, along with my Flambuoyant squad, as one of the two elite teams at this juncture of the season.

Draft Redux: Of my first 8 selections in the draft, only B-15, A. Biedrins (8th round), has exceeded expectations.  Rashard Lewis has basically met expectations (below his standards in most categories, but his newfound theft-mastery balances these out).  The other 6 have fallen short, or well short (Garnett, Okafor).  This apparent shortcoming in the draft (at this juncture), combined with success in head-to-head play, illustrates the importance of the later rounds of the draft (Nate Robinson), as well as the importance of early season waiver and free-agent acquisitions (J. Terry, Nene, and R. Sessions)

Stud of the Week

Lebron James (Yes We Can)
LBJ had a monster week, dropping 41 PTS on da Bulls not once, but twice in one week. In between these performances was a monster 27-8-9 performance. Undoubtedly the Stud of the Week.

Runners up:
Tony Parker (Cash Money) - Recipient of the Flambo “Gold Standard,” TP was on fire before he got hurt.
Amare Stoudemire (The Mighty) - Another co-recipient of the “Gold Standard” with a line that could possibly be the best of the year.

Scrub of the Week

Yao Ming (Cash Money) - Certainly not playing like a first rounder. Maybe he’s tired after a long summer. Maybe he’s playing hurt. Serious underperformance from Yao in Week 2.

Runners up:
JR Smith (Aerial Flambuoyance) - only 1 3FGM in the last three games (sans Iverson)
Shawn Marion (TME) - EJ went so far as to compare him to Udonis Haslem

Rookie of the Week

Marc Gasol (Lights Out!) - Gasol’s a BEAST. 27 PTS, 16REBS, 3 BLKS, 9-11 from both the field and the stripe against Golden State. Sleeper of the year candidate. Inconsistent, but not bad for a C off the waiver wire.

Runners up:
Michael Beasley (Aerial Flambuoyance)
Derrick Rose (The Mighty)

Matchup of the Week

TME vs McLovin - Despite admonishments to set his lineup, McLovin served up a Big n’ Tasty 6-2 to TME. Will EJ be able to overcome his squad’s myriad injuries?

I don’t know what the hell Mr. Light thought he was doing, bestowing his “awards” for the week, before the week was over.  Nor do I know why he’s entitled to his self-appointed role as a bestower of awards, given his perennial status as a chump-tax candidate.  I will not venture to make grandiose proclamations after one week (abbreviated) of play.  I do have a few observations to make:

1)  After a very disappointing start Tuesday and Wednesday,  my Flambuoyant squad bounced back to score more points than any other, and to record more rebounds and steals than 8/9 of the competition.  My 1-2 risk/reward punch of Durant and Beasley started slowly, but finished a bit stronger.

2) Quinn was able to register a somewhat deceptive sweep of the perennially bungling Mr. Blount. FG% was close, and Quinn won by one 3, 14 points and 1 rebound.  Quinn’s numbers were only slightly above pedestrian.  The roster spot that Blount annually reserves for an injury gamble is occupied this year by Monta Ellis- he of the 30-game suspension.  I like Rajon Rondo, but it must be tough to hang on to him when your roster also features the aforementioned Ellis,  Luis Scola, and the as-yet-undeciphered Mario Chalmers.

3) New participant Lamont, aka Yes We Can, appears to have assembled a pretty solid squad, knocking off defending champion The Show.

4) The perennially boastful and egocentric TME franchise managed to hold on for a tie against Lights Out, despite the absence of TME’s 2nd-round pick D. Williams.  Lights Out was able to pull even, thanks to some feverish remaking of his roster, and equally feverish efforts to justify his moves in this forum.

That’s all for now.  On to Week 2.

Stud of the Week

Chris Paul (Lights Out!)
CP3 has almost single-handedly kept me in it this week. Three games averaging 21.7 PTS, 5.3 REBS, 12.0 AST, 50% FG, 87% FT, 7 ST. There’s really nothing to add. He was drafted first, and played like it.

Runners up:
Kobe Bryant (The Show) - 24.0 PTS, 7.7 REBS, 3.7 AST, 5 ST, 47.2% FG, 83.3% FTM
Amare Stoudemire (The Mighty) - 22 PTS, 11 REBS, 64.1% FG
Josh Smith (The Mighty) - Steals and blocks machine

Scrub of the Week

Ray Allen (Yes We Can) - He’s supposed to have game, but started the season slow. Serious underperformance for him, but he should come around sooner or later. 10.7 PTS, 3.7 REBS, 0.7 AST, only three 3FGM.

Runners up:
Stephon Marbury (Lights Out!) - spectacular bust
Jermaine O’Neal (McLovin) - started the season slow, should improve
Ricky Davis (The Show) - 3-of-16 from the field in 3 games. Now on waivers.

Rookie of the Week

Michael Beasley (Aerial Flambuoyance) - Debut wasn’t great, but has improved every game, and is also getting more PT. 25 PTS, 4 REBS, 10/16 FG, 4/4 FT, 2 BLKS against Charlotte.

Runners up:
Mario Chalmers (Dark Knight)
Derrick Rose (The Mighty)

Matchup of the Week

The Mighty vs Dark Knight - Quinn looks poised to pull off an opening week sweep against the Blount-man. Ouch!