After an extremely hectic period at work and great relaxing Thanksgiving weekend with The Main Event (the cornbread sausage stuffing was straight dope), I’m back with a new (temporary) picture from The Show’s fabulous wedding in Playa del Carmen. Whaddya think? Anyways, it certainly feels like a long way to the playa right now, and it’s just getting colder every day here in Prague. That has me thinking of heat, and who’s hot in the NBA right now.

Biggest news I’ve seen today is the emergence of none other than Flambo’s pre-season sleeper, Mr. Enigmatic Dan Gadzuric. He busted out last night with a whopper of 11 pts (4-5 shooting), 14 rebs, 3 blks and a steal in just 21 minutes. Is this the beginning of an all-star season for this unheralded beast?

Speaking of hot hands, where did Devin Harris come from? Last week he played four games with an average of 33pts (60.7% FG%), 84.8 FT% (11 attempts per game), 4.3 rebs, 5.3 asts, 1.3 stls and 1.0 3FGM. Damn! I guess he’s trying to prove that the YouTube video of him getting punked on the streets of London was a fluke. Whatever, that’s some serious heat.

Another guy playing well of late is Rajon Rondo. Unfortunately, my nemesis of the week, Dark Knight, has Rondo and is taking advantage of my injuries to serve me something fierce this week. Last night Rondo had his first career triple-double with 16pts (50% FG%), 13 rebs, 17 asts and 3 stls. Damn, Blount-man, you should be the one writing about this.

On another note, I came across another basketball blog, not fantasy, that had some really interesting articles. It’s called The Painted Area, and I particularly like this one talking about the Cav’s offense with LeBron in the post. Check it out, there aren’t too many places on the web where you get an interesting read and learn about the game, as well.

That’s it for me today. Got my first Christmas party of the season tomorrow night, then another week before leaving freezing Prague for warm California for a nice extended break with the family. Meanwhile, I’m hoping Josh Howard plays tonight, and plays well, damn it!

Once upon a time, ZaZa Pachulia was an almost serviceable center in fantasy hoops, toiling away mostly for the now defunct Groove Train franchise.  For the two seasons prior to last year, Pachulia put up numbers in the 12p, 7.5r, 1s, ballpark, with his other contributions being too pedestrian to mention.

Then rookie Al Horford exploded onto the scene last year, vulturing most of Pachulia’s minutes.  Conventional wisdom last year (validated by last season’s results), was the same as conventional wisdom this year:  Horford is better than Pachulia- less soft, a better defender, and a good candidate to produce nightly double doubles for the next decade.  Why should we expect more from Pachulia this year?

Horford is still projected to be the Hawks’ starting center on opening night.  Coach Woodson has not indicated otherwise to the media.  So why should we think otherwise?  Because I say that the very lack of evidence suggesting that Pachulia might steal Horford’s job, confirms that this is in fact true.  The Hawks are wisely holding their cards close to their vest.  They have not breathed a word about Pachulia’s dominant play in practice this camp, because they intend to ambush the league, with ZaZa 2.0, once the regular season begins.

The fact that they have remained so hush about Pachulia’s new and improved game, suggests that ZaZa has been nothing short of spectacular in closed-door practices.  To supplant a double-double guy like Horford, his play must be pretty close to jaw-dropping.  Given what we know of Horford’s talents, the fact that Pachulia has unseated him (the Hawks absolute silence on the matter proves this), I’m predicting that ZaZa will put up numbers in the neighborhood of 16p, 12r, 1.5s, 2.2b, this coming season.  Because Pachulia’s re-emergence is such a closely-guarded secret by the Hawks organization, astute fantasy owners can probably wait until the 4th or 5th round, when they absolutely have to snatch him up if he’s still available.  For a taste of what’s to come, I have provided below, highlights of the “old” ZaZa: