My NBA Fantasy Season so far, part I

I'm not quite sure how I returned home at 2am from watching the Nuggets/Spurs game and suddenly had a blog, but why the hell not. Thanks, honey.

This is the fourth iteration of my 10-manager NBA H2H keeper league. I kept AK47 and T-Mac from last year, got the second pick in the draft lottery and knew I was destined for Arenas or Yao and that that pick would forever dominate my destiny: get what I thought was a top-10 guard (so far it looks like I'm right) and scramble for centers, or get possibly the best center and grab as many value players as possible.

One aside about the draft lottery. I instituted the lottery as a way to keep the four guys in the Toilet Bowl interested through the postseason. Win the Toilet Bowl and get 4 ping pong balls, on down the line. You should try it. Plus you get to have an official drawing and everything during the NBA finals or at your Football draft or at the bar.

So, I thought I really wanted Yao because I never ever get good centers, and it would be nice to have one slot nailed down (hah!). As I expected, Arenas went first, so my decision was made for me. Here's the rest of my draft:

starting PG, SG, G, SF, F, PF, C, C, Util, Util with 3 bench slots.
scoring cats: FG%, FT%, 3PM, PTS, OReb, DReb, Ast, Stl, Blk, TO, PF

1.	(2)	Tracy McGrady
2.	(19)	Andrei Kirilenko
3.	(22)	Yao Ming
4.	(39)	Mike Bibby
5.	(42)	Mehmet Okur
6.	(59)	Chris Webber
7.	(62)	Tyson Chandler
8.	(79)	Andre Miller
9.	(82)	Danny Granger
10.	(99)	Luke Ridnour
11.	(102)	Joel Przybilla
12.	(119)	Stephen Jackson
13.	(122)	Ryan Gomes

I'm the idiot at your draft who overthinks everything looking for deep sleepers and "diamonds in the rough" and winds up being angry that his team is stocked with a bunch of untradeable losers. This year, I decided to go after any proven commodity that had fallen too low...and Tyson Chandler. I knew he'd put up double-digit rebounds and be a great complement to Yao.

Przybilla and Gomes and Webber turned out horrible, but I got rid of the first two fairly quickly, picking up Alonzo Mourning and Al Jefferson in late Novemberish. I suffered with Webber until today, and dropped my first pickup Q Rich for Tony Allen last week. Now Tony Allen is done for the year, and who's back in the lineup? Yep, Q Rich. Go New York, go New York, go! (I want 4 threes tomorrow when I'm at the Garden to see you against the Bobcats.)

I've only made 8 moves so far, which is pretty incredible since I'm a waiver wire maniac, three of which came today: the aforementioned Q Rich; on the news of Shaq's return, I dropped Zo for Andrew Bynum who's been on a tear since replacing Kwame Brown; and Webber hit the road for - God help me - Damon Stoudamire. Holy crap! But he's on fire in the new-old-ball, new-Griz era, so I'm on board, too.

As of today, the second-half roster looks as follows:

TMac - % and back is killing me. i signed on for the latter, but not .660 at the stripe
AK47 - not the AK of old, but at least he's not hurt, and he still gives you defense
Yao - please come back for the playoffs, because TMac will probably be hurt soon
Bibby - couldn't find his shot til last week, but his ranking reflects his draft pick
Okur - mini-Dirk was a good value pick, but if i had only trusted in Okafor
Chandler - everything i wanted, especially when Blks hit 1.5 pg. my one great pick
Miller - helping me out everywhere but in points, but we like stat fillers
Granger - love his game, but i'm taking trade offers, seriously, really i am
Josh Childress - back off of injury with a rusty shot, but nice defense
Al Jefferson - saw him as a starter live vs. knicks in Dec. picked him up that night
Stoudamire - for christ's sake he's almost my age, but Tony Allen's out
Q Rich - brilliant until the back spasms. 3s, boards, and decent %
Andrew Bynum - as long as you're starting, you're in

The interesting thing about this season so far is that I thought I drafted a team with decent percentages, that shared the ball, that could board and play defense, would be ok with the turnovers and fouls, and couldn't score a lick. I was right about the rebounds and assists (hey, all you need is TMac and 3 PGs to dominate that category). But I was oh, so wrong about everything else, which really surprised me.

More about identifying weaknesses and fixing them in the next post.

The season so far out of 10:

5.

the bad tippers

57-53-0

.518

14.5 games back, 5 games out of third place.

Yeah, 14.5 back. The guy in first is the only team with no major injuries. What a jerk.