Fantasy Basketball

Home Delivery is your morning roundup of last night's action in the NBA from a fantasy perspective.

Kobe Bryant told Craig Sager last night that is was good to have Pau Gasol back. I couldn't have said it any better. Gasol was indeed back, and back in a big way -- game-high 24 points on 9-of-15 shooting, 13 rebounds and a blocked shot. The early effects of Gasol returning played out in the frontcourt: Andrew Bynum went for 11 points and eight rebounds in 25 minutes, while Lamar Odom came off the bench to play 25 minutes and put up 11 points and eight rebounds. A thoughtful gesture, considering Gasol has played eight full seasons, prior to this one, and missed the first 11 games before making his return. It was definitely his night.

The NBA's leading rebounder, Joakim Noah, pulled down 15 boards to go along with 12 points, four steals and two blocks. He's having a great season. The same can't be said for Derrick Rose, though he did come on last night and score 20 points and dish six dimes. Let's hope this gets him going.

Home Delivery is your morning roundup of last night's action in the NBA from a fantasy perspective.

The Knicks bench came up big as they erased a 19-point deficit in the second-half on their way to picking up their second victory of the season. Al Harrington led the way with 26 points on 8-of-13 shooting, while Larry Hughes added 22 points, 10 rebounds, seven assists and three steals. Hughes has trumped both Nate Robinson and Toney Douglas at the 'two' and continues to look like a safe add.

Danilo Gallinari's big goose egg was overshadowed -- literally? -- by the return of every Knick fan's favorite big man, Eddy Curry. Big Slacks had 10 points and four rebounds in 12 minutes coming off the bench. Mike Breem said it best when he insinuated that the Knicks were going to start giving Curry more playing time in order to showcase his "talents" with the hopes that someone will bite on his contract. That says a lot, doesn't it?

For the Pacers it was Danny Granger who led the way with 33 points on 12-of-18 shooting and five treys. He wasn't very helpful in the second half, scoring just three of his 33 in the final two quarters.

Home Delivery is your morning roundup of last night's action in the NBA from a fantasy perspective.

The first thing I thought of while watching the Warriors-Cavs game was: The Seven Samurai. And the tag-line for the film is nearly perfect -- "The Seven Warriors Who Became the Seven National Heroes of a Small Town." OK, so maybe we can take out "national heroes of a small town" and replace those words with "fantasy contributors for one evening."

Last night the Warriors went into Cleveland with just seven active players. Each, however, posted double-digit point totals, with Monta Ellis leading the way -- 23 points, eight assists, and three steals. Anthony Morrow looked pretty good himself, dropping 18 points and hitting four of his seven three-point attempts. All in all, you can't go wrong this week adding Morrow, Anthony Randolph, Stephen Curry or Corey Maggette. I'm still not sold on Mikki Moore or Vladimir Radmanovic, but I'm sure that will change over time.

I was working on a Hoops Heist post to give you a few players to target on the trade market, but I had to switch gears as the injury news this afternoon started to pile up.

Jameer Nelson underwent an MRI this morning and we're now hit with the news that he needs to have arthroscopic surgery on his left knee. It is estimated that Nelson will miss four-to-six weeks. Now what? Well, if you're a Nelson owner it would be in your best interest to pick up point guard Jason Williams, then stand back and reassess.

Jason Williams propped up his fantasy profile in the season opener against the 76ers with 15 points, five assists, and three treys. Since then it's been a mixed bag. Williams' minutes have declined to the point where he hasn't hit the 20-minute mark in any of the previous five games. Now, however, it would seem that he's a lock for at least 25-plus minutes, with Anthony Johnson willing and able to fill in as the back-up. But what should you expect from Williams as your newly acquired point guard?

Home Delivery is your morning roundup of last night's action in the NBA from a fantasy perspective.

Well that was one busy Monday, wasn't it? And to think, we only had three games on the schedule.

Monday afternoon we learned that the Warriors had traded Stephen Jackson to the Bobcats for Raja Bell and Vladimir Radmanovic. The early fantasy implications on this one were on display Monday night as Jackson was in uniform and in the starting lineup for the Bobcats. He had a typical Jackson line: 13 points on 4-of-14 shooting, one three-pointer, nine rebounds, two assists, two steals and four turnovers. Some things remain the same.

The implications in Golden State won't necessarily be known until Tuesday night when the Warriors play the Cavaliers. Then again, it's never a given when you're talking about Don Nelson's rotation. One night Raja Bell might be in; the next he's out. Stay tuned.

Oh, yeah, and Allen Iverson and the Memphis Grizzlies parted ways. It might be safe to drop Iverson outright, unless of course the Knicks come to the rescue. Isn't that something the old regime would have done?

Home Delivery is your morning roundup of last night's action in the NBA from a fantasy perspective.

Aaron Brooks led the Houston Rockets to a 101-91 victory over the Los Angeles Lakers last night. Brooks dropped a game-high 33 points, hitting five three-pointers, grabbing six rebounds and dishing four assists. The Rockets out-rebounded the Lakers 60-38, while holding them to 38.1-percent shooting from the floor.

Andrew Bynum led the way for the Lakers with 21 points, 11 rebounds and five assists. Kobe Bryant left them game late in the fourth quarter. Initial word was that his knee was that it might have been a bruised knee. Then word came out that it was a groin strain. It looked more like a bruised ego to me, but what do I know about knees and groins?

Picks and Roles provides all the vital information you need in making those tough lineup decisions for weekly leagues.

Injuries like the one to Marreese Speights garner mixed reactions. Those who took a flier on Speights are disappointed now that they've lost him for up to 6-8 weeks with a partial tear in his MCL. In his last five, Speights averaged 24.7 minutes, 12.8 points, 6.0 rebounds and 60.0-percent shooting from the floor. Not quite overwhelming numbers, but promising nonetheless. With Elton Brand and Samuel Dalembert both struggling to get into an offensive groove, Speights was starting to see some daylight in the rotation and many eager fantasy owners were beginning to think that they snagged this season's Paul Millsap. Unfortunately, we won't see him again until late December.

On the other side of the coin are the Elton Brand and Samuel Dalembert owners. They are hoping that this will force Eddie Jordan to stick with both Brand and Dalembert in the rotation as they continue to work through their struggles -- as opposed to opting for the young Speights off the bench. Any spark to get fourth-round draft pick Elton Brand going would do at this point.

Who's Got Next is a weekly look at some of the top players widely available on the waiver wires.

Obviously the biggest story this weekend was the injury to Chris Paul. We're now hearing that Paul is going to miss close to a month. That's the worst possible news. There's now way to replace a loss like that, but I already gave you a few tips on which point guards you should look to add in Paul's absence. So take a look at a few of those suggestions.

Now that we're looking at him missing up to a month, though, it might be time to make a move. I'm not sure how long you can live with Darren Collison as your point guard.

This waiver wire post focuses on which players to add, keeping in mind the schedule for the week ahead. It's slime pickings this week, but I can assure you that with the Timberwolves slated as the only team to play twice this week we can go ahead and knock Oleksiy Pecherov off the list.

Court Vision is a breakdown of the weekly schedule to help you set your fantasy lineup.

The Golden State Warriors continue to warm the hearts of fantasy owners in need of a helping hand. Just look at what Brandon Jennings did to the Warriors last night -- 55 points on 21-of-34 shooting (61.8-percent), seven treys, five rebounds and five assists. There seems to be a running theme with young players performing at their peak against Golden State.

In the Warriors past five games, three rookies, a sophomore and a Danny Granger each led their respective teams in scoring. Jennings with his 55 points, Tyreke Evans dropped 32 points, Jonny Flynn had 19 points and Danilo Gallinari had 19 and 10 against the Warriors. This must kill Stephen Curry who is not seeing the early minutes most expected him to get.

At any rate, it's nice to see the Golden State Warriors show up on the schedule when you're looking at your weekly matchups. Let's see who gets the lucky draw this week.

Leave it to me to go ahead and write the following words less than 48 hours ago: "if you're worried about Chris Paul -- don't be." In all fairness, that was meant as a bit of reassurance that Paul would not let the Byron Scott firing affect the way he plays on the court. Now let me say this: If you're worried about Chris Paul, you're only human.

On Friday night Paul went down with a severe ankle injury that has knocked him out for up to two weeks, possibly more. So what can we do in his absence?

The first thing you need to do is go and pick up rookie point guard Darren Collison. No, he won't "replace" Paul, but his Friday performance after the injury looked rather promising. Collison finished the gamed with 18 points on 7-of-14 shooting with two assists and two steals. At the very least you can slot him into your lineup next week with the Hornets on the schedule for four games: home to the Clippers, Suns, Hawks, and at the Heat.

Collison, though, was known more for his leadership and intangibles in college, and less for his ability to take over games. His upside may be limited, but at this point you have to take what you can get.