Archive for February, 2009

Injury bug ensnares NBA centers

One of the most unpredictable elements of fantasy basketball is injuries. Sure, some players are more likely to get injured than others, but even that can surprise you.

Take, for example, the barrage of recent injuries to NBA centers. We’d expect to see injuries to Shaquille O’Neal or Yao Ming, given their history. But both are playing healthy as ever (even if Shaq does skip some games). However, season-ending injuries to Chris Kaman, Elton Brand, Al Jefferson, Andrew Bogut and the long absences of Carlos Boozer and Andrew Bynum are being felt across the fantasy basketball leagues. And it hurts.

Even Marcus Camby has been relatively healthy. Next thing you know, Andris Biedrens will be out for the season and Dwight Howard will be injured in a freakish 12-foot dunking accident. 

You heard it here first.

Fantasy NBA All-Stars 2009

The real NBA All-Stars have been announced, but what about the fantasy basketball studs? These are the guys provide excellent shooting percentages and keep the turnovers down, or contribute so well across the board that a 4-game week is most likely a W. 

While fantasy basketball owners don’t care if a player is in the Western Conference or the Eastern Conference, for getting the fantasy basketball All-Stars I divided them anyway.

To obtain the All-Stars, I simply took the top composite rankings from essential fantasy basketball tool Ziguana and the popular Yahoo! Fantasy NBA. If a player did not have a composite ranking of less than 60 (average rank of 30), they were not included.

How to read this: [POSITION] [PLAYER NAME] ([ZIGUANA RANKING],[YAHOO RANKING])

WEST STARTERS

• G Chris Paul (1,1)
• G Kobe Bryant (5,5)
• F Dirk Nowitzki (6,4)
• F Al Jefferson (11,11)
• C Marcus Camby (7,7)

WEST BENCH

• G Jason Kidd (8,9)
• G Chauncey Billups (10,10)
• G Jason Terry (17,16)
• F Amar’e Stoudemire (26,15)
• F Tim Duncan (27,30)
• F Kevin Durant (12,13)
• C Nene Hilario (32,25)

Honorable Mention: G Brandon Roy (16,21), Manu Ginobili (29,27), C Yao Ming (34,23)

EAST STARTERS

• G Dwyane Wade (4,6)
• G Ray Allen (21,17)
• F LeBron James (2,2)
• F Danny Granger (3,3)
• C Chris Bosh (22,22)

EAST BENCH

• G Vince Carter (19,29)
• G Jose Calderon (30,14)
• G Jameer Nelson (24,18)
• F Rashard Lewis (9,12)
• F Kevin Garnett (13,8)
• F Antawn Jamison (14,20)
• C Troy Murphy (20,38)

Honorable Mention: F Gerald Wallace (15,24), G Mike Bibby (18,28)

It appears that the West has the guards and the East has the forwards. Yao Ming tied with Nene Hilario for the C in the West, so I gave it to Nene given that Yao Ming is set to be injured any second now .