HOOPLOG: Marquis Daniels

The series we have all been waiting for!!!

Sat, 06 May 2006 15:03:29 -0800

What a great first round. We, the humble fans of the NBA, have been given some great contests filled with buzzer beaters and last second heroics. The first round rattled off without much of a hitch as the favored teams have won as expected. The only outcome which remains to be seen would of course be Phoenix and Los Angeles tonight at America West Arena. It will be a shame for one of these teams to have to start planning their fishing trip tonight, as they have both played a great series. With that said, let us look ahead to a matchup that many NBA fans have been looking forward to for months.

San Antonio Spurs vs. Dallas Mavericks

The much anticipated west semifinal is finally upon us! Avery Johnson and company will make their way to the AT&T Center for the series opener tomorrow at high noon. This matchup promises to be an extremely exciting one.

Dallas of course comes into the second round after taking out Memphis in four straight. The Spurs, on the other hand, had a little bit more trouble with Sacramento. Given the regular season split of two games a piece this series could very well stretch to seven games. There will be some key factors in this series that play into who is moving on to the next round and who is getting their fishing gear ready. These are a couple of questions that might hold the answer as to who wins the series.

Who will set the tone in Game 1?

Unfortunately the Spurs head into game 1 only 36 hours after playing the Kings in Sacramento. Parker's right thigh contusion and other ailments on his right side will definitely be hurting him. Duncan has looked solid over the the last few games and showed signs that the plantar fascilitis isn't bothering him as much as it had during the regular season. Ginobili also looks to be back close to 100% again. Still, the limited rest has many Spurs fans concerned. The Spurs have played less than .500 basketball on back to backs this year. The Mavs come in with plenty of time off, in fact maybe a little bit too much. They haven't played a game since Monday so the key for Dallas will be how rusty they are and how quickly they can shake that off. However, the pressure lies more squarely on San Antonio being that they must come out and protect their homecourt. The Spurs will have to set the tone by matching Dallas' intensity on both ends of the floor to have a chance of beating the Mavs in game 1.

Whose bench will step up?

Both of these teams possess a lot of depth off the bench. No doubt that the edge of the bench play will be pretty even on paper. San Antonio has enjoyed solid production from Finley, Barry, and Horry thus far in the playoffs. Jerry Stackhouse and Erick Dampier gave Dallas a spark off the bench is the opening round, while Marquis Daniels has the ability to give the Mavs a solid contribution as well. Pop made a change and started Robert Horry in games 5 and 6 of the first round against Sacramento, similar to switching out Ginobili with Brent Barry in the first round last year against Denver. Nazr Mohammed or Rasho Nesterovic will probably slip back into the starting spot for the beginning of this series unless Pop feels that he would rather keep the change with Horry starting and Rasho giving energy off the bench. Regardless, a big key for San Antonio is winning the rebounding battle, meaning Mohammed and Nesterovic will have to give Duncan as much help as possible on the glass inside.

Who will win the battle of the big men?

For Dallas on offense Dirk Nowitzki can create mismatch problems for the Spurs. He is not a prototypical seven-footer in that hes not a low post player. Duncan, who is not an excellent perimeter defender, will hurt the Spurs if hes sucked out of the post. Duncan is a dominant rebounding force and he must remain inside to prevent the Mavs from crashing the offensive glass. Its no secret that the team that wins the rebounding battle usually puts themself in a better position to win the game. Pop, who used Bowen at times during the regular season to guard Nowitzki, will probably give him the assignment along with Robert Horry. Keeping Duncan inside will force Nowitzki to take more jump shots and leave the Spurs a dominant rebounder and shot blocker inside.

Will the student become the teacher?

Avery Johnson will match wits with his former coach Gregg Popovich for the first time in playoff competition. Johnson knows the Spurs better than any head coach in the league. Using his knowledge to exploit the weaknesses of his former team will be crucial if the Mavs want to win the series. The problem: the Spurs don't have a lot of weaknesses. They are the most well-rounded ball club this side of Detroit. Still, Avery has his guys playing great basketball right now and he will bring the defensive mentality that Pop instilled in him during his playing days in silver and black.

Fans should be happy that they get an early preview of the Western Conference Finals. San Antonio and Dallas might be the two best teams in the league. The winner of this series is going to win the West and has a good chance of winning it all. So get ready for some action-packed-hard-nosed-ratings-producing basketball!

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Yao What Do I Do?

Thu, 22 Dec 2005 16:23:36 -0800

So I had a strategy this year going into the draft. It was pretty simple – draft players who were likely to play 80 games, take the best player available over the first 6-7 rounds but also make sure to get two solid centers so I wouldn’t have to play the dreaded “Find a Second Center” game, and do not ignore percentages. It worked pretty well, I think. In a 12-team league I got Dirk-Yao-Pau-Kirk-Cuttino-Sheed-Rip with my first seven picks. I felt that with those picks guys I had seven guys who would stay in my lineup all season, and that included two centers and two guys with an outside shot at qualifying at center.

So you can imagine my frustration now that Yao is going to miss approximately six weeks with a booboo on his big toe. First off, I don’t doubt that the big man is in pain, as when you are 7’6” and nearly 300 pounds, your feet have a lot of weight on them. But the thing is, Yao was playing his best ball of the season right before he got hurt. His last three games before sitting down he was averaging 26/11/1 on 62% from the field on 15 shots per game and 85% from the line at nearly 9 attempts per game. His blocks had been disappointing all season, but you can’t complain about those other numbers. If he had been putting up 14/6 on 43% shooting over five games before going down, then maybe I’d comprehend it a bit more. But as it is, it just doesn’t make sense.

So now I’m stuck without my #2 draft pick for at least a month. Lots of you are in similar situations, if not with Yao then with many of the other guys fighting injuries. So what to do? Don’t freak out. Stick with your strategy. You did have a strategy, right? For all the advice we give on guys who make hot pickups and all that, my team has remained pretty much in tact the entire season. With Eddie Jones and Marquis Daniels as my only SF, I needed some help there so I dumped Daniels this morning (with Josh Howard and Jason Terry back in full force, there’s simply not enough production to go around I feel) for James Jones, who should be able to help me out in 3s when he moves back into the starting lineup. That was just my fourth roster move of the season.

Yao leaves a big hole for me at center, but I kept Brendan Haywood around for this specific reason. This was another part of the strategy – don’t be left without a quality backup at the key positions, those obviously being PG and C. Haywood’s no star, obviously, but he certainly qualifies as a quality backup. His PT is a bit volatile, swinging between 20 and 30 minutes per night, but he does what you want a fill-in center to do: hit a high percentage of his shots and block some shots. His 57% from the field should come down a bit, but he is a 53% career shooter, so there shouldn’t be too much of a drop off. A good number of his shot attempts are layups/dunks/follows. And at 2.0 blocks per game, there are only 14 guys better than him there. What you want from injury fill-ins is to not lose ground. Everyone team in your league will suffer through injuries at some point during the season, and how they deal with them will go a long way towards determining who will end up at the top of the standings.

One thing I certainly won’t be doing is making a panic deal for another center. If you play in a league with people that pay attention, most people will see someone with Yao on their team and think that they’ll be able to gouge that owner for an extra center. The odds just aren’t in my favor in a situation like this. Would I love to someone like Jermaine ONeal manning my other center spot instead of Brendan Haywood? Of course. But to get him I’d have to deal from another strength, and then you invariably end up creating more holes for yourself. Basically, I go with under-management as opposed to over-management as a general rule. That is, as long as you have good players.

And I suppose I should address the Rockets frontcourt situation. As one helpful, anonymous commenter pointed out, Stromile Swift did indeed get nutted by Chris Bosh last night, which led to his receiving the same PT as Lonny Baxter. If Stro has recovered he should be back in the starting lineup as long as Dikembe Mutombo is out. But unless he really explodes, it’s hard to see Van Gundy sticking with him as a starter when Mutombo comes back. The Rockets were having enough trouble outscoring anyone with Yao, so without him they’ll need to be even tougher on D, and even in his second century in the league, Mutombo is still a solid defensive presence. If you are willing to use a roster spot on someone who will help you in blocks while killing you in every other category except rebounds, have fun with Mutombo. As for Juwan Howards … he’s just so boring. He just doesn’t help you anywhere – his per 40 numbers are .7 steals, .1 blocks and 0 3s. He’s shot exactly 45% from the field the past three years, so you know what to expect there. He’ll basically need to go for 21 and 12 like he did last game every night to have even mediocre value.

That should do it for me for a few days, at least in terms of posted content. Have a happy holiday of your choosing.

Howard Back in Action

Thu, 15 Dec 2005 17:02:29 -0800

Josh Howard is back and things are looking exciting. He had a big game against the Phoenix Suns last night after the Mavs loss to Kobe Bryant and the Lakers the day before. Howard returned in full form taking on the leadership role he had left to Marquis Daniels and Dirk when he was injured. Josh looked very strong and had 18 points and played for 35 minutes. He only played 12 minutes in the recent game against the Lakers so one can hope Howard will be a driving force in beating them next week now that he’s in the lead.

Game 15 Open Thread: SA @ Dallas Mavericks

Thu, 01 Dec 2005 18:11:05 -0800

Minor Spurs goings on:

-Earlier this week the Spurs waived Alex Scales who played all of 20 seconds. SA is now back to the same roster it had to start the season.

-The official Spurs site has a nice wallpaper available for download. It depicts Manu's backdoor reverse layup alley-oop from the Lakers game.

Starting lineups:

SA (11-3, 5-2 away)
PG Tony Parker
SG Manu Ginobili (questionable)
SF Bruce Bowen
PF Tim Duncan
C Rasho Nesterovic

DAL (10-4, 5-1 home)
PG Jason Terry
SG Marquis Daniels
SF Josh Powell
PF Dirk Nowitzki
C Erick Dampier

DAL will be without the services of their best perimeter defender Josh Howard who's out three weeks with a sprained ankle. (Three weeks?) Unfortunately the Spurs may not be able to take full advantage because The Sickness may sit as well. He has a "jammed ankle" of unknown cause. Stackhouse is still out due to his trick knee.

The injuries have taken the luster off what could have been a big game (for this time of year anyway). DAL pounded the Spurs earlier this season as Finley went 1-6 in his return. The Mavericks also pummeled SA in a meaningless game at the end of last season. I am going to repost what I had to say back then (when I could actually write worth a damn):

The rest of today's Wilco lyric is "...And it doesn't seem to mean anything" and it goes out to Jerry Stackhouse and the Dallas Mavericks. This past Thursday they won the NBA Championship in decisive fashion, crushing the Spurs by 36 points. Oh wait, that's not it. This past Thursday the Mavericks earned a trip to the NBA finals by sweeping the Spurs in the Western Conference Finals. No, that's not right either. The Mavericks, in resounding fashion, locked up a division title by bludgeoning a rival Spurs team. Hmm, that's wrong, too.

On Thursday, the Mavericks beat a Spurs team without its best player on the second game of a back to back. Ginobili and Parker played a combined 40 minutes. The Spurs shot 0-12 from three. For some reason the entire Dallas team whooped it up the whole second half. Darrell Armstrong was waving towels, the bench was standing up most of the time and Stackhouse was talking trash. Afterwards he said, regarding Duncan: "He would've made a difference," Stackhouse said, smiling, "but I don't think he would've made a 40-point difference." He continued on with "I think we were able to put them on their heels with our defense," Stackhouse said and culminated with the following:

"About the only thing that went wrong for the Mavericks was letting Mike Wilks hit a short jumper with 13.3 seconds left, preventing them from giving up their fewest points. Team owner Mark Cuban told the players on the bench how close they were, so they were all standing up and rooting for one last defensive stand.

"They just got a lucky little putback," Stackhouse said."

I just don't get it. This game meant nothing. The only thing the Mavericks could be happy about is not embarassing themselves. They weren't even playing for playoff positioning. San Antonio was without their best player, intentionally limiting the minutes of their other two best players and clearly threw in the towel (in terms of who was playing) with 18 minutes to go. What is Dallas so happy about? And why would they do anything to piss off the Spurs? Which they clearly did: sometime in the second half Duncan ripped up a stat sheet one of the coaches was holding and said "This means nothing."

The Spurs were in a similar position a couple of weeks ago; they played a depleted Sonics team at the SBC center and crushed them. The Sonics never even had a lead. And the game actually meant something in the sense that the #2 seed was in doubt at the time and this particular game determined the tie-breaker. It was just another game to the Spurs. No laughing it up or spouting off incendiary quotes to the reporters afterword.

Needless to say, a post season series between these two teams would have a little something extra.

tion that is apparently necessary for them to play at their best.

Tonight's line: SA -3
Tonight's total: 187.5
My pick: SA
Matty da Blade's plays: SA | Over
The Spurs are 6-8 ATS this year. I am 3-11. Da Blade is 8-5-1 ATS | 3-3 TOT.

This is an open thread. I don't know why I keep writing that. They're all open threads.

O Dallas ... Checking In on the Mavs

Wed, 30 Nov 2005 08:46:41 -0800

As if you needed anyone to tell you differently, Dirk Nowitzki is the unquestioned star of this team. Even when his shot isn’t falling, like the past couple games, where he’s shot a miserable 17-for-51, Dirk is still able to be a real asset. He still puts plenty of points on the board, makes his free throws, hits some 3s, grabs a ton lot of boards and throws in a block or steal. But there are some interesting trends for Dirk so far this year. He’s attempting 19.6 shots per game so far, which is the highest in his career. He’s being looked to even more on offense and seems to be taking more shots that he creates on his own, which aren’t always the highest percentage shots, hence his 44.7% shooting, lowest since his rookie season. He’s never shot below 46%, and you’d like to think he can at least get back to that number, but when you then see that he’s shooting a remarkable 46% from 3-point land on nearly 5 attempts per game, you start to think that it might actually get worse, not better. His owners would probably take the 1% hit in FG% to get an entire extra 3 per game, but that might be a bit much to ask. Dirk’s steals and blocks are also down from recent years, but you can feel more comfortable chalking that up to a small sample size so far. Earlier this week I talked about Kirk Hinrich not getting as many steals as past years, and then he turns around with a 5-steal game last night. Dirk has averaged between 1.0 and 1.4 steals and between 1.0 and 1.5 blocks each of the last five seasons. He’s at 0.5 and 1.0 right now, but it’s hard to see any reason why he shouldn’t end up at his averages. His assists are lower than any season since his rookie, but that’s one more likely to stay that way, given that he’s shooting even more. He scared some owners earlier this year with back problems, but he never missed a game and has never missed more than six in any season. He’s as much of a sure thing as there is, and that always makes him one of the best guys to put together a deal for.

I slotted Jason Terry at #32 on my preseason rankings, a bit higher than most other places I saw. But it was pretty much a no-brainer – here’s a guy who managed to finish 30th on the player rater last year in just 30 mpg. Now he was going to be locked in as the starting PG and #2 scoring option and he missed 9 games in the first six years of his career. This is the kind of guy to have on your team, because his perceived value is almost always lower than his actual value. And that’s the whole key to success, after all. He’s at #36 on the player rater right now and should stay in that general area all season. He’s a point guard who’s averaging just 4.1 apg, so it’s possible his owner is frustrated at the lack of assists. If you can make a move for him, I would highly recommend it. Like Mike Bibby, he’s a point guard, but is really more of a scorer and has never really racked up the assists. Save for a 7.4 apg season in Atlanta, he’s been between 4.9 and 5.7 in all of his other seasons besides his rookie campaign. He’ll likely finish around 5 per game, which is still a plus. He doesn’t have a standout number in any single category, which is another reason why his perceived value is probably lower than it truly is. But except for rebounds, he contributes across the board. OK, his 0.4 blocks will drop back down to his normal 0.2, but that’s normal for a PG. But it’s time to start considering whether he really has become a lights-out shooter. He never shot above 43.6% in Atlanta, but in his first year in Dallas he managed to shoot 50%. It was on just 9.3 shots per game, far down from 15 or so he averaged in Atlanta, so that seemed to be the logical explanation. But in 14 shots per game this season he’s still at a sterling 49%, and he’s even shooting more 3s. He’s still a 44% career shooter, and there’s still plenty of reason to except a somewhat precipitous drop in that percentage. But even keeping it in the 45-46% range will help him keep plenty of value there.

Erick Dampier is one of those guys you just don’t want to mess with. He’s a pretty confounding player, actually. Just five minutes into last night’s game against the Bucks, Dampier had 6 points and 3 boards and seemed to be on his way to one of his good games. But in 23 more minutes he went 0-for-2 from the field and scored just a single point. This really isn’t that out of the ordinary for Dampier, either. The Mavs try to establish him as an inside presence early on, but he either gets himself into foul trouble or loses interest and the Mavs decide to go with DeSagana Diop at center or just use a smaller lineup. Dampier’s had just three useful games this season out of 14. That’s not a very good percentage. If you have him on your team, he’s the kind of guy that will make you make sure you draft two reliable centers the next season. Well, assuming you play in a two center league, which you should, because that can really separate the fantasy boys from the fantasy men. Depending on what league you are in, there are anywhere from 8 to 12 reliable fantasy centers around, most likely. And that includes guys like Zydrunas Ilgauskas and Raef Lafrentz who are prone to throwing up clunkers. As for Diop, yes, he blocks shots, but that is truly all he does. If you're starting him, you are probably in the middle of the pack, at best.

Devin Harris I’ve written plenty about already. You know I love him, and Avery Johnson seems to like him too, as evidenced by all of the crunch time PT he’s been getting. But he still doesn’t want to start him. I mean, Darrell Armstrong getting the nod over you is one thing. He’s a seasoned vet who can bring a defensive intensity. But when an undrafted rookie like Josh Powell gets the starting nod before you do, that’s saying something. He’s still intriguing in the deepest of leagues, but since the very durable Terry is the one that’s blocking him from a starting gig, it’s hard to see Harris being a no-brainer fantasy starter this year. In time. I wrote about Marquis Daniels recently, too. He’s just playing a lot more passively this year. Here’s a guy who averaged 7.3 FGA per game in 18.6 mpg in his rookie season and 8.4 FGA per game in 23.5 mpg last season. So this season he’s averaging 33.2 mpg. At those rates, he should be averaging 12.4 FGA per game. But instead he’s at just 8.6. You can blame some of this on the me-first tendencies of many of his teammates – guys like Dirk, Terry, Josh Howard, Keith Van Horn, even Devin Harris are usually looking out for themselves. So Daniels has picked up some of slack with a career high 2.9 apg, but this isn’t an impressive number or really out of line with what he should be averaging with his increased time.

If Jerry Stackhouse ever comes back, it’s a lot more likely that he’ll mess up other players’ fantasy value instead of actually having any on his own. A guy who can only score, but does so while shooting 40% and doesn’t even start is the ultimate drag. If you can steal Josh Howard off his owner right now, I’d do it. It’s tough to make an offer for a guy who is out for two weeks, especially a fair offer, but Howard is a legit top 50 player and even though ankle injuries have a tendency to linger, I’ll trust in youth and think that he’ll have an easier time putting it behind him for good than an older player might. OK, that’s all the time for today…

The Truth Is Out, Part 2

Tue, 01 Nov 2005 09:39:57 -0800

So BV did his draft recap and now it’s my turn. Like he said, we start 10 players (PG, SG, G, SF, PF, F, C, C, UT, UT), with three bench spots, 12 teams. So it’s a pretty deep league, and it’s very competitive. Hard to slip sleepers past these guys. Guys like Zaza Pachulia, Marquis Daniels, Eddie Griffin, Mike James, etc. were all gone by the 9th round, for example. My strategy going in was to heed my rankings, take the best player available with most picks, not get too hung up on positions, and not to ignore percentages, which always seem to give me problems. Let’s see how I did.

1st Round (4th overall): Dirk Nowitzki, PF
I was hoping that Marion would fall to me, but he went #3. It’s hard to complain about Dirk, and if continues to trade in a few 3s for a few more blocks, I’ll take it. He’s 27, clearly in his prime, clearly the top option on a perennially high scoring team, and he set career highs in blocks, assists and points last year. I’m banking on a repeat. I was tempted to take Kobe, and even a little tempted to shock the world and take Kirilenko, but in the end Dirk was the obvious choice.

2nd Round (21st overall): Yao Ming, C
I told my dad the day before that draft that if Yao was there for me at 21 I would take him, and I stuck to my word. Even in his “disappointing” season last year he finished 17th on the player rater, and he seems bound to take a leap forward this year, if he can continue to improve his game and his minutes per game by 3 or 4, which is a distinct possibility. I certainly liked him more than Jermaine O’Neal, and I was thought about Vinsanity and Mike Bibby, but a dominant center in the second round without reaching was too good to pass up.

3rd Round (28th overall): Pau Gasol, PF
I deliberated a whole lot here. Gasol was the highest person left on my board, but I’ve drafted him the past two years and have been burned before, by a frustrating rotation and injuries. And did I really want to go with three big men with my first three picks, after I preach about PGs so much? In the end I decided to trust myself and go with Gasol. All three players so far are big men with very solid percentages and Gasol, like Ming, seems likely to increase his effectiveness and playing time as he enters his prime and will be the featured player on a thinned-out Memphis squad. His foot problems are a concern, but I went with him over Bosh, Joe Johnson and Rashard Lewis.

4th Round (45th overall): Kirk Hinrich, G
I was absolutely thrilled to get Captain Kirk near the end of the fourth round. He was my highest ranked player left and I desperately needed a top flight PG. The next four picks – Boozer, Camby, Redd, Parker – show what a drop-off there was. Kirk’s FG% is rather brutal, but I’m hoping those first three guys could help offset it.

5th Round (52nd overall): Cuttino Mobley, SG
The middle rounds are always the toughest, and my strategy was to not give in to hype and to instead draft players who I felt would be sure-thing, solid contributors all season. Mobley may have been a bit of a reach, but he has a history of playing 40 mpg and he could very well see that on a thin Clippers team. And you know he’ll be launching his share of 3s, as well. I was strongly considering Lamar Odom, but figured I had plenty of boards and could use a gunner.

6th Round (69th overall): Rasheed Wallace, FC
Another steady, unspectacular pick. Rasheed has a solid all-around game and the fact that he qualifies at center means that I don’t have to worry about depending on one of those “who the hell knows?” guys that ended up going in the next few rounds. His percentages are rather weak, and he might have some clashes with Flip Saunders, but his track record shows steady production and good health. I might very well regret not going with Rafer Alston or Donyell Marhsall at this spot.

7th Round (76th overall): Richard Hamilton, SG
The ultimate safe pick. I’m not a huge fan of Rip’s fantasy game, but in the 7th round it’s hard to argue. I often overlook points, and Rip is always a nice source. He’s another great free throw shooter, and even if he doesn’t match his 5 apg of last year, he should be a solid contributor (see a theme developing?) there. He’s another person who you can leave in the lineup and not worry about, and I think my first seven picks, while lacking in flashiness are extremely solid.

8th Round (93rd overall): Mark Jaric, G
Here’s where you can start going for riskier picks. Or, at least that’s what I’m saying in retrospect. I don’t love this pick, at all. I’m a huge fan of Jaric’s potential, but he’s always hurt and depending on him as my #2 PG has disaster written all over it. If he stays healthy, I’m rather confident this pick will be a steal, but that’s very iffy. His high assist rate might also drop since Minnesota runs its offense through KG.

9th Round (100th overall): Josh Childress, GF
On the other hand, I was thrilled to land Childress in the 9th round. He was actually the only player that I’ve hyped up this season that ended up on my team. He was almost a top 50 player in the second half of last season, and can help in just about every category. Tayshaun Prince went three rounds earlier and I think Childress will end up with the better numbers at the end of the year.

10th Round (117th overall): Eddie Jones, GF
BV hates this pick, but I stand by it. If he was able to finish 52nd on the rater last season when he averaged nearly five points less than he had the past few seasons, he looks to have a slight resurgence in Memphis where he will be looked to as one of the main options behind Gasol. He had a horrid preseason, but this is one of those cases where I’ll take the 10 years of stats over the few preseason games. If he turns out to be a total bust, it’s only a 10th rounder.

11th Round (124th overall): Brendan Haywood, C
OK, this was a pure homer pick, I admit. Brendan is my girlfriend’s favorite player and I figured by having him on my team, I just bought myself a good 40-50 extra hours of basketball watching this season, at least. And for a third center, he’s not so bad, and it’s always nice to have a player on your favorite team to root for. It was the 11th round – Juan Dixon, Lorenzen Wright and Charlie Villanueva were the next three picks – I feel fine about this. That said, it came down to him and Mike Dunleavy and if I wasn’t a Maryland grad who was a Wizards fan, we know who I would have picked. I hope this one doesn’t haunt me.

12th Round (141st overall): T.J. Ford, PG
This one really upset BV, who cried shenanigans since I have not spoken well of Ford at all here on FBB. But hey, player value is all relative – in the 12th round, with Hinrich and Jaric as my only two PGs, I feel this is a strong pick. I still think Mo Williams is just as good of a player, at least this season, and Ford is a major injury risk, but I needed the depth.

13th Round (148th overall): Mike Sweetney, PF
With my last pick I decided to go with someone with some decent upside but also someone I wouldn’t mind jettisoning early on. Each year the waiver wire offers a few players who emerge in the first few weeks of the season that turn out to be quite valuable and you have to be ready to pounce on them. With news that Sweetney will be coming off the bench initially, and knowing that Scott Skiles can be downright Sloan/Hubie Brown-ish when it comes to rotations, Sweetney might be packing his bags soon.

So there’s my team. I think that it’s pretty (here comes that word) solid top to bottom. My top four picks are all young and in their primes, and the rest of my squad is a good mix of established vets and young, but not necessarily green, players. I don’t have any one-category studs and instead am relying on a group effort to put me at the top of most categories. I’m admittedly thin at point guard, but you know that I’m always ready to rotate through the flavor of the week at that position.

Thoughts on who has the better squad, myself of BV???

Enjoy the first games of the season tonight. Go Dirk!

Is Rawle Marshall the Next Josh Powell or Marquis Daniels?

Mon, 08 Aug 2005 11:39:28 -0800

Where to the Mavericks get these guys? It's amazing to me that they keep finding and signing undrafted rookies--and a lot of them work out! Everyone talks about the Mavericks with the high salaries. But their best team management by...

Small is the New Big

Wed, 23 Feb 2005 14:35:52 -0800

The Suns were the trendsetters. The Warriors followed suit. And now it looks like the Hawks are the latest. (You could even argue that by playing P.J. Brown at center when Jamaal Magloire went out, the Hornets were the second team to do it.) Yes, we soon might have a small ball craze sweeping the NBA, and I for one, couldn t be happier. Who needs lumbering 7 footers clogging up the lane and doing nothing for fantasy owners? There are very few teams that offer five legit fantasy starters, but if this small ball craze takes hold, we might see more of it. All five Suns are obviously starters and they are all studs. If the lowly Warriors go with a Speedy Claxton/Derek Fisher/Jason Richardson/Mike Dunleavy/Troy Murphy lineup when Troy gets back, all five of them could be well worth using. And even the Hawks, who make the Warriors look like well, last year s Warriors might have close to give fantasy relevant players if they stay small. Antoine Walker and Al Harrington were obviously usable to begin with, and you know my feelings on dunking/blocking machine Josh Smith . But if small ball means Josh Childress keeps getting PT and gets a chance to work on his well-rounded (at least for fantasy purposes) game, all the better. So who are some other teams that might benefit from going small ball?

Dallas Mavericks
It wouldn t have made sense a week ago, but now that Erick Dampier s out, do the Mavs really want to run Alan Henderson out there? Don t they just want to try and put up 120 points a game and see if their opponents can match them? It s too bad that Jerry Stackhouse and Marquis Daniels are both banged up right now, because it would have been very tempting to give the idea a go with their full squad. Even so, a lineup of Devin Harris/Jason Terry/Michael Finley/Josh Howard/Dirk Nowitzki would score a whole lot of points. If Shawn Marion (6 7 , 228) can play the 4, why not Howard (6 7 , 210)?

New York Knicks
The Nazr Mohammed era is over. It was fun while it lasted (wasn t it?), but, just like Mark Blount realized he was Mark Blount this year, Nazr realized he was Nazr. The Knicks have little reason to keep running him out there as long as he s ineffective an injured. I d love to see them go with a Stephon Marbury/Jamal Crawford/Trevor Ariza/Mike Sweetney/Kurt Thomas lineup, which isn t really that bad in terms of size, as that frontline goes 6 8 , 6 8 , 6 9 . Tim Thomas, Penny Hardaway and Jerome Williams could work well in this scheme as reserves. What do the Knicks have to lose by doing this? They re already as low as they re going to get in the standings, why not try and do something fun?

Milwaukee Bucks
Both Dan Gadzuric and Zaza Pachulia have shown flashes, but both are terribly inconsistent. Toni Kukoc may be old, but he s shown lately that he can still play if given the chance. How about running out a lineup of Mo Williams (although you know who I d have in there)/Michael Redd/Desmond Mason/Keith Van Horn/Toni Kukoc? In Williams and Kukoc you have two great passers, in Redd and Van Horn you have two great shooters, and Mason is the athlete of the bunch. That s a team that could score some points, and could bring Mike James off the bench along with some muscle (relatively speaking) in the form of Joe Smith and Gadzuric.

San Antonio Spurs
These are Rasho Nesterovic s January numbers: 4.5/7.7/0.6 with 1.7 blocks, 43% shooting in 24.8 minutes. That s ugly. Sure, the rebounds and blocks aren t bad, but otherwise Rasho s making Mark Blount look like last year s Mark Blount. Brent Barry is a deceptively tall 6 7 , while Manu Ginobili is no slouch himself at 6 6 . Fantasy players who know what Barry can offer would love to see a situation where he s out there with Manu and Tony Parker. If they played those three with Tim Duncan and Bruce Bowen it would be an especially small lineup, with Duncan the only one over 6 7 . And it s unlikely that the NBA s best team will tinker with what has been working so well so far. But fantasy players can always hope.

Mavs' Daniels sidelined with ankle injury

Sun, 02 Jan 2005 22:33:15 -0800

Dallas Mavericks swingman Marquis Daniels, who has been struggling with a sore ankle, is expected to be sidelined for awhile.

Nowitzki, Mavericks hand Heat first loss (AP)

Thu, 11 Nov 2004 18:55:45 -0800

Instead of making a serious run at acquiring Shaquille O'Neal over the summer, the Dallas Mavericks decided to build their team around Dirk Nowitzki. The logic couldn't be faulted Thursday. Nowitzki had 41 points, two off his career high, and Marquis Daniels added 22 to help Dallas beat Miami 113-93, ending the Heat's unbeaten start and their franchise-record 14-game home win streak.