Posts Tagged ‘Aaron Afflalo’

Rick’s Tips: Waiver Watching

April 16, 2012  ·  2:59PM




Welcome to championship week! Congratulations for climbing the mountain and cementing your status as fantasy elite.

Just one more thing to do: leave YOUR flag on top of that mountain. Just one problem: the league’s best players are dropping like bass at a Disco Biscuits show.

That noise you hear is the fantasy collective — or at least what’s left of it — scrambling for the waiver wire in search of replacements for Dwight Howard, Kevin Love, LaMarcus Aldridge, David Lee, Marc Gasol, and the list goes on and on.

Is it fair for the injury bug to strike with such might just as you’re reaching the mountain top? No, but as your mom said when you first cried about not getting your every wish: “Life ain’t fair kid, get over it.”

So let’s not sulk and pout about it (insert L.O. joke here). Let’s hit up the only place you can find help this late in the season: the waiver wire. Here’s a few names to ponder as we approach title week.

Kenneth Faried

With Marc Gasol healing a bone bruise in his knee, I need a big man replacement for the NBA TV fantasy finals. I’m going with Faried, who was the second best PF across eight cats last week. Believe it or not, he was still on waivers in our 20-team league!

Three things I love about The Manimal: defensive stats, his non-stop motor, and the Nuggets facing blood games every night.

Faried is thriving under the pre-playoff pressure, averaging 11.3 points, 9.5 rebounds, 1.3 blocks, and 1.1 steals in only 26.4 minutes in eight games in April. (more…)

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The Curious Case Of The Melo-Free Nuggets

March 16, 2011  ·  9:44AM

HANG TIME HEADQUARTERS – Raise your hand if you saw the Denver Nuggets doing all that they have after the Carmelo Anthony deal finally went down.

Go ahead, tell us you knew they’d thrive without Anthony and Chauncey Billups. Show us the sheet of paper you tucked away that said the Nuggets would go 8-2 in the first 10 games post-Melo, would be thumping opponents by 13.2 points and hanging on tight to that No. 5 seed in the Western Conference playoff chase.

We didn’t think so.

Even the Nuggets have been a bit surprised at how they’ve managed the separation anxiety from the player that was the face of the franchise the past seven seasons.

“I just think there’s more enthusiasm, more energy, more things strategically,” Nuggets coach George Karl told reporters after Monday night’s win in New Orleans, when the Nuggets drained 17 3-pointers in a 114-103 win.

So much changes after a seven-month pressure of wondering what was going to happen with Anthony is released. The Nuggets are playing with the sort of stress-free energy that personifies March Madness, as fans near the hideout here will get to see tonight when the Nuggets face the Hawks at Philips Arena.

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About Last Night: Bynum On Display

February 11, 2011  ·  10:52AM

HANG TIME HEADQUARTERS – He’s not the Los Angeles Lakers’ biggest personality and far from its biggest star, but no player on the Lakers’ roster is on display more these days than their biggest player (height-wise).

It’s Andrew Bynum Day every day until the Feb. 24 trade deadline passes.

Bynum’s spent the past week in the trade rumor crosshairs — having your name linked to Carmelo Anthony‘s these days can change everything — and will stay there until the trade deadline passes and he’s still wearing purple and gold.

Last night’s effort against the Celtics showed once again why the Lakers value Bynum’s talent, length and youth. Even with all of his injury problems, Bynum’s presence in the paint is as obvious to the eye as it is crucial to the Lakers’ threepeat hopes. It remains to be seen whether or not that is enough to keep him in a Lakers uniform for the next five years or so.

There’s a legitimate infatuation/fear tug of war in Los Angeles where Bynum is concerned, captured best in the last line of Bill Plaschke’s column from last night’s game in the Los Angeles Times:

OK, here’s the deal on Bynum. If every night were Thursday night, he would be an untouchable. But it’s been six years and we’re still waiting for at least a month of those Thursday nights. The Lakers are obviously going to hitch their championship hopes for the next several years to his aching knees. Here’s hoping I’m wrong.

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