Ah, the calendar has flipped over to march, and thus begins perhaps the best month in basketball: March Madness in college basketball, and the FANTASY PLAYOFFS in the NBA. WHOOOOO!
The good part of the nba fantasy playoffs is, usually it's a proportionate number of games as opposed to the regular season. Whereas the MLB playoffs is decided within 2 weeks usually ( a maximum of 14 games, which is less than 10% of the reg. season games), the NBA playoffs has a proportionately higher number of games, teams are still in their stretch run, and the NBA inherently backloads their schedule to have more games towards the end.
I love this time of year, especially this season w/ so many teams still in contention in the east ( you could be 10 games under and still be eyeing a playoff spot, just ask the bulls) and teams in west still playing their hearts out to jockey for playoff seeding. It's gonna be exciting.
That said, here are some players u NEED for the fantasy playoffs and some guys you should definitely avoid:
NEED:
1.) Andre Iguodala- he is the poster child of the sixers' rise to respectability in the east, where they're in the 7th spot right now after a win IN PHOENIX last night. Wow. AI2 is taking over that team, he's really the heart and soul, and he will stuff stats like it's his job. O yea, it is.
2.) Vince Carter- Y'all are gonna start appreciatin Vince Carter again over this last stretch. This might be unfair criticism, but i always thought he didn't try as hard w/ jkidd feeding him the ball. Now that he's the undisputed #1 option on that team, look for him to step it to another gear and turn into 2001 Vince Carter. Get the presses ready cuz there's more posters in the future.
3.) Peja Stojakovic- He's been pretty consistent w/ the 3's and points all year, but now that he's fully healthy and solidly in that rotation, he can just jack open 3's all day w/o a care in the world. You know, that feeling u get when ur really loose and just pumping out 3-pointers when ur wide open........I bet he sings "Somewhere.........over the rainbow" as he's pumping out rainbow shots.
4.) Lamar Odom- O, you didn't know? Lamar has been putting up awesome numbers since the arrival of pau, and he has a streak going of 11 straight games w/ double-digit rebounds. That's pretty impressive. Also, he gets easier opportunities at blocks when pau is guarding the post man, lamar comes behind and swats. With andrew bynum still a ways from returning, lamar can use his long-as-elastic-man arms to pull down boards all day. You want him.
5.) Shawn Marion- Well, duh, you want the matrix. But this year people have been a little down on marion, as he's fallen from the top spots of fantasy ranking. I say he's gonna be the #1 fantasy player the rest of the way. Heard here. Dwayne Wade is gonna be given a lighter load if not pack it in for the season soon, marion's playing for free agency, and the rest of that team sucks. O baby if you own the matrix right now i feel happy for you. Numbers will be flying ur way.
AVOID:
1.) Ron Artest- See, i'm not like other experts giving you obvious avoids like "ricky davis" or "bo outlaw" or something. RonRon has been hot and it might be counterintuitive to sell high/ bench or do whatever with him, but i'm telling u his #'s will decrease. Sacramento is out of the playoff pic, ron's still there, not a good situation. Trouble's brewing, and u wanna have purged this guy from ur roster before it gets to you.
2.) Jose Calderon- The Spanish Flea may be stung for playing time. The biggest bargain in fantasy hoops this season has to give up PT to t.j. ford, and the production has to decrease, there's no way around it. He'll still be ok, but i'd get rid of him for value right now.
3.) Baron Davis- Yup, still hatin' on baron. The Warriors and b-diddy have practically killed themselves to get into the playoffs again, and they should be commended on a great effort so far. But davis has taken a heavy toll to get here, and i gotten wonder when his chronic injuries act up again just due to his bouncing-off-the-court style. Be careful, EXTREMELY careful.
Fantasize on,
Robert Yan
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