In the real world, the move that sent Antawn Jamison to Cleveland was the most significant of a series of late-breaking deadline deals, essentially guaranteeing LeBron James and the Cavs their first NBA championship.
Not so in the fantasy world. I wouldn’t be surprised if Jamison and James both see a leveling off in their numbers as they try to get a rhythm going (though for James, that just means fewer triple-doubles).
No, in the fantasy world, the trade with the most impact will be the one that sent Brendan Haywood to Dallas, along with Caron Butler and DeShawn Stevenson. Haywood, not Jamison or James, is likely to see the biggest bump in his stats.
Haywood moves from the stodgy Eastern Conference to the wild Western, where his rebounds and blocks will get constant feeding from the West’s overly-aggressive shooters.
And while Haywood has never been an offensive star, he’s got more game with the ball in hand than Erick Dampier and other Dallas big-men, so the position might become more important to the Mavs offensively.
Just another reminder that fantasy evaluation is a different animal than real world evaluation.
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It’s Week 18, and all this trading after a lackluster All-Star break makes the NBA fun again. Let’s take a look.
Fantasy Find of the Week: Andray Blatche, PF/C, Washington.
After the Wizards traded Jamison, Butler and Haywood, it gave someone a chance to step up to better stats, and Blatche looks to be taking the offer, with 25 PPG and 10.3 RPG last week. Only 61 percent owned in Yahoo! leagues as of last weekend.
Fantasy Stud of the Week: Dwight Howard, C, Orlando.
A dud earlier this season, he started the second half in scorching fashion, with 28 points per game, 16.3 rebounds per game and 5.3 blocks per game (!) last week.
Fantasy Dud of the Week: Antawn Jamison, SF/PF, Cleveland.
That’s right – 0-12 shooting to start his championship drive with the Cavs. He’s gotten back to his old self since that horrible debut, but it helped make a bad week of .346 shooting and an average of 10 PPG last week.
Fantasy Match-up of the Week: John Salmons, SG/SF, Milwaukee.
He didn’t do much for the Bulls this year, but he’ll benefit from a change of scenery and need for a shooter in Milwaukee, which is in the midst of a busy five-game week.
Fantasy Baseball
Fantasy baseball leagues can be won in the middle rounds of the draft, after all of the most obvious choices have been taken and owners need to be smart and aggressive.
Here are my top mid-round strategic picks (the ones to target as opposed to higher-ranking players left on the board) by position, and when to draft them (assuming a 10-12 team league):
C: Geovany Soto, Cubs. Coming off a bad sophomore year in great physical shape. 8th Round.
1B: Chris Davis, Texas. Was supposed to break out last year, but disappointed. Will be back to 30+ HR territory. 6th Round.
2B: Jose Lopez, Seattle. A very quiet 25 HRs, 96 RBIs last year, and 1B eligibility. 5th Round.
3B: Adrian Beltre, Boston. Interesting new venue could mean a lot more HRs, RBIs. 7th Round.
SS: Asdrubal Cabrera, Cleveland. Speed and a hot bat, plus 2B eligibility. 9th Round.
OF: Carlos Gonzalez, Colorado. Power, speed and average mean he delivers across the board. 6th Round.
SP: Ricky Nolasco, Florida. Bad start last year, great finish. Potential for 18 wins, 225 strikeouts. 7th Round.
RP: Neftali Perez, Texas. Could be the closer. Either way, abundant Ks, low ERA for emerging star. 9th Round.
The Basketball Expert Wire
* SLAM Online has fantasy implications for a number of trades that happened at the deadline.
* RotoWorld reports on another traded player, Marcus Camby, who should get a lot of playing time and a stats boost in Portland.
* CBSSports.com features Sergio Gonzalez talking about the upside for Salmons, Blatche, Haywood and other traded players for the rest of the season.
* ESPN chimes in with its own post-trade deadline analysis, including a look at the Tyrus Thomas deal. Thomas should get more playing time, which means more highlight reel plays and just as many dumb mistakes.
The Baseball Expert Wire
Not much churning on fantasy baseball’s expert wire except for position rankings. We’ll start linking to more of those next week, but for now, Bleacher Report has been busy doing some profiles of individual players and their fantasy impact. Here’s a helpful analysis on possible late-round sleeper Colby Rasmus, along with links to Bleacher Report’s past profiles.
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Dan O’Shea’s Fantasy Fix appears in this space every Wednesday, except on the occasional Thursday like today. Comments welcome. You can also read his about his split sports fan personality at SwingsBothWays, which isn’t about what it sounds like it’s about.
Posted on February 25, 2010