This week’s pickups list comes with some good and bad news. Let’s just get the negative stuff out of the way first. You could probably do better than this edition’s Fresh Pickings. After having such a thick waiver wire for the last couple weeks, things have slimmed down, and will probably stay that way until the trade deadline opens up opportunities for more players. Read More »

As the first leg of the NBA season has closed, player values have fallen in place. Of course there are some exceptions, like if some of these players just happened to start off ice cold or riding a hot streak. However, by this time statistics have evened out. Read More »

FRESH PICKINGS Devin Harris (26 percent owned in Yahoo!, nine percent in ESPN) Lou Williams, one of the NBA’s biggest spark plugs, recently suffered a devastating knee injury which will keep him out for the rest of the season, and perhaps the beginning of next season, too. So who on the Atlanta Hawks will step up? You can expect an uptick in minutes from DeShawn Stevenson, Anthony Morrow and rookie John Jenkins, but I think the one to own is Devin Harris. Read More »

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FRESH PICKINGS Al-Farouq Aminu (19 percent owned in Yahoo!, 22 percent owned in ESPN) Aside from a rather ugly month of December, Aminu has put together a pretty solid fantasy season. He was one of the hottest pickups in the beginning of the year and has once again become worthy of a roster spot. Read More »

The New Orleans Hornets (they’re not the Pelicans just yet) are a team in flux. They started the year with the specious ROY, Anthony Davis, and his inexorable brow grabbing most of the headlines. But it didn’t last. Davis went down with an ankle injury. Plus, after matching Phoenix’s offer sheet for the off guard they got in the Chris Paul trade, Eric Gordon, they waited for him to recover from a patella tendon disorder and bone bruise in his right knee. Read More »

The NBA season powers on entering its fourth week of action and we have a small but effective sample size to evaluate the season’s early surprise players. For purposes of clarity we are discussing the good surprises not the disappointing ones (that comes later).

Whatever the reason, each one of these players has emerged as a key contributor for their team. Here are the Top 10 Surprising Players this season: Read More »

We never thought we’d hear MarShon Brooks and Dwight Howard linked to each other this much. You’d think they were either bitter enemies or recruiting each other through free agency to hear about them in the same sentence as much as they have been this offeseason, but anytime a deal to send Howard away from Orlando, Brooks is a sticking point in the asking price. The newest rumors ESPN is reporting is that Cleveland has been coerced into getting in on a three-team deal that would send Howard to Brooklyn, Kris Humphries to Cleveland plus a few more parts. Read More »

Brandon Jennings was content to wait. While the Nets came out hot Monday in New Jersey, Milwaukee’s oft off-target star found his stroke wherever he wanted as the game went on. Jennings stepped back for six threes on 11 attempts and had a game-high 34 in the Bucks’ win. He’s in the best shooting season of his career at 40 percent from the field (Progress, people. Progress.). While it’s progress that he’s better year-over-year, it’s still not good. It was nice though, to see his third night of 50 percent shooting or better this month, after not hitting that mark once in February … Read More »

Congratulations David Stern. You’ve officially turned the New Orleans Hornets into the Little Giants, perhaps the one team in the league I might not watch all season. It is what is is though. The Hornets were already a disaster. Now your franchise is in L.A. because Stern was left to pick up the pieces. I was going to come in here and have someone argue with me over which deal was the better one – the Lakers nixed trade or this one – but let’s face it, you get a possible future All-Star, an athletic wing player, a huge expiring contract and an unprotected lottery pick; that’s a great haul for Chris Paul. But as John Schuhmann of NBA.com pointed out this morning, this trade will probably turn New Orleans into the worst team in the league. Read More »