Beast of the Night: Eric Gordon blasted the Timberwolves with 36 points, 1 rebound, 6 assists, 5 steals and 5 threes. He shot 61 percent (14-23) from the field, 60 percent (3-5) from the free-throw line and had just one turnover. Gordon’s previous three games were a bit mild, but he’s still having a fantastic season, improving his numbers in every category except for three-pointers made and turnovers. Read More »

Buy Low: J.R. Smith has been all over the place this season. The good news is that he’s finally getting a steady diet of minutes for the Nuggets. The bad news is that it’s hard to predict when he’ll do much with them. However, Smith remains a solid source of threes and steals, despite his low field-goal percentage, and should Carmelo Anthony be dealt away in the coming weeks (which seems increasingly possible), Smith will have more minutes and shots fall into his lap. Read More »

The glorious day of feasting we call Thanksgiving is upon us, which means it’s time to pause and reflect on the players that fantasy owners should be thankful for so far this season. But before we get into all that feel-good stuff, let’s list the players that have gobbled their way to turkey (i.e., bust) status with nearly a fifth of the 2010-11 NBA regular season in the books. Read More »

Who do you want your offense to run through with the game on the line? Counting down from 30th to 1st (one per team), I’ve ranked the League’s go-to guys…

STEVE NASH, Phoenix Suns He could have been MVP last year. Well, amend that, because anybody could have been MVP. Ian Mahinmi could have been MVP given the right circumstances. More clearly: Steve Nash arguably did more for the Suns last year than he did in his two MVP campaigns. The two-time MVP was perhaps more valuable than he’s ever been. Read More »

Could you, with a straight face, make an argument that Robin Lopez is more valuable to the Phoenix Suns than Steve Nash? If you watched the Suns get dropped into the proverbial oubliette last night by the Magic, you could. Nash missed the game with a groin injury (maybe or maybe not the byproduct of somebody’s reaction to Nash announcing his divorce the same day his wife had a baby), but perhaps more important, Lopez was out with a knee injury that will keep him sidelined for about a month … Without Lopez, the Suns were using guys like Earl Barron, Earl Clark, and somebody named Garrett Siler to man the post. Read More »

Beast of the Night: Carmelo Anthony finished with 32 points, 8 rebounds, 1 assists, 4 steals and 2 blocks, along with a three and 4 turnovers last night in Chicago. He shot 50 percent (11-22) from the field and 100 percent (9-9) from the line. Anthony’s having a solid start to the season so far, and while he’s scoring fewer points than last season, all his other categories have improved. Even if he gets moved, ‘Melo will be ‘Melo. Read More »

Weekend Wonder: O.J. Mayo averaged 24.5 points, 4.5 threes, 5.5 rebounds, 3.5 assists, 3 steals, 1 block and 2.5 turnovers in his two games over the weekend. He shot 44.7 percent from the field and 100 percent from the line. After a nine-point clunker in his season debut, this was reassuring for his owners. Read More »

Beast of the Night: Paul Millsap put up numbers that he usually does when he starts, finishing with 19 points, 13 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 steal, 2 blocks and 1 turnover against the Suns. He shot 69 percent (9-13) from the field and 33 percent (1-3) from the charity stripe. It’s early in the season, but these types of lines should come easily for Millsap in 2010-11. Read More »

As the NBA regular season tips off, we preview the upcoming eight-month stretch with our “Highs and Lows” system — predicting the respective ceiling and basement for each team.

Added: Hedo Turkoglu, Hakim Warrick, Josh Childress, Gani Lawal

Lost: Amar’e Stoudemire, Leandro Barbosa, Louis Amundson, Jarron Collins Read More »

Sleepers are an important but dangerous part of any preparations for fantasy basketball drafts. After all, what fun is it strictly adhering to the automated or “expert-based” rankings you’re spoon-fed? Not only is taking that route lame, it can also blind you to players whose true value is hidden from lists too-heavily based on numbers or past performances. The hazard is getting caught up in the self- or media-generated hype for your sleeper picks and moving too early to grab them. All that said, here is a list of the Top 10 sleepers that you should keep an eye out for in the latter rounds of your drafts (with target rounds in 12-team leagues in brackets), in no particular order. Read More »