these teams better not suck

my interest in football, both real and fantasy never really took off much this year and has since become quite the afterthought for me...at least compared to previous years. now the the nba season has begun, it has really squashed my football spirits, well, that combined with my fantasy teams sucking and no longer being a redskins fan. so the wizards are looking real promising, as long as everyone stays healthy. even though i no longer have comcast so i can't watch wiz games, i have been enjoying random games this first week on espn and tnt. i would even consider ordering the nba package, but i already watch too much tv. one of my favorite podcasts, the basketball jones is back.

Ep. 457: King and Captain? from The Basketball Jones on Vimeo.

chris and i joined a random keeper league that looks like it could be fun. it is another crazy 16 teamer that made for us unprepared owners to have to scramble quite a bit in the later rounds. i ended up with what i think is a solid and promising team with holes, but i can work with it. some of players include deron williams, jason kidd, nene, trevor ariza, aaron brooks, marc gasol, and blake griffin (who is out for 6 weeks, ugh). i definitely have some regrets, but that's just the way it's gotta be sometimes. i enjoy fantasy basketball so much more than football, which i know makes me weird. i enjoy that there are games everyday so there's always a little something to follow or read about the next day. as opposed to the sunday overload that is football.

although i planned to just do one league, like i did last year, i couldn't pass up the chance to play with eskay's crew. this is gonna be totally different as it is an 8 team league, which really levels the playing field, and negates my experience as i think most of these guys have never played. it should be fun to be in a league with people i know since all of my friends decided they didn't like it.






i know you're gawking at my weird-ass eyes...it doesn't matter, cause i'm on kevin's fantasy squad!

october roundup

there is no central theme or topic for this blog entry. in fact i believe it will comprise of a lot of random, unconnected thoughts and observations i have had recently. maybe i will break down in some sort of categorical headings.

fantasy sports

ah yes, everyone's favorite blog topic. fantasy football is going on and i really am as uninterested in it as i can remember. my big money team is stacked, undefeated and will surely make me slightly richer by the end of the year. my friends league started off well, but has slowly been getting worse and worse each week, with my first defeat occurring this past weekend. i think things are pretty much downhill from here on out, but again, i don't really care that much about it for some reason....

maybe that's because fantasy basketball is about to start! chris was the only one brave enough to venture into the crazy 16 team league i joined and while i was not prepared at all for the draft, i think my team should be decent. one problem is my team is lacking huge upside rookies, which is something that i love but is also often times my downfall. we shall see. i was happy to draft devin harris as my starting point guard...that is until i saw this video a few days later of him getting schooled by some british nerd in a sweater and tight jeans.



last weekend

on friday, i regretfully agreed to see the max payne movie starring no sense of humor marky mark. i fell asleep, which i know dave is already thinking, "what else is new?", but whatever. it was awful. don't even rent it.

on saturday, i for one drank way too much and i am starting to realize that while i don't have an addiction, i am too easily swayed into binge drinking antics. i drank all saturday afternoon with chris, then went to the turtle with nicky, dave and phil. i think i ended up being the most drunk i have been in a few years and the next morning was not pretty. nicky claims that i am "cool" when i am drunk, which might explain why she avoids spending time with me while i am sober, but i think that i tend to shoot my mouth off a lot when intoxicated and it can leave me with some next morning regrets. also, since i am trying to be healthier and get in reasonable shape, drinking in excess is kind of shooting myself in the foot.

sunday was football free as i somehow managed to pull myself out of bed and go to renfest with jill, bub and some of their friends. it was a fun time, although it is never as good as i expect. we did a lot of people watching. bub and i tried to bet on jousters. bub spent half the day shirtless with just a vest on. jill was on a ridiculous search for some sort of princess hat. we spotted bananaman. jill and i had fun, i think bub did not.

stuff i look at at work

sushi cat - it's no spaghetti cat, but still awesome



conflicting message

animals riding other animals - this is my current desktop image

halloween and parties

there are a bunch of potential parties coming up due to halloween and friends' birthdays. this could cause to be a major conflict for my trying to drink less. this weekend bub is having a party and the following day one of the rivetti relatives is having some sort of awesome outdoor bonfire party that is a 2 hour drive away. i am intrigued by both, though i know i will need a costume for both. i am notoriously bad about making/thinking of costumes and i don't think that will change this year. i just have a hard time committing to anything and then if i do end up dressing up, it's just something thrown together at the last minute. i will probably go to the party store and find some crappy mask or something. in case i do decide to be more creative and put forth a little effort, here are some costume ideas that i will not end up using:

• zombie
• green m&m
• lady bug
• andrew w.k.
• sarah palin
• crazy newspaper face

maybe you are a hot girl who happens to be both reading this blog as well as suffering from the same costume dilemma. this will help:



the following weekend also marks the birthdays of dan and brigitte, both of whom are having parties at the same time at the same place. i believe brigitte is truing 27, while dan is hitting the big 4-0. dave and i were discussing having a steal their thunder party the night before, but it is probably more funny in theory than it would be in practice.

conclusion and other random bits

• laura has titled her latest blog post as "super secret special surprise" which has me interested as well as a little concerned. maybe she's pregnant. probably not. hopefully it is not the video of her dance-slapping me in the face. hopefully she was smart and just deleted it.
• last week i was able to do single leg squats for the first time.
• there is a rumor that louis davis brown will be in town this weekend.
• i have been hurting myself a lot recently...my left wrist and right side of my neck were sore a few days ago for no apparent reason.
• a new and awesome dog park just opened up a few minutes from our house...i took jessie to the ribbon cutting ceremony...too bad it won't make her any smarter
  
• so that's about it for now...and hey, this is my 100th post.

my final fantasy draft of the season

our group of friends recently held our annual fantasy football draft, and while it is for the least amount of money amongst all of my money leagues, it might be the one i care about most just for the bragging rights.

we held the draft online for the first time this year...and of course phil did something shady and there were major internet issues, where i almost got screwed out of a pick and nam got 2 of his picks auto-picked....lame.

otherwise the draft went pretty well. it didn't take 4 hours like i had originally thought. i was unhappy with picking 9th...i never get a top pick, but that aspect is tough to blame on phil. overall i am happy with my team, where i don't have the strongest starting group in the league, but i think i have the deepest team.

here are some random like/dislikes/notes from the draft:

• chris and sean took a lot of players i was targeting (brees, chris johnon, thomas jones, desean jackson)
• laura grabbing brandon marshall in round 5 could be the steal of the draft
• dan took a qb early...again
• i may have reached on favre in round 6, but qb's were going fast
• phil's roommate took deshaun foster in round 4, wtf??? does she know him personally? or was she using phil's 2oo4 fantasy magazine?
• i didn't need another rb, but i could no longer pass on ray rice in round 13
• laura asked about the "chicago browns"... (eye roll)
• phil taking mcnabb in round 3 was real risky, but i liked it
• even though he dicked around in the second half of the draft, i think this is by far the strongest team chris has ever drafted
• why did louis draft matt leinart? what happened to spiro agnew?
• half of laura's bench is hurt
• getting ted ginn was a nice move by eskay, but i was otherwise unimpressed with his team...to be fair, i did not like his team last year and they ended up being one of the tops teams
• finally, my favorite late pick of the draft was dan taking mike sellers

you can't take me anywhere

i had that keeper draft on saturday and while some things went well i left with intense feelings of regret. this is a league with louise's stepdad, gary, and a bunch of his friends, most of whom probably have not spent much time around asian people. that's not to say that they weren't friendly or welcoming but many were older guys that one might consider slightly redneckish. at least that was my initial impression and assumption, which really didn't turn out to be valid. now i am already pretty shy around people i don't know, so with all of my own assumptions and stereotypes, i started off the evening a little guarded. knowing gary, who is such a great guy, i shouldn't have prejudged all of my leaguemates like i did.

well the draft went really well. i was very happy with most of my choices, with other guys usually complimenting my picks or jokingly cursing me for stealing the guy they wanted. there were some characters there. after a few shots of makers mark, i loosened up, realized everyone there was cool and i felt totally comfortable. that's where the problems began. often times when i drink, i can get a little mouthy. i start going off on subjects that i may or may not have any business talking about and it is obnoxious. when the subject of smoking comes up i get into extreme hypocrytical mode and start lecturing to these guys that they need to quit. these are guys that have been smoking for longer than i have been alive and for some reason i go off on them and think that i can suddenly change their minds. extremely obnoxious...i know.

i of course continue to drink and i discuss various subject with anyone that will listen to me. we talk about politics (i know, i know...). i don't recall how it comes up but someone talks about arm wrestling and i of course cannot resist talking shit/boasting, so i declare something like "arm wrestling??? shit...i'll run the table right now!" of course i end up arm wrestling and just generally being an asshole.
after the arm wrestling i am drunkenly coming to the conclusion that i am shooting my mouth off and acting a fool. i begin to apologize to these guys that i just met. they, being very nice guys who can handle their liquor are of course telling me that it's no problem and that i'm fine. well once i get an idea in my head where i think that i am being obnoxious/asshole/etc. i can't shake the thought. so i keep on apologizing, thus probably annoying people even more.

so i leave the draft with a great team, but feeling particularly embarrassed and ashamed by my behavior. i do hope that they don't think much of my drunken tomfoolery and that there was no harm done. louise keeps telling me that it's a complete nonissue, but i tend to obsess and dwell on stuff like this. at next year's draft i will only drink beer.

fantasy burnout

i really nerded out on fantasy football way too early this year. i have done 2 drafts so far and i have at least 2 more to go. due to my aversion to work, i tend to read a lot of fantasy football stuff online and now i am definitely feeling the effects of this lifestyle choice.

i have a general feeling of apathy towards the hobby that i usually love, and this feeling does not usually set in before the nfl season actually starts. i will probably get excited again once the season starts...but right now my interest has waned.

i have a keeper draft tomorrow (league w/ louise's stepdad), where i will be choosing amongst players that i am not too excited about. i somehow did well last year...but i am expecting a sophomore slump considering larry johnson is by far my best rb.

next week we are having the draft for annual friends league. this year we are doing it online, which is fine by me although, the current plan is to allow 2 minutes per pick, which at 12 teams, 21 picks each, so things could get ugly. especially when you consider that the draft doesn't start until 10:30 pm. this would have been ok with me a few years ago, but now i am usually asleep by 11. i have also realized that every year i am opposed to many aspects of this league. this is weird, because when i think about it, most people seem pretty indifferent to the league settings...and yet every year i find myself fighting for certain things. i guess there will always be haters. one thing i have always campaigned for are larger rosters, which admittedly plays to my advantage since i am a football nerd and tend to know more players than most. the narc set this league up and actually almost met my demands of 10 bench spots, compromising with 9. i think that is a small victory for me. here are a few predictions for this league:

1. only one tall redhead will have a good team
2. i will draft way too many "upside" guys
3. laura's team will come out of the gate strong but implode sometime around week 7
4. dan's team will be ok
5. chris will explain how his team sucks by about the midway point of the draft
6. nam will luck his way into the stongest team
7. someone i don't know will get hot at the end of the season and win it all
8. i will complain a lot

which sleeper rb will i pick and therefore suck?

keeper

after getting removed from some random keeper league prior to the draft...dan thinks the league manager just wanted to get one of their friends in...i know they were just worried and/or hatin. anyways, i started up my own keeper league: http://games.espn.go.com/ffl/leagueoffice?leagueId=59383&seasonId=2008

dan and chris joined up as well as my cousin who is cracking me up with his trash talk. the other 8 i recruited through hitting the espn boards, aggressively bumping my thread like every 5 minutes. i feel like we have a good group. there don't seem to be any assholes or jerks...most people showed up for the draft.

the draft order was randomized and i was hoping for a top 5 pick. i feel like once you get past those top 5...things get iffy. of course i end up with the 7th pick and regrets of not manually setting up the draft order run through my mind. oh well.

1. i end up with gore who kind of sucked for me last year, but i am expecting (hoping for) a bounceback season with martz running the offense..also we get half a point per reception...gore could easily get 70 catches.
2. on the way back in round 2 i was happy to see ryan grant still available and i grab him to solidify my backfield. generally i feel more relaxed once i have my top 2 rb's.
3. then in round 3 i am again surprised as larry fitzgerald is still there. this guy is already a top 5 wr and he's only 25 (i think).
4. the fourth round is where things get a little iffy...the top 4 qb's are gone, so i know i am gonna punt on that position for a while. i wasn't seeing anything too exciting at rb (mcfadden was taken in the 3rd), so i looked at wr. chad was taken the pick right before me and i cursed at my computer. i then had to decide between consistent and potential top 10 wr (if he stays healthy) in tory holt or nothing but upside santonio holmes. i stayed conservative and went with holt to round out my top 2 wrs.
5. round 5 is another round where i was very conflicted. i was eye greg jennings and he was taken right before me. i was also considering other wr's to be my wr3...brandon marshall, roy williams, megatron and anquan boldin were all still available. then i noticed kellen winslow jr was still on the board. every time i have seen this guy play he is ridiculous. there are injury concerns, but he has the potential to be the top tight end and i like having players that could potentially be the best at their respective position. i took him and kept my fingers crossed.
6. i knew that taking a tight end that early, which i have never really done before, was a luxury and i would have to be really sharp filling out the other starting position on my team. again i passed on qb. wr's with major question marks like marvin harrison and lee evans were available. i decided to take a bet on rookie rb kevin smith. he was a workhorse in college and has been getting a lot of praise from the coaches. he only has tatum bell to pass on the depth chart...i predict he will do so soon.
7. by round 7 i decided i better get a qb and went with one of my sleepers, matt schaub...read more about why i like him here: http://fantasyrelevant.wordpress.com/2008/05/13/thats-not-too-shauby/
8. in round 8 i probably should have grabbed my wr3, but none were looking too enticing so i went with some potential upside and took another rookie rb, rashard mendenhall.
9. in round 9, i again did not like what i saw from wr's, so i backed up schaub with steady david garrard.
10. by round 10 i knew i had to get someone for wr3. i took a gamble on jerry porter, the very talented but not hard working wr who will be catching passes from garrard. i believe he can do it and post solid wr3 numbers.
11. i took yet another rookie rb (this is a keeper league) chris johnson in round 11. he could develop into a poor man's reggie bush, cathing lots of passes, etc.
12. round 12 - pierre thomas (could take deuce's role this season)
13. round 13 - sidney rice (could become minnesota's best wr)
14. round 14 - greg olsen (lots of potential)
15. round 15 - will witherspoon
16. round 16 - julius peppers
17. round 17 - gibril wilson
18. round 18 - robert meachem (former 1st round pick...could be saints #2 wr)
19. round 19 - brady quinn (you never know)
20. round 20 - devin thomas (had to pick a redskin...loads of potential, especially in west coast offense)
21. round 21 - ryan torrain (super value pick....you never know who shanahan will start)
22. round 22 - ravens def
23. round 23 - some kicker (who cares)

looking back, i again fell in love with upside, which will probably hurt my team...at least this season. my wr3 and rb3 spots are questionable. chris and i were drinking (sort of heavily) as the draft went on and i could feel my attention to detail lessening. i really enjoyed doing the draft online as it clearly shows you who is still available and also i set it so that you only had 60 seconds for each pick. this helped in that nobody asked if specific players were still available and also the draft did not take 4 hours. in fact, with 12 teams and 23 rounds, we finished in less than 90 minutes. my main hope, besides league domination, is that this group remains cool and everyone comes back to maintain the keeper aspect of this league.

finally here are some random predictions:

• by week 3 i will cry foul about losing my matchup while having the 2nd highest score.
• by week 6 someone i actually know (chris, dan or my cousin) will give up on their team.
• my cousin will send out many dubious trade offers.
• i will regret many of the league scoring rules i arbitrarily assigned.

a surprise turnaround

after bitching and moaning on this blog about all of my fantasy misfortunes, i have somehow managed to make the playoffs in 3 out of my 4 football leagues. the particularly surprising turnaround was in the league with some friends where i was in 11th place out of 12 teams going into this week's games. well everybody who i needed to lose lost and i managed to nab that 6th place spot. in fact, i had been reviewing the rules and the ongoing games from sunday and realized yesterday that i had a real shot at getting in. thus i went ahead and initiated a conversation with laura in an attempt to get her hopes up....only to crush her!!!

me: hey laura...looks like you're playoff-bound!
laura: nah, i don't think so...team banana hammock is gonna win his game and he will take the last playoff spot
me: nope, he's done for the week...he's already lost...you're basically a shoo-in for the playoffs...you're gonna beat chris (in my head i pretty much knew chris' qb drew brees was gonna blow up against atlanta)
laura: yeah! you're right! woo-hoo!
me: yup, enjoy the playoffs laura (smiling menacingly)

why do i do these things? i guess i am kind of a jerk...also, i feel like laura tends to take great pleasure when something unfortunate happens to me, or if she beats me at something. i have no specific examples of this, but it's a general vibe of our friendship i guess.


ring! ring! this just in, you're not going to the playoffs.


don't look sad, there's always next year...maybe your secret strategy will work then...


so of course chris ended up winning and i got the last playoff spot. i attempted to instant message her this morning to rub her face in my playoff afterbirth, but she did not respond...i don't think i will press my luck...also, i write this feeling safe in that i know laura is not one of the three people (myself included) that reads this blog. now i have to face off against her brother eskay who will undoubtedly smash my team like i smashed laura's playoff dreams.

in other news in that league...

phil posted a humorous discussion board comment on how his team got screwed by dan's haphazard setup of the league...and also noted that dan is conveniently on a road trip as all of this playoff drama unravels. basically, the league was set up with 2 divisions, which was a change from previous seasons, thus allowing the highest ranked team from each division to get a first round bye. phil's complaint is that while he has the same record as nam, and more total points scored, nam's team won the game they played each other, thus winning the division and gets that first round bye.

here's my take on that situation. i got into the playoffs!!! hahahahahahahah!!!! oh and well phil has a valid complaint in that this was clearly not the ideal way to set up the tie breakers...but these rules have been around since the season started. he had a chance to complain then. next year i am willing to serve as league commissioner as long as i have certain requirements met:

1. we do an auction draft
2. people at least consider an auction system for free agents (trust me, it won't be difficult...i would end up doing the work...also it adds some strategy and it is fair)
3. no divisions in the league
4. i get an automatic playoff spot
5. assisted tackles get counted
6. no more lame people that quit on their teams...i am perfectly fine with an 8 team league if that's all we can find
7. we never use flea flicker again...that shit sucks
8. championship is week 16 not 17

in fantasy basketball news...my team has turned it around...sort of. bosh is back! but now peja is hurt and i am going to be lacking in the 3's category. i kind of want to drop him at this point, but i know that's the type of move that i will quickly regret. my team won last week, catapulting me back up to the #2 position in the league. i dropped andray blatche for the second time this season. he and haywood are eating into each other's stats too much. although i like blatche much more, i decided to keep haywood over him since he is technically the starter. i might eventually drop him too though. i picked up kirk hinrich who is seriously slumping, but i can't believe someone dropped him...i am confident he will pick it up and start giving me 15, 7, and 5 with some 3's. so things are looking up for the west laurel cogs. i am losing this week so far, but it just started, and i only had 2 players play last night. also, arenas seems to be ahead of schedule in his recovery...i can't wait for him to get back.

seriously, who sits ladanian tomlinson???

the regular season for fantasy football is just about over and while 2 out of 4 of my teams are going to go on to the playoffs, i have a few things to gripe about.

gripe #1
in one league with some friends i will be missing the playoffs for the first time ever. i managed to have the 4th highest point total, and yet i am in 11th place, only besting the intern who gave up on her team in week 3. i'm not saying my team was the best, but i think i would have stood a better chance of beating the top 3 teams in the playoffs than the current teams ranked #4-6.

gripe #2
in my keeper league, where i have been doing well, and my team is playoff-bound, i noticed some shady business going on. team 1 has a bad record and is out of the playoff race. they are playing team 2, who is only 1 game behind me for a playoff spot. team 1 decides they will:

• not play a qb
• only start 2 rb's instead of the normal 3
• sit the following players: peyton manning, ladanian tomlinson, purple jesus, mjd, frank gore and steve smith

well team 2 goes on to crush team 1 by 100 points. luckily i won my game or i would be tied with team 2. that is some blatant cheating, and while i would like to call team 1 out on this, i don't really know most of these guys. also, i believe that as the new guy in the league, they are kind of unhappy with my success this season. i might e-mail the commish about this....i dunno.

onto basketball....reading back on my last fantasy update, i sounded pretty cocky. well i was in 1st place and even without arenas, my team was showing up. well my run ended last week, when i lost to blumpkin 7-2, dropping me from 1st place to 4th. ouch. what happened you ask? well chris bosh re-injured his groin. great. marvin williams got hurt. a lot of my good players (mainly roy and granger) decided to get streaky, having shooting nights like 1-12. i discovered that rajon rondo is afraid to shoot. blatche and haywood are cannibalizing each others' stats. peja scores 25 one night and 4 the next. ugh...i feel like my team is becoming the knicks of yahoo league 145124.

can my team sustain itself without arenas? when will bosh be back? i have no idea. i do know that i have to make some roster moves. players i would consider dropping are brendan haywood, andray blatche, udonis haslem, and marvin williams. i am not feeling that comfortable dropping any of these players, but i need some serious help in points, threes, steals and assists.

right now i am considering picking up the following:

pg rashad mccants
sf travis outlaw
pg beno udrih
sg juan carlos navarro
sg willie green
pg sebastian telfair

i dunno...none of these guys really jump out at me. they are either inconsistent, not getting starter minutes or i just feel lukewarm about. i will monitor these guys along with a few others, hope that bosh gets back in the lineup, my players start showing some consistency and maybe make a move that will help me stay competitive.

fantasy update

it was another downer of a week for me in fantasy football. i had originally thought i lost all 4 of my matchups, as i closed my laptop in disgust. but then t.o. started to go off. too bad it was against my redskins and he was the main reason why we lost...but it did help me salvage the one victory in my keeper league. the redskins are awful and do not deserve to go to the playoffs...thanks again dan snyder...(i know you can't be fired so hurry up and die so we might be good again...hmm...that's much harsher than i intended...)

instead of my failings in fantasy football, i prefer to focus this week's update on my success in fantasy basketball. after winning week 1 by the score of 7-2, i narrowly edged out my week 2 opponent 5-4. this week i dominated my opponent 8-1, only losing the category of turnovers to my overwhelmed foe. the west laurel cogs now currently reside in 1st place with a record of 20-7, 2 games ahead of the 2nd place team, blumpkin.

while i have been very pleased with my team's early success, i had a few minor issues. first and foremost, my 2 top draft picks have not performed as well as i had hoped. both arenas and bosh have been slow to return to form following their injuries. also, my team is very deep, where all of my players have value to my team. now this might not sound like a problem, but i am a fantasy player that likes to make moves. i enjoy having a roster spot that serves mainly as a spot for taking a chance on a hot player.

luckily arenas and bosh have been improving and the wizards have won 3 straight. arenas actually sat out the last game, but i am keeping my fingers crossed that this will help in the long run. also, one of my players, john salmons, who had had such a hot start to the season due to ron artest being suspended, was placed back on the bench, did not play well and had a tantrum after the game. well i decided to go ahead and drop him and pick up the new starting point guard for the kings, beno udrih. he played ok.

then i discovered that the new jersey net rookie, sean williams had just started his first game and responded with a team-high 22 points, eight rebounds, two steals, two blocks, shot 7-11 from the field and made 8-of-10 free-throws. wow. while i already had an overabundance of very good centers (bosh, chandler, kaman and hawood) who all produce rebounds and blocks, i had to grab this kid and dropped udrih. i am a sucker for upside.



now if he works out and starts to average 16/8/2 with good percentages, i will have some decisions to make. that would be 5 top 20 centers on my team. ideally i could trade one for another point guard to pick up any slack in the assists category, although arenas, iverson and rondo have all been quality contributors there.

looking ahead to this week, i am facing 9-18 chicago hustlers. his noteable players include:

• pg deron williams - ok, this guy is a beast in just about every category, particularly points and assists, but so far has been having an erratic season
• sf lebron james - superstar, top 5 player in the nba, contributes everywhere, not as funny as shaq, etc.
• c ben wallace - former defensive stud...is looking real old now
• sf luol deng - he is a future all star, but has been hampered with injuries, and really all of the bulls have looked bad this year

that's about it. the rest of his team is pretty scrubby. he's got darko, brad miller, mopete, nene, luther head, ryan gomes and white chocolate. my team should seriously crush this one...but you never know. arenas could stay hurt, my guys could get cold and we could see lebron and deron carry his team to victory....but i doubt it. i predict a 7-2 victory for me, losing the turnover category (which i will probably lose every week due to the baller status of all of my players) and maybe a shooting percentage or possibly assists.

in the meantime i will keep up with the hot players, constantly decide who my most expendable players are (right now stojakovic, due to his streaky play, although i would hate to miss out on the potential 10 3's any given night) if i have to grab a hot player and make the best lineup calls i can make. fantasy is a lot of fun when you are winning.

are you ready for some basketball? i clearly am.

i have many fantasy football teams. i am in one league with my family, one league with a coworker and his friends, a keeper league and one league with a bunch of my friends. it has not been a kind year for me in fantasy football, particularly in that league with my friends. i have assembled a decent team, but continually lose to the high scorer in the league each week, to the point where it is getting ridiculous. i played steve this week, who has been on a 3 game losing streak, he manages to beat me and everyone else in our league by like 30 points. nice.

anyways, i will still enjoy the rest of the season, do my best with my sad teams (although i am actually doing well in both the keeper and family league), rout for the awful redskins and boo the asshole patriots.

but now i am onto more important things, namely, fantasy basketball. now i have been really bad about this in the past. due to my enjoyment of the drafting process, combined with what i consider a pretty good understanding of the nba in fantasy terms, i end up with a few too many teams. i usually end up juggling around a dozen teams to where it all just gets muddled and i am never sure which players i should be routing for. this year i showed serious restraint. first i tried to drum up interest amongst my friends to join a league. most of them played with me 2 years ago, but nobody seemed to like it much and i of course dominated the whole season. well, only chris was up for it. i kept hinting for people to give it a try, but people couldn't even be bothered to respond. anyways, i was set to try and coordinate a league that chris and i could both be in, but by the time i gave up on everyone else, the season was about to start and i just had to join a 12 team, 9 category league quickly, thus not having chris in it. i think his response was something like "eh."

well, my draft went pretty well, considering i was a little rusty when it came to the nba. much of my attention has been paid to the weird nfl season and me attempting to keep my teams afloat. i ended up with the 7th pick. since i was only going to have 1 team, i really wanted to get gilbert arenas, so i could cheer for him every game. well i was surprised when he fell to me with the 7th pick and i took him without hesitation. here's the rest of my draft:

2nd round - chris bosh
3rd round - allen iverson
4th round - brandon roy
5th round - tyson chandler
6th round - danny granger
7th round - peja stojakovic
8th round - chris kaman
9th round - rajon rondo
10th round - paul milsap
11th round - robert swift
12th round - marvin williams
13th round - andray blatche

overall i was happy with my team. getting arenas just made me smile. bosh and iverson give me a nice big man/little man combo and both should be all-star producers.

i took a chance on brandon roy, who was last year's rookie of the year. he has a really nice all-around game; sort of a poor man's d-wade. he has had some heel problems, but he's all upside, which is kind of my fantasy kryptonite.

tyson chandler gave me another big man who could lead the league in rebounds and blocks. he's not much of an offensive weapon (although he will benefit a lot from having cp3 pass him the ball), most of my other picks excel at scoring.

i thought granger was another nice upside pick and he will give me tons of points and 3's.

my first iffy pick was peja in the 7th round. i remember i had somebody else pegged as the guy i wanted that round, but the guy right before me took him so it sent me into a little bit of a panic as i scoured the list of available players. i saw peja still there and decided to roll with it. he was an all-star a few years ago, he's got one of the quickest, purest releases in the nba, and while he had some serious back issues which limited him last year, he is supposed to be almost 100%. it was a high risk/high reward pick.

chris kaman in the 8th round gave me another center who could blow up this year. with no elton brand, kaman and his newly cut hair will be eating up tons of boards as well as giving me 15 points and 2 blocks a game.

i liked rajon rondo from last year. while he might have the worst jump shot of any guard in the nba, he's one of those jack-of-all-trades kinda guys who will get decent, if not impressive assists (he will be setting up the offense in boston, dishing to garnett, ray allen and paul pierce...ridiculous), decent rebounds and he will probably lead the league in steals with his catcher mitt hands.

paul milsap was a poor pick. i had another situation where i was scrambling for a player, i looked at team needs and wanted a decent power forward. i had him on some teams last year, and remembered that he was very efficient and got decent points and rebounds. well barring an injury, he's not starting for the jazz and while he will have some decent games, that was essentially a wasted pick.

robert swift is the gawky, red-headed high school kid who got drafted a few years ago by the sonics. he was injured all of last year. i had heard he was looking good in practice, was in line for some starter minutes and had bulked up, gaining 20lbs of muscle. seemed like a nice upside pick at the time.

i was actually giddy when i noticed marvin williams still available in the 12th round. this kid was the #2 overall pick 2 years ago. the talent is there. that atlanta team is young and rising fast and williams is gonna be starting. i'm thinking 15 points, 5 boards, a couple assists, a block and a steal are very possible.

and with my last pick, i bookended my draft with another wizard, hoping blatche would have some value as a backup center/power forward/small forward. he's 7 feet tall, can shoot and handle like a guard and he seems to always be improving. another pure upside gamble.

i defeated my first opponent by the score 7-2. i remember this was the guys that shooting his mouth off at the end of the draft. so that made the victory a little sweeter. i beat him in fg%, ft%, 3pt made, points, steals, block and turnovers. he bested my team in assists and rebounds.

since the season started, i dropped blatche and picked up john salmons who is starting for the injured mike bibby. he should help me in assists until arenas starts producing more. but i still think blatche could breakout, so i will be watching closely and will grab him again as soon as it seems like the right time.

i also dropped swift, who has been hurt, for (gulp) brendan haywood. haywood is probably my least favorite wizard of the last few years. he's a big, strong 7 footer with long arms, but he has hands of stone, takes sloth-like moves in the post and is a constant underachiever. plus he has never gotten along with head coach eddie jordan or the poet, etan thomas. well thomas is out for the season, and his career may be over after a scary heart condition was discovered. he will do more good for this community if/when he retires that he did for the wizards. that opens things up for haywood to experience true starter minutes with little competition. he has responded and is averaging 10 point, 13 boards and 3 blocks. he could finally have a good season.

someone foolishly dropped udonis haslem, who is pretty much guaranteed to give you a double-double every night along with very nice percentages. i dropped milsap and upgraded with haslem.

again, i am really happy with my team for now and since i only have one team this season, i can really focus on it, get to know my players and fine tune the lineups to the best of my ability. i am so glad basketball has started and has given me a chance to forget all of my football misfortunes. go wiz!