But you’re absolutely correct, if you’re willing to be ferocious on the waiver wire throughout the season, it can be worth it to pay more for elite players.

For example, using Basketball Monster, Durant and LeBron ended up with stats that were head-and-shoulders above the rest of the league (by my settings, $63 and $55 production, respectively, with Nowitzki a distant 3rd at $44).

As LeBron (despite the Miami move) is a proven stat sheet-filler (as is Paul) and Durant is a young superstar with an unknown ceiling, shouldn’t we pay a premium for them? I am pretty sure, if healthy, Durant, LeBron, and Paul will be A LOT more valuable this season than guys like D. Williams, Lopez, and David Lee, two of whom few expect to improve much.

I’ll be glad to pay about 35% of my budget for Durant. As an active waiver wire watcher, I’m a firm believer in studs ‘n’ duds. I could match Durant up with a few other $25-$40 players and fill in the gaps as the season progresses.

Again, auction values are up to the individual fantasy owner, so we each have our own list. But as an expert don’t you need to, at least somewhat, present to your readers what to expect from other owners? With your cheet sheet, hardly any of your readers would end up with a top 5 player.

No one player will produce enough to justify spending 35-40% of your cap space on him. That’s literally like the Yankees paying A-Rod $69 million to play baseball just this season.

[stunned silence] ^