Andre Iguodala has been a source of contention in the comments recently. Some people just want to cast him aside and leave him for dead (I may be exaggerating slightly). Not me. No man left behind is my motto (unless your name is Andrew Bynum, to hell with that guy). Especially a man that was a top 50 player last year. A man who once only hurt you in FT% and contributed across the board everywhere else. This year he is not the same man. A career low in FG%, REB, STL, and a nearly career high in TO’s (not to mention his lowest AST since ’05-’06). Perhaps it is the high altitude, or maybe he is declining at the old age of 28 years. I say that’s hogwash and I’m not sure why I say it like that, because I sound like my 80 year old grandmother. Nevertheless, I firmly believe that he will figure out his role on the Nuggets and you should own him before he does. Well, unless you can’t take that FT% hit.
Injury quick hits: Carmelo Anthony sprained his ankle and is day-to-day. Jrue Holiday has a sprained foot and will be a GTD. Kirk Hinrich is getting an MRI on his knee… Nate Robinson may be a good short term pickup. Wesley Matthews sat out with a hip issue and is day-to-day. Pau Gasol sat out with knee tendinitis again.
BUY
Kenneth Faried – Have you ever tried to capture a manimal? It isn’t easy, but right now he’s wounded and thus the perfect time to strike. Averaging 10.6/7.7/1/1.3/0.6 over the past two weeks, look for him to have more games like his most recent one on Wednesday (26/14/1/3). Quick! I can see him gaining strength already.
Greg Monroe – Had a pretty great November and then started tanking in December. I think he caught Roy Hibbertitis, such a nasty thing. You’re supposed to get vaccinated every year, but it looks like Monroe is afraid of needles. I wouldn’t expect his 37% FG over the past two weeks to hold up, and we should see a spike here soon.
Kevin Love – Sometimes buying and selling can be like going fishing. The bigger the bait, the bigger the fish you can catch. This is a damn big fish so make your offer a bold one. This was a consensus top 4 player before the injury and after his slow start, it may be time to see if some owners are overly worried. I’m going to go out on a limb and say his 36% shooting won’t hold up since he is a career 45% shooter. Happy casting!
Jeff Green – I like to put at least one guy on here that is widely available. At 14% owned, I think this would qualify. Green looked phenomenal in the preseason and then reminded everyone why the preseason means nothing by actually doing nothing until about two weeks ago. Since then, he has been averaging 16/4/1/0.8/0.5 with 1.5 3PM and 49% shooting. Pick him up as a flyer if you got some bench space, he’s got the pedigree to be a good contributer.
Sell
Joakim Noah – You can’t put lipstick on a pig Joakim Noah and call him a model. I mean, I guess you could but then we would be using the term model loosely. This has no fantasy relevance at all, I just want to illustrate how ugly he is. Noah has been a top 10 player this year, no joke. How is this possible? Well, the career numbers in… everything certainly helps (career FT = 73%, this year = 81%!!!). Not to mention the 10 minutes per game bump he has received this year. I have no freaking clue (and I don’t think Thibs does either) how this guy is going to play 40 minutes every night without breaking down. If I owned him, I wouldn’t sit on him all season.
Robin Lopez – The forgotten brother. The (literally) Robin to Brook’s Batman, but without the homoerotic suit. He’s been pretty good this year compared to year’s past, averaging 11/6/1/0.6/2 and a career high 77% from the line. I’d look for the FT% to regress to his career 72% average and also think the the return of Anthony Davis may eat into some of his lines. In fact, the past two games with Davis back he has scored a total of 8 points. Sorry Robin, there’s a reason no one wanted you in the new batman films.
C.J. Miles – Filling in for Dion Waiters while he is sidelined with an ankle injury, Miles has been more than serviceable (roughly 21/2.5/0.3/0.8/0.5 with 3.5 3PM). This is just a warning to everyone that once Waiters is back, this guy will go back to warming the bench. Before Waiters got injured, he was getting really really good at waving towels and holding teammates back.
