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Happy belated new year! Yours truly is way overdue for a post. Drive safely if you leave in a snowy region today.

I took a peak at the standings in the paper today. The season has just passed the one-third mark and there are some intriguing playoff scenarios. Obviously a lot of ball still needs to be played, but check out the match-ups if the playoffs started today. Like last year, on paper the match-ups in the West sizzle, while the East still looks top-heavy.

Click to continue reading Current Playoff Scenarios


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Dropping Dimes is trying out a new feature. Fantasy 30 intends to rank all of the NBA teams in terms of fantasy power. A list like this tends to lead to a lot of disagreement and discussion, but the hope is that these rankings will be fluid and updated as the year goes on. Thanks to Ron Chow for the assist. In addition to publishing updates on the Fantasy 30, once in a while we hope to produce sister articles that focus on a specific team and its roster.

#1: Los Angeles Lakers: Kobe Bryant ranks as a top four fantasy player this year. The Lakers employ two fantasy-worthy starters for center in Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum. Lamar Odom has played well coming off the bench. Jordan Farmar has sleeper point guard potential, and the team also employs three-point threats like Derek Fisher and Vlad Radmanovic. All of this adds up to the Lakers being top dog early in the year.

Click to continue reading Fantasy 30, Version 1


Brandon Roy and Anthony Parker

I think that Bryan Colangelo has done an excellent job in reshaping the Raptors and bringing back respectability to the organization. Colangelo was fortunate in his first year as Raptors’ GM to land the first overall pick in the 2006 draft. We know that Andrea Bargnani was selected by the Raptors. In the same draft, Brandon Roy was originally selected by the Minnesota Timberwolves and traded to the Portland Trail Blazers for Randy Foye. Bargnani’s NBA career has had its up and downs and still continues to evolve. I know hindsight is twenty-twenty but what if Roy had been selected by the Raptors instead of Bargnani? It would be Roy patrolling the two spot instead of Anthony Parker. Brandon Roy and Chris Bosh would have been an excellent tandem. Oh well, it’s nice to dream.

Brandon Roy is the face of the new Portland Trail Blazers as they emerge out of the “Jail Blazers” era. Roy is the centerpiece of a young nucleus which includes LaMarcus Aldridge and Greg Oden in Portland. Fantasy owners loved the steady production of Brandon “The Natural” Roy over his two years in the pros. Could the third year be the charm?

Round 4, Pick 4 – Brandon Roy PG/SG, Portland Trailblazers

Click to continue reading Dropping Dimes Mock Draft: Round 4, Pick 4 - Brandon Roy


Not the greatest of news for Blazer fans or Brandon Roy keeper league owners.  Per the team’s official site:

The Portland Trail Blazers announced today that guard Brandon Roy will undergo arthroscopic knee surgery on Thursday to repair a tear in the meniscus of his left knee. A Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) taken Tuesday revealed the tear in the meniscus.

Trail Blazers team physician Dr. Don Roberts will perform the surgery at Southwest Washington Regional Surgery Center in Vancouver, Wash.

A timetable for Roy’s return will be set following the arthroscopic surgery.

Ugh.  The “S” word is never good to hear, especially for someone as young and explosive as Roy.  Dave from Blazers Edge is telling fans not to be concerned.  Obviously, the range of rehabilitation can be very wide so until further news comes out, we should try our best to not panic.  But with that said… AHHHH!

Roy to undergo arthroscopic knee surgery [Blazers.com]


Yao Ming stuffs Gerald WallaceProps to Sarge for his piece that landed on Yahoo sports. If you are into baseball, check it out. I asked Sarge for his secret to success once. He said it helps to be really, really, really good looking. We all can’t be Zoolanders like Sarge, but we can keep things rolling on in our two-on-two tourney.

Yao Ming continues to sit out of this year’s playoffs. His Houston Rockets showed some guts by winning Game 3 in Utah, but they now head home down 3-1. Regardless of the the goings on in the real world, his name has been called to step onto the court for our tourney, where we assume he is at full health and in peak condition. Who gets to partner up with Yao? Check it out.

Click to continue reading Dropping Dimes Two-on-Two Tourney: Round 1, Games 5 and 6


Baron Davis and his beard taking a jumperMost of us fantasy fanatics are in some sort of consolation play this week. After all, only two teams in each league can vie for the championship. How are things over in the “real” NBA? Well, the Golden State Warriors are playing almost .600 ball and are still trying to claw into playoff position. How’s that for a tough break?

In my league with family and friends, the teams in the consolation bracket battle for draft position next year. The winner of the consolation playoffs gets the first overall pick, the runner-up gets second pick and so on. It’s enough incentive for everyone to continue setting their lineups, and it’s enough of a prize that people take it seriously enough to put forth the effort. If you have a league with little GM turnover year to year, this is something you can do so that everyone can enjoy fantasy hoops right to the very last day, not just the finalists.

Perhaps the NBA should adopt a consolation playoff format and the winner gets first pick in the draft. This certainly would guard against bad teams tanking it at the end of the season.

Click to continue reading Consolation Playoffs in the NBA?


Chris Paul
If you need a fantasy fix because your playoffs draw near, feel free to check our playoff primers for the Western and Eastern conferences. Also see some science being dropped in the latest installment of Sarge’s Wire to Wire and Brandon’s Beyond the Arc. And if you have some extra idle time, you can think up all the different ways to interpret B’s Fig Cap.

For now we take a walk on the reality side to focus on the playoff races going on in the NBA. Chris Paul and the New Orleans Hornets have been surprisingly great all year; how deep into the playoffs will they go?

Click to continue reading Playoff Picture: East vs. West


Kobe Bryant damn I'm good
The shoot-out in the wild Western Conference has been great to follow, has it not? The top nine teams are separated by only 6.5 games. Every day the standings shift. Right now Phoenix sits in sixth while Dallas ranks seventh! This bodes well for fantasy owners as the best teams in the West should all be playing meaningful games down the stretch. Here’s a rundown of each team’s fantasy playoff schedule.

Click to continue reading Playoff Primer 2008: Western Conference


Is This How Oden Messed Up His Knee?
Portland Trail Blazers center Greg Oden will miss his first NBA campaign with season-ending knee surgery. What was originally supposed to be an exploratory procedure on his right knee turned into microfracture surgery. A full recovery is expected for Oden, however, but will likely take six to twelve months.

Click to continue reading Injury Lowdown: No Rookie of the Year Honors for Greg Oden


Brandon Roy posting up Deron WilliamsThe Fig Cap: You were taken 12 picks before me? And you played for Team USA first? Come here and taste some pain!

Nothing against Deron, but we like this guy. It sure got old fast but we were one of the first pronouncing “Roy for ROY” last year. This year? Look out.

Round 4, Pick 3: Brandon Roy, PG/SG, Portland Trail Blazers

Click to continue reading Dropping Dimes Mock Draft 2007: Round 4 Pick 3 - Brandon Roy


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