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82games DRAFT League - Standings Update #1OVERALL STANDINGS: 12/5/07#1- Eric Wong AKA Roto Evil = 68 points#2- Rick Kamla - NBA TV = 66 points #2- Matt Berry - ESPN = 66 points #4- Jeff Ma - PROTRADE = 63 points #4- J. Kubatko - BBall-Reference.com = 63 points #6- Tommy Craggs - Writer = 53 points #6- Brandon Funston - Yahoo! Sports = 53 points #8- Andre' Snellings - Rotowire = 52 points #9- Roland Beech - 82games Founder = 46 points #10- Henry Abbott - TrueHoop = 39 points #11- Jon Loomer - NBA.com = 38 points #12- Chris Liss - Rotowire = 17 points RULES-Standard 8-Cat Roto scoring (PTS, REB, ASS, STL, BLK, 3's, FG%, FT%)-Draft 12 players (4 Guards, 4 Forwards, 2 Centers, 2 Utility) -All 12 players start the entire season -NO pickups/drops/trades or roster changes of any kind -PRIZE = $1,000 Winner-Take-All A Tribe Called EvilG- Chauncey BillupsG- Kevin Martin G- Ben Gordon G- Devin Harris F- Andrei Kirilenko F- Josh Childress F- Udonis Haslem F- David Lee C- Dwight Howard C- Andrea Bargnani U- John Salmons U- Luke Walton CATEGORY STANDINGSFT% = 1st placeREB = 3rd place BLK = 3rd place FG% = 4th place PTS = 5th place STL = 5th place ASS = 6th place 3's = 9th place THE GOODDwight Howard is dominating! The Man-Beast is terrorizing the league to the tune of 23.2 points, 15.1 boards, 3.0 blocks per game and 61% FG shooting. How much love do I have for the guy? I went to my 1st game of the year on Monday when Orlando visited Oakland and I gave a fist pump every time Dwight hit a free throw (I'm a big Warriors fan). Despite Howard's 60.8% free throw shooting, I'm actually leading the league in that category at 78.8% FT. I made it a point to surround D-Ho with excellent free throw shooters (8 players shooting 80% or better) and the strategy seems to be working.AK-47 is back! He's playing like a top 20 fantasy player so it was a steal to get him in the 5th round. He's always racked up blocks (5th in the NBA) and steals (17th), but he's also averaging a career-high 5.9 assists per game (17th). Simply put, he's one of the most exciting players to have on your fantasy team. Kev-Mart currently ranks in the top 30 in free throws made (2nd), points (7th), threes (19th), steals (26th), and FT% (29th) per game. He pulled a groin muscle on Tuesday (see below), but that's actually going to help out my team's overall FG% (47.0%) and will be a nice boost for John Salmons (thank goodness I have him!). I don't have anyone in the top 15 in steals, but my team has 6 players in the top 50, good enough for 5th place in that category. I'm only 6th in assists, but Billups and Devin Harris have combined to miss 5 games already. If they can stay healthy from here on out, I could possibly move up to 4th in that category. THE BADKevin Martin injured his groin on Tuesday and he's supposed to be out 4-6 weeks. Ouch. In a league where you have no bench players, major injuries are especially painful. My team ranks 9th in three-pointers made, and that's not going to improve with Kev-Mart out. A Tribe Called Evil is also going to take big hits in points scored, steals, and FT%, so my goal is to just stay in the top 4 overall until Martin comes back.Andrea Bargnani is currently out and he wasn't playing that well beforehand. The #1 overall pick from the 2006 NBA Draft has been a big disappointment: his minutes are down and he's shooting just 40% from the field. Ben Gordon has shot the ball even worse at just 38% FG. I really need those two guys to get hot with Kev-Mart out. David Lee and Luke Walton haven't gotten the minutes that I thought they would and their stats are down across the board as a result. Walton is averaging just 24.1 mpg (after playing 33.0 mpg last season) and Lee is averaging just 23.5 mpg (after playing 29.8 mpg last season). I believe that both players deserve more minutes, and I'm sure that many Knicks fans and Lakers fans would agree with me. Last season, Lee had the best Roland Rating on the Knicks and Walton had the 3rd best Roland Rating on the Lakers (behind Kobe and Odom). I'm expecting better performances from both players going forward. OUTLOOKRight after the season started, I predicted that my team would finish the season in 3rd-4th place overall with 61-69 total Roto points. Sure enough, A Tribe Called Evil has been ranked in the top 3 for the past 3 weeks now. The fact that we're 20% into the season and my team is in 1st place with 68 points is a pleasant surprise, since I wasn't that happy with the team I drafted. Losing Kevin Martin for 4-6 weeks is going to hurt a lot, but it's something you just have to accept in this league. If some of my players step up in his absence, I'll still have a chance at winning this thing.
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