Today's Lineup

9 starting spots, all filled today ... a big day for basketball. Here's who's playing for me in a 12 team league:

PG: Nate Robinson

The 8th ranked player in the last month, Nate can only benefit from Chris Duhon's suffering health and poor play. Mike D'Antoni has reluctantly placed Robinson in the lineup as his starting point guard. Robinson can commit the occasional mental blunder, whether it's hanging on the rim too long after a dunk or picking up technical fouls after arguing with the refs. But there's no denying his toughness (Robinson fought through a stomach bug during his last start, throwing up on the bench throughout the game) and confidence -- if Robinson starts a game with 1 for 5 shooting, chances are that he'll work his way back to 50% ... he doesn't give up and he'll chuck up shots the entire game. He's come up huge in the 4th quarter, salvaging many games which appeared to be off nights.

In his last 12 games, Robinson has averaged 26.3 ppg, 2.3 3s, 4.7 rebounds, 5.1 assists, and 1.3 steals -- with a .479 FG% and .867 FT%. His turnovers have been increasing as of late (2.3 in the last month), which causes some concern -- but D'Antoni has few alternatives at the moment and Nate should still play 30 minutes a game when Duhon returns.

SG: Monta Ellis

Yes, I played Monta from his first game back and I paid the price as he tried to work his way into game shape. I believe his FG% was .387 during his first 13 games. But he's been the real deal since his return to the Warrior lineup, posting 48 points, 14 rebounds and 9 assists on 20 of 41 shooting. Not a bad pair of games. In addition, Don Nelson has indicated that Ellis will be the starting point guard the rest of the way. The situation still bears watching since Nelson changes his mind constantly and has expressed interest in playing youngsters down the stretch. But I expect that to affect Crawford, Maggette and Biedrins more than Ellis, who needs to show the team that he can play like he did last season.

G: Eric Gordon

When I traded Paul Pierce and Tony Parker for Eric Gordon and Jason Richardson, the hope was to improve in 3s and turnovers. Of course, Tim Duncan got hurt, Parker exploded and Eric Gordon hurt his shoulder 21 minutes into his first game with my team (going 1 for 7 with 4 points). And Jason Richardson promptly tailed off, even though the conventional wisdom was that he would thrive in Gentry's attack and benefit from the injury to Stoudemire (gaining more shot attempts). Crap luck, wouldn't you say?

While Gordon missed 4 games due to injury, he hasn't been that bad since his return. Overall, Gordon has posted 70 pts (17.5) in 4 games on 23 of 47 shooting, with 7 3s (1.75), 14 assists (3.5), 6 steals (1.5) and 3 blocks (0.75). Of course, the statistics are inflated by his 35 point explosion in the absence of Baron Davis, Marcus Camby and Chris Kaman. With everyone returning to health, Gordon has only tallied 22 shots the last two games -- yielding 31 points (15.5). I'm not terribly worried about points since I'm first in that category (and 2nd in the league based on averages), but I definitely need Gordon to produce 3s.

SF: Jason Richardson

Definitely a disappointment. In 11 starts, Richardson has racked up the following #s:

.452 FG%, .720 FT%, 165 pts (15), 15 3s (1.4), 52 rebounds (4.7), 21 assists (1.9), 11 steals (1), 2 blocks, 8 turnovers (0.7).

He's the 48th ranked player in the last month, but that's largely based off of a .500 FG% in 14 games (shooting has tailed off since arriving on my team) and a scoring explosion before he arrived on my squad (16.9 ppg in his last 14 vs. 15.0 for his last 11). Notice how Yahoo rewards a low turnover rate? Unlike the rest of my team (Howard, Rondo, Iguodala), Richardson is not a turnover machine.

PF: Leon Powe

The rumor is that Kevin Garnett will return around March 20. In the meantime, Powe is racking up huge #s. Powe was a great bench player for the Celtics last season. While he's undersized (6"8), he's a great athlete who can run the floor and collect tons of boards. I started him for the first time today (missed his 30 pt, 13 rebound, 5 block game unfortunately) and he's posted 5 boards and 2 blocks in the first half. I need to make a late season push in blocks, so guys like Powe and Sefolosha never hurt. If he doesn't score much, that's not a critical loss.

F: Andre Iguodala

I traded the disappointing Shawn Marion (no 3s, not much of an uptick in points and boards for the Raptors either) for Iguodala straight up. I'm sure my trade partner regrets that move; Marion is already on his bench. Today's performance: with 6 minutes left in the third quarter, Marion has 8 points (3 of 7 shooting) and 2 boards in only 20 minutes of action. Meanwhile, Iguodala has 13 pts, 2 rebounds, 2 assists and a steal at halftime. I'm in a close assists race and Iguodala (5.6 assists per game in the last month) helps, almost compensating for the loss of Parker in that category. Iguodala's biggest negative is turnovers (2.8 per game in the last month) and free throw percentage (.683) is another liability. Granted, my team is last in free throw percentage because of Dwight Howard -- I've surrounded Howard with other FT% liabilities (Rondo, Iguodala), giving that category a full scale punt.


Update: Iguodala finished with 21 points (7 of 14 shooting), 6 rebounds, 5 assists, 1 steal and 1 block. Downside? 7 of 12 from the free throw line and 3 turnovers. In a blowout win for Toronto, Marion only played 24 minutes, finishing with 10 points (3 of 9 shooting), 2 rebounds, 1 assist, and 2 turnovers. This deal should pan out pretty well.

C: Dwight Howard

Howard is ranked #21 in the last month, largely due to his rising FT% (.680) and FG% (.601 for the last month vs. .572 on the year). Howard is still only shooting .609 from the charity stripe for the year. Since the injury to Jameer Nelson, Howard has stepped up his game, particularly in the scoring department -- he is averaging 22.1 points, 13.4 rebounds, 0.9 steals and 3 blocks. Unfortunately, Howard has also averaged 3.5 turnovers.

UTIL: Rajon Rondo

Rondo recently missed two games with an ankle sprain and the acquisition of Stephon Marbury could certainly make his owners a little jittery. However, Marbury has shown significant rust and there is little reason to worry. In 9 games during the last month, Rondo has averaged 13.2 ppg, 5.2 boards, 8.2 assists, and 1.2 steals on .541 shooting. The drawbacks? .686 FT% (actually better than his .635 for the season) and 2.6 turnovers. His steals are down significantly (Rondo has averaged 1.9 for the season) -- his production in that category will certainly determine where I finish in the standings. Our league recently had 5 teams within 10 steals of one another.

UTIL: Larry Hughes

Already discussed in my last post, Hughes has been a huge asset in 3s and steals.

On my bench today are usual starters Kevin Love and Jeff Green. Andres Nocioni will sit today. Thabo Sefolosha will play if I need steals and blocks down the stretch. Allen Iverson sits in hibernation; I suspect that the Pistons would like him to sit out the rest of the year.

Additional Note:
As much as I regret missing Tony Parker's scoring surge, he's only ranked #86 in the last month. He still gives you nothing in terms of 3s (0.3), he's not much of a contributor on the boards (3.0 in the last month), and gives you little in the way of steals (0.7 in the last month, 0.9 on the year). He has also averaged 2.7 turnovers in the last month (2.6 on the season).

Parker does have 288 points in his last 11 games (26.2), to go with 85 assists (7.7). His scoring should significantly drop off when Manu Ginobili returns, however.

Losing out on all those assists is a bummer, but I think Iguodala (5.3 on the year) will help make up for the loss of Parker (6.7 assists per game on the year).

In the meantime, Paul Pierce is ranked #119 for the last month. Only 0.7 steals during that time, to go with 3.2 turnovers a game. He's at least as disappointing as Jason Richardson. His boards are also down (4.8 vs. 5.6 on the season).