Print RSS Feeds E-News Sign Up

By Chris Cates, www.TalentedMrRoto.com

Have your questions answered by a fantasy basketball expert

Yao Ming was diagnosed late Saturday with a non-displaced fracture in his right tibia. He will be out at least six weeks, the Houston Chronicle reports.

Ohhhhh... I told you I had apprehensions about Yao! (Noah Graham/NBAE/Getty Images)

I hate to say I told y– Well, who am I kidding? I love to say I told you so. Chris Cates here, back from my one-week hiatus during which Will Brinson filled in more than admirably. At this point, you’re probably thinking one of the following:

1) This man is a genius.
2) This man ruined my season.
3) This man has perfected the art of voodoo.

Now, I do want to make it completely clear that I never wish injury to anyone. However, Yao’s past experiences alarmed me enough to print the following in column numero uno of the season:

Yao Ming is a hot potato to me. Do you touch a hot potato? Only if you’re crazy. I want no part of Yao Ming this year, and injury concerns have everything to do with it.

That’s just a little bit of what I said as I went into more detail in the draft kit and later in that particular column, but I’m sure you get the gist. And even though it wasn’t his foot, it was in the vicinity – and I’m still taking credit for it!

But with three lengthy questions to get to this week – and at the risk of passing up an opportunity to celebrate Yao Ming’s injury for a full three paragraphs or so – I’ll head straight to the mailbag.

To the files….

Hey Man,

I’m a pretty new fantasy player…OK this is my first season in fantasy basketball. So far I’ve been doing well coming 4th in the league. I’m in a 12 team 9 Cat Rotisserie league in which I have absolutely no experience how to pull trades to try and get my team better. This is my team as follows:

Guards: Baron Davis Michael Redd Joe Johnson, Raja Bell, Brevin Knight
Forwards: Marvin Williams, David Lee, Kevin Garnett, Josh Howard, Chris Webber
Centers: Darko Milicic, Jeff Foster, Al Jefferson

I pulled in Jefferson just this week for Grant Hill off waivers, Chris Webber is off waivers for the just injured Nenad Kristic. Baron Davis I picked up off a trade for Prince and I held on to David West for far too long before I ditched him for Brevin Knight. I also picked up Foster for Rebounds.

My team needs help from what I can see: Free throw percentage, Assists, Turnovers, and Rebounds (maybe). Definitely my weakest category is Free-throw percentage and turnovers with assists coming next. I find this funny because my team is so guard heavy.............what can I do? Should I try and crash all other categories and win the league that way, ignoring assists? Any potential trades I can pull out?

Thanks heaps in advance
Rock on

No Stars
Sydney Australia

Another Australian is in the house as the Cates Files’ overseas audience continues to grow. It’s a beautiful thing.

Your guard-heavy team struggles due to the fact that only two of the guards are true point guards – both of whom you recently acquired. Now that just won’t fly. Brevin Knight is going to be out four-to-six weeks because of injury so you’d be best served sending him right back where he came from in exchange for another point guard. Try making two-for-one trades where you receive a stud point guard; unloading your shooting guards would be ideal as carrying too many of them is simply unnecessary. When acquiring these point guards, go specifically for those that contribute in the rare categories, shoot a good free throw percentage and get to the line with great frequency. Don’t worry about turnovers when choosing who to trade for – point guards turn the ball over more than the average player simply because they handle it so much more. There’s nothing you can do about that.

Don’t “ignore” any categories other than turnovers and points. Those can always be overlooked because you can go through an entire season without considering them and still finish middle-of-the-pack. However, ignoring anything else will come back to haunt you unless you are absolutely sure you have no shot at moving up – which, at this point in the season, is simply not the case.

All the moves you made look as though they were the best move at the time, and you have pieces in place that can be moved for the top of the line point guards you need. It’ll take time, but a move into that upper echelon of the league could be right around the corner if you play your cards right.

Hey, how's it going? Hope the holidays went well for you. Anyways, I am in an 8 team 8 cat league. This was my roster a few days ago:

Guards: M. Williams, Bryant, Knight, Barbosa
Forwards: J.Smith, Hill, M. Williams, Odom, Biedrins, Butler
Center: Mourning, D.Howard, Krstic

I recently dropped Marvin Williams & Biedrins and picked up Head & Salmons due to the fact that I needed better/faster help in production.

I also dropped Knight last night and got Jack off the waiver wire. And I dropped sadly injured Krstic and picked up also injured Lewis off the wire.

I wanted to know if all of my recent moves have been smart and if it will benefit me at the end. I love Biedrins and Knight, but Biedrins has cooled off and I hate Knight's suprising "playing-not playing" game. I also thought picking up Lewis would be smart....because he could help my team when he does return in a few months or he could be a good bargaining piece if ever I wanted to do a 2:1 deal with someone.

So, what do you think of my moves? Well, thanks for the help. I really appreciate it. Have a good one.

- JAYCEE

Dropping Marvin Williams I agree with, but dropping Andris Biedrins I’m not so sure about. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – he’s not this good; however, he has trade value and even if you sell him for less than he’s worth right now, it’s more than you spent to get him and more than you’d get for him off the wire. Having said that, though, what’s done is done and Luther Head and John Salmons are both more-than-viable replacements, especially given the needs you described.

It’s hard to lose the assists that Brevin Knight brings to the table, but his recent injury makes this move completely necessary. Jarrett Jack is a very nice addition off the wire, and I wouldn’t doubt it if you told me he was the best point guard available. Picking up Rashard Lewis is the ultimate risk/reward in that there is no risk aside from the fact that he’s a dead roster spot for the next two-to-three months; yet, the potential reward is having a top five fantasy player down the stretch.

Overall, the only move I wouldn’t have made is the dropping of Andris Biedrins, strictly because you could get better than a Head/Salmons for him via trade. However, you did well despite that fact and all the other moves help you out a good deal. Injuries are inevitable and moves like these could ultimately make your season.

Hey Mr. Cates,

Happy Holidays Man!

I'm an older long-time NBA fanatic (since the 1988 draft), but I'm relatively a newbie in Fantasy Basketball, so I need some major help from you. Lemme break down my situation a little for you...

I'm in a 12-team, 10-category head-to-head league, filled with ALL people with no willingness/want/maybe "guts", to make/accept trades (Some quiet, unfriendly folk). I've even tried some decent 2 for 1 trades, but still no luck. Instead there's lots of free agent wire-tapping going on, and I find it hard to repeatedly tap the wire all season long. There's no clear-cut dominating league leader (lots of ties), but sadly enough, I'm in the last 3rd of my league.

My current roster is: G- Jason Kidd, Chauncey Billups, Manu Ginobili, Monta Ellis, Raymond Felton, & Leandro Barbosa
F- Kevin Garnett, Hakim Warrick, Mickael Pietrus, Marvin Williams, & Chris Wilcox
C- Tyson Chandler & Nene Hilario

Other than the solid contributors (Garnett, Kidd, & Billups), and a few surprises (Warrick, Ellis, & Wilcox), I'm not doing so well. I personally don't think my team is that weak, but the other teams seem a little more consistent than me. The league as a whole is pretty observant, so the free agent wire isn't that strong either. The most intriguing names currently are: M. Peterson, E. Boykins (surprisingly), S. Cassell, K. Korver, C. Mobley, T. Murphy, C. Atkins, S. May, & Charlie Villanueva. Other than maybe Boykins or Cassell, I dont see any other real improvements.

My questions to you basically are: What's your advice?? What would you do in my situation?? How would you go about getting these people to loosen up and trade??

I appreciate your time, thanks a lot,

DOC J (from West Palm Beach, FL)

Leagues like this are tough to gauge and even tougher to take part in. Nobody wants to trade, and very solid offers are kicked to the curb simply because of the fear of failure. There’s a very good chance that things remain this way all season, but there are a couple of tactics that could work well. The way I see things, the best approach is to offer a trade that falls in the favor of your opponent. Give them the upper hand. By this, I don’t mean offer them LeBron James for Chris Kaman – that would just be crazy. I’m speaking of an offer including exclusively bench guys or last tier starters. Offer a trade that won’t hurt you in the least, but will look appealing to the opposing owner because of a clear advantage in their favor. What’s the worst that could happen from this? A rejection of the trade and no change in the state of the league. And the best? A step in the trading direction, as the other owner realizes that it’s not as hard as it seems.

As for the free agent options, the only two I’d even consider are Earl Boykins and Sean May – there’s not much after that. May is intriguing and probably wouldn’t be on the wire if not for the fact that he’s been hurt for the last week and a half. He’s expected to return to the court today and given how well he was playing in the weeks before the injury, I’d take a shot on him and consider dropping Marvin Williams. As good an option as Boykins is, I’d leave him on the wire in favor of your current stable of guards. None are worthy of a drop for him as no noticeable improvement could be gained from a move.

Questions? Comments? Feel free to hit me at CatesFiles@TalentedMrRoto.com at any time of the day, any day of the week, and any week of the year, where your little old question will not only be discovered by myself, but could be thrust into this very spot this time next week. Just think about it, it’s like saying you have a shot at being a lottery pick in the NBA Draft. Alright, so it’s actually nothing like that, but I’ve been told the excitement level is somewhat close. At any rate, Happy Holidays to everyone and until next week, The Cates Files are officially closed…

Chris Cates is a fantasy expert for www.TalentedMrRoto.com, which features free advice, news, stats and analysis for all fantasy sports. It was nominated for four FSTA awards, including best site. Contact him at CatesFiles@TalentedMrRoto.com.

The views expressed by TalentedMrRoto.com represent only the views of the writers; they do not represent the views of the NBA or any NBA team.

Check out: Fantasy Article Archive and Schedule