By Andre' Snellings, RotoWire.com

The Madness Begins

I am not sure if you are aware of it or not, but there is this little basketball tournament that starts on Thursday that gets people excited enough that it has been dubbed "March Madness." Oh, you've heard of it? Well, this is actually a good thing for NBASE owners that are more NBA guys than college guys, because for a large segment of owners their NBASE team just became secondary to their bracket pools. This means that instead of those owners checking the injury reports and box scores of NBA games to manage their rosters, they will instead be trying desperately to keep up with the 64 NCAA games that will be played out over the next 96 hours. This is a good opportunity, therefore, for the focused owner to make a late-season push to catch the other owners in their leagues and even make up some ground on the national scale. For those NCAA fans, just know that there aren't any tournament games going on at 8:00 AM Eastern when the NBASE market opens so if you just take a few minutes in the morning to get your NBASE team set-up you can spend the rest of the day screaming for your college team and hoping that your 12th seed upset call was correct with a clean conscience.

Team Building: Weekly scoring trends for bargain shoppers

As always, I have compiled a list of lower-priced players that are producing similar NBASE points to the big sticker players. For the second week in a row Chris Paul produced at a level that no one other player in the league could match, but Vince Carter gave 80% of Paul's production at 50% of his cost so we put him in there as the comp. This week, the average cost of the10 highest priced players is $90.64, while the average cost of the lower-priced players is $41.85.

Prospecting: The Nuggets are our friends

The Nuggets are a very good team for NBASE owners to be aware of. Whether you own players that are playing for or against the Nuggets, they are likely to put up good numbers on the night for several reasons. First of all, they play at such a fast and frenetic pace that their games are inevitably extremely high scoring with lots of possessions. This leads to plenty of points, assists, and rebounds to be distributed among both their team and their opponents. Second of all, the Nuggets are just good enough that the best teams won't often blow them out but they are just bad enough that they don't often blow out the really poor teams either (of if there is a blowout, so many points are scored that it doesn't matter). As I pointed out last week , you should avoid situations where great teams play poor teams due to the likelihood of a blowout where the starters don't get their numbers. This week the Nuggets beat one of the worst teams in basketball, Seattle, 168 - 116, then lost to the mighty Pistons 136 - 120, followed up by an extremely hard-fought 115 - 113 loss to the barely-in-the-playoffs 76ers. No matter the level of competition, the games were high scoring with lots of fantasy numbers all around. This is exactly what you need down the stretch to do well in the NBASE system, so keep an eye out for Nuggets players and their opponents.

Beating the Market: the week ahead

Weekly prospectors (3/21 - 3/27): There are two teams with five games this week (Heat, Trailblazers) but after Miami managed only 54 points on Wednesday night I am avoiding Heat players like the plague. Therefore, I look to Portland for players like Brandon Roy and LaMarcus Aldridge as safe price/points producers for the week. There are another 15 teams with four games as part of this busy schedule, but the Jazz only have two games this week. Carlos Boozer and Deron Williams are two of the highest scorers/biggest price movers in the game so be sure that you sell them before their prices fall, but be ready to pick them up as soon as they start playing more games as their prices should rebound next week.

For the first half-week (3/21 - 3/24), there are 12 teams with three games (Nuggets, Warriors, Rockets, Lakers, Grizzlies, Heat, Nets, Knicks, 76ers, Trailblazers, Kings, Supersonics) while six teams have only one game (Hawks, Bobcats, Bulls, Mavericks, Hornets, Jazz).

For the second half week (3/24 - 3/27), there are three teams with three games (Pistons, Heat, Trailblazers) while five teams have only one game (Cavaliers, Timberwolves, Magic, Raptors, Jazz).

Daily Prospectors: For those that still plan their week around sparsely scheduled days, there are two such games this week.

  • Sunday (3/23) four games: Spurs/Mavericks, Nuggets/Raptors, Pistons/Wizards, Warriors/Lakers
  • Thursday (3/27) three games: Heat/Pistons, Mavericks/Nuggets, Trailblazers/Warriors

Back-to-back schedule:

  • Friday/Saturday: Caveliers, Rockets, Pacers, Clippers, Grizzlies, Timberwolves, Nets, Knicks, Magi, 76ers, Trailblazers, Kings, Supersonics
  • Saturday/Sunday: none
  • Sunday/Monday: Nuggets, Pistons, Warriors, Lakers
  • Monday/Tuesday: Trailblazers
  • Tuesday/Wednesday: Hawks, Bobcats, Bulls, Pacers, Clippers, Hornets, Spurs, Wizards
  • Wednesday/Thursday: Pistons, Heat
  • Thursday/Friday: None

Value stocks

The market moves so fast that by the time this article comes out many of the player values will have already changed. Nevertheless, these are some players worth keeping your eyes on.

Drew Gooden ($22.42): Gooden has really settled into a groove in Chicago recently, averaging 19.3 points, 10.7 boards, 2.7 assists, 1.7 steals and 2.7 blocks per over the last week as the primary big man in the Bulls' rotation.

Anthony Parker ($19.88): Parker was consistently solid as a primary scoring option for the Raptors while Chris Bosh was out, averaging 17.4 points with 5.5 boards, 2.8 assists, 1.7 treys and 1.2 steals per thus far in March. Bosh returned on Wednesday in the monster blowout over the Heat, but Parker still tied for the team-high in points. Look for him to remain a solid option as the best perimeter scorer for the Raptors even with Bosh back.

Kenyon Martin ($18.69): Martin has averaged 16.5 points, 5.8 boards, 2.5 steals and 1.3 blocks per over the last week as his game and explosiveness are starting to resemble the K-Mart from before the knee surgeries.

Tim Thomas ($17.37): Thomas is quietly producing quality fantasy numbers, especially recently when he has averaged 19.3 points, 5.8 boards and 1.8 steals per over the last week of action.

Chris Quinn ($3.72): The Heat only scored 54 points on Wednesday night. I repeat: the Heat only scored 54 points on Wednesday night, so you really need to debate whether or not to touch any of their players. That said, it appears clear that they will be playing purely young players (read: cheap NBASE players) from here out and even if they only average 50 ppg SOMEBODY will have to score those points. Since the Heat have five games this week, it may be worth considering giving someone like Quinn or Daeqan Cook ($9.19) a look. As long as you remember that the Heat only scored 54 points on Wednesday night.

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