Freaks, I’m back from Boise, Idaho, where I spent last week happily submerged in D-League hoops.

Real quick, if the Los Angeles D-Fenders and Austin Toros meet in the championship series, you gotta make some time to watch these deep, talented, NBA-ready teams battle. Both are owned directly by the Lakers and Spurs, respectively, and it’s no coincidence that those pioneering organizations are ahead of the pack in competitiveness and depth of talent—at both levels.

JO hasn't had much to smile about this season. (Isaac Baldizon/NBAE/Getty Images)

My jaw was dropped numerous times in calling eight games in four days at the D-League’s fourth annual Showcase, but the two players who really stood out were Devin Green and Stephane Lasme, both forwards with the Defenders.

Green is a polished, intelligent and athletic swingman who actually has a mid-range game. Someone please sign him today. Thank you.

Lasme’s body reminds me of Andre Iguodala: athletically chiseled with reeeeeally long arms and the ballers’ bounce. Dude is relentless and effective around the basket with effortless blocks, noisy jams, and out-of-space rebounds. Someone please sign him today. Thank you.

Now back to our story, the NBA story.

Some think the buyout is the bane of the league’s existence right now. Some think it’s flopping. Still others think the shutting down of top players tops the list.

I don’t favor any of those buzzkills—which pale in the white hot light of every other great thing going on in our beloved NBA right now—but I speak for the fantasy world when I say the shutdown probably hurts the most.

It hurts the most because it’s directly related to the team’s win-loss record. In other words, you can nail the pick on a player who posts great numbers, but because his team is in the dumps, any significant injury in March or April seems to draw the dreaded shutdown, leaving your moneyman on the shelf during the fantasy playoffs.

Some downtrodden NBA teams are insisting that their monsters heel beside them down the stretch, so that those monsters are that much more ready to rock the following year. The less wear-and-tear on the investment, the better. It all makes perfect sense, but that’s small consolation to the basketball world.

Lately, there’s been a lot of chatter in NBA circles about shutting down the O’Neals, former All-Stars as recently as last season, Shaquille and Jermaine. And that chatter hasn’t been positive. In fact, the talk has been downright fatalistic.

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Word on the street is that Shaq is being advised by people close to him to shut it down for the season.

After missing eight games with a hip injury, Shaq averaged 16.0 points, 7.8 rebounds, and 1.5 blocks in four games before aggravating the injury in the MLK Day loss to the Cavs. He is now out a minimum of two weeks, the Heat has lost 14 straight, and with Pat Riley recently saying any deadline deals would be made for the future as opposed to the present, I kinda doubt we’ll see Shaq on the court again this year.

My best fantasy advice regarding Shaq, who is on waivers in a lot of leagues, is to quickly offer him up for an Ilgauskas or a Curry before the news gets any worse.

With two years left on his deal with the Heat, Shaq will come back next season once again searching for his fifth ring. And Dwyane Wade, who recently spoke of his own shutdown by saying he has an obligation to play (love him), will be healthy, angry and bloodthirsty after an offseason spent getting stronger—not healing.

My guess is that Wade, barring unforeseen injury, plays till late March before bailing on the 07-08 disaster. And that’s all anyone can ask of the All-Star vote leader for Eastern Conference guards.

So the Heat will still have a chance next season—albeit a small one—of doing damage with Wade and Shaq. But only if Riley morphs that Dynamic Duo into a Big Three by bringing in Ron Artest, Mike Bibby, Shawn Marion, Elton Brand, or Corey Maggette, among others.

If Shaq’s your No. 2 option on offense, your team is in trouble because of his fading play, frequent foul issues, and bouts with the injury bug. However, if he’s your third offensive option, and if Shaq doesn’t have it on a certain night, then you have another heavy hitter to make sure Wade doesn’t have to do it ALL by himself.

When this team acquired Ricky Davis, I stupidly thought he could be a reasonable facsimile of that heavy hitter, averaging 18-plus points per game, giving Miami a legit Big Three. But then I watched Ricky Buckets. I soon realized there was never a chance of Davis being part of a Big Three ... for any team. Freaks, I beg your pardon...

After a miserable offseason, in which he let go of James Posey, Jason Kapono, and Eddie Jones via free agency, Riley ‘the president’ needs to come up big in this election year. He needs to land a major player to augment Shaq and Wade, or risk losing Wade to free agency—and possibly his hometown of Chicago—in a couple of seasons. It’s that simple.

It’s not as simple when pondering the possibility of Jermaine O’Neal shutting it down in Indiana.

After undergoing knee surgery following last season, the perennial All-Star hobbled around this year. Playing on one leg, JO averaged 15.3 points, 7.3 rebounds, and 2.2 blocks in 33 games before it was reported over the holiday weekend that he would miss at least two weeks to recover from a bone bruise in the same knee. In other words, the dude’s knee isn’t totally healed—just like Gilbert Arenas—and he’s starting to worry about the next five years as opposed to the next five months.

I can’t even blame JO for considering a shutdown at midseason after what I saw last spring, when he valiantly played on the bad knee until it gave out on him. It literally pained me to watch him play. He nearly averaged a triple double when you consider winces per game. No one would have said a word if JO had played the ‘knee card’ and shut her down. But he didn’t do it. He went down bailing water from the Pacers’ sinking ship.

And when you factor in the Arenas situation, in which he caused a setback to his surgically repaired knee by working too hard to return (how unfair is that?), it has to give JO much pause to think he might be doing long-term damage as he plays.

Check out some recent quotes from JO in the Indianapolis Star and draw your own conclusions:

“Over the last two years I've dealt with the knee situation. I tore the meniscus and last year I played, obviously, more than I should have. That took an effect.”

“The fact of the matter of it is, since the surgery I haven't recovered. I shouldn't have started camp when I started, which was the first day.”

“(Playing at) 60 percent may be causing me to shorten my career and beyond that. It could have a major effect on my health. From all the painkillers, the injections, being able to walk. I walk with a limp now at 29 years old because the knee is so irritated in so many different areas.”

“I want to apologize to my teammates, coaching staff and the fans because I know it's important for me to be out there. In order for me to have a shot on getting back to a respectable level that I'm use to playing at, I have to take time off.”

“Taking the nine pain relievers a day has affected me in such a major way, to the point that I had to take a test to see how my liver is holding up. The pain I played with has been extraordinary.”

Please. Enough. Make it stop.

My man JO was torturing himself and thank god the horror show is over. If playing the game of basketball is a torturous ritual played out every other night, you gotta step to the sidelines and get it right. The game, just like your job and mine, has to be fun. Otherwise, what’s the point?

If the Pacers can remain in the playoff race without JO for the next 2-8 weeks, then I could possibly see him riding in on white horse to save the day in late-March, early-April.

Through Tuesday’s work, the Pacers were the eight seed in the Eastern Conference, a half game behind Atlanta and a half game ahead of New Jersey. And given the mediocrity that is the middle of the pack in the East, the Pacers probably have enough to contend for a playoff berth as long as Jamaal Tinsley is on his game.

If Tinsley, who recently crawled out of Jim O’Brien’s doghouse, doesn’t step up as a 15-5-8 type of player in JO’s wake, then the Pacers will struggle to win games, and JO probably won’t play again until 08-09.

Freaks, you cannot allow things that are out of your control to rule your world. As such, don’t pout, just shop JO at bargain basement prices or simply move him to your injured reserve or—if you’ve exhausted all trade opportunities and you absolutely must create a roster spot—go ahead and release a dude who averaged 19.4/9.6/2.6 a year ago.

Say it ain’t so, JO...