Jan. 20 -- I had a bit of an unpleasant experience the other day. Not with another person, mind you, just something that, with apologies to Peter Griffin, really grinded my gears. Essentially, I had a great idea for an invention, and forgot it. Flat out forgot it. Now I know what you’re thinking – Chris, I couldn’t care less about your invention “experience,” that may be the most boring thing I’ve ever heard. To you, my friend, I say erroneous. You see, it’s what gets us to those great-yet-soon-to-be-forgotten ideas that make the story.

You know the drill; you’re minding your own business, maybe mowing the lawn, when a random event occurs and you have an epiphany. Maybe it’s a squirrel that runs up and slaps your cat, maybe it’s an unannounced sprinkler run that forces you to resort to Matrix-like skills in order to avoid its watery wrath, but either way, it clicks in your mind and you get a flash of inspiration which you’re sure would have made Thomas Edison feel like a mental midget. As you’re planning it out in your head, something else catches your attention. Maybe this something is an angry soccer mom having difficulty parking her minivan, maybe it’s a sudden, chilly gust of wind that brings with it the smell of fresh burrito – but regardless of form, this phenomenon destroys the moment in which existed your idea. You try desperately to recover it, but to no avail, and you come to the gloomy conclusion, and you are left with no other alternative but to more on.

I, myself, have come to that very conclusion – let’s move on and reach into the files.

Hi Chris,

I enjoyed your article today. It waswell done and very informative. I play in a 12 team league where we play 10 and 3 on bench. Scoring is Hto H- Asst 2, TO -1, and others 1[No %] with an average score of points for all games played each week for each starter. We play a combination of 1 or 2 C, 4 or 5 forwards and 4 or 5 guards totaling 10. I have a decent team leading my division, but with three other teams in other divisions beating my weekly total often. If, I had another stud guard or forward I would be in a better shape. Therefore I may need to make a move. I have 3 centers -Camby ,Zydrunas, and Pachulia. With starting one or two at C I can survive with one or two. Therefore would you take a big chance and try to trade Pachulia, Big Z, or Camby for Artest and maybe add in Bobby Simmons or Kyle Korver. The owner of Artest needs C. Appreciate your thoughts.

Thanks in advance!

Paul

Thanks for the praise, Paul, I enjoyed my article too. First of all, I’m sorry about Marcus Camby. There’s a support group you can join – we meet Monday and Friday evenings. I hope to see you there.

I haven’t heard any news on Ron Artest in quite some time, so there are no trade rumors at the moment. As long as he’s with the Pacers, he’s not going to play. Essentially, you’re rolling the dice on whether he’s traded or not – if he’s traded some time soon, he’ll be money, and if he’s not, you don’t want anything to do with him.

As for potential trade candidates, rule out Zydrunas Ilgauskas and Marcus Camby right now. I’d take Camby and his injury “problems” over Artest and his status uncertainty any day, and Big Z is a much better bet given that he’s a fairly consistent producer and is center-eligible. I would, however, try dealing Zaza Pachulia for Artest. I view Pachulia as an overrated player, given that he shoots terribly for a big man (43 percent in the last month), doesn’t block shots, isn’t a big time scorer, and doesn’t even rebound very well (seven per game in the last month). Also, you mentioned that you can choose to start only one center, so you’d be able to get by with just Big Z for a couple weeks or as you await Camby’s return.

If Pachulia for Artest doesn’t work, tossing in Bobby Simmons may do the trick. I doubt he’s starting for you as he’s struggled mightily this season, but some may be swayed by whatever name recognition he still has from last year and severely overvalue him. He’s a much better candidate to trade than Kyle Korver for many reasons, one being that Kyle Korver is a stud and Simmons is not. If you could deal two bench players in Pachulia and Simmons for Ron Artest, you would create a scenario for yourself in which there are two possible outcomes. One, Artest is traded, and comes back (pissed, of course) to wreak havoc on the league, thus propelling you to celebrity status for making such a courageous move. Or two, Artest doesn’t get traded and rots on your bench, driving you to insanity and your league-mates to a nasty name-calling war. While the latter would be terrible, the former is much more likely – so for that reason, go for this trade.

I am in a 12 team Yahoo league with 9 categories and 10 players, am in 4th place, 8 points back. Here is my question.

How are you supposed to manage games played? I am the only person in the top half of our league who is under on games played, I am a Fantasy Basketball Virgin and do not know if that is good or bad. I am exactly 10 games under the projected pace and the other top 5 teams go from 14 to 43 games OVER their projections and 1st place is 41 games over. That means he has 51 more games to pad his stats than I do now, but I will catch up later. I have tried to stay under as I have Amare Stoudemire on my bench and hope to start to pad my games played when he returns. I set up a spreadsheet and if we all had played the same number of games I would be in first place.

Am I utilizing a bad strategy or are they? What are your thoughts?

-Bill

Thanks for the e-mail Bill, very good question that may help a lot of fantasy basketball virgins just like you. First, a little explanation of the significance of max games played; this is put in place to avoid a situation where teams are padding stats by picking up players every night, regardless of their fantasy worthiness. Generally, the max games played is set to 82 to allow each of your starters (should they stay healthy, which of course they won’t) to give you stats for every one of their start.

In theory, at this point, it’s much better to be under the max games played than over it. While being far under the max isn’t ideal, being a bit under is a perfect scenario because you don’t have to worry about benching your studs or missing out on their good games at the end of the season. Those who are over the limit will be kicking themselves come season’s end, because they essentially gave up Allen Iverson’s late-season games for a portion of, say, Gary Payton’s early-season games.

You’re in much better shape being slightly under than being significantly over, as long as you stay fairly close to the cap during the season. Don’t completely ignore any given position as it’ll be nearly impossible to make up those 20 games at shooting guard when there are only 19 days left in the season.

Make sure you play your studs, but don’t feel bad about benching one of your bench players just because you’re under the limit. At this point, you still have plenty of time to make up for any small holes you’ve dug for yourself. As long as you get games from your good players, play the occasional bench player with a good matchup, and make sure you stay close to where you need to be, games played-wise, you’ll tear the league up down the stretch and have them wondering what hit ‘em.

Chris Cates is a fantasy expert for NBA.com. His column The Cates Files runs every Friday as part of the NBA.com Premium Scouting Report. Contact him at CatesFiles@TalentedMrRoto.com.

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