This article is part of our NBA Waiver Wire series.
With under a month left in the regular season, just about any injury is potentially season-ending. While that can be highly troublesome - Rudy Gay owners, we feel your pain - having a player shut down for a relatively minor injury has a benefit, too.
Certainty.
Now that Gay's status is settled, you don't have to hold a roster spot in the hopes that he'll make a comeback. You can also feel more confident that players like Shane Battier (47% owned), Tony Allen (29%) and Sam Young (5%) will retain their value for the rest of the year.
(The Rudy Gay owners in the audience are obviously thrilled to hear that Tony Allen will retain his fantasy value for the remainder of this season.)
With that in mind, you might want to take a look at New Jersey's Jordan Farmar (28% owned). The Nets haven't officially ended Deron Williams' season yet, but that announcement could come any day now.
And while Tim Duncan's ankle sprain won't end his season, it will almost certainly limit his fantasy value until the playoffs. That makes DeJuan Blair (45% owned) a must-add in almost any format.
Picks for the Week
The first set of picks is for players in standard leagues - guys who may be available in your average 10 team/15 player roster league. The second group is for owners in very deep leagues, and will be based more on speculation than actual numbers.
All "percent owned" stats are taken from
With under a month left in the regular season, just about any injury is potentially season-ending. While that can be highly troublesome - Rudy Gay owners, we feel your pain - having a player shut down for a relatively minor injury has a benefit, too.
Certainty.
Now that Gay's status is settled, you don't have to hold a roster spot in the hopes that he'll make a comeback. You can also feel more confident that players like Shane Battier (47% owned), Tony Allen (29%) and Sam Young (5%) will retain their value for the rest of the year.
(The Rudy Gay owners in the audience are obviously thrilled to hear that Tony Allen will retain his fantasy value for the remainder of this season.)
With that in mind, you might want to take a look at New Jersey's Jordan Farmar (28% owned). The Nets haven't officially ended Deron Williams' season yet, but that announcement could come any day now.
And while Tim Duncan's ankle sprain won't end his season, it will almost certainly limit his fantasy value until the playoffs. That makes DeJuan Blair (45% owned) a must-add in almost any format.
Picks for the Week
The first set of picks is for players in standard leagues - guys who may be available in your average 10 team/15 player roster league. The second group is for owners in very deep leagues, and will be based more on speculation than actual numbers.
All "percent owned" stats are taken from Yahoo! Fantasy Basketball - your mileage may vary.
Shallow Leagues
James Harden (68% owned) - Harden's scoring average is up over 7 points per game since Jeff Green was traded to the Celtics.
Mike Bibby (34% owned) - Mario Chalmers will be out for approximately two weeks, which makes Bibby the closest thing to a starting point guard Miami is likely to have any time soon. He won't generate assist numbers with LeBron and D-Wade handling the ball as much as they do, but he's still a very good three-point shooter.
Tiago Splitter (23% owned) - Like Blair, Splitter will get a bump in minutes due to Duncan's injury.
Rodrigue Beaubois (15% owned) - Starting to carve out an important role after missing most of the season with a foot injury; he's scored in double figures in three of the Mavs' last four games.
Deep Leagues
Ronny Turiaf (9% owned) - Mike D'Antoni seems increasingly disenchanted with the Jared Jeffries experiment; Turiaf has been the Knicks' most effective center of late and could get the lion's share of the job for as long as he can stay healthy.
Sasha Vujacic (5% owned) - Short-to-medium term starter with Damion James sidelined (concussion). Good source of threes, but a poor shooter overall.
Ekpe Udoh (3% owned) - The Warriors have been out of playoff contention for a long time now, so Keith Smart seems inclined to give Udoh an extended "let's see what the rookie can do" look for the rest of this season. If nothing else, he'll get you blocks.
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