The trading deadline is approaching in the NBA and fantasy leagues. It’s time for a last flurry of trades to either salvage your team or sabotage the league leader if you have grown to hate him. This being the case, here is my first installment of “Dog or Delish?” It’s a very simple premise. Most fantasy players can be summed up as Dog – avoid at all costs (yes, we’re talking about you T-Mac) or Delish – Yummy! Thanks, I’ll have two (Paul and Lebron). I’ll try to avoid some of the more obvious ones and categorize the player values for the rest of the season.

Dogs:

D-Wade – Injury-prone. I would never trust my fantasy season to him.

Granger – Dump him and his gimpy knee.

Ming – Get rid of him. I don’t remember the last healthy season he had.

Butler – About every time this year, it seems like he starts to shut it down. What does he have to play for this time of year.

Camby – If possible, wait for him to put up a great game and offer him to someone desperate for blocks.

Bosh – The knee scares me. That and the Raptors have nothing to play for.

Crash Davis – Nothing says “Stay away!” like “collapsed lung.” I hope he gets better, but I’d prefer to hope while he’s on someone else’s bench.

Boozer – Stick a fork in him already.

Marion – I don’t care who he plays for. I’ve grown to hate him as a fantasy player.

T-Mac – Yeah, yeah, like shooting fish in a barrel.

Delish:

Kobe – Will be carrying the Lakers and jacking up tons of shots.

Durant – Yummy! Great stats only to continue to grow. As a keeper, I have him ranked #3.

Nowitzki – The German terminator doesn’t get hurt and will put up solid stats right up until the Mavs lose in the first round.

Deron Williams – He’s finally healthy and ready for the playoff push.

Billups – Rarely hurt and putting up great numbers in Denver.

Joe Johnson – Steady, good, and doesn’t miss games.

Iguodala – Doing great now that Brand is gone for the season.

Okur – Solid, inexpensive, and rarely hurt.

Rondo – Solid numbers and does not miss games.

Jeff Green – Solid numbers and continuing to build for next year. Who knew?

Good luck with all your trades and may all your players get tons of minutes.

I thought I would start my articles on fantasy basketball by sharing how I tend to value players.  First, I use a statistical system that generates dollar values for players.  The system is similar to the one used by ESPN (Player rater) and basketballmonster.com .  I will be reviewing dollar values as they relate to trades in a later article.

I also look at other attributes when trying to decide who to acquire.  A primary consideration is the degree to which the player is injury-prone.  Thus, I tend to avoid T-mac, Brand, B. Davis, Bosh, D. Wade and so forth.  Instead, I try to acquire players who are rarely injured like LeBron, Nowitzki, Duncan, Jamison, and Billups.

I tend to be active on the waiver-wire.  When I have 13 decent players on my team, it hinders the degree to which I can pick up players off of waivers.  Thus, I tend to overpay for the best players.  This has the benefit of giving me good keepers for future years, acquiring players who tend to be more reliable and less injury-prone, and clearing up my roster so that I can be active on the waiver-wire.  It also has the benefit of flipping out the less stable members of my leagues and helping to generate insightful bulletin board chatter.

I try to obtain players who have clearly established roles on their teams and get plenty of minutes.  I love players who get lots of minutes and hate those with erratic minutes.  Thus, I like acquiring guys like Joe Johnson, Durant, Duhon, Iguodala, and Bosh.  I hate players with erratic minutes like Tyrus Thomas, JR Smith, and most players on Golden State.

I try to pick players from up-tempo teams like the Knicks and avoid slow-tempo teams like Detroit.  Thus, I had a hunch Duhon would be valuable this year and that Iverson would be terrible in Detroit.

These are just a few of the criteria I use when judging players.  I look forward to sharing more strategies with you in the future.

Don "No Soul" Simmons

For more on ‘No Soul’ check out his bio on the Our Squad page and can be reached at NoSoul@TheHighPosts.com