I would like to start this post by addressing the piece of crap that was left on my door mat this morning. To the person who left that piece of crap, my first inclination is to assume that you knew what you were doing when you took a crap on my door mat. However, perhaps you didn’t know. Perhaps you felt that taking a crap on people’s door mats is an ordinary occurrence and felt the urge to partake in this routine ritual of humanity. In order to maintain a reasonable level of civility on this matter and in order to keep my hands clean, I will refrain from slapping you across the face with that piece of crap. However, continue relieving yourself of any bodily waste on my door mat or any other part of my apartment, and I will – with all civility – video tape you in the act, collect all the crap you leave and secure them in sealed bags and send those bags wrapped in a bow to your mother for Christmas with your name on it.

I mean, Holy Crap, man. Who leaves dung on people’s door mats?

Sorry Craig…I had to get that off my chest. If you were able to read past all that nonsense, let’s get on with the assessment.

Craig Hamilton’s Team:

PG: Andre Miller
SG: Joe Johnson
G: Kevin Martin
SF: Shawn Marion
PF: Boris Diaw
F: Andre Iguodala
C: Zydrunas Ilgauskas
C: Nenad Krstic
Util: Tim Thomas
Util: TJ Ford
Bench: Quentin Richardson
Bench: Samuel Dalembert
Bench: Danny Granger

This team is in a standard 12 manager yahoo public roto league with the following categories:
Points, Field Goal %, Free Throw %, Three Pointers Made, Rebounds, Assists, Blocks, Steals, Turnovers.
The roster consists of PG, SG, G, SF, PF, F, C, C, Util, Util, 3 Bench spots and no IL spot.

Craig said:

“I was pretty happy coming out of the draft feeling I had a nice balanced lineup with stat stuffers at many positions.

I've got a pending trade of Richardson for Turkoglu as well to bring in some help in shooting.

I was reasonably happy with the balance of my lineup but it's not outstanding in any particular stat, although I did try to keep FG% and FT% in mind when I was drafting as these are categories that most teams tend to ignore a little in favour of totals...

The main weakness is probably assists and I really need Diaw to start playing well and contributing 4-5 assists per game to compliment Miller, Ford and Joe Johnson in my lineup (although this team will never beat a team with a couple of top-flight PG's in the assist column I'm still hoping it can be competitive - no worse than fourth or fifth for assists)...

I also need Dalembert to start playing well to boost my block and rebound totals.”

The Assessment

You should be pretty happy with that team. Excellent depth, which gives you a lot to work with.

POINTS – If Joe Johnson continues to score like he’s scoring now, you shouldn’t have any problem all season in points. Between him and Marion, you’re looking good early here. However, if Johnson’s scoring tapers a bit and Amare gets healthier which could cause Marion’s points to decline a bit, you might need to continue looking for some scoring off waivers. I don’t think it would be a major problem though. Kevin Martin was an excellent pick up.

REBOUNDS – Marion and Dalembert are anchoring your rebounds. You should note that Dalembert rarely puts in a full season of service…which is to say…he’s not consistent. That being said, you have some guards who will really help, like Joe Johnson and potentially Boris Diaw. Also, Big Z and Nenad should contribute too. You’re looking very solid here.

ASSISTS – You are right in saying that you could use Diaw’s 5-6 assists. Still, you’re not looking bad here with Andre Miller, Joe Johnson and TJ Ford. Johnson’s assists probably won’t be what they were last season, because Atlanta’s using him more as a scorer with Claxton and Lue splitting time at point guard, but he’ll still contribute 4-5 a game.

STEALS – This might be your biggest problem. Iguodala and Marion are your best thieves and Andre Miller has been good here early, but you really don’t have much depth in steals and might need to look for pick pockets on occasion during the season for the extra boost.

THREES – Deceptively solid here, though I wouldn’t rely on Tim Thomas and QRich through the bulk of the season. Joe Johnson is shooting the ball extremely well early on. The nice thing about threes in Yahoo leagues is that they are typically easy to find on the waivers as players who tend to get hot typically shoot a lot of threes.

BLOCKS – Big Z and Nenad Krstic are not great shot blockers, so you’re basically looking for Marion and Dalembert to hold down the fort. Don’t be afraid to pick up a shot blocker or two off waivers when you feel you need it. I still don’t trust Dalembert to play well for an entire season even if he is healthy. Right now, Etan Thomas, Andris Biedrins are good shot blockers who might still be available. If you’re a little more desperate, Joel Pryzbilla might be an option.

FG% and FT% - Andre Miller isn’t shooting the ball very well, but your primary scoring threats are, so FG% looks solid (especially with Marion). Johnson is below the league average in FT%, but isn’t bad enough to really hurt you. Kevin Martin should do wonders for your FT% right now, averaging 7.3 attempts per game and making more than 93% of them.

TOs – You’ll do very well here. Joe Johnson turns the ball over more than others, but for the production he brings, his TOs really aren’t that bad. Also, with players like Marion, Iguodala and Kevin Martin, who are all notorious for not committing many turnovers, you should fair well despite a couple more turnover prone players, like TJ Ford.

Conclusion

I think you have a good handle on the positives and negatives of your team. Be patient with Diaw. His stock is low right now, so you wouldn’t get much for him anyway. I don’t think assists is as big a problem as you might think, though. Andre Miller is a top-flight assist guy, especially with Denver’s new run-n-gun lineup. He’s averaged 9.4 in 5 games and averaged 8.4 last season. I would be more concerned with cushioning your steals, points and threes a little bit, as you’ve got some guys in there that aren’t long-term solutions in those categories. You might add another assist man if you want to part with Andre Miller or TJ Ford (I’ve never been a big Ford fan for fantasy basketball). But, if you intend to stick with those guys, I think you could honestly compete in assists depending on how other teams are built and how well the top point guards are spread.

Anyway, I hope that helps for now.

Oh, and though I don’t think QRich for Turk is a bad deal, I’d suggest keeping Richardson since he’s red hot and trying to nab a bigger catch. Turk is playing horribly at the moment.