Hey wshuford (that can't be your real name, or else your parents are cruel). Philthy already gave you some good advice, but here's more. By the way, anyone can chime in on these assessments. Tell me I'm wrong! For God's sake, I'm not the only one with answers around here, even though I might be the only one with RIGHT answers (this is where I insert the sideways smile and wink).
So let's assess the damage of wshuford's team.
Wshuford's Team:
PG: Gilbert Arenas (1)
SG: Manu Ginobili (5)
G: Ben Gordon (6)
SF: Lamar Odom (3)
PF: Andrei Kirilenko (2)
F: Mickael Pietrus (Trade)
C: Boris Diaw (4)
C: Darko Milicic (Trade)
Util: Delonte West (9)
Util: Gary Payton (FA)
Bench: Antoine Wright (FA)
Bench: Devin Harris (FA)
Bench: Sasha Pavlovic (FA)
Bench: Travis Outlaw (FA)
Dropped: Nene (8)
Dropped: Bobby Simmons (10)
Dropped: DeSagana Diop (12)
Dropped: Eddie Griffin (13)
Dropped: Jalen Rose (14)
WSHU said:
I drafted my team without any category-dominance strategy and ended up with lots of versatile players that aren't great in any one area. My big guys were either soft or not producing so I dumped them all and grabbed players that are producing regardless of position. I can get those big men from the waiver wire again if necessary, but I'm hoping to package a few guys together and get some stars in return. Should I try to get big guys to help rebounds and blocks or passing big guys like Bogut to complement Diaw? Trade Diaw?
One good thing I have going for me is that I am great on the waiver wire so I usually grab recently hot players before anyone else (Outlaw, Pavlovic, & Wright).
Yahoo 14 team H2H 9 cat league, 11th pick overall.
(I'm guessing your 9 cats are the typical pts, rbs, assts, threes, stls, blks, tos, fg and ft%)
The Assessment
Please don't take this the wrong way, but I wouldn't be helping if I didn't give it to you plainly. Your picks 6 - the end of the draft (at least the ones I see on your list) suck. They suck a lot. I could have told you that even before the season started. Also, I would love to see the waiver wire for your league, because you're not wowing me with your pickups either. That being said, the top of your draft is pretty strong. Arenas is a monster; Kirilenko gets hurt, but when he comes back and finds his rhythm he is a monster, too; Odom's game is fantasy friendly, especially on the Lakers; I am confident that Diaw will play better at some point in the season, because I don't see Amare putting in a full season and I don't see Barbosa keeping pace with the way he's currently playing.
POINTS – You don't have much depth across the board, but Gilbert and Gordon will ensure you do OK in this stat cat.
REBOUNDS – You have none. You're relying pretty much just on Odom and Kirilenko and that's going to hurt.
ASSISTS – You're really hurting here, too. Arenas helps, but he's more of a scorer. Odom will get some and you really could use Diaw's assist numbers from last year. Otherwise, Payton's 3-4 assists per game right now won't do much for you at all.
STEALS – You're looking a little better here if Kirilenko and Ginobili get healthy. Arenas helps a lot here.
THREES – Again, Arenas is doing a lot for you. If he goes down, there goes your season. When Gordon gets hot, he should help here too.
BLOCKS – Again, over-relying on one player can really hurt you. Kirilenko's your only shot blocker.
FG% and FT% - You'll probably be OK here. No one to really hurt you, though Gilbert's potentially lower FG% will drop that category some.
TOs – You don't really have enough players that do anything to worry about this. Arenas turns it over a lot, but that's it.
Conclusion
I'd really like to see a link to your league, so I might be able to provide some additional advice. If you're not opposed to that, post it as a comment. I have a suspicion that there are better players on your wire even though I realize it's a deep, deep league. Your biggest problem is that you have absolutely no depth. You were asking who to drop out of Payton, Delonte West, Wright, Gordon, and Devin Harris...
...my answer?
ALL OF THEM!!!
Except for Ben Gordon. He's struggling right now and he's highly overrated, but he tends to start the season off crummy and pick it up in the end when he gets moved to the bench. You will need that later in the season...or you could use him as trade bait when he gets hot.
I wish I had better news for you. I think you might struggle in your league this year unless there's something I don't know about your league.
The good news is that it's a long season and you have made a couple solid pick ups. So, share the link of your league and I'd be happy to make some additional suggestions. Maybe I'm wrong...maybe the league is just too thin for their to be ANYONE better on the wire. If that's the case, maybe I or someone else can recommend a trade.
By the way, what's "wshuford" stand for? I was going to go with "Why Should Hollow Ukuleles Fester On Rocky Ditches?" But then I realized that if that were the case, it should be IN Rocky Ditches and not ON them.
So yeah...tellmetellmetellme! It's killing me!
LOL, you guys are great...
WSHUFORD: Watch Solid Hoop Underdogs Fearlessly Overcome Rough Drafts
I didn't have ANY time to prepare for the draft so my early picks were based upon my NBA knowledge... my later picks all happened because I was scrambling like crazy to find a good pick but the auto-pick timer kept grabbing the highest rated player on the Yahoo default draft list (that I didn't order at all). I mad because I could have had Boozer and Ridnour in the 6th and 7th rounds. I'm in a tough, competitive, trash-talking league and I made the playoffs last year as a first-time player.
Anyhow, here's the link to my waiver wire: http://basketball.fantasysports.yahoo.com/nba/192364/players
I think the competition in our league is stiff and the WW is thin... PLEASE scour our WW and tell me if you see some hidden gems.
I'm ready to drop Wright and some guards to pick up some rebounding. I see Roberts, Evans, Varejao, and Oberto just got dropped today.
I need a center badly. Who should I get between PJ Brown, Kurt Thomas, Oberto and Diop?
Just a minor comment
Greetings, I'm new here. First, don't think Yahoo links like that will work unless you're actually in the league. Or at least it doesn't like me.
For the centers listed, Kurt Thomas might be the best option long-term. If Amare's going to struggle later on, Kurt will be the one to fill in.
I'm not expecting much from P.J. Brown though. I'm glad he's joined my Bulls, but he won't put up the servicable numbers of the last couple years. I think he'll be doing just about what Antonio Davis was doing the last couple years (including a stint with the Bulls). A monthly double-double is asking too much.
Me either
I can't view it :\
Well crap
It won't allow me to view the league. Your commish must have put a block on viewing it or something.
Private league
I think that's the issue. I'm desperate enough for help that I've taken the time to take screen shots of our WW:
Ranked by Season AVG (1-25)
Ranked by Season AVG (26-50)
Ranked by Last Week AVG (1-25)
Ranked by Last Week AVG (26-50)
I dropped Wright from NJ and grabbed Kurt Thomas. It's not a bad idea having Thomas and Diaw at the same time?
.
Also for trades:
My team
The friend who I'm most likely to make a trade with
He REALLY wants Odom and/or Ginobili but doesn't want to give up a Center. Most of his offers include Felton, David Lee, and Charlie V.
.
EDIT: Also... wshuford is just my first initial and last name. Usually I use ReadyFireAim... in fact that's the email I used to sign up. But since you guys put me thru the wringer, I made a new account... ReadyFireAim. But since I already had an account with my RFA email addy, I had to use the "wshuford" email address.
That said, I'm still a Solid Hoop Underdogs Fearlessly Overcoming my Rough Draft!
More trade help
lol Having an identity crisis are we? Well, to all six of you, listen to Philthy on this one. Manu for Charlie V would be really good for you. Even if you have to throw in another player like Pietrus it would be worth it in my opinion.
Another trade you might try is trading Ben Gordon for Ray Felton. Gordon is super streaky and when he's hot he's good for points and threes only. Both Gordon and Felton are struggling, but Felton is capable of far more stats then Gordon. Who knows? He might bite, he might not.
Trade help
Hmmm, I can't recall...how many teams are in your league? Frankly, I don't think your friend has that good of a team either. I don't blame him for not wanting to give up a center. Jermaine O'Neal is very injury prone. With as thin as your league is, he probably shouldn't have set the requirement to two centers. That being said, he shouldn't expect to get a guy like Lamar Odom without being open to parting with one of his big men.
I actually think Manu for Charlie V would be a great trade for you. Manu still doesn't seem to be 100% and Charlie V has a high ceiling and would help in boards, which is something you need.
I wouldn't part with Arenas, of course, and I wouldn't part with Kirilenko unless it's in a package for Jermaine O'Neal. The only guys on his squad that could really give you much help are his big men...Jermaine, Chandler and Charlie V. There isn't anyone on his team other than maybe JO'Neal whom I'd trade Odom for...so you can probably scratch that off your list.
You don't want Carmelo. All he does is score and you already have Gilbert for that.
My advice is to try a Manu for Charlie V swap. I think you'd benefit from that in the long haul.
As for the waiver wire...you're right...it's thin.
The three players you might consider are Chris Duhon, James Posey and Lawrence Roberts.
Duhon has done nothing yet, but he is just now getting the starting spot over Gordon (don't drop Gordon! this is not unusual and usually means he'll play better).
Posey is good for threes, though he's struggled early. Maybe just keep an eye on him for now.
Roberts is doing pretty good on the boards as Warrick begins to taper off in his production. Check out Roberts' game log to see if that's what you want on your team.
Hope that helps! I actually think you have a better starting five than your friend, with exception to the center position.