Thursday Night Football

I hate it. I hate everything about it. I mean, think about it, what is there to like about it. At 1st, maybe you'd think it would be cool to have a game earlier on in the week so you don't have to wait ALL week for football to happen. BUT there are so many more things to hate about having football on Thursday as opposed to Sunday/Monday.

1st and foremost, it's on the NFL Network, which I'm sure many of us don't get considering it's not a part of many basic cable packages. I'm not going to spend extra money just to watch one more game per week. Then there's the fact that the game is actually on Thursday, which isn't nearly as cool as it seems. I'd much rather wait the 3 extra days so I actually know which of my fantasy players will actually play. I also HATE that shortened week garbage. It makes things unbelievably unpredictable. You can't guess gameplans nor the readiness of players. Take this 1st week for example, Denver @ Cleveland. You had a rookie runningback on the Denver side, who has only had 3 carries all season, taking the starting job on a shortened week against a decent Browns defense. Who the hell could have predicted what was going to happen? It was a crapshoot play no matter how you looked at it. Same scenario on the Browns' side. Romeo Crennel decided to give the starting job to Brady Quinn after his team had been led to a 3-5 record behind former starter Derek Anderson. During a normal week, I would have said Quinn is a solid start to above average start considering he was starting off against a putrid Denver defense. Instead, Brady Quinn was another crapshoot play. Both Torain and Quinn ended up with solid games, but who could have predicted that (NOTE: Torain is reportedly out of the rest of the season due to an ACL tear). Point is, having games on Thursday nights makes things extremely difficult to predict. It puts teams at a disadvantage in terms of practice time and preparation. I just don't see how this is a good idea...

Just a sidenote, in one of my leagues (12 person with PPR and a flex spot), I started both Quinn and Torain. My other QBs were Roethlisberger and Frerotte. I actually thought to myself that Frerotte would be the "safest" play, but Roethlisberger's injury update wasn't given until yesterday that he practiced and would be probable. I took a risk on Quinn (239 passing yards, 2 TDs) and it paid off. The other play on Torain as my flex was tough too. On Thursday, I still had no clue what was going on with Steven Jackson, one of my other options this week for my flex play, and took the risk on the hyped 5th round rookie runningback that none of us have seen before. Both plays obviously paid off, but I was sweating the decision all week and now I'm sweating my players for Sunday too. Fantasy football is awesome until times like now. All you think about is your players and how they must perform in order for you to achieve one of those elusive playoff spots in your respective league. If you lose, you feel it all week until your next matchup, or if you're eliminated because of it, you keep coming up with injuries and excuses until you get tired of them yourself. If you win, you are just hoping for another win next week and the week after that until it's all over whether you win of lose. Realistically, no one in your league is satisfied unless they win it all... and there's only one of those guys in each league every year. This is why we love fantasy football - for the trash talk, the constant complaining and the reason to hate one member every year. It's addicting and probably bad for our health in the long run, but stopping isn't really an option. Good luck during the stretch run and in the fantasy playoffs should you make it that far

The NBA is BACK

And so are my articles. They'll be a bit different from last year. I probably won't have a new post every night. Simply put, I'd be writing all night if I did. I'm in a [personal record] ridiculous amount of fantasy leagues this year including 8 total football leagues and 9 basketball ones. Needless to say, I will be pretty busy keeping up with all of those myself as is, but I will try to write on BIG moves as I see fit. And here we go...

I hope you've heard about the Pistons/Nuggets blockbuster trade at this point. Personally, I love it for both teams from a fantasy perspective. The Nuggets don't have the versatility they had before with Iverson, but JR Smith will be a starter now and we already know how explosive he is in limited minutes off the bench. Now he should be playing 30+ min/game consistently. The addition of McDyess would have hurt Nene's value a bit, but reports are hinting that McDyess will be bought out and signed elsewhere. If that's the case, Nene and Kenyon Martin's value don't change. In fact, their touches should increase with the departure of AI, perhaps increasing productivity. Also, I shouldn't have to remind you, but Carmelo Anthony was leading the league in scoring last time he was playing on an Iverson-less Denver team (remember before that MSG "brawl" and 'Melo got suspended?). I would put Carmelo up with the top scorers in the league now, if not THE top scorer. On the Pistons' side, the guy this could hurt is Rip Hamilton. I could easily see Rip coming off the bench at some point this season to play the "Manu Ginobili" role. He'll still get his minutes and touches, but not starting would bump his value down slightly. Iverson's value might also take a hit. I can't imagine him scoring 25+ppg at this stage in his career and moving from a running team to a half court oriented team. One of my preseason favorites, however, Rodney Stuckey, may be the big winner from all this. We already knew the Pistons love the upside of this kid. Now it seems like they're willing to commit to him being their future starting point guard. Iverson's $20.8 million contract expires after this season and Stuckey will be the man. Detroit will give him as much run as they can this year and in the future.

To sum it up:
Trade winners: Carmelo Anthony, JR Smith, Kenyon Martin, Nene, Linas Kleiza, Rodney Stuckey

Trade losers: Allen Iverson, Anthony Carter, Rip Hamilton