Impervious Moves...

...Well not really, but I thought it would be a good headline for a scheduled post. I decided to start doing scheduled weekly posts so that I can be more consistent. I'll probably do 2-3, and Impervious Moves will come out on Sundays or Mondays. Hopefully, I'll be able to integrate it with all three sports.

I was going through my fantasy basketball lineups this morning and I noticed that over the last two months I have pretty much been stuck in the same position in the standings for the last two months in all three of my leagues. This particular league I was looking at is a 12 man league so free agency is usually scarce but I felt it necessary to make some changes. The first thing I did was drop Kyle O'Quinn and if you really just paid attention to what I just wrote you probably have the same thought I had: Why did I have Kyle O'Quinn on the team? I remember picking him up when he was somewhat productive, but obviously that didn't last too long. In fantasy basketball, you can't sleep on players who aren't producing as I had done, yet I'm wondering why I'm just floating around in 7th place. So he got dropped, and I picked up James Johnson and Paul George. With James Johnson, he's an interesting guy to have because he's producing off the bench and the players on the Toronto Raptors have been playing like they're in tank mode or something. Paul George, I had to stash him. Even though there's no definitive return date, we have a pretty good idea that he'll return around mid to late March, just enough time to make a playoff push. Other than that, I was a little worried because I also have Eric Bledsoe and P.J. Tucker on the squad and I don't like the Suns' situation at guard, but I'll keep it like that for now.



In the next league, I had actually dropped from 2nd to 4th place. Blame it All-Star Weekend I suppose as I didn't know when Yahoo! started restarted the fantasy season. I want to say it was Thursday, but I know there were NBA games on Tuesday. Anyway, this squad is primarily made up of drafted studs and amazing pick ups. There was only one player on the squad I saw as problematic and that player is Rajon Rondo. Rondo was just okay in Boston, but since he got traded to the Dallas Mavericks he's kind of disappeared. First he was inconsistent, then he had that orbital injury thing, and now he's back to being inconsistent. I went to free agency and I saw that Khris Middleton was available. He may not be a huge name in the real NBA but anyone who's been playing fantasy basketball this season and is reading this should be as shocked as I was when I found out he was available. So I picked him up and to my surprise I had an open roster spot. I went back into free agency and I found Mo Williams. I've always been a fan of Williams and he's been balling lately since he got trade to the Charlotte Bobcats. He had a 50 point game last season and I think he should remain productivity throughout the rest of the season.

In the last league, the easiest of my three leagues, but I'm in second place, I knew I was going to find someone good. There's only six players in this league and I think only one other guy and myself are still playing. I've dropped players like Dwight Howard and Kevin Love in this league and nobody picked them up. I'm never worried about finding players, but I'm still in second place. My concern was Brandon Knight. I had just picked him up right before All Star Weekend but he was still with the Bucks. Now that he plays with the Suns it makes me feel some kind of way. I picked up Robert Covington who could end up pick up of the year if Hassan Whiteside doesn't get it. I told you I knew I was going to find someone good.

Fantasy Stud or Flavor of the Month?

One day Hassan Whiteside decided to he wanted to improve his NBA2K ratings and he had a monster game getting a triple-double with 12 blocks. Ever since he has been buzzing in the fantasy basketball community. I've heard mixed reviews and different impressions from players and experts, and for the most part the verdict on Whiteside is split down the middle with some believing he's this year's fantasy player of the year and others saying he's just the flavor of the month.



Surprisingly, this is Whiteside's third season in the NBA, but only his first with the Heat. He spent his previous two seasons with the Sacramento Kings where he was virtually irrelevant. This season he probably would've been irrelevant also, but when Chris Bosh got injured, Whiteside got more minutes. When Bosh came back a few weeks later, Erik Spoelstra did not reduce Whiteside's minutes and he has benefited from the time. He played 14 games from the time Bosh got injured up to but not including the triple-double game and during that span he averaged 6.8 rebounds per game and 2.4 blocks per games. The next four games from the triple-double game to now he's averaged 15.5 RPG and 4 BPG. With all 18 games together that puts he's averaging 8.7 RPG and 2.7 BPG since Bosh got injured. He's also averaged 20 minutes per game since Bosh first got injured. I don't take Whiteside as much of a scorer, but if needed he can also drop some close range buckets. Now keep in mind that these stats do not include the games before Bosh's injury where Whiteside was getting garbage minutes.


Numbers don't lie and by looking at these stats he's not about to blossom into Anthony
Davis no time soon. However, despite what some fantasy players and analysts are saying, I believe that Whiteside has some incredible upside from a PhantasySteez point of view. He may not be a top scorer but he isn't going to take many shots either, not to mention that the shots he do take will be high percentage shots. He only seems to be getting better with more game time and it shouldn't be long until he's averaging double digit rebounds. Especially in stat category leagues where it's essential to keep a balance team in all applicable categories, Whiteside could be that piece you need to improve some of your rankings.

Who You Should've Picked Up This Week

Even though injuries occur often in the NBA, some of these injuries can be for a few games, some for a few weeks, some for the rest of the season. There were a few significant season-ending injuries that occurred over the last week, and even though it's Thursday, here are some players who got injured and who you should've picked up or handcuffed to replace them.

The most notorious injury has to be the torn rotator cuff (shoulder) of Kobe Bryant. As we all know, Kobe has stayed injured since late 2013 when he tore his Achilles. He tried to come back last season only to play six games. This season it looked like he was going to survive the whole season with him sitting out multiple games in a row in a preservation effort. This still didn't work because he's out for the season. When I found out about this injury, I immediately went hunting for Nick Young, who was available. Swaggy P currently is injured with a sprained ankle, and most people will probably take his recent benching as a red flag. I think you should ignore these two factors because Young will definitely benefit with Kobe being out. Young will be the #1 option offensively and being that he usually comes off the bench and is the second leading scorer on the Lakers, with him starting he should be a must start in all leagues.

Obviously the Lakers will miss Kobe Bryant, almost as much as the Charlotte Hornets will miss Kemba Walker. They're saying that he'll be out 6-8 weeks, but if you do the math that puts him back in the game late March or early to mid April. I was having a discussion with a fantasy basketball group on Facebook and while some people are just going to stash him, many are looking for a good trade. Just like the Lakers, the Hornets are near the bottom of the standings, and just like Kobe, Kemba is the team's leading scorer. The only difference is that unlike the Lakers, the Hornets do have reliable scoring options other than Kemba. Brian Roberts is replacing Kemba and his production should increase, but I expect for either Michael Kidd-Gilchrist or Lance Stephenson to pick up the slack and take advantage of Kemba's absence.

Crazy part of these injuries is these guys are all the leading scorers of their respective teams, including this last guy, Brandon Jennings. Yes, Brandon Jennings is the leading scorer on the Detroit Pistons, who is also near the bottom of the standings. Jennings is out for the season with a torn Achilles and it looks like D.J. Augustin is replacing him. This has the potential to be the sleeper pick up of the season if this is the same D.J. Augustin that we saw last year when he played for the Chicago Bulls. If you recall, Augustin replaced Derrick Rose last year when he got hurt for the season. He excelled as Rose's replacement and could've won the sixth man award. The Pistons also have Jodie Meeks who could see an increase in minutes and production, but if Augustin can provided a spark like he did for the Bulls last season, then he should be the player who benefits the most and the player who should be added to your roster.

Football Dominates

It's the beginning of June... Well, its early-mid June... And while some of us are still deep in battle with fantasy baseball, it's almost hard not to notice that fantasy football is right around the corner. I couldn't help but to notice that Matt Berry and the crew from ESPN has already come out with fantasy football rankings and has even aired a fantasy football special. This was the last week in May and it made me think about how much love fantasy football gets while fantasy basketball and baseball are kind of left on the back burners.

I first noticed it when the fantasy football season was over and I started playing fantasy basketball. Due to my own negligence, I had drafted two fantasy basketball teams but I didn't really pay them too much attention to them until after the fantasy football season was over. Once I did turn my full attention to fantasy basketball, I noticed how there wasn't a flood of information on things like who to pick up, who's hot, and projections. If there was something about fantasy basketball, it consisted mostly of game recaps. Most of my strategy for fantasy basketball was based on stats, game results and keeping an eye on injuries. I ended up coming in second in one league and winning the other league.

Fantasy baseball wasn't too much different, but it did get a little more attention than fantasy basketball. There was a little more talk online about fantasy baseball than fantasy basketball, but not as much as fantasy football. My strategy in fantasy baseball has been similar to my strategy in fantasy basketball as far as just keeping up with stats and trends.

Even though baseball pioneered fantasy sports, football gets the most fantasy attention. I believe it has to do with the frequencies of the game. In football you have one game a week which allows fantasy experts more time to do more research and come up with projections and predictions. In baseball and basketball, they game is played everyday. There isn't much time for projections and predictions when the next game is tomorrow. This also affects the fantasy player. In football you have all week to set your lineup up. If there is something you don't like, someone gets injured, or you find out someone is not playing you have ample time to make an adjustment. If this happens in fantasy basketball or baseball, you have a minimum amount of time to tweak your lineup. In fantasy baseball and basketball, you have to be on it, consistently monitoring your team for last minute updates. You have to set your lineup everyday as opposed to every week like in fantasy football. You can't skip a day of not checking on your team without it having an impact on your team. I did myself just today by not benching Yasiel Puig. This discourages people from playing fantasy basketball and baseball because they may feel like it's too much maintenence, even though I know most of these players over manage their fantasy football teams. What I mean is they check their team about four times a day. Therefore, with less people playing fantasy basketball and baseball, there isn't a need of an influx of resources for these games.

Over the next few weeks, fantasy football is going to get bigger and bigger. They'll talk about it on social media, there will be draft parties, you'll get advertisements in your e-mail inbox, they'll even talk about it on SportsCenter. Even though fantasy baseball is still in season, you'll notice how much more attention fantasy football gets over fantasy baseball. When it all boils down to it, it's easier to watch 17 football games than it is to watch 82 basketball games or 162 baseball games.