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.

Championship Week: Try Not To Get Cute

For most of us, this week is Championship Week for fantasy football players. In my opinion, this year championship week is a bit different than previously because there seems to be a lot of injuries and players getting benched that have come with last week's results. This may cause fantasy players to try to get "cute" with their lineups by picking players off of waivers based upon last week's performance and these unfortunate injuries and benchings. As my man Matt Berry said at the beginning of the playoffs, this is not the time to get cute. At the same point though depending on the situation you may have to look at alternative options to fill out your roster if you're playing in a championship matchup this week, or even if you're trying to place well overall. I'm going to discuss just a few interesting scenarios that you may have come across due to injuries or players getting benched.

Of course I have to start off with my boy Cam Newton. There's a good chance that if you have Newton you're not playing in the championships unless the rest of your squad is full of studs, like my squad in Coast2Coast Ballers. Because of the way the positions are in this league, I had been starting 3 quarterbacks, one at starting quarterback and the other two at the "offensive player" position. Anyway, as of writing this, it's still unclear if Newton is going to play or not. He did throw the ball in practice on Wednesday and the Panthers' camp are saying that the situation is similar to when he missed week 1 and came back week 2. However, if he doesn't come back, Derek Anderson has actually been a reliable replacement for Newton this season. I used him last week and he didn't put up super numbers, but he got me about average fantasy points, and he got the victory for the Panthers.

Sticking with the quarterback position, on Wednesday the Chicago Bears decided to bench Jay Cutler for Jimmy Clausen. This is exactly what Matt Berry and I are talking about with don't get cute. If you have Jay Cutler you already know he wasn't putting up stellar numbers, and putting in Clausen is not going to make a difference at all. Personally, I didn't know Clausen was still in the NFL, but apparently he is and he's getting the start. I don't intentionally give advice on who to start or who to sit, but in this case I implore you not to start Clausen. Even if he does have a decent game, I'm steering away from Clausen at all cause. Do you remember when he was the starter at Carolina before Cam Newton got there? He didn't do anything, and most will say he didn't have any talent around him. I'm not buying that excuse at all because he had Steve Smith Sr. Also if that was the case he would be starting right?

Somehow, DeMarco Murray broke his hand last week against the Philadelphia Eagles and had surgery on Monday. Amazingly he was back on the practice field on Wednesday, but it is still uncertain if he'll start. Should he not start, the next best option probably would be Joseph Randle, who took first-team snaps at practice on Wednesday. My boy Victor like Lance Dunbar, but to me Dunbar hasn't done enough for me to consider him. You can say that starting Dunbar is another example of getting cute. I know that Dallas has an impressive offensive line that has allowed Murray to go crazy, but out of the two back ups, Randle will be the more reliable of the two.

In San Diego, Keenan Allen is out all of a sudden, I'm not quite sure what the injury is as he's been dealing with a groin and a hamstring for most of the season, but he's out. I think the biggest beneficiary from Allen's injury will be Eddie Royal. Even though Phillip Rivers will most likely be looking for Antonio Gates, don't sleep on Royal. He has been a sneaky play all year. If it doesn't go to Gates or Allen, 9 times out of 10 it's going to Royal. He has a few touchdowns this season and should see more targets with Allen out. There's a similar situation going on in Indianapolis with TY Hilton. He should be out this week but I'm not sure who is going to step up. They still have Reggie Wayne, but it gets interesting when it comes to Hakeem Nicks and Donte Moncrief. Nicks and Moncrief have been competing for snaps over the last month. Nicks has had the upside over the last two weeks, but with Hilton out Moncrief should see some additional snaps. I have Moncrief on the team I have playing in the championship this week, but I'm not sure about starting him, I'm trying not to get cute.

I could say something about Johnny Manziel and RGIII, in which both players are starting this week for players who have been benched. However, we all know what RGIII has done this season, and we definitely know what Manziel did last week. Bernie Kosar ripped the Browns' coaching staff and front office this week, pretty much saying that the coaches and front office personnel have failed to do their jobs thus setting up Manziel for failure. He also mentioned that previous quarterbacks from Tim Couch to Brady Quinn had this same problem while they were quarterbacks for Cleveland. I believe this to be true and I also believe that RGIII is dealing with the same situation in Washington. Manziel and RGIII both are athletic guys with the potential to be deadly at the quarterback position, but things just hasn't gone as planned for either. Some fantasy players may have gotten cute last week and started Manziel which resulted in those players crying with their tail between their legs. The question is, do you risk being cute again this week starting Manziel or RGIII?

All Star Break Moves

There isn't another NBA game until Tuesday, so that gave my guys about four off days. My team sure could use it because I got four dudes, Mike Conley, Russell Westbrook, Kevin Martin and Andrew Bogut who are injured right now. Of the four, Conley is on the Can't Cut List. I wouldn't think about dropping or trading Westbrook. I'm feeling 50-50 ish on picking up someone for Martin. When it comes to Bogut, he might be getting the axe this All Star Weekend.

Bogut has been dependable for the few weeks I've had him on the team. However, since I picked him up I've been waiting for him to get injured, which he has. One advantage for Bogut is he leads my team in rebounding, probably why I picked him up in the first place. Martin has been dependable most of the season.  He's fourth in 3 pointers made and second in free throws made on my team. The rest of his stats are mediocre.

When I looked at the free agency list, two names stuck out to me immediately, Kyle Lowry and Robin Lopez. Both Lowry and Lopez have been pleasant surprises this season. In my opinion, neither one of these players should be in free agency as Lowry has become somewhat of a top point guard in the East and Lopez looks better than ever on his new team the Portland Trail Blazers.

I decided that I would take a closer look at these "injuries" of Martin and Bogut. Martin is going to be out for a couple of weeks and I probably could get more productivity dropping Martin and picking up Lowry. Actually that last sentecne is an understatement. I will get more production picking up Lowry for Martin. On my social networking sites I asked Kyle Lowry or Kevin Martin. I didn't get any response on Twitter but on Google+ it was an unanimous decision Lowry over Martin. So now I have Lowry on the squad.  I'm still struggling with releasing Bogut, the leading rebounder on my time. The problem is I haven't gotten any recent injury updates on Bogut. Even though Robin Lopez's scoring has improved,  Bogut has nearly 150 more boards than Lopez. I guess I'll keep him on the team for now, but he could end up getting moved before the end of the week.

I Got Russell Westbrook and Al Horford On the Same Team

Fantasy Football is over, and yes I lost in all three of my main leagues, Roughing the Picker, Coast2Coast Ballers and Thieveland Ohio. Congratulations to Mr. Hindsman who did end up winning the Coast2Coast Ballers league. I like how Big Mike had to confirm that I didn't win...

Yes, I didn't win. The leagues that I did win championships in were just random leagues that I didn't pay as much attention as I did with my three main leagues. However, when it comes to our fantasy basketball teams, the roles are reversed my friend...

Even though I'm way overdue when it comes to managing this team and writing this post, I must make some adjustments though as there are still many weeks left in the fantasy basketball season. I could easily slip down a few spots before the All-Star break. For some weird reason, I have both Russell Westbrook and Al Horford on the same team. Both Westbrook and Horford got injured last Friday. Westbrook is expected to be out until after the All-Star break. Horford is done for the season.

At this point, I'm not too concerned with replacing Westbrook. I think I already have a lot of guards on my team already with Mike Conley, Deron Williams, Brandon Jennings and Brandon Knight on my squad. My squad is PG heavy so I should be able to hold out until Westbrook gets better. However when it comes to Horford, I'm not that deep when it comes to center. I got Spencer Hawes, Ryan Anderson and Horford as eligible centers. I was already feeling that this position was the weakest link of my team, and now I have to replace Horford, who ironically is my team's leading rebounder and is out for the rest of the season.

When I looked at free agency it was kind of difficult to decipher who had the most value because of two reasons. One, I don't really watch much NBA, and secondly there aren't as many resources when it comes to fantasy basketball like there is in fantasy football. After going over who was available in free agency I had narrowed it down to two players: Andrew Bogut and Robin Lopez. At first neither of these two seemed too appealing to pick up, but I looked at the stats over the past two weeks and I decided to go with Bogut. Bogut had accumulated the most rebounds over all the other available centers in free agency in a two week time period. In most of the matchups that I've had so far, my team has come short in the rebounding department. I still may  have to consider dropping one of my guards to pick up another rebounder though.