NBA Strength of Schedule

Basketball being an indoor sport, we don’t often consider the weather as a factor in NBA games. But Mother Nature can have a significant impact on travel schedules – especially this time of year – and especially for teams playing back-to-backs in places like Chicago, Minneapolis and New York.

For example: the Rockets will play in Philly on Tuesday and in Boston on Wednesday. Bad weather on Tuesday night and a late arrival into Massachusetts could make Kevin Garnett and company even more daunting. That same night, the Hornets will be flying into Salt Lake, the Thunder into Minnesota, and the Sixers into Wisconsin.

The Pistons have a real Rocky Mountain High later in the week, spending Friday in Denver and Saturday in Salt Lake. Perhaps Allen Iverson and company can get in some skiing after the morning shootarounds.

Or maybe not.

Read the entire Strength of Schedule article every week at Yahoo! Fantasy Sports.

Bad Chemistry

From: zegers@rotowire.com
Subject: Give and Go
Date: December 29, 2008 7:06 PM PDT
To: liss@rotowire.com

Hope you had a good holiday, Chris. Santa bring you anything good? My favorite present: a pair of tickets for me and my son to go see Xavier vs. Fordham at the Rose Hill Gym. The Rams are terrible this year, and Xavier is in the top 25 – which means my alma mater is probably going to get squashed … but hearing the little guy chant DE- FENSE makes it all worth it.

Following up on last week’s plea for more competitive balance …

The Lakers and Celtics entered their Christmas Day game with a combined record of 50-8. The Thunder and Wizards entered Saturday’s game with a combined record of 7-50. I’m not sure what that means, but I liked the symmetry of it.

Not as much as I enjoyed the “Steve Francis gets traded to the Grizzlies” symmetry … but I liked it.

Read all of Give and Go on Yahoo! Sports

OK Computer

A league of guys from one of my former employers drafted the other night, using Yahoo. I'm very pleased with my results. Here's my squad:

• Monta Ellis (PG/SG)
• Kobe Bryant (SG)
• Kevin Durant (SG/SF)
• Rashard Lewis (SF)
• David West (PF)
• Ron Artest (SF)
• Marcus Camby (C)
• LaMarcus Aldridge (PF/C)
• Randy Foye (PG/SG)
• Andris Biedrins (C)
• Anthony Parker (SG/SF)
• Andrew Bynum (C)
• Chucky Atkins (PG)

Not to shabby, eh? I have a couple of scorers. I have shooters. I have a sleeper or two. The injury risk with Camby is mitigated by the potential of guys like Aldridge and Biedrins and Bynum. I even got Atkins -- a guy that I consider to be a serious sleeper this season -- and a lineup that's fairly well set for the "Tanking Assists" strategy, which I wanted to try.

I'm even more pleased because I didn't draft a single one of these players. This one was 100% auto-draft. I didn't even pre-rank my players -- I thought I'd be drafting live.

Generally, I fear the auto-draft. I was fully expecting a roster full of Elton Brands and Greg Odens and Mikki Moores. This one -- it ain't half bad.

Anyone else had a positive experience with Yahoo's auto-draft this year? Have they improved it? Or am I just the blind squirrel that found a nut this time through?

Don't Call It a Comeback...

LL Cool J said it best... "Don't call it a comeback... I've been here for years."

Well, maybe not years.

And though I haven't been posting much, I've been active writing about basketball -- primarily fantasy basketball -- for NBA.com, Rotowire and Yahoo. (The Yahoo stuff is part of their premium package.) I also had several articles published in NBA.com's fantasy preview magazine, which is available now at the sorts of places where you buy magazines.

I'll post links to everything that's available without a subscription next few days. And then, as the season ramps up, I'll use this space to post notices about the fantasy articles I'm running on NBA.com, Rotowire or Fox -- and to write general hoops/sports notes.

Here's hoping you'll be along for the ride.