Each week, Fantasy Basketball Writer Sergio Gonzalez takes a look at situations that Fantasy owners should monitor over the course of the upcoming week. Have a look at the top storylines in Fantasy hoops and how they might affect your team going forward.
Is Mike Dunleavy Jr. ready to make a Fantasy impact yet?
The Pacers returned to full strength last Friday when they got Mike Dunleavy Jr. back from a knee injury. His return is sure to shake up Indiana's rotation and this week will go a long way in showing how much things will change.
Dunleavy has been out since Feb. 8 after suffering a knee injury that forced him to undergo major surgery that threatened to keep him out for an entire year. In his absence, players like Brandon Rush and Dahntay Jones have been able to play a big enough role that they've become useful in Fantasy hoops leagues.
Rush had a strong finish to his rookie season when he averaged 16.3 points and 4.6 rebounds in the last month of the regular season. He was a prime sleeper candidate for Fantasy owners in drafts this October as Fantasy owners looked for him to follow up on that production in Dunleavy's absence.
However, it was Jones who stepped up.
Jones, widely believed to be a defensive specialist with a limited offensive game, averaged 16.4 points per game through the first 14 games of the season. He has become a good value in Fantasy, with his ownership rising to as high as 77 percent in CBSSports.com leagues.
Dunleavy played just 16 minutes in his first game back, but it was clear he's still got the scoring touch that allowed him to average 19.1 points per game in his last full season in 2007-08. He shot 4 of 7 from the field and scored 13 points while adding 2 rebounds, an assist, a steal and a block.
In that same game, Rush started at shooting guard, but he managed just 4 points in 27 minutes. Jones played 25 minutes off the bench and managed only 6 points.
This week, Fantasy owners will have to pay close attention to what coach Jim O'Brien does with the three players. Dunleavy will likely need some time to get his playing legs back under him. In the meantime, O'Brien could choose to bring him along slowly if Jones and Rush give him quality production -- something they are both capable of.
In the long term, however, we are probably going to see a situation where Dunleavy joins Danny Granger and Troy Murphy as the team's primary scoring options while Jones and Rush fight each other for leftovers.
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Is Mike Conley Jr. going to lose the starting point guard job in Memphis to Jamaal Tinsley?
Just like Dunleavy, Jamaal Tinsley is playing again after a long absence. Tinsley, who last played for the Pacers on Feb. 5, 2008 before making his Memphis debut on Nov. 23 against Sacramento, has looked like he can be a player to be reckoned with in Fantasy.
The player that will potentially feel the squeeze will be Mike Conley Jr.
Tinsley scored just 7 points with 3 assists in his first game back on Nov. 23 against Sacramento, looking understandably rusty. In the three games that followed, he averaged 13.3 points and 4.7 assists and 1.3 steals per contest. He played progressively more minutes in each game, leading up to 30 minutes on Sunday against the Clippers. He scored 12 points with 7 assists and 3 steals against the Clippers.
While Tinsley was playing more minutes, Conley saw his minutes decrease. Conley saw progressively fewer minutes in each game, winding up with just 19 minutes against the Clippers, though it should be noted that he suffered a sprained shoulder in that game.
Tinsley was added to the roster after the Grizzlies and Allen Iverson parted ways, but he's not just an extra body for roster depth. He has been a solid Fantasy option throughout his career when he's been able to stay out of trouble and healthy. He's a good distributor and has been a solid source of assists and steals. He averaged 11.9 points, 8.4 assists and 1.7 steals per game in his last full season in 2007-08.
Conley, meanwhile, has been very erratic in his brief NBA career. He has shown flashes of potential, but has not been able to establish himself as the clear point guard of the future in Memphis.
The team thought enough of Conley to declare him the starting point guard over Iverson, part of the reason A.I. chose to leave the Grizzlies.
But Iverson did not stick around long enough to give himself a real chance take the job from Conley. We'll have to see what happens with Tinsley, but he's absolutely worth keeping an eye on in Fantasy leagues and is worth the roster space if you can afford it.
Monitor the Grizzlies this week to see if Tinsley is already worth activating. He seems to be headed in that direction.
Is Boris Diaw being erased by Stephen Jackson in Charlotte?
Bobcats beat writer Rick Bonnell of the Charlotte Observer made an interesting, well ... observation this past week about the presence of Stephen Jackson effectively making Boris Diaw a non entity in the team's rotation.
As Bonnell noted, Jackson negates Diaw's playmaking impact.
Diaw is a player who needs the ball to come through him or else he seems to get disconnected from the rest of the team. He did it at times in Phoenix with the Suns and it seems to be happening again in Charlotte.
Over his last three games, Diaw has managed just 4.7 points, 2.7 rebounds and 2.3 assists. Diaw is a player who, when he is going well, can fill up a stat sheet. He averaged 15.1 points, 5.9 rebounds and 4.9 assists in 59 games with Charlotte last season.
Diaw was not off to a great start this season on the scoring front -- as has been the case for just about every Bobcats player -- but he was putting together complete stat lines with good totals in rebounds, assists and steals and even on occasion with blocks. All of his numbers have been down across the board since the team acquired Jackson from Golden State on Nov. 16.
The way we see it, Jackson and Gerald Wallace can do a lot of the things that Diaw can do. Both players are very versatile -- just like Diaw -- and can pass the ball, shoot it and rebound it very well. Diaw is no longer needed to do these things as much as he was last year or in his best years in Phoenix under Mike D'Antoni.
If that continues over the next few games, Diaw -- owned in 89 percent of CBSSports.com leagues -- could be on the verge of being disconnected from a lot of Fantasy rosters.
Will Erick Dampier's return affect Drew Gooden's recent increase in production?
Mavericks center Erick Dampier was playing his best basketball of the season when he suffered a scary episode that resulted in his being hospitalized in Detroit in mid-November.
Dampier became so ill that he missed two full weeks before being cleared to return Monday night against Philadelphia. In his absence, Drew Gooden revived his dormant Fantasy appeal.
Prior to Dampier's absence, Gooden had not managed double figures in scoring or rebounding even once in his first two-plus weeks with the Mavs. In the two-plus weeks that followed, he managed four double-doubles and emerged as a great play in any Fantasy format -- especially those where he has center eligibility.
With Dampier back, Fantasy owners will need to pay close attention to what the Mavericks do at center in Week 6. Will they continue to play Gooden, who has decent offensive skills to go with excellent rebounding ability, or do they return to Dampier? Dampier has been a stout defensive and rebounding presence throughout his 13-year NBA career, but he's never been much of an offensive threat.
Fantasy owners would likely want Gooden to win out. He isn't as good of a shot blocker as Dampier, but his overall stats are superior and his upside is far greater. But there is also a third possibility, one that Fantasy owners probably would not be too happy with either.
The Mavericks could choose to split their time evenly, with each player offering the team a chance to put together 48 strong minutes at the center position that will allow them to match up well with even the best low-post teams in the NBA. If that's the case, everybody loses -- at least from a Fantasy standpoint.
Will Allen Iverson be back with the Philadelphia 76ers?
Allen Iverson reportedly chose to retire last week, but an injury to Sixers point guard Lou Williams has opened the door to a possible return to Philly for A.I.
As our own Ken Berger reported over the weekend, citing a source close to the situation, there is about a "50-50 chance" that Iverson could be back with the team that saw him develop into a future Hall of Famer.
On Monday, those chances may have increased. The two sides reportedly met in Dallas on Monday and one major hurdle was cleared when Sixers chairman Ed Snider gave his basketball decision makers the go-ahead to make a deal with Iverson if they feel it's the right move to make. With the OK from ownership, it will be up to general manager Ed Stefanski and Eddie Jordan to decide whether or not to bring him on board.
So Iverson could get a chance to end his illustrious NBA career on much better terms than he did when he abruptly left the Grizzlies, fittingly with the team he will always be identified with. But Fantasy owners who have gotten breakout-caliber numbers from Williams over the first month of the season will have to worry about Iverson being around when he's ready to return. And if Iverson does return to the Sixers, will he once again have to face the possibility of playing a reduced role when Williams is healthy enough to play? Is that a headache the Sixers will want to deal with?
Stay tuned this week to find out.
Do you have a Fantasy hoops question for our staff? You can e-mail us at DMFantasyHoops@cbs.com. Be sure to put Attn: Start 'Em and Sit 'Em in the subject field. Please include your full name, hometown and state. You can also now follow Sergio on Twitter (@CBSGonzalez) where he'll also answer questions.
