Photo Credit: Cary Emondson-USA TODAY Sports

Happy New Year fantasy fans! We have the same great information and fantasy news from your local USSDU fantasy crew! Below you’ll see this week’s happenings in the USSDU’s Beginners League, while you’ll also see who’s hot and who’s not this week in our Studs and Duds section. Finally you’ll look to see who you should be picking up in our Pick Me Up area. Let’s see what took place in the first week of 2013:

My Add/Drops

Added: Isaiah Thomas

Dropped: Ricky Rubio

So firstly I tried to see what value I could get for Rubio, who was really under performing in his return to action. I couldn’t get anything out of a trade for him really, as everyone was aware he wasn’t putting anything on the stat sheet. Therefore I had to dive into the free agents and find someone I thought could be really handy along with an up-and-coming player. This is why I chose Thomas, I thought finally the Kings should be handing him the keys to the team (however this still really hasn’t happened).

Added: Tristan Thompson

Dropped: Isaiah Thomas

Which is why I then dropped Thomas. He really didn’t get going like I hoped he would. Thomas was still fighting for minutes with guards galore in Sacramento and I wasn’t really happy with the direction that was going in. Therefore I quickly moved on from there and picked up Tristan Thompson for while Varejao is out.

Trades Proposed To Me

Three trades proposed to me which is a good number to have because it means teams are still interested in your players however no one is spamming you trying to get a certain player (I’m sure we’ve all had that before as fantasy owners).

Send: Monta Ellis

Receive: DeMarcus Cousins

This was offered to me just after his suspension ended, and of course as a conservative fantasy owner I was a little hesitant to accept. With Cousins known to do anything, I decided to let this one go and decline because I just didn’t have the trust in Cousins producing. At that time as well, he was under the massive trade cloud and who knows where he could have gone. He could have gone to teams where he plays 3^rd or 4^th option to start with, so this is the reason why I passed. As you can see, a bad move now.

Send: Monta Ellis, J.J. Hickson

Receive: Omer Asik, DeMarcus Cousins.

This trade was offered straight after the previous one. Therefore I just thought that if I declined the first one, this one has two extra players and in my opinion, double double machine J.J. Hickson outweighs Omer Asik. Therefore I would have to decline it again.

Send: Josh Smith

Receive: Luol Deng

Wasn’t interested in this one, as Josh Smith is a really special player in the league. He can play games where he can hit up every single category on the stat sheet. Deng just didn’t interest me in the least, so I felt this was an easy decline.

Studs (Stats Are Last 7 Days)

Louis Williams: 18.8ppg, 4.5apg, 2.8rpg, 3.5 three’s, 1spg.

LaMarcus Aldridge: 15.5ppg, 11.3rpg, 3.5apg, 1.3bpg.

Carlos Boozer: 25.7ppg, 12.3rpg, 56%FG.

DeMarcus Cousins: 22ppg, 14.2rpg, 5apg, 50%FG.

Luis Scola: 20ppg, 6rpg, 4.7apg, 1.3bpg.

Greivis Vasquez: 19ppg, 11apg, 6.3rpg.

Nikola Vucevic: 17ppg, 19.7rpg, 1.7spg, 1.3bpg.

Ed Davis: 15ppg, 10rpg, 59%FG.

Duds (Stats Are Last 7 Days)

Brandon Knight: 13ppg, 3.7apg, 2.7rpg.

Carl Landry: 8ppg, 4.5rpg.

Marc Gasol: 10ppg, 5rpg.

Kyle Korver: 9ppg, 3rpg, 2.5apg.

Anthony Davis: 7ppg, 7rpg, 39%FG, 37%FT.

Pick Me Ups

Jason Kidd: Kidd hasn’t exactly been tearing it up lately, however he’s still a solid player on the fantasy table and is going to see plenty of opportunities for as long as Raymond Felton is out with his finger injury. He’s owned in 89% of leagues.

J.J. Barea: Barea can be a real scoring threat to your fantasy team. He had scored in double figures in 13 straight games, which included every game in December. He seemed to slow down last Thursday when he took a break by only scoring 4. However he wasn’t too long having his Gatorade as he was back at it the next night scoring 17 points along with four boards, five assists and two treys. He’s owned in 8.5% of leagues.

Bradley Beal: Beal has been on fire lately.  He’s coming off his Rookie of the Month award which was great to see Beal win as he deserved it for December, and is slowly coming into the league nicely looking like he will be helping the Wiz in the near future.  Beal went off on Saturday with 24 points, 6 boards, 4 assists, 3 steals, a block and two 3-pointers on 10-19FG, although it was a double-OT game. A good sign for Wizard fans and fantasy owners. He’s owned in 42.6% of leagues.

Harrison Barnes: Barnes is starting to get it going which is good to see as he has a great support cast around him. He’s scored in double digits the last five of six Warrior games. He’s started every game for the Warriors this season and is only going to get better.  If he’s still available in your leagues, now is the time to pick him up. He’s owned in 13.6% of leagues.

Ed Davis: Dwayne Casey said recently that it’s going to be tough to bench Davis anytime soon, and Andrea Bargnani and Jonas Valanciunas don’t appear to be close to returning from their injuries. Which is what you love to hear when you have Davis in your line-up. He’s the safest Toronto power forward you could be picking right now, as the other bloke Amir Johnson can be too inconsistent. Davis is averaging 15 and 10 in the last 7 days, and he’s owned in 26% of leagues.

Patrick Patterson: Patterson has returned from his foot injury and starting to find his form once more.  He’s averaging 16.5 points, 7.0 rebounds and 2.0 3-pointers in his last two games, and his minutes should continue to rise.  Now is the time to pick him up as he should only get better as his minutes increase. He’s owned in 19% of leagues.

Andre Drummond: This one is still a risky one seeing his minutes in Detroit is still the main problem as to why he hasn’t broken out this season and become a real threat for Rookie of the Year. He’s averaging 24 minutes per game over his last five, which is a good start in hindsight, in which he’s averaged 9.4 points, 9.8 rebounds, 1.2 steals and 1.6 blocks. Surely at some point, coach Lawrence Frank is going to have to start Drummond over Jason Maxiell.  Once this happens, Drummond will be a force, and you’re going to want to have him in your team. He’s owned in 43% of leagues.

Another week down, I hope all of you can take something from this week’s article. I also hope you’ve been winning in your leagues, if you’re in a head to head league, or I hope you’re currently sitting in the top 3 for a rotisserie league. As always, if you have any questions for me regarding your team or any thoughts on the fantasy side of things, be sure to leave a comment below!