Photo Credit: Reuters

Welcome back to your weekly fantasy fix! Has it been an interesting fantasy week or what? We’ve had more guys go down (injured), we have had the return of a superstar, and along with mighty games by individuals however rubbish games by others. This is where you have to find out how to nab that guys who are going to produce night in, night out while not having those bad fantasy players.

As usual we will have what took place in the USSDU’s Beginners League, along with your weekly studs and duds, plus who to pick up from waivers this week.

Completed Trades          

Only one completed trade this week and lucky enough it included me so I can explain the theory.

Jose Calderon

For

Andray Blatche and Carl Landry

I shipped away Blatche and Landry because I was targeting Calderon and wasn’t too sure who to give up. So I wanted to offer something he wouldn’t easily say no to. Calderon was target no.1 on my trade list as soon as Lowry went down again. As you can see it’s paid dividends as he’s had 2 solid outings since he’s been on my list.

On the other hand, Blatche was losing value in my opinion due to the return of Brook Lopez (which was soon at the time), and Landry wasn’t exactly exceeding my expectations so I thought I could find someone just as good off waivers. Luckily enough for me, my opponent dropped Tyreke Evans in this trade (to make room for his 2 new players) and I ended up picking him up.

My Add/Drops

Apart from picking up Evans in the previous trade (as I needed to fill my roster after a 2 for 1 trade), I also had one more add drop which was pretty simple as his trade value had basically fallen to 0.

Added: Nikola Vucevic

Dropped: Andrea Bargnani

As I said, pretty simple as Bargs went down with his elbow and will be out for 3 weeks. Really no use there as I am trying to turn my injured team early this season into a full strength team. Adding Vucevic gives me some handy rebounds and I’ve gladly taken him on board as he’s given me double doubles in his first two games on my roster.

Trades Proposed To Me

Four trades were offered to me this week and I didn’t really like any of them, hence my reasons to decline. Of course you can have your say in agreeing or disagreeing with me by make a comment in the comment box at the bottom of the page.

Receive: Kris Humphries and Amare Stoudemire
Send: Carmelo Anthony

Losing my best player for someone plus a non-player. I don’t really think that one balances out.

Receive: J.R. Smith
Send: Joe Johnson

I traded Smith away two weeks ago for Johnson. Obviously whoever was on the other end of this trade wasn’t happy with JR’s output and wants Joe back.

Receive: J.R. Smith
Send: J.J. Hickson

Not losing J.J. yet as he’s a consistent double double player in Portland. Again, obviously Smith isn’t wanted on his current roster, but I’m not giving up anything to bring him back on mine.

Receive: DeMarcus Cousins and Vince Carter
Send: Josh Smith and Jameer Nelson

I don’t like Cousins right now, because the Kings are struggling and I now have Tyreke Evans who I hope will take most of the load in Sac-town.

Trades I Proposed

Early in the week I wasn’t very happy with the current line-up I had so I was trying to shake things up a bit by proposing a bunch of trades. Here are a few that I proposed (As always, feel free to let us know what you thought about these):

(Send) Greivis Vasquez & Bargnani for (Receive) Irving & Calderon.

(Send) DeMar DeRozan for (Receive) Marcin Gortat.

(Send) Vasquez & DeRozan for (Receive) Rondo.

(Send) Bargnani & DeRozan for (Receive) Duncan.

(Send) Josh Smith & Jameer Nelson for (Receive) Ryan Anderson & Omer Asik.

(Send) Greivis Vasquez & Glen Davis for (Receive) Zach Randolph & Jeremy Lin.

Studs (Stats are Last 7 Days)

Jason Kidd: 12.3ppg, 6.5apg, 6.3rpg, 3.3 three’s, 1spg.

George Hill: 16.3ppg, 6.3rpg, 5.8apg, 94%FT, 1.3spg.

Paul George: 21.8ppg, 7.3rpg, 4apg, 3 three’s, 1.8spg, 45%FG.

C.J. Miles: 22.5ppg, 4.3 three’s, 4.8rpg, 1.3spg, 45%FG.

David Lee: 22.8ppg, 12.5rpg, 2.8apg, 60%FG, 100%FT.

Al Jefferson: 17.5ppg, 8.5rpg, 48%FG, 1.5bpg.

Tim Duncan: 13.3ppg, 13rpg, 3.3bpg.

Duds (Stats are Last 7 Days)

Derrick Favors: 7ppg, 4.7rpg, 0.7apg, 0.7bpg, 50%FT.

Tony Allen: 5ppg, 3.3rpg, 1.3apg, 36%FG.

Kyle Korver: 8.3ppg, 2.3rpg, 0.7apg, 50%FT.

Kris Humphries: 4.6ppg, 4rpg, 0.2apg, 26%FG.

Michael Beasley: 6ppg, 3.3rpg, 1.7apg, 22%FG.

Byron Mullens: 11.8ppg, 4.5rpg, 39%FG, 50%FT.

Pick Me Ups

This is the area where you will find players that are still available in a percentage of leagues that you really should take off the waiver wire if they are still available in your particular league.

Jason Kidd- Still left on the sidelines in 15% of leagues. He’s number 1 in our stud list this week. Big week!

Nikola Vucevic- Of course I’m going to say put this guy on your team (because I picked him up too). But seriously, this week Vuc has put up 11.3ppg and 11.3rpg. He shoots 61% from the field too which is handy. Still 30% of leagues he is un-owned.

Jordan Crawford- So a lot of people must have listened to me last week as we’ve seen a 52% increase in owners for this guy. However there are still a solid 7% of leagues where Crawford doesn’t have a team. If that’s you, please, what are you doing? 14, 5 & 5 averages this week.

Ed Davis- With Bargnani now out for 3 weeks, slide Ed Davis into your team. Only owned by 38.6% of leagues, Davis averaged 12.5ppg and 8rpg this week and will only see this increase with more minutes.

We’re 8 days from Christmas which means one more FTF article before the great Xmas (Boxing Day) games. I for one am very excited because it just gives your fantasy players that extra motivation to step it up a notch and produce on the big stage mid-season.

See you next week!