Fantazzle Weekly Fantasy Sports Games – Play Fantazzle’s Fantasy Football Super Bowl game – Fantasy Football Pro Bowl game - Play free Super Bowl fantasy football games — Fantazzle also offers fantasy basketball games, fantasy hockey games, fantasy golf games and fantasy racing games.

Well, the results are in for the fantasy football preseason ranking award Fantazzle won last year. No repeat / :

We had a decent ranking in the QB ranking, but didn’t place in the other positions. Its too bad, but you can’t win ‘em all and no one can take 2008 away from us (this isn’t college sports hehe). I think it will be great to start seeing an average created over the past several years and the future. Hopefully we’ll see a strong showing by Fantazzle with the average and a strong showing with our fantasy football 2010 predictions.

Fantazzle did a series of preseason NFL predictions before the season started. With the Super Bowl approaching, lets take a look at how we did.

Lets start with the NFL NFC 2009 Predictions

NFC East

Our analysis on how the standing could turn out here were pretty close. Key injuries were important, but there actually were not many of them in the division. I would say the biggest injuries that happened in the NFC East were to the NYG’s defense. Their whole was nicked up from start to finish and they ultimately became the team that lost out in the division and on our predicted Wild Card spot. We got Dallas right winning the division and Philly getting a WC. And we were right that it was a coin flip on who would take it. Dallas and Philly had the same record and the division winner was determined in Week 17. We were off saying Washington had a shot at the playoffs as well. We didn’t give them much of a chance, but they didn’t even deserve a mention. They were absolutely embarrassing.

With regards to our fantasy football player predictions, we were on point about Tony Romo. He finished ~6th in most leagues and two of the QBs ahead of him were so close it really didn’t matter which player you owned. He was easily a Tier 2 QB and a real bargain at draft time. We liked WAS as a BYE week and situational play defense. We weren’t right, but weren’t exactly wrong. It really depends on the scoring of your league. WAS was horrible in most leagues because they did not score many fantasy points in categories like INTs, fumbles recovered and most especially defensive TDs (they got 0). However, if you played in a league that gave points for points against or yards given up, they were ok. WAS had one of the better defenses, but was FAR from special. At the end of the day, we’ll take a ‘we were wrong’ here. Lastly, we said PHI and NYG WRs will not be good fantasy picks. Our reasoning was that these teams will spread the ball around and in NYG’s situation who the heck knows who will come out of the pack before the season starts. Well, it was Steve Smith and he was a top 10 WR. Not to mention DeSean Jackson who was a top 5. Way off here. I will say in defense that Steve Smith was still a risky pick because things weren’t settled in who would be the guy before the season started and DeSean Jackson was one catch away every game of being an average WR. Just so happens that in over half of his games he would come up with a over 40 yard reception for a TD. In any case, we owe you all one there.

NFC North

Our Super Bowl pick, the Minnesota Vikings walked away with the division. They were looking like a great pick for the Super Bowl until last weekend when they met our NFC South divisional pick. We were right on the money with our divisional picks here except we pulled the trigger on NYG to be the Wild Card over GB. Other than that, great predicitions.

Onto the fantasy football player predictions. Not so good. You’d think we were a handicapper instead of a fantasy football game site. Our division standings were great, but our fantasy football picks, not so much. Greg Olsen did not have a big year as predicted. We went as far as saying he would be a top 3 TE. He came in 11th, not breaking the top 10. Very frustrating as he had so much potential (next year…?). Aaron Rodgers overrated? Not so much, he was the #1 fantasy football QB in most leagues. We knew he was top 5 material, we just didn’t think he was worth all the hype. I guess now we know (its beyond me how he did it with such a bad offensive line in front of him…he deserves even more credit).

We finally had a good call with the GB defense. We had them ranked relatively high and our biggest D/ST sleeper. They didn’t disappoint with a top 5 finish.

NFC South

Again, we did very well with the division standings and writeup. We liked the NO Saints to win for two reasons: A) the moves they made in the off season specifically Darren Sharper leading the defense and B) the past 6 years the team that finished last, finished first the next season (TB in 2010…?).

As far as fantasy players, we had Marques Colston returning to his former self which is pretty close. He was just outside of the top 10 and finished where we expected him to. Michael Clayton relevant again….shoot me in my head now. I just want to forget that was ever said. Moving on…Tony Gonzales risky. Hmmm, not so much now that the season is over. He found his groove with Ryan. He finished ~5th. Down from last year, but definitely not a bust. I still stand by staying away from him before knowing what we know. Its always a risky situation. Lastly, we said that DeAngelo would be a risky RB pick. We thought he would play well and be a top 10, but not command an early first round pick. We were correct with this. He finished 12th and even if he did not get injured at the end, he would have been right around where we expected him to be.

NFC West

Well we didn’t see this division correctly. We had Seattle winning the division and AZ feeling the effects of the Super Bowl curse (in fact it was PIT who were cursed). We did, however see something in the 49ers as they stayed competitive in the division and have a bright future.

Its kind of funny, but the one division we were totally off on for standings, we may some great fantasy football predictions. We asked why everyone was looking at Steven Jackson as a top 5 fantasy RB. He finished in the top 10, but he wasn’t close to being a great pick in the first round. Vernon Davis was DEFINITELY worth a roster spot. Wish we were more bold on our writeup, but we did see something special in V Davis. He has the skills to continue to play this well for years to come. We loved Nate Burleson and he delivered. He finished ~30th making him an easy #3 WR or flex on many fantasy football teams. He wasn’t drafted in many leagues. A complete steal. John Carlson was the ~11th best fantasy football TE making him a starting TE in a 12 person league. We liked him a little more than this finish (we had him as the 8th best), but still a pretty close prediction. Our J Jones prediction…not so good. We thought he was one of the most under-rated RBs in 2009. Not so much. Sorry about that one. We had him as 16th and he finished ~32nd.

Playoffs

We did pretty well with our playoff predictions. We got AZ wrong (we had SEA) and the 2nd WC spot wrong (we had NYG and it was GB). DAL vs MIN for the NFC conference was one week too early of a matchup. And MIN to represent the NFC was one Brett Favre INT away from happening….Still all in all, I don’t feel too bad about the picks.

We could have done better with our fantasy football advice here. We hit some and others not so much. We’ll look to have a stronger showing in 2010.

Fantazzle Prez

Fantazzle Weekly Fantasy Football Games

www.fantazzle.com

Share on Facebook

On November 21, the course of the Knicks’ season took a curious turn when Nate Robinson shot at his own basket.  Even though the basket didn’t count and he only released it after the buzzer had already sounded, coach Mike D’Antoni was furious.  The incident was in many ways a microcosm of Robinson’s career in New York.  And it was the first domino to fall in a fascinating sequence of events for the Knicks.

Ten days and five consecutive losses later, the Knicks were 3-14, and the organization’s outlook was cloudy at best.  This was the year that they were supposed to turn the corner, be respectable and position themselves to attract a big free agent in the offseason.  To make matters worse, the Knicks had to kick off the month of December against D’Antoni’s former team, the Phoenix Suns, who at 14-3 had the best record in the league.

For reasons unknown (at the time), Robinson played just 11 minutes in that game, and the Knicks, remarkably, routed Phoenix by 27 points. D’Antoni, desperate to build upon whatever momentum the team might have gained, decided to promote Larry Hughes to the starting shooting guard slot and shortened the rotation to just eight players.  And Robinson, whose lack of hustle and defensive grit continued to frustrate his coach, apparently was not one of the eight.

The Knicks went on to win seven of ten without their second leading scorer from last year, and Nate seemed hopelessly entrenched in Coach D’Antoni’s doghouse.

Robinson’s benching surprised a lot of people around the league, but it shouldn’t have.  For D’Antoni and general manager Donnie Walsh, this year has always been about just three things: (1) trading Jared Jeffries and Eddy Curry to free up salary for the offseason; (2) developing Wilson Chandler and Danilo Gallinari; and, as I mentioned earlier, (3) creating a winning atmosphere at the Garden.

Most people believe that the first task will be nearly impossible to accomplish because both Curry and Jeffries have large, bad contracts that extend beyond 2010.  The second goal is actually realistic, because both Chandler and Gallinari fit well within D’Antoni’s up-tempo, free-firing offense, and D’Antoni himself is the one doling out the minutes.  (So far, both guys are having very good years).

But the third task – actually winning games – will ultimately be the true test of D’Antoni’s mettle.  Can he somehow turn this dysfunctional group of me-first players into a winning team?  Can he, the architect of those high-scoring Phoenix teams, actually teach the Knicks how to play some defense?

D’Antoni understands that his legacy as a coach in New York, and perhaps in the league, will depend upon his ability to attract at least one, if not two, high-profile free agents this summer.  And he also understands that his ability to do that will depend upon the Knicks establishing some credibility this year.

Which was why Nate’s benching lasted so long.  When the Knicks started winning without him, D’Antoni didn’t dare tinker with his new rotation.  The team was playing spirited defense and appeared to even have developed some – gasp – chemistry!  D’Antoni’s win-at-all-costs imperative, together with the timing of New York’s sudden surge, essentially conspired to keep Robinson relegated to bench duty as long as the team kept winning.

And who could argue with the logic, when three weeks into his exile, New York found itself just one game out of the eighth and final playoff spot in a dismally shallow Eastern Conference?

But then something happened.  The Knicks played poorly against Miami on Christmas Day and then two days later lost again, this time to the surging San Antonio Spurs.  They looked utterly flat offensively in both losses, falling to superior defensive clubs.

After bouncing back with an impressive 104-87 victory in Detroit, the Knicks returned to New Jersey to face a reeling Nets team on December 30.  New York surely viewed this as a golden opportunity to build another winning streak, since the Nets, who had been without star point guard Devin Harris for much of the year, had set an NBA record earlier in the season by losing its first 18 games.  But New Jersey took it to them, and Brook Lopez, Chris Douglas-Roberts and Harris sparked New Jersey to an inspired 104-95 victory.

Which finally brings us to January 1^st, when the Knicks, losers of three of four to finish December, travelled to Atlanta to play a powerful Hawks club.  Many experts had Atlanta (21-10, at the time) pegged as one of the five best teams in the league, along with Cleveland, Los Angeles, Boston and Orlando.  And according to ESPN’s John Hollinger, the Hawks rank 2^nd in the league in offensive efficiency, behind only D’Antoni’s former club, the Phoenix Suns.

For the third time in four games, the Knicks again came out of the gate looking flat, and fell into an early 20-11 hole.  It was then that, with about three minutes remaining in the first quarter, D’Antoni looked down the bench and finally, for the first time in fourteen games, called Robinson’s number.  Nate was so surprised by this that he had to be nudged by a teammate, because it didn’t quite register that he was being asked to play.

The rest, as they say, is history.

Robinson carried New York to a come from behind, overtime victory with 41 points on 18-24 shooting, along with 8 assists, 6 rebounds and a steal.  And as good as that stat line is, it doesn’t begin capture just how spectacular Nate really was.  The only way to really understand is to follow the story of the game itself.

When he entered the game, New York trailed by 9.  But three minutes later, after Robinson hit a buzzer beater to finish the first quarter, New York was within four.  Robinson then scored another 10 points in the second, and by halftime, the Knicks had a one-point lead.

But Atlanta dominated the third quarter and took a commanding 13-point lead into the fourth.   The Knicks, however, slowly started chipping away, and six minutes later,trailed by only six.  With 5:46 remaining, Nate set up Al Harrington for a dunk, which closed the gap to four.

And that’s when Nate took over, when it counted most.  He went off to score 10 of the next 12 Knick points, including eight in the last two minutes, to tie the game and force the Hawks into overtime.

In the extra frame, Robinson either scored or assisted on every Knicks basket, finishing with 11 points and an assist.  And, after coming up with three consecutive spectacular moves at the basket to push the Knicks ahead by three, he hit a devastating three-pointer with 1:32 remaining to put them ahead by six, effectively ending the game.

In all, Robinson had scored 19 of New York’s final 21 points.  And this game, I believe, will be remembered as a turn point in the season for the Knicks.  New York has won two in a row since, including a 40-point smack down of the Pacers and a nail-biter against playoff rival Charlotte.  They are just ½ game behind Milwaukee for the 8^th seed in the East, and are actually one of the hottest teams in the league.  They have won four of five and seven of ten, and haven’t lost by double digits in more than a month.

The latter statistic is more important than you think, because it means that even when they lose, they are rarely outmatched.  As D’Antoni points out, they’ve been in every game since beating Phoenix in early December.

There’s no way of telling whether Nate’s benching was the reason why the team started playing better, or if it was just a coincidence.  Maybe the opposite is true; maybe the Knicks would have won a few extra games had Nate been playing all of those minutes that Larry Hughes ended up with.  But remember, Hughes only got promoted because he was outplaying Nate at the time, and he is clearly the better defender.  In fact, he is probably the team’s best perimeter defender, expect for perhaps Jared Jeffries.

The more important question is what we can expect from the little guy going forward.  In his two appearances since the Atlanta game, Robinson has actually played pretty poorly, scoring just 6 points against Indiana (while the rest of the team scored 126, mind you) and ten against the Bobcats.  Not to mention seven turnovers against Charlotte, and four against the Hawks, which is precisely the kind of knuckle-headed play that got him benched in the first place.

Regardless of how Nate fares going forward, his story will forever be intertwined with that of his team’s this season.  I predict that the Knicks will make the playoffs this year, and Nate will eventually become a part of the reason why.  Ironically, I think it is D’Antoni who will really deserve the credit for his evolution as a player, because he will be the first coach to actually convince Nate to buy into the team concept.   If Nate ever does fully embrace the implications of this doctrine, he has the potential to be a very, very good basketball player.  Because make no mistake about it, he is one of the most gifted athletes in the NBA.  This performance against Atlanta should, if nothing else, remind us of that.

But for now, I think Robinson will be maddeningly inconsistent.  He still isn’t sure exactly how to play the way that D’Antoni wants, and quite frankly I don’t think he’s even sure what that is.  For that matter, D’Antoni might not know either.  I mean, even in the Atlanta game, Nate took some pretty questionable shots.  He ended up being the hero because most of them went in, at all the most important times, but had he missed?  We’d all be talking about Nate Robinson will never learn his lesson.

Yet D’Antoni has to be thankful that he brought Nate back for that game, because it was yet another big win for the team, and big wins is what this group needs most.  They need to believe that they have what it takes to win close games against the best teams.  Remember,  entering this season, nobody really expected them to be very good at all.  They certainly had to be considered long shots to make the playoffs.

If you’re following the Nate Robinson saga on TV, here’s what you need to look for.  Watch to see if Nate is slashing to the basket or if he’s falling in love with his jumper.  He is at his best when he uses his speed and agility to penetrate the paint, where he can either get a high-percentage look or draw a foul.  Keep an eye on his assist to turnover ratio, because this will be what D’Antoni will focus on when doling out minutes.

Finally, in order to stay on the floor, he has to play better defense.  In the pre-season, D’Antoni said that his with his quickness, he should lead the league in steals every year. But Nate is such an emotional player that he takes ill-advised, low-percentage shots, forces plays when they aren’t there, and brings his offensive failures back with him on the defensive end.

From a fantasy perspective, proceed at your own peril.  Nate will probably win you a few games by himself, but that’s a double-edged sword – he’ll cost you some too.  If Fantazzle were the wild, wild west (which it kind of is, if you really think about it), you’d be that poor bastard in Dirty Harry who has to stare down the barrel of Clint Eastwood’s gun.  The name “Nate Robinson” will haunt you every time you have to pick your weekly lineups, mark my words.  The only question really is: are you feelin’ lucky, punk?  Well, ARE ya?

- Dr. Quez

Fantazzle Fantasy Basketball (http://www.fantazzle.com/fantasy-games)

Share on Facebook

Hello, boys and girls.  Welcome to another installment of Dr. Quez’s Good Advice.  This one’s gonna be a quickie, because it’s New Years Eve and there is much to do here in the snow-covered paradise also known as Brooklyn.

Every week brings us new surprises in the NBA, and thus in Fantazzle Fantasy Basketball as well.  This piece will focus on a short list of players who have offered excellent value over the past seven days, and who should be at the top of your list going forward anytime they offer you a four-game schedule.

David Lee, New York Knicks

Over the past seven days, Lee has averaged 45.8 Fantazzle Points Per Game (FPG), good enough to rank 7th best on the Fantazzle Player Rater (FPR).  He also is in the midst of a four-game schedule, so kudos to those of you who were wise enough to sign him for the current week.  At a 90K salary, you can’t really find a better value in Fantazzle Fantasy Basketball at the moment.

How is Lee doing it?  For starters, as the Knicks have transformed themselves into a respectable club, they have also slowed down the pace of their offense.  This means more pick-and-rolls for Lee, who excels at beating larger defenders to the basketball off the dribble, and who is perhaps the most ambidextrous finisher in the league.  Lee has also gained confidence in his mid-range jump shot, which has lately become very reliable, and is also a crucial part of his pick-and-roll repertoire.  When the defender plays over the pick, he uses his speed to get to the rim, and when the defender plays underneath it, he steps back and splashes a fifteen-footer.

Look for Lee to make his first All-Star team this year, and don’t be surprised if Knicks re-sign him this offseason instead of chasing after a more celebrated big man, like Chris Bosh.  He’s a perfect fit for D’Antoni’s offense, and has blossomed into a premiere post player.

Gilbert Arenas, Washington Wizards

Arenas offers a classic example of a player who can only benefit from the Fantazzle Fantasy Basketball scoring system.  In traditional formats, Arenas’s value is limited because of his piss-poor field goal percentage and astronomical turnover rates – two categories that are not part of the Fantazzle scoring system.  Here, there really is no down-side to paying Agent Zero his 115K salary when he’s actually playing good basketball, which he has been doing for a couple of weeks now (finally).

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that Arenas has averaged 46.7 FPG over the past week, because once upon a time, before all of the injuries, Arenas was a bonafide superstar, and a clear top-10 fantasy player, if not better than that.  Now, about two months into his comeback campaign, we are starting to see flashes of the old Gil, which means its time to start sticking him back in your lineup.  Sure, he’s no bargain at 115K, and he might not average 45+ FPG every week, but Arenas has one of the highest ceilings of any player in the game when he’s healthy, which he appears to be.  My money is on him being a top-10 Fantazzle player again going forward.

Rajon Rondo, Boston Celtics

With Paul Pierce out and Kevin Garnett also ailing (he is considered day-to-day), Rondo has been forced to shoulder more of the offensive burden lately.  Remember the Rondo who looked like the best player on the court during the 2008 NBA Playoffs?  Well, he’s baaaack.  Over the past seven days, Rondo has averaged 38.5 FPG, ranking him 17th on the FPR.  The main difference has been his scoring, which has jumped to 20 ppg during this run, while his assists (9.3) and steals (2.3) remain robust.  At a 90K salary, few players currently offer better value than Boston’s young point guard.

Wilson Chandler, New York Knicks

With an asking price of just 60K, Chandler is one of the cheapest options in the Fantazzle game, and yet he ranks among the top 75 on the FPR over the past seven days.  True, he has had a fairly up and down year, and you never know when he’s going to lay a stinker on you, but you can afford to take that chance with a young player in a good offense who has been on a roll.  The nice thing about Chandler is that he’s clearly viewed as a building block for the franchise, which means that even when he struggles, he will get his minutes.  And because he contributes in four different categories (points, rebounds, steals and blocks), he can get you points even when his shot is off.  He has averaged 27.3 FPG over the past seven days, and he is currently in the middle of a four-game schedule, which means he has offered excellent value to those  who were smart enough to sign him for the week.

Have a safe and happy New Year, everybody!

- Dr. Quez

Fantazzle Fantasy Basketball (fantazzle.com)

Share on Facebook

Seven weeks into the NBA season and a nice cluster of Fantazzle fantasy basketball gamers has emerged.  I’m seeing a lot of the same faces in my weekly fantasy basketball leagues now, and it’s becoming clear who the real heavy hitters are.  These are the guys who have grasped the most fundamental rules of the basketball salary cap game, and are simply just looking for good value on a weekly basis, rotating in a familiar cast of characters any time they have a four-game schedule.

This post is really not for you guys.  I don’t want to waste your time telling you things you already know.  Check back with me in the New Year, thanks for checkin’ in.

For the rest of you, let’s go over two of these so-called fundamentals.  Maybe I can win you some money, so listen up.

The first rule of Fight Club is…there’s no such thing as a three-game player.  At least not in my universe.  The pool of rosterable Fantazzle players is not nearly as vast as you might think.  And that’s because it never makes sense to pay a guy to play a three-game schedule when there’s another guy, of comparable value, who is playing four games that week.

Take the case of Mo Williams versus Brandon Jennings.  Both are having really good fantasy seasons in both traditional formats – both among the top 30 – and in Fantazzle, where both are among the top 75.  This week, Williams and Cleveland have a four-game schedule while Jennings and the Bucks only play thrice.  Jennings is a top 30 Fantazzle Player (so far) while Williams is not even in the top 50.   Meanwhile, Williams commands a 90K salary while Jennings only goes for 80K.  You might be tempted to go for the young southpaw, thinking that on any given night he could go for 50 (Fantazzle Points…or actual points, really), so maybe he’s the better play.  Right?

Wrong. You never go for the guy with only three games, no matter how much you like him, and now matter how good the value.

Is Carlos Boozer a steal at 80K?  For shizzle.  Should I pay him 80K to play three games when I can pay Amare Stoudemire 110K to play four?  Nooope.

In this format, there’s always another good option available who plays a full four.  No, Stoudemire is not the steal that Boozer is, not the same great value.  110K is a lot of money, I know this.  And yes, you could take that 30K in savings and spend it somewhere else.  But you just cost yourself points there, buddy.  In order for Jennings to total the same amount of points as Williams, he’d have to play like top 15 player for a whole week: average nearly 37 FPG.  (The math: if Williams does what you expect him to do – average about 27 FPG, he’ll net you about 110 FPG for the week).

Now, this is of course something that could very well happen, since Jennings has already shown us that he can go off for 40, or even 50, on any given night, and he does average over 33 FPG.   But its certainly not something you can expect from the kid either.  The numbers just don’t support it.

And at the end of the day, no matter how you slice it, fantasy sports is just a game of numbers.  The Fantazzle fantasy basketball salary cap format is like a jigsaw puzzle – whoever can fit in the most high-value pieces into the same picture wins.  That’s the way it works.  Sure, you  might get lucky some of the time, pick guys based on intuition, or from watching them play on TV.  But if you rely on these two things are ignore the cold, hard facts, those black and white boxscores every morning, you will lose more than you win.  At least around here, in these parts.

Now, with that being said, it shouldn’t take a whole lot of time to figure out who you ought to play. Because for some weeks, there is a pretty short list of tier-one guys (think top-20 players) who are actually running a full four game schedule.

This week, for example, you can count them on one hand: Amare Stoudamire, Tim Duncan, Marcus Camby, Steve Nash and Baron Davis.  If I’m missing somebody, please call in now, the hotlines are open!  That’s 1-800-DJ-SALT-E-NUTS.

Which I suppose brings me to my next point, which is that it always pays to be pay LeBron.  And Kevin Durant, and Dwight Howard, and the rest of the upper-echelon guys who go for $100,000+ in this racket of a game we call the ‘Tazzle.  Well, nobody really calls it that (yet), but I’d bet my bottom dollar that you’ll see it in this here blog again.

True or false, you have had the following debate with yourself the first few times you played this game: am I better off trying to fill out a balanced roster, loaded with pretty good, but not really great players?  Or should I load up on them Brons, go nuts with them Kobes and say screw it, pass me a little Timmy Duncan while you’re at it?

It’s the classic debate that any Salary Cap Game worth its salt creates.  Here, I think the answer is pretty simple.  It’s kind of like the idea that you always want to take a safe, yet still-upsidish kinda guy in the first round of your draft (say, like a Pau Gasol), and then take your chances in the later rounds with those true high-risk, high-reward type players (say, like a Gilbert Arenas).

Here at Fantazzle, you always want to load up on those rare guys that are like money in the bank. Because if you are doing it right, you basically get to make about three or four first round picks in this game, and then go about finding slick value the rest of the way.   The one thing you absolutely don’t want to happen is pay good money (say, $100K or more) for a guy, and have him put up a 20 spot for you.  That’s what you call a flop, ladies and gentlemen, and make no mistake about it – it’s what costs you them shiny cash prizes, at the end of the day.

My goal with every squad that I pick is to have about three or four guys averaging upwards of 40 Fantazzle Points Per Game  (FPG), another three or four averaging in the 30’s, and then of course you sprinkle in a couple of them 20-point, 50-70K type value-buys (think Anderson Varejao or Trevor Ariza), and don’t look now, but you have yourself a 1400-point monster.

(The math: if the scoring average of every player on your team comes out to be about 35, and every player on your team is playing four games, that’s what you end up with).

If you are allowed to spend an average of 100K per player, then it stands to reason that you can afford to bag a couple of big ticket items as long as you can also snag your fair share of bargain-barrel pickups.

It’s kind of like this: you know that you could always get a better value for that electronic gadget if you wait until Black Friday, and then get up at four o’clock in the morning to wait on line outside of Best Buy with hundreds of equally crazy, broke ass idiots.  Or, you could just pay full price for it now, when you really want it, in December, and get to enjoy it all year long.

Yes, you have to shop for value but no, its not the only thing that matters – not when there are guys like David Lee floating around out there with 90K price tags.

Or think of it this way: will the Cleveland Cavaliers hesitate to offer LeBron James a max-level contract this summer when he becomes a free agent?  No, they’ll pray that he takes their money.  And that’s because he’s the only guy in the league who’s the best guy in the league; there’s always only just one.  Sure, LeBron costs you more than everybody else, but he’s also a lot better than everyone else, too, so you just pay him and smile.

Could Chris Paul be better a better fantasy play than James in a few months?  Sure, if he has a career year and sets a career high in steals.  But if that happens, you can just pay him instead.  Or maybe not – maybe you just pay him too.  The nice thing about this format is that you don’t have to choose between guys like that: you just have to be smart enough to know who else can help you in the 70K salary range to balance out your roster.

It’s OK to even overpay for a guy who is solid friggin’ gold when you’re getting 50 points, and you can also get 30 points from another guy, like Carlos Boozer, who makes 80K.  As long as you also find your bargains, it all balances out.

But will you ever get a 50 point bargain?  Maybe, but they’re awful hard to come by.  And certainly not on a regular basis.  (In case you’re wondering, LeBron is averaging nearly 48 FPG this year).

So now we’ve got our first two rules down.  Any questions?  There will be more to come in the weeks ahead.  Dr. Quez is open for business, everybody.  If you have a comment, just leave it here on the page.  Otherwise, hit me up at agoliaat@gmail.com.  Happy Chanukkah, boys and girls.  That means you, Scot Hirschfield!

Fantazzle Fantasy Basketball Games

Share on Facebook

Wondering who are the hottest players in Fantazzle Fantasy Basketball right now?  Wonder no more, Dr. Quez on the case.  You have your usual suspects – the LeBrons, D-Wades, and Dirk Nowitzkis of the world.  But unless you’re paying very close attention, you might not realize just how good the following players have been lately.

Andre Iguodala, Philadelphia 76′ers

Iguodala has been one of the top ten most valuable players in Fantazzle lately, joining the 40 Fantazzle Points Per Game (FPG) club over the past two weeks, territory typically only occupied by the aforementioned group of tier-1 players.

This 40 point mark refers not to actual points scored but total Fantazzle points accrued, which can be accomplished in a variety of ways.  You can count the number of 40 point players on two hands, and they are all well-rounded guys who contribute in at least three different scoring categories.  Iguodala has reached this mark by actually contributing in all five Fantazzle scoring categories, something that only LBJ and Wade have managed to do on a regular basis this season.  He’s being doing this all year, but his numbers have simply spiked across the board lately, especially his scoring, which has jumped to over 23 per game over the past two weeks.  Sure, he’s priced aggressively at $125,000.  But then again, that’s about what Steve Nash will cost you, and we already know how poorly he fares in this format.

Carlos Boozer, Utah Jazz

If you’re wondering why he’s been so good this year, look no further than his employment status. Ah yes, the infamous walk-year performance boost.  Sure, it helps that both he and Deron Williams are healthy again, but I don’t think anybody really saw this kind of production coming. Boozer has averaged 41.8 FPP over the past two weeks and 38.3 for the year, while only costing you $85,000.  Don’t ask why we’ve priced him so low, just sign him up every time he’s got a four-game week on his hands.  In fact, Boozer offers such stellar value that you probably want to pay him even if he’s only got three games on tap for the week.  That’s how good he’s been.

Brook Lopez, New Jersey Nets

If you haven’t been paying attention to Brook Lopez lately, it’s time to get your act together.  The truth is that we’re looking at perhaps the next great fantasy center coming into his own right now, less than half-way through just his second season.  How many NBA execs are kicking themselves for letting him slide to all the way to New Jersey with the tenth pick in the 2008 draft?  This is now two years in a row that a budding superstar has fallen to that spot in the draft, the other being Brandon Jennings (going to Milwaukee this June).  Yes, he does command a healthy salary in our game ($100,000), but he still offers excellent value, averaging 36.5 FPP for the year and 41.4 FPP over the past two weeks.  How’s he doing it?  By averaging 23.3 points, 10.3 boards, 1.3 steals and 1.6 blocks over that stretch, good enough to place him at the number eight spot on the Fantazzle Player Rater.  Sign him up, because your smarter adversaries surely will.  You can’t let the good deals pass you by in any league, and Fantazzle is no different.

Weekly Rant:

Is There Hope for the Knicks?

Don’t look now, but Mike D’Antoni’s New York Knicks are 5-1 in December and have beaten four playoff-bound teams in the process (Phoenix, Atlanta, Portland and New Orleans).  This is not only good news for Knicks fans but also for alert fantasy players, as certain fringe players, such as Wilson Chandler, Larry Hughes and Chris Duhon are suddenly viable assets.  In addition, the already solid David Lee and Al Harrington have seen a spike in value, and second year sharp-shooter Danilo Gallinari has re-emerged as a top-50 fantasy option.

From a fantasy perspective, New York is an intriguing club because it features D’Antoni’s fast-paced offense.  The result is that when the jump shots are falling, the Knicks have seven – count them, seven – ownable fantasy players.  How many other teams can really say that?  And how is that even possible if this team is just 8-15, despite the recent winning streak?

The answer lies beyond the obvious (D’Antoni’s up-tempo system).  It has just as much to do with his newly shortened rotation, which now features only eight players, and sometimes just seven on any given night.  Nate Robinson hasn’t played a single minute since December 1, and rookie Toney Douglas has logged just 11.8 minutes per game this month, which has allowed the remaining guards and swingmen to all play extended minutes.  Now, Gallinari, Chandler and Hughes all get enough time to be productive, while Duhon is back to logging 35+ minutes per-game, as he did last year when he was a fantasy revelation.

Yet if you want to understand their success in real-world, non-fantasy terms, you can’t look at any of these six fantasy-relevant players.  Instead, you have to talk about defensive stalwart Jared Jeffries, who has been New York’s defensive anchor during the winning streak.  If you have actually watched the Knicks play over the past two weeks,  you’d know that he routinely guards the other team’s best offensive player, regardless of what position he plays, and leads the league in charges taken.  In their most recent victory over New Orleans, for example, you’d have seen Jeffries bouncing back and forth between the best point guard on the planet, Chris Paul, and David West, the Hornets’ best post player.  And you’d have seen him managed to stymie them both, despite giving away 30 pounds to West and ______.  His combination of height, length and speed is very unusual; All-Star Tayshaun Prince is the first analogue that comes to mind.

The irony is that Jeffries has played so well that the rest of the league HAS to take notice, and his trade value will correspondingly increase.  Entering this season, the Knicks’ plan was simple: develop the kids and try to move Eddy Curry and Jeffries’s contracts, because both extend into the 2011 season.  The logic was, if you take their salaries off the books, now you can offer not one, but TWO max contracts this summer.  You can say to LeBron James, hey, we know we suck right now, but we’d be pretty damn good if we added both you AND Chris Bosh, wouldn’t we?

Now the Knicks find themselves with a curious dilemma: if we find a taker for Jared Jeffries (perhaps by packaging him with Nate Robinson), should we even do the deal?

This was an unthinkable question to ask even three weeks ago.  But now, I would argue that’s its a legitimate one, and you really do have to think twice.  Let’s not forget that Jeffries was dubbed the “closet MVP” of that Wizards team that made a nice little playoff run in his last season with the club.  Now the Knicks have some swagger, and the reason why is they are able to run out FOUR plus defenders simultaneously, with Jeffries (PF), Chandler (SF), Hughes (SG) and Duhon (PG), and D’Antoni has routinely done precisely that over the course of their recent winning streak.

Think about it.  What if this Knicks team is better than people realize, and they keep winning games with Jeffries as the defensive anchor?  What if they inch closer to .500, and find themselves in the hunt for a playoff spot?  Do you give him away for some crummy player who happens to have an expiring contract?

I think Walsh almost certainly makes that deal, but I cannot say with confidence that it’s the right move.  The more I watch this guy play defense, the more I like this team as currently constituted.

Share on Facebook

Hi all,

Fantazzle Weekly Fantasy Sports Games has another free fantasy football promotion ONLY for Twitter followers.

Well we’ve been telling you that we will be having special promotions for members of our social media groups. We started this last weekend where we awarded winners a $10 bonus if they won and were members of our Fantazzle Facebook Fantasy Football fan page and follow Fantazzle on Twitter. We aren’t stopping this weekend. This week, IF you follow Fantazzle on Twitter, you can play in a free fantasy football game with a cash prize. This free game is only open to our Twitter followers. So sign up to follow Fantazzle now on Twitter and you will see the link to enter the game. All you have to do is have a Twitter account (who doesn’t nowadays….and if you don’t create a quick one so you can play for free), follow Fantazzle and you can enter the contest. Make sure you are a follower of Fantazzle. We will verify that you do before we credit the winner’s account.

Hurry as the game starts in about 10 hours!

Fantazzle Prez – Ryan Parr

Fantazzle Weekly Fantasy Football Games

www.fantazzle.com

Share on Facebook

Great news everyone! The League, written about earlier this week, has been renewed for a second season! This show is very very funny. Not only that, but the main plot surrounds a fantasy football league and the guys in the league. Highly recommended all. Give it a shot if you haven’t seen it yet and if you have keep watching. Good stuff.

Fantazzle Prez – Ryan Parr

Fantazzle Fantasy Football Games

Share on Facebook

Hi all,

The new Steve Smith free fantasy football game is now up. The winner this week will win an autographed mini helmet signed by Steve Smith. Congrats to last week’s winner, Slammers.

There are two weeks left in the Steve Smith free fantasy football game contests. Make sure to enter the games. Also, make sure you sign up for the Steve Smith Pro Bowl Contest presented by Fantazzle Fantasy Football Games. The winner of that prize will win tix to the 2010 Pro Bowl, airfare, hotel and dinner with Steve. All you have to do is sign up to become a fan of Steve Smith’s Facebook fan page and vote in this year’s Pro Bowl. That will put you in the drawing to win the prize.

Fantazzle Prez – Ryan Parr

Fantazzle Weekly Fantasy Sports Games

Share on Facebook

Being a president of a fantasy football games site, I got to stay on my toes with whats going on in the industry and what the voices out there say. In doing so, I have heard some ‘blah’ type comments about FX’s new 1/2 hour sitcom based on a fantasy football league called The League. My question: Why?

Its odd for two reasons:

1. Fantasy industry guys should be thrilled about a show focused on fantasy football. Its a dream come true in getting even more recognition and respect of such a huge phenomenon.
2. Its a GREAT SHOW!!!

Now most of the chatter hasn’t been harsh or critical, it has mostly been “Its ok” type talk . That couldn’t be further from my opinion of the show. To start, its funny. Take out any relationship to fantasy football and just look at the characters. They’re great and the dialogue is great. If you have any love for Fantazzle and/or the Fantazzle Blog, spare me 2:20 seconds and watch this clip. You can’t tell me that isn’t funny: from the song to the characters reactions. As far as I know, characters and dialogue are what make a show funny and this show has them both.

NOW, throw in the connection to fantasy football and I’m loving life! I think it would be great w/out it, but 100 times better with it. The one thing I was scared about with the show is the use of the typical fantasy football humor. You know TJ WhosYourDaddy type humor. Not so. Its fresh. The writers spent a lot of time figuring out how fantasy football can be funny and working on it with things that are not overused. Example: to figure out the draft order they did the typical pick a number from a hat, BUT that was only to know what kid you were backing in the potato sack race. If your league does something like this, I commend you. If it doesn’t, I guarantee there will be a lot more leagues doing something similar next year. It’s unique, thank gawd because that was my biggest worry about the show.

The only item I don’t care for much is the relationship/marriage type stuff. I’m sure its because I’m a single guy and can’t relate. Other than that, this show is great. Just like It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, another comedy on FX, it pushes the envelope and I look forward to every episode.

If anyone from the show is reading this, send me an email, I’ll do anything I can to help promote the show. I love it that much.  If you haven’t seen it, give it a look. I believe you can watch past episode on FX’s website and it comes on Thursdays at 10:30pm ET. At least TiVo it if your out drinking at that time (which I’m sure the unmarried guys watching this show are probably are doing at this time). If you have already seen it and you were a ‘its ok’ type, I ask that you give it another shot. Help this show grow and be back again. This is a monumental moment for fantasy football and I urge you all to help that moment continue.

Fantazzle Prez – Ryan Parr

Fantazzle Fantasy Football Games

www.fantazzle.com

Share on Facebook

If you have ever selected a roster for Fantazzle’s weekly fantasy basketball game, you probably know the feeling: I know who’s the best in my regular fantasy basketball league, but who is the best in THIS format? It’s that moment when you scratch your head, shrug your shoulders and just pick some guys, even though you know that there has to be a more scientific way of building a team especially when its a fantasy basketball salary cap game.

Sure, you know that blocks and steals are highly valued, and the percentage-based categories don’t mean jack, but how do you put that abstract information into practice?  I know he’s the man, but is LeBron James really worth $165,000?

Well, that’s what you have me for.  I have created a scoring system to rank every single NBA player according to Fantazzle’s unique metric.  As of 11/28/09, here are your Fantazzle scoring leaders:

Note that the players are ranked according to per-game averages, not total points accrued, which is why Kevin Martin is currently ranked sixth here, for example.  As you scan this list, you will probably be surprised at some of the results.  You probably would have guessed that Monta Ellis was going to be a top 25 player, but 11th overall?  And you knew that his stellar percentages certainly increased his values in standard leagues, but did you think that Steve Nash, a clear top-ten fantasy player this year, would barely even crack the top 50?

One of the cool things about fantasy sports is that it allows you to test your own personal perception of a player’s ability or value and compare it again the cold, hard facts. Sure, statistics can’t tell you everything about a player’s performance.  Bill James and them fellas still can’t figure out a good way to measure defensive ability in baseball, for example.  But they do give you an objective standard against which to compare two players, which is precisely what the Fantazzle Weekly fantasy basketball game is all about, when you really think about it.

So let’s take some time to sift through these numbers, and see what anomalies we can find in the Fantazzle Player Rater.  Who else enjoys such a spectacular boost in value when you switch around the scoring parameters like Fantazzle has?  And who else isn’t worth the hefty salary that they command in the Fantazzle fantasy game?  Perhaps most importantly, who else has taken the time to read this blog, and also figured out not to pay Steve Nash to play for his team?

***

I think there is really only one place to start with a fantasy basketball blog this year. And that’s with the biggest story of the first month of this young season: Brandon Jennings of the Milwaukee Bucks.  Jennings has been simply fantastic in his first month as a pro, and he will one day be viewed as the catalyst for a new and inevitable trend in American basketball: elite players by-passing the college experience and instead playing for megabucks in Europe.

Not longer after the NBA adopted it’s “pre-to-pro” policy in 2006, and thereby prevented high school players from being drafted by NBA teams, Jennings was a high school senior at the Oakhill Academy, one of the most prestigious high school basketball programs in the country.  Its roster of alumni include Carmelo Anthony, Kevin Durant and Rajon Rondo.  Jennings was considered one of the top high school point guards in the nation, and was offered a scholarship to attend the University of Arizona, which is a breeding ground for future NBA stars, such as Richard Jefferson, Mike Bibby, Jason Terry, Andre Iguoadala, Gilbert Arenas and Damon Stoudamire, among others.

Instead of doing what he was “supposed to do”, Jennings decided to sign a contract with Lottomatica Roma, an Italian basketball team, which paid him handsomely for his services. However, after spending the vast majority of his first and only season with the team riding pine, most analysts agreed that Jennings had hurt his draft position by going overseas.

Yet, despite his nearly non-existent season and corresponding lack of draft buzz, Jennings declared himself eligible for the 2009 NBA draft.  And then on draft day, he nearly slipped right out of the lottery, a fate that seemed nearly inconceivable at the end of his high school career.  He might have even fallen right out of the top-2o were it not for the Bucks, who turned a lot of heads when they selected him with the 10th overall pick.

Now, just one month into the season, Jennings is running away with the rookie of the year award, and Milwaukee brass is looking like a bunch of bonafide rocket scientists.  Despite averaging 22.3 points, 5.5 assists and 1.2 steals per game thus far, everything was pretty under-the-radar for this sweet-shooting lefty until he exploded for 55 points against the Warriors on November 14th.

Sure, it came against one of the truly horrific defensive clubs in recent memory, but still!  I remember it clear as day.  It happened on a Saturday night, and not just any Saturday night, mind you.  No, this was the Saturday night of Chach & Caroline’s millionth-annual Pre-Thanksgiving party, only arguably the biggest party of the year for me and my nefarious cohorts.  Needless to say, the Kid got extremely toasted on that particular evening and didn’t get home to get his nightly fantasy hoops intel until approximately 4 a.m.  I’ll never forget feeling like my eyes were going to pop right out of my skull when I read that stat line: 55 points, 5 assists, 5 boards, 21-34 from the floor and 7-8 from downtown.  Perhaps the most absurd stat is that he was just two weeks into his rookie year!

The first thing I thought to myself was: Uh, did he just break the all-time rookie scoring record?  In week two?  Uh, who even owns that record?  What IS that record? (Note: as it turns out, Wilt Chamberlain owns the record, which is 58 points.  Jennings’s 55 is the most since Earl Monroe went for 56 in 1968.  Jennings is also the second-youngest player to score 55 or more points.  The youngest is LeBron James, who dropped 56 in 2005).

The second thing I thought to myself was: why didn’t the Knicks draft this sonofabitch!  Damn you, Donnie Walsh and the rest of your funky bunch!  Why did you draft this Jordan Hill character who, despite playing for the WORST team in the league that is going through a REBUILDING process, CANNOT play a single frigging minute of a single frigging game all frigging YEAR?!?!

But I digress.  Brandon Jennings, with this one singularly nuclear performance, re-wrote his own history, not to mention the fate of the many legions of high school seniors who will surely follow in his decidedly enormous footsteps.  Don’t you think a high school senior now has to think twice about inking that deal to play in college when he could make a nice chunk of change balling in Europe for a year without even sacrificing his draft stock?  Now these kids will surely think (preferably in a Chris Tucker, Smokey from Friday voice): well, Brandon Jennings can do it, why can’t I?  College sounds fun, but damn!

Except one has to wonder: did playing in Europe actually make Jennings any better?  How good would this guy be right now if he had actually played a full season at Arizona?  I have no doubt that European basketball is comparable to the NCAA in terms of overall talent; I think Team USA’s well documented struggles in various international tournaments has made that quite clear.  But I do wonder whether it really made him a better player to just practice with these guys.  He played like 8 minutes per game in Italy!  Wouldn’t he have been better served starting for the Wildcats in a title run?

But that’s really the ONLY thing that makes me question whether Jennings represents the dawn of a new era in international basketball.  And who’s to say that the next guy to go over there won’t be benched by his dumb ass Italian coach?  I mean seriously, how stupid does THAT guy feel right now, whoever the hell he is?  I’d love to know who exactly was so good over there in Roma that Mr. Spaghettihead couldn’t find enough time to get Mr. ROY on the floor.  Whoever that player was, I bet he couldn’t drop 55 in an NBA game if his life depended on it.

OK so that’s my Brandon Jennings rant.  Sorry, it was a long one.  But really, kind of like my man-crushes on Chauncey Billups and Kevin Durant, he soooo deserves it!  Let’s wrap this up by pointing out that Jennings currently fetches just $80,000 in the Fantazzle game, and considering the fact that he’s a top-25 Fantazzle player, that’s what you call a gimme.

Yea, I know, you love me.  You can thank me later with a tweet or dap or something.

Share on Facebook