Sits and Starts
Sit Nene Hilario: he is still nursing an injury and if he were to play would be matched up against Anderson Varejao on the road and then Kevin Garnett at home both without John Wall to feed him the ball.
Start Damian Lillard: gets Steve Nash, Russell Westbrook and Jeremy Lin as his opposing PGs. He should have no problems scoring 20+ in each of these contests with lots of steals.
Sit Michael Kidd-Gilchrist: tough schedule aside, his shot is not falling and will struggle in his first go round against NBA defenses.
Start Manu Ginobili/Danny Green/Kawhi Leonard: Spurs should score 330+ pts this week and these three figure to be involved in almost of all of it.
Sit Andrew Bynum: Likely to miss the entire week as he is still feeling pain in his knee. Will see limited minutes if he does play.
Start Richard Hamilton: it doesn’t get much easier than Marcus Thornton, Dion Waiters and the gimpy Eric Gordon/Austin Rivers. In addition to points, will get plenty of assists as well as those three teams have really struggled with their perimeter defense.
Sit DeMarcus Cousins: will be absolutely exhausted having duel to with Joakim Noah, Nikola Pekovic and Roy Hibbert on the road.
Start Jason Terry: he is coming off an excellent pre-season and gets matched up against Ray Allen, Monta Ellis and Bradley Beal/Jordan Crawford.
Sit Rudy Gay: only two games and in first will be matched up against Metta World Peace. Brandon Rush is no sieve either.
Start Carlos Delfino: may start but regardless will get plenty of opportunities to score and rebound against the weak second units of @DET, @ATL and POR.
For daily updates, please follow the Fantasy Spin and, for any last minute last lineup changes, please follow us on Twitter – @SheridanFantasy.
Jeff,
The point is moot since Kevin Martin is now hearing Thunder, but I admit to being confused with your multi-team trade proposal that had Toronto basically swapping Calderon and DeRozan for Martin. I might have missed something, but I think that was the trade from the Raptor POV.
Admittedly, in past years, I wasn’t sure DeRozan was much more of a defender than the notoriously atrocious Martin. This pre-season seems to have changed that dynamic, as a stronger, more-focused Derozan is not letting other wings lose him with the barest of feints. A full training-camp under Dwane Casey seems to have gotten DeRozan to buy into the defensive scheme. That happened last year with Bargnani and it’s hope-inducing that DeRozan has joined the believers. So, suddenly, Martin’s (possible?) handful of more points production doesn’t seem like it might be worth the cost of Calderon, a very good backup point guard who wears down under starter minutes. And Martin remains a very high-volume shooter. On a team with Lowry and Bargnani, that’s not good for the chemistry. At least I don’t think it is.
Frankly, this trade is about one or two years late in being practical for the Raptors. Toronto’s in-season talent acquisition focus will be on a small forward. The Raptors hope that a combination of good health and good results for the team will make Calderon, Ed Davis and possibly even Landry Fields a package to take on a SF stud from an underperforming squad worried about a big ticket or a team desperately needing a steady PG in exchange for an emerging talent at the small forward spot. Of course, the expiring contract Calderon owns has its own trade value come February.
Even without Oklahoma City’s involvement, I just cannot envision the Raptors have ever seriously considered a proposal like yours THIS fall.
Just one man’s opinion, GM