Depth Chart Updates
Unfortunately, we lost three players to significant injury this past week. Kyrie Irving broke a finger and will be shutdown for a month. Jeremy Pargo exploded in his place on Wednesday and makes for a nice short term add. In Charlotte, Tyrus Thomas will miss at least two months with a torn calf muscle opening the door for the recently acquired Hakim Warrick. While starting in place of Kawhi Leonard, Stephen Jackson broke his finger and is out for 4 to 6 weeks. Spurs will fill the void with a committee approach. We are keeping Irving on our Depth Chart but dropping Thomas and Jackson. We recommend that you do the same.
Carlos Delfino injured his groin and no timetable has been set for his return. It is not the same sports hernia he carried last year at Milwaukee but is close. Chandler Parsons has taken full advantage of the extra touches and is in the midst of a breakout season. The Nuggets have shutdown Wilson Chandler for the balance of November as he has yet to fully recover from hip surgery in April. Jordan Hamilton is getting a look in his stead contributing 9 3PMs on 17 attempts over his last 5 games.
Steve Nash (leg), Gerald Henderson (foot), Kawhi Leonard (knee), Steve Blake (abdomen), Richard Jefferson (calf) all didn’t play last week. Henderson, Blake and Jefferson are day-to-day whereas Nash and Leonard are unlikely to play this week.
Gerald Wallace, Marshon Brooks, Darrell Arthur, Nikola Pekovic, J.J. Barea and Earl Watson returned to action last week after extended absences. Arthur and Watson are still feeling their way but the rest are safe to start going forward.
Dwyane Wade, Daniel Gibson, Isaiah Thomas, J.J. Hickson, Jermaine O’Neal, Caron Butler and DeShawn Stevenson, missed a game or two for minor ailments, illness or personal reasons but are fine to start this week. Thomas added a DNP-CD but will be given another shot soon enough.
Time to add John Henson to your watchlists, who took advantage of a Larry Sanders outburst and the poor play of Ersan Ilyasova to register to 18 points and 17 rebounds on Wednesday. If he follows it up tonight, he becomes a must add in all formats. Other part timers of note are Antawn Jamison and P.J. Tucker. Jamison finally got off the bench Friday night and played 27 minutes adding 16 points and 7 rebounds. It wouldn’t hurt the Lakers to play him 24+ minutes a night instead of the 15 he has been averaging. The Suns added Shannon Brown and Markieff Morris to their starting line-up last week and Tucker might not be far behind, as he has outplayed the vastly overrated Michael Beasley.
Below are the changes to our Depth Chart that I want to highlight. The additions in particular should interest deep leaguers:
Atlanta: added Ivan Johnson and removed Anthony Tolliver
Charlotte: added Hakim Warrick and removed Tyrus Thomas
Cleveland: added Jeremy Pargo and removed Donald Sloan
Dallas: added Dominique Jones and Troy Murphy and removed Rodrigue Beaubois and Brandan Wright
Golden State: added Draymond Green and removed Richard Jefferson
Houston: added Terence Jones and removed Daequan Cook
Phoenix: promoted Shannon Brown and Markieff Morris to starters, and demoted Jared Dudley and Luis Scola to reserves
Portland: Added Ronnie Price and removed Nolan Smith
Sacramento: Added John Salmons and removed Jimmer Freddette
San Antonio: Added Patrick Mills and removed Stephen Jackson
Toronto: Added Dominic McGuire and removed Landry Fields
Toughest omission this week is Josh Howard who was recently signed by Minnesota to replace Chase Budinger and lead the Minnesota bench in minutes played last night. He could replace Derrick Williams next week who has not played a minute in two games since Kevin Love returned.
For the full the depth chart including the walking wounded, please click here.