He who was quick enough to pull the trigger on Joel Przybilla, Oden’s clear-cut backup and the obvious beneficiary of his minutes, should find themselves with a useful C3 or C4 who should be a top 10 shot-blocker and possible double-digit rebounder. He’s basically found money.

The really interesting flip side to this is that in Indy, there wasn’t an obvious replacement hanging around the waiver wire who was slated to eat all he can off of Granger’s enormous plate of fantasy goodness. It will likely be some combination of Dahntay Jones, Brandon Rush and the recently activated Mike Dunleavy. Fantasy-wise, Dunleavy was probably owned already in your league since it only takes one owner to roll the dice on a player returning from injury, Jones was in and out of the starting five already but was 71 percent owned, and Rush is still too inconsistent to take a flier on if he’s not going to see the bulk of the minutes. Not every team is capable of filling potential holes.

(No, Ty, we want to hug you)

The Lab isn’t out to jinx anyone, but wouldn’t you like to know who are the backups that would excel if a team’s star ever went down? To help qualify the answer, anyone owned in more than 50 percent of leagues are 1) obvious 2) more likely than not to be owned, so that means Paul Millsap, Anthony Randolph, Jason Terry and Will Bynum aren’t worth discussing in this column. Yes, Bynum. If Rodney Stuckey were to ever go down, Bynum might actually get to show that despite his diminutive stature, he’s fully capable of being a starting PG in this league—one that fills up the box score too.

To read the rest of the article and find out the star reserves, click through below.

To stay ahead of the curve in fantasyland, digging on the waiver wire is a prerequisite. Unfortunately, you’re going to have to dig a few holes to unearth the rare gems and if at first you don’t succeed, try, try again That’s the beauty—nay, necessity—of keeping a “soft or “rotating” roster spot, especially during the first month of the season.

But you’ve chosen a smarter path to success; you’re inside the Fantasy Lab. Too cocky? Not if the Lab can back it up. And the Lab is going to back it up...and dump it. Looking at players owned in fewer than 33% percent of Yahoo! leagues—that means these guys are ranked outside your standard 144-player pool—here are some suggested players to gamble on or add to your Watch List, depending on your current needs.

J.J. Hickson, SF/PF/C, Cleveland

Hickson is probably one of the hottest pickups in all of basketball right now and there are quite a few reasons why, starting with the monster alley oop cram on a feed from LeBron that had the announcers dubbing him “The Prince of Fresh Air.” A new starter for the last five games in place of Anderson Varejao, Hickson has the benefit of LeBron’s playmaking, which probably helped him go 9-9 from the field on Tuesday night on his way to 21 points and 9 boards. Cavs’ management has been high on Hickson since last year when they drafted him 19th overall from NC State, but he’s young and they wanted to find a way for him to be more comfortable on the floor, so they started him. Now he might never leave the starting five. Factor in his availability at three positions and the deteriorating health of both Zydrunas and Shaquille (no last names necessary, right?), and you have a fine looking find.

Check out the rest of the article by clicking the Read More link.

We’re barely one week into the grueling 82-game NBA season, yet there’s undoubtedly been a flurry of roster moves made in your league, or leagues, if you roll like the Lab does. While the NBA preseason certainly helped the coaches get a feel for their new players, many coaches are still tinkering with their starting lineups and adjusting their rotations as they try to develop the consistent pattern that is the mark of a playoff-bound team. Or they are Don Nelson and none of this stuff matters to you. Once most of the starting fives are set in the next week or two and the bench rotation starts to take shape, only a major injury or trade is going to yield another impact free agent making this the key time to add a potential waiver wire gem to your roster.

Unlike baseball with its constant call-ups from the minors, shuffled pitching rotations and newly minted closers every time someone blows a save, or football with its bye weeks, the time to strike in fantasy basketball’s free agent market is now. If you have a player that’s slow out of the gate or not meeting your expectations, gambling on some fresh blood now might mean a championship later. But whom should you pull the trigger on?

Surely you’ve discovered by now that there’s never a clear-cut way to identify the breakthrough players, however, the Lab relies on one crucial statistic that seems to shed the most light at this time on who will make the leap from unrosterable to a productive player or even a star.

Click Read More for the rest of the article.

Every fantasy basketball player knows what happened yesterday. The return of the NBA season doesn’t come without weeks of agonizing through the preseason, praying your drafted players don’t get injured (I hate you, Blake Griffin), so when the games start to count, every fan is locked into TNT for the action and the live scoring is fired up on their computers (I love you, StatTracker). Which is precisely why the Fantasy Lab, (which can also be found every Wednesday morning in its glorious return to the highly esteemed SI.com), needn’t waste your time reviewing what you surely saw with your own two eyes. Yes, what happened yesterday is well documented by the time this article is live, and any competitive league has likely seen the proper transactions already executed—Andray Blatche, Aaron Brooks, the Lab trusts you have found a roster spot if it ever was in question. What you will find is a preview of tonight’s potential roster additions, when the bulk of the league is in action. Get a head start on the research your competition will be doing by knowing these players now.

Not every guy on this list will bust out tomorrow – that would be impossible – but there should be some names on here you weren’t even considering drafting as recently as this past weekend. There’s probably some guys listed below that you’ve never even heard of (remember Jamario Moon?). But a lot can change in a day; it’s not like we’re trying to build Rome, people. This is fantasyland and the landscape is forever changing so you have to be willing to embrace the next hot thing with your soft roster spot (that last guy on your roster that should be on constant rotation as you chase one of the few true impact free agents). And to do that, you got to get the jump on the competition.

G/F Corey Brewer, Minnesota – Minnesota is already without Kevin Love for about a month and now the probable starting PG, Johnny Flynn, might miss the opener with the flu. This just gives more opportunities to Brewer (and Ryan Gomes, who the Lab nearly listed here as well) to produce. Even the worst NBA teams score over 80 points a night and Al Jefferson isn’t going to do that alone, even though it seems like he might on some nights. Very quietly—cause it’s hard to do it any other way for a T-Wolf in the preseason—Brewer has emerged as an across-the-board fantasy threat. Showing signs of his pre-injury form that made him invaluable on two NCAA championship teams in Florida, Brewer led the team in scoring with 15.2 ppg and added 1.0 3pg, 1.8 spg, 1.9 apg, 4.2 rpg and 0.6 bpg in just 27 mpg. His long arms and anticipatory knack create steals by the bushel, which is the main reason to own him, but the other categories will be shaping up nicely as well this year.

F/C Ryan Anderson, Orlando – When Rashard Lewis got slapped by the Fun Police with a 10-game suspension, most people assumed the battle for the vacated starting spot would be a battle between the two free agent acquisitions, G/F Matt Barnes and SF/PF Brandon Bass. They did battle, but neither player’s skill set could help them replicate Lewis’ strong, floor-spacing, three-point shooting on offense and rebounding and length on defense like Anderson. In seven preseason games, Anderson drilled 23 of 41 triples – that’s a 56 percent clip and more than three per game! Now the Lab doesn’t expect Anderson to produce like Lewis, but know that in April last year when the former Pac-10 leading scorer got 25 mpg, he hit 1.9 3PM, with an 88.9 FT% for 11.4 ppg, 5.6 rpg, 1.5 apg, 0.8 spg and 0.5 bpg. He’s going to hit a lot of threes for a center-eligible player.

PG/SG Lou Williams, Philadelphia – Tonight will mark this five-year veteran’s first ever start in the NBA. Expect him to make it a special night, especially against the team that sent the Sixers packing in last year’s playoffs. As a reserve, Williams proved to be a more than capable scorer. Using that ability as a threat will draw help defenders creating open looks for teammates and dimes for Williams. He’ll probably crack 20 points tonight, but you’re going to have to deal with some category-dragging FG% and 3PT%, but in more-standard 3PM leagues, his value there will be buoyed simply by the number of threes he jacks up on a nightly basis. Sweet Lou has a legit shot to be the number two scorer on the squad—if he’s not too busy feeding others and posting more assists than anticipated.

Here's the full list of Atlantic Division Previews.

Boston Celtics

CelticsBlog | LOY's Place | Celtics17 | Red's Army | Hoops Addict | Celtics Central | Celtics Hub | Gino's Jungle

New Jersey Nets

Slippery When Nets | Barkley's Mouth

New York Knicks

Posting and Toasting | Bandwagon Knick

Philadelphia 76ers

Liberty Ballers

Toronto Raptors

RaptorsHQ.com | Hoops Addict

Bonus Links

See full schedule here | Also see SBNation preview storystream

Every weekday until the NBA season starts on October 27th, I will be asking a question that's bugging me (QTBM) about the upcoming campaign and attempt to answer my own query.  Comments are welcome.

The Los Angeles Lakers are stacked with talented players and on paper, Kobe Bryant, Pau Gasol, Lamar Odom, Andrew Bynum, and company should repeat as NBA champions in 2010.  On paper, Ron Artest is also a talented player.  However, unlike the aforementioned Lakers, he hasn't proven he could gel with a cast full of talent that also puts in the work and has the will to win a title.  He can prove it this year, but the all-important question is:

Can Artest fit in?

Every weekday until the NBA season starts on October 27th, I will be asking a question that's bugging me (QTBM) about the upcoming campaign and attempt to answer my own query.  Comments are welcome.

Okay, so today I'm cheating a bit... or maybe I'm just efficient, but today's QTBM is actually part of the huge NBA Blog Previews 2009 that is being spearheaded by Jeff Clark at CelticsBlog.  Pretty soon I'll be starting up a post that links to all of the blog previews (and believe me, they're awesome) along with my commentary for each team.  But for now, I'll be taking on my responsibility, the New Jersey Nets - bet you couldn't have gathered that from the pic above, right?

Team Name: New Jersey Nets
Last Year's Record: 34-48
Key Losses: Vince Carter, Ryan Anderson
Key Additions: Courtney Lee, Rafer Alston, Terrance Williams

Every weekday until the NBA season starts on October 27th, I will be asking a question that's bugging me (QTBM) about the upcoming campaign and attempt to answer my own query.  Comments are welcome.

Just a couple of years ago, you couldn't find a team that genuinely enjoyed playing with each other more than the Golden State Warriors.  Baron Davis, Jason Richardson, Al Harrington, Stephen Jackson, and Monta Ellis amongst others were the Bay Area's darlings... until the team was broken up.  Davis bolted for the Los Angeles Clippers, Richardson and Harrington were traded, Jackson wants to be traded now, and Ellis is saying that he and rookie guard Stephen Curry can't start in the same backcourt together.

Just what the once happy-go-lucky franchise needs - more dissension.

Every weekday until the NBA season starts on October 27th, I will be asking a question that's bugging me (QTBM) about the upcoming campaign and attempt to answer my own query.  Comments are welcome.

There's a lot of talk this offseason of how much Kevin Durant is going to take that next step in his third season into being a legit superstar.  He reaped accolades from Jerry Colangelo, head of USA Basketball, during the summer and Colangelo said that Durant will have a place found for him on the team.  High praise considering Team USA is the defending Olympic gold medal winning squad.  That said, how much of the talk is warranted?

Every weekday until the NBA season starts on October 27th, I will be asking a question that's bugging me (QTBM) about the upcoming campaign and attempt to answer my own query.  Comments are welcome.

One has a reputation of being about team-first, but also having zero rings.  The other has proven to be about him, but is the proud winner of four championships.  One draws attention due to his natural charisma and ability to awe on the court. The other now gets attention through dissing old teammates and trying to keep down the next big thing in the post.  One has only played for his hometown team. The other will be playing for his fifth team with relatively short stays in his previous two stops.

These are the main differences between LeBron James and Shaquille O'Neal.  The question now is, will these differences get in the way of the Cleveland Cavaliers winning that elusive championship title that the city, and mostly LeBron craves?  If yesterday's media day is any indication, it's looking like a disappointing no.