Enjoy it now, Queen City

Southeast Division:
Charlotte 0-0
Orlando 0-1

With the same number of wins and losses, Charlotte could compete for the 8th seed.

Good luck tonight - we'll see how much Bron-Bron goes off on his 2004 Olympic coach. And maybe we'll get our first glimpse at what to make of the Charlotte roster. Richardson should be okay, I'm not and never will be a Felton fan, and we can see if Matt Carroll can be a back door three pointer play in your deeper leagues. Also, we'll get to see how many games Okafor plays until his back gives out or either ankle tweaks. Is there a spot for Adam Morrison in this league? Check out JJ Redick's line from last night, there may be your answer. And for those of us enjoying the free League Pass this week, we can answer the age old question, does Sean May sweat gravy or a nice Bearnaise sauce?

Dallas has its first tilt tonight - all y'all who are counting on Dirk to be your true first rounder, here's your first glimpse. And Luis Scola, we're eyeballin' you.

I gotta nap so I can stay up to watch New Orleans/Phoenix. Lots of fantasy type people players in this contest, from CP3 and Amare all the way down to Matt Barnes and James Posey. And supposedly, Shaq's minutes will be down on the 2nd game of a back-to-back. That could help you Amare owners out there, or more accurately, the legions of Robin Lopez owners out there.

Update from NBA.com/fantasy

Here is an update from the front page of one of my NBA.com fantasy leagues:

Featres Alert: Player trades, standings and the scoreboard will be available in the next 48 hours.

I'm glad they jumped right on this. And I'm especially excited by all of the "featres" we'll be getting, like being able to trade players, make free agent pickups and actually have them show up on a roster, and to see a scoreboard of my matchup. Thanks again, Rotohog! We'll be extra excited to join the Stock Exchange now!

Impressions on the first half of the first game of the year

Holy crap, KG is a bust! It's over in the leagues where I picked him in the first round! I'm taking trade offers right now, maybe I can get Kirilenko in return. If I'm lucky. Pierce has all the points, but not much else. I know that will change over the year, so if you've got Pierce, enjoy points. Look at Delonte West, getting nearly 17 minutes in the first half and hasn't missed a shot since pregame warmups. What are you waiting for in your shallow leagues - pick him up now! Seriously, West could be a nifty player on your team if you need a PG but have punted assists, as those steals could pick up, and he could approach 50% FG in the Cavs offense (both plays, LeBron left, LeBron right).

There's something interesting in the Cavs boxscore from half 1. Ben Wallace played 13 minutes, got 3 boards and a blocked shot. No way in H, E, double upside down sevens should Wallace be anywhere near your squad, but he picked up some serious PT, didn't smother the boards, and took no shots. That means Cleveland's O has to come from the other 4, which is nice. Of course, a lot will go to Bron-Bron, but that's plenty of pie for Mo Williams and Delonte West and Ilgauskas. You know this coming in to the Cavs this year, but watching it play out on TNT and Yahoo boxscores makes it all real. The non-LeBron Cavs are players to watch all year, especially the 2nd half as there schedule is much more fantasy H2H friendly, with 4 gamers abound.

Give Me The Rrrrrrrrrroarrr! - a look at my GMTR Monster team

Well tonight starts the season - huzzah! - and I thought I'd give a li'l insight to a draft I had recently in the Give Me The Rock Monster (20 team) League, what happened and how it all went horribly wrong. Kinda like the end of a Monk episode, but with slightly less Traylor Howard - she once had 2 guys AND a pizza place! BTW, I had pick #12, right smack in the gooey center of it all.

Round 1 - Chris Bosh (TOR) I like Chris this year, love the percentages, and with his Yahoo center eligibility, allows me to go a few different ways - as the non-shot blocking center of a small team, or another cog in a big team. I will mention, that Brendan of 2nd Round Reach picked next, and his autopick was set to "alphabetical", as his 1st round pick was Rafer Alston. B, if you can pull off the playoffs in this league, you may become a Fantasy Hall of Famer. The beauty of these drafts is when someone screws up, you can see it immediately in chatbox postings. Mine: "Brendan must think it is an And1 draft - round 2, Escalade; round 3, The Professor."

Round 2 - Joe Johnson (ATL) I would have loved Calderon here for my double Raptor fix, but he went 5 picks prior. Martin and West were on my board, but they went right before me as well. I decided to lock up a PG since I wouldn't be picking for a while, so I went with JJ as he still has Yahoo PG eligibility and his post Bibby arrival splits were stellar. And besides his time on the pine during Tankapalooza 07, he is an 80 game player (which I'll need with Bosh) and a league leader in mpg since Mike Woodson has as much faith in his bench as an NBC exec does in a show he puts up against American Idol on Wednesday nights. Am I right, industry people?

Round 3 - Mike Miller (MIN) - Pick #52, and a lot of the bigs I liked were either off the board or too early to pick. I wanted a scorer, and a guy who shot threes, decent % numbers, and had some roster flexibility. Well that screams Mike Miller. I was counting on some decent bigs being left on my comeback at #69.

Round 4 - David Lee (NYK) Like DL42. Until this guy blows out a knee Livingston-style, I will be all over him this year. I love the percentages and the boards should be +10 this year, as he's got to get over 30 minutes a night in an up-tempo system. And 6 out of every 10 shots Jamal Crawford takes have to land somewhere, why not in the paws of Mr. Good Things?

Round 5 - Marvin Williams (ATL) I had come up short in a few drafts of getting Marvin, and I figured that at #92 was a good a spot as any for him. I expect a slight uptick in minutes with Childress gone (but not a great amount), but the key for me is that Marvin is an 80% FT shooter, and no Hawk got to the line more than he last year. I think he purposely tries to get fouled, since he's a horrible finisher. But hey, play to your strengths. A steal a night is very doable for Marvin, and this guy better bust his heiney in an RFA contract year (just like David Lee).

Round 6 - Nick Collison (OKC) I keep targeting the same players, like Collison. Double double, percentages that won't kill, and maybe can get some hustle categories a night/week. For some reason, I love center-eligibles who don't block shots. They have to be one someone's team. Maybe I can trade him for a reboundless team's castoff. Dare to dream.

Round 7 - Mikael Pietrus (ORL) You know what my team was missing? Guys who had been yanked around by Nellie but still had some nights where he lit up the stat sheet. And since it was a hair too early to pick Kelenna Azubuike, I went with the Frenchie. Quick aside: when I tried out for "Stump the Schwab" back in the summer of 2005, I got past the written test and the 3-man mock game, and was in a one on one with an assitant producer. He asked me to name as many Golden State Warriors as possible, and the first one I mentioned was Mikael Pietrus. Then I went with Dunleavy (go Duke!), and eventually I got to Boom Dizzle. September 2005, I took a trip to New York, taped an episode of STS, and got eliminated in a first round tiebreaker. Thanks a lot, Mikael Pietrus!

Round 8 - Mario Chalmers (MIA) 149 pick in, I hoped to get lucky, especially after his double double the night before in the preseason and his likely startitude for the Heat. If anyone wants to make an offer for him a few games into the season, I'll listen unless he blowses up. And stay away from the weed, Mario, especially that Pineapple Express shizznit. God's vagina and whatnot.

Round 9 - Derek Fisher (LAL) I'll admit it, I choked. I have no problem dropping him for one of my patented waiver wire pickup du jour. Also another one of the 2005 Warriors I mentioned to the ESPN associate producer in my Stump the Schwab tryout. Another side note on that, he asked later to name as many Sacramento Kings as I could. This was post Webber trade, so admittedly I was stumped, so all I could come up with was Bibby and Kevin Martin. He was actually impressed that even though I was at a loss, I came up with the 12th man on the Kings. How far you've come, K-Mart.

Round 10 - Sean Williams (NJN) - Complete flier, haven't decided on whether to hold him until he has a big 5 block game, or dump him quickly. That's what my Derek Fisher spot is for.

Wrapping up, I think this is a biggish team, but who knows. I've got some scorers, some shooters, some rebounders. Maybe things can come together for a string of 5-4's. And we'll see what kind of crap is left over in the free agent pool. First-a glance: not-a so much.