The Portland Trail Blazers have finally figured out what to do with the salary cap space. On Friday, the Blazers signed Andre Miller to a three-year contract worth a total of $21 million — with about $14 million being guaranteed.
Miller will step right in and be the starting point guard for the Blazers. He’ll be an improvement over Steve Blake, who started at point guard last year for the Blazers, and could provide the leadership and playmaking needed to make Portland a truly elite team.
In terms of fantasy basketball, this move will likely change his stats drastically. In the last …read more

Now that the Portland Trail Blazers have missed out on signing Hedo Turkoglu (Turkoglu decided to sign with the Toronto Raptors after verbally agreeing to join the Blazers), the Blazers will be forced to move on in free agency. On target that has reportedly shot to the top of the list is David Lee.
Lee, who has spent his first four season in the NBA with the New York Knicks, would give the Blazers some toughness down in the low blocks. When the Blazers lost to the Rockets in the first round of the playoffs, a lack of toughness was one …read more

Greg Oden, the oft-injured center for the Portland Trail Blazers, is injured again. Although his latest knee injury was supposed to heal up quickly, he’s still not back and now it’s been over three weeks.
Asked recently when he thought he’d be back, he hinted at the possibility of missing the rest of the season. His teammate Brandon Roy also hinted that Oden won’t be seen again for the rest of the 2009 NBA season.
In the fantasy world, this is obviously bad news for Oden owners. If you were holding out hope that he’d be able to come back and help …read more

Brandon Roy of the Portland Trail Blazers is known for being a very fundamentally sound player. He can do it all with the basketball. However, it’s easy to forget how athletic he is. Cheikh Samb of the Los Angeles Clippers got a reminder the hard way.
As you can see in the video, Brandon Roy unleashed a shocking dunk on top of Samb. And Samb isn’t a pushover. In fact, he’s the leading the NBA D-League this season in blocked shots. But he didn’t see anything like Roy in the D-League.
In fantasy basketball, Roy continues to be a very solid …read more

In the last few weeks, there was a lot of drama surrounding Darius Miles. It all started when the Portland Trail Blazers were able to remove Miles’ contract from the salary cap — with the stipulation that he not play more than ten games in the NBA. After the Memphis Grizzlies waived him after he played a total of eight games in this NBA season, the Blazers sent a memo to other teams saying they’d sue if another team were to sign Miles. On Friday, the Grizzlies ignored the threat and re-signed Miles.
Now the question that fantasy basketball owners want …read more

Roger Mason, Jr., San Antonio Spurs
Currently, Roger Mason, Jr. is leading the NBA in three-pointers made and is shooting a sizzling 52% from beyond the arc. Playing off of Tim Duncan, Mason has found plenty of openings to get off his quick release jumper. However, keep an eye on his minutes after Ginobili returns to 100% and Tony Parker returns from his ankle injury.

Quentin Richardson, New York Knicks
Under Mike D’Antoni once again, Quentin Richardson is in line to have a huge year from beyond the three-point line. He already has made 35 threes and is shooting a very respectable 38%. …read more

Using John Hollinger’s PER statistic, which undervalued players may become viable fantasy basketball players if their minutes increase? Here’s a look at a few fantasy basketball sleepers as indicated by PER:
Greg Oden, Portland Trail Blazers
This one is rather obvious. Although the Blazers are purposely monitoring Greg Oden’s minutes, it’s no secret that he’s a stud in the making. Now would be a good time to buy low on Oden before he takes over the starting job and really explodes onto the scene. The only risk regarding Oden is an injury risk, although that risk is definitely worth the reward at …read more

Greg Oden on Friday finally had the type of Greg Oden game we’ve all been waiting for. After missing his entire rookie season, getting hurt in the first game of his second rookie season and then playing a mostly invisible first game after his return from injury, we got to see Oden’s potential.
Against the New Orleans Hornets, the Portland Trail Blazers center had 11 points, 11 rebounds and four blocked shots in 24 minutes of action. All things considered, it was a great game by Oden and puts him right back on the fantasy basketball radar for 2008.
If you are …read more

Brandon Roy of the Portland Trail Blazers made the All-Star team last season. This season, it appears as if he may elevating his game to superstar status. Against the Houston Rockets in a recent game, Brandon Roy hit a game-winning three-pointer at the buzzer to give the Blazers the win in overtime. You can see a video of Roy’s miraculous shot at the end of this entry.
In the video, Roy puts the Blazers up by two points by hitting a shot over Ron Artest of the Rockets. Yao Ming responds with an impressive three-point play to put the Rockets up …read more

PER is a formula created by John Hollinger to measure productivity of NBA players on a per-minute basis. In fantasy basketball, you can use PER to find players who may blossom once given more minutes. Here is a look at some early PER sleepers for the 2008-09 fantasy basketball season:
Nick Young, Washington Wizards
In only 23.7 minutes per game, Nick Young is averaging 15.7 points. The Wizards knew he could score but he’s off to an unbelievable start. He is shooting 50% from the floor and has hit all 15 of his free throw attempts. While his other stats outside of …read more