>масиack Cimini
Notjustagame23@gmail.com

On Christmas day the Phoenix Suns got a great gift with the return of Leandro Barbosa to their bench rotation. Barbosa had missed twelve games with a bum ankle. During that time the Suns found a new nucleus of role players to compliment their starters. Young players such as Jared Dudley and Goran Dragic have come in and earned their minutes. Alvin Gentry is going to have a rough time dividing up the minutes now with a bench as deep as his.

Barbosa’s minutes are near a career low only averaging 21 minutes a game. Do not look for Barbosa to get buried to the eighth or ninth spot off the bench. He is an electric player that has not lost the speed that has differentiated him as one of the best sparks to come off the bench. Instead of the Suns cutting the minutes of Dragic and Dudley look for them to reduce Grant Hill’s.

At 38, he is playing as if he did during his Detroit days. His great start though early on has been a bit shaky as of late. Some games he can be a great force and others he seems a step slow. We believe this has to do with his high minutes of play and the hectic schedule of the NBA. If the Suns can figure out a better system to utilize him that will prevent his erratic play and keep him fresh for a full season. The Suns will definitely need his size and defensive presence throughout the season.

The other player the Suns need to figure out their main plan for is Channing Frye. There is plenty to rave about Frye on the year. When the Suns are running and gunning he is one of the players teams are puzzled on matching against. He spreads the floor nicely as a big man, and is showing a three point shot teams never were aware of. That’s the good part of Frye. His weakness has always been to bang on the boards as a 6’10 big man. It’s part of the reason why Lou Amundson has been gaining minutes.

Expect games that the Suns aren’t getting high proficiency from Frye for him to take a seat on the bench. He is averaging by far a career high in minutes at nearly 32 a game. We don’t see that trend continuing and for him to probably slip down to the 25-28 minute average.

Fantasy owners should be racing to their mouse clickers and logging in to their Yahoo Fantasy NBA Leagues. Barbosa is only owned in 57 percent of leagues currently. You know that he is going to be a high percentage shooter with his slashes to the whole and ability to attack and get to the free throw line. Barbosa is just a solid steady player that isn’t going to kill you with horrible shooting like most bottom tier role players in your fantasy leagues.

By Zack Cimini
Notjustagame23@gmail.com

Diving in to late December and January football is the best time of year for sports gamblers. You’ve literally got a full slate of college football bowl games seemingly every night. Moreover the NFL spreads out it’s match ups to have enticing meaningful games. This week we have a great Christmas day late night game to get you 1-0 heading into a plethora of Sunday games. Add that handful of extra cash to your 2010 banking account as you end 2009 on a high note.

Last Week-7-7-1

San Diego at Tennessee (-3)- Pick Tennessee
There aren’t two teams on a streak of wins like the battle we will have on Christmas. Combined the two teams have won sixteen of their last seventeen games. The Titans are a bit banged up on the defensive side of the ball but are in desperation mode and have come all the way back to have a shot at the playoffs. If they can keep scoring and control the clock with both Chris Johnson and Lendale White than they can get a huge advantage in that department. San Diego has been a quick strike largely proportioned team through the air. It could hurt them once playoff time comes if they can’t regain some form of attack with LT and Darren Sproles.

Seattle at Green Bay (-14)- Pick Green Bay
Kudos to Mike Holmgren for picking the right spot to get the heck out of Seattle. By making the move he landed himself a solid year away from the game and full control over the Browns for next season. What’s going on in Seattle is as confusing as knowing the Cardinals are going to the playoffs for the second consecutive year. They’ve bottomed out and will be going through a tough hard awakening on what they need to do for the off-season.

Oakland at Cleveland (-3)- Pick Oakland
The key to eliminating any chances for the Browns to score points is simple. Stop the running game and let Derek Anderson’s lowly quarterback rating take affect. Oakland is not getting any high praise but they’ve played a large role in making the last few weeks interesting in the playoff race. Their wins this year have all come against strong playoff contenders, which would mean they’ve handled a spoiler role well.

Kansas City at Cincinnati -13.5- Pick Cincinnati
After last weeks display against Cleveland this game should be one of the easier double digit line locks all season. The Bengals almost put a halt to the Chargers high flying win streak, and seem as balanced of a team there is currently. The defense is playing at a great level and Carson Palmer is lighting it up with his precision passes. As long as Jamaal Charles does not run wild it should be a handled game by half time.

Buffalo at Atlanta -9- Pick Atlanta
Add Buffalo to the list of teams that have no clue where to start rebuilding once the off season begins. They thought they did the right move by saying bye bye to J. P. Losman and making Trent Edwards their official starter. Than the brightest of moves was inserting Ryan Fitzpatrick who has shown countless times with chances in St. Louis and last year in Cincinnati that he can only be a backup. They can not score with any regularity and being on the road only makes this more entertaining.

Houston at Miami -3- Pick Miami
The battle of 7-7 teams should provide a playoff atmosphere of survival. Like any team sitting at .500 near the end of the season, both teams have had tremendous ups and downs. We will go with history here and pick Miami. Houston can never seem to get over that .500 hump, and always happen to come up short. Ricky Williams has done more than a solid job handling the feature role since Ronnie Brown’s season ending injury. This should be one of the best games of the weekend.

Carolina at New York Giants -7- Pick NY Giants
The Giants are similar to the Dallas Cowboys. The media is going to over hype losses or poor play to exponential levels compared to other franchises. They came out on Monday Night and smacked the Washington Redskins into a higher level of disarray that even Ron Jaworski couldn’t envision. The Giants remained calm through their rough stretch just like they did two years ago. Perhaps facing the Redskins and a little luck will get the Giants rolling enough to be a dangerous wild card team once again.

Tampa Bay at New Orleans -14- Pick New Orleans
Tampa Bay vs. Seattle last week maybe was the worst game displayed all season long in the NFL. Neither team played at a level worthy of an NFL win. The Saints have lost their perfect season and will take that out and shellacked the Buccaneers.

Jacksonville at New England -8- Pick New England
An odd line here but the Patriots have still yet to come out with that wow type game. We have all been waiting and this is a game where the Patriots actually do match up very well. Jacksonville has had a hard time all year facing teams they like to spread out their receivers and air the football out. Bellicheck and the Patriots also should not have a hard time scheming defensively.

Baltimore at Pittsburgh -2.5- Pick Pittsburgh
When you win a game the way the Steelers just did that little bit of faint hope to reach the playoffs starts to trickle thoughts of maybe it’s fate they reach it. They had no business winning that game in how poor their defense was, and the boneheaded onside kick with the lead. They managed to get it though and will look to battle hard and avenge a loss that may hurt the Steelers even if they finish 9-7.

Denver at Philadelphia -7- Pick Philadelphia
If Denver makes the playoffs they’d be the worst rated team in our books for any shot at causing disruption with a playoff run. Their offense is of the lowest levels in terms of fear in imposing a challenge to any playoff team. This is the type of game that can either change that philosophy or clinch it. Philadelphia is right atop the league in scoring and putting the opposite offensive team in a gear or two higher of play call selection than they’d like to be.

St. Louis at Arizona -14- Pick Arizona
Ken Whisenhunt’s team almost grabbed the title of most embarrassing loss of the year last week. A win is a win though and during that victory the Cardinals discovered where their running game and offense will be going from here forward. Beanie Wells was the catalyst in keeping the Cardinals from completely unraveling when Kurt Warner could not get it done with his arm. Why the Cardinals waited all season to realign the carries more in Wells way we have no clue. His dosage should be steady from here on out.

Detroit at San Francisco -12.5- Pick San Francisco
First start in his career for Michigan State alum Drew Stanton. Stanton may have looked as if he revived the Lions and keyed their quick third quarter comeback to tie the Cardinals at 17. That would not be the truth if you were watching Stanton perform. He made poor throw after poor throw the entire second half. Maybe he had to many jittery bugs in him and is going to be better prepared. Mike Singletary is salivating at the chance of preparing his team to battle against Stanton.

New York Jets at Indianapolis -5.5- Pick New York Jets
Oddmakers really have it tough for these type of games where no one knows how Jim Caldwell’s going to play it. The only main tidbit of information we need is that the Jets are hanging by a slim hope and are in a must win situation. The Colts have nothing to play for except completing a finish to an undefeated year which was just done two years ago.
Dallas -6.5 at Washington- Pick Dallas
Many people are expecting the Redskins to rise up and play the Cowboys tough as they have in years past. After their demoralizing loss and the Cowboys convincing win the momentum of such games does not stop in less than a week. The Cowboys steam roll over the Redskins just as the Giants did. We will get a few more laughs out of Jim Zorn and his Redskins ability to be successful with trick plays.

Minnesota -7 at Chicago – Pick Minnesota
This is a game to shut everyone up. Brett Favre can’t play in cold weather games or do well in December. There is an alleged rift between him and Childress that is boiling up and dividing the team. Adrian Peterson has struggled to eclipse the 100 yard mark. The only reason Minnesota is getting targeted is because they continually are on national televised spotlighted games—-and because of BRETT FAVRE. Two of their three losses were Sunday night prime time games which intensifies the lime light of the media to attack. The Vikings defense will try to help Jay Cutler reach the 30 interception mark.

By Zack Cimini
notjustagame23@gmail.com

Oklahoma City made a quiet move but one that’s going to keep their team young and up and coming. They traded for rookie point guard Eric Maynor from the Utah Jazz. It looks as if the experiment with using Shaun Livingston as their backup point guard did not pan out. Livingston was waived to make the move possible without going over roster limits.

Before we delve into how much of an impact Maynor will be, lets give huge credit to Shaun Livingston. We had the chance to do an interview with him while he was rehabbing through his horrific knee injury. He worked his tail off and has been positioning himself for a regular rotation spot since that injury two years ago. If there is someone that isn’t going to give up it is Livingston. He has the size at 6’7 but lost a ton of quickness and lateral movement he once had. Look for him to keep working with trainers to get some form of sharpness and foot speed back.

Eric Maynor is just another young player the Oklahoma City are stock piling. Maynor is instantly going to pay dividends and be able to be a complimentary backup point guard to Russell Westbrook. Maynor had a tough time keeping minutes and finding an primary role with the Jazz. Their intentions were to have him backup Deron Williams and develop from there. For whatever reason the Jazz decided to unload him and now he is in a perfect fit with the Thunder.

Maynor will not let this trade curtail his rookie campaign. If anything he should be able to step in and help this young team due to the fact he played all four years in college. Arguably Maynor could have been looked at as the top point guard coming out of last years draft. He was part of one of the best classes in a long time from a point guard standpoint. Just being selected 20th overall in that class shows how much value the Jazz saw in him.

Deron Williams did miss some time in mid November. During that three game stretch the Jazz inserted Maynor to play some big minutes. With the increased minutes Maynor averaged 17 points, 7 assists, and four rebounds a game. The shot selection may have not been the best and his turnover margin was a bit high. There isn’t a young guard in the league that doesn’t struggle in that area though.

In limited minutes overall with the Jazz, Maynor made the most of them and had decent numbers with 5 points and 3 assists a game. Oklahoma City will surely use Maynor more than the Jazz did. Shaun Livingston was averaging ten minutes a game before his departure, and based on Maynor’s skills we could see him getting around fifteen to seventeen a game.

Maynor is definitely a player to keep your eye on. They have a lot of athleticism and could play just about any five athletes on the floor. Oklahoma City wasted no time in getting Maynor involved by inserting him in the game against the Suns. He seems very comfortable already and adds that element of running with the core of players the Thunder have and allowing them to finish. Livingston was more of a steady half court point guard which tended to slow their offense down for stretches.

By Zack Cimini
Notjustagame23@gmail.com

Cleveland is looking once again at huge changes of trying to dig themselves out from the graveyard of the league. They seem to be headed in the right direction be retooling from the key place in the front office. Making changes up there has been a consistent off-season move though from the Cleveland Browns that has translated into zero improvement as a team. Someone of Mike Holmgren’s caliber is not going to be taking his time to see what he has.

By now the entire league knows the Browns have little to no talent on the offensive side of the football. Just look at the carousel of the backfield as a prime example. The Browns have shuffled through numerous running backs in Jamal Lewis, Chris Jennings, and Jerome Harrison. At times part of the reason for this issue was due to injuries in the backfield. It seemed that Jennings had earned the nod for more carries and a larger share when he had a solid outing that led to the Browns upset win over the Steelers. Magician Mangini though had his own new plans and fooled all fantasy owners by giving the work load to seldom used Jerome Harrison. With only 1.9 percent of fantasy owners starting Harrison that has to be the worst official huge outburst fantasy output not utilized in leagues.

The worse area that the Browns have had horrible management of decisions is at quarterback. The Derek Anderson and Brady Quinn show has been a long drawn out three year horrific episode. During Quinn’s rookie year was the only real reasoning for either or to make a case for themselves. Quinn was a rookie and like most they’re expected to learn from the sideline. Anderson handled the pressure of having a highly praised rookie breathing down his neck like a poised veteran. He had a torrid 2007 season that made him the top out of everyone’s preseason radar steal of the year from the quarterback position. After a year like that you could only figure that Anderson was going to hold a starting role similar to the way Drew Brees did fighting off Philip Rivers, and Brett Favre holding back Aaron Rodgers.

Soon though we all saw that Anderson just had a career year and could not ever break out of his funk. Partly the blame went to the fact that Braylon Edwards developed bad habits with dropped balls, lack of effort, and inability to handle being a number one receiver. You’d think Cleveland would have tried to build better talent at the position of receiver for Edwards and their quarterbacks. That never happened and the Browns finally parted ways with Edwards this year.

On the other side of the quarterback picture was Brady Quinn. He got into a few games in 2008 but was given the job this year based on Anderson ineffectiveness once again. We all know he will miss the last two games with his foot injury but lets break down the ten games he did play in this year. Quinn showed zero pocket precence and played more like a backup quarterback trying not too lose a game. He has to find his niche with the Browns system and trust his physical skills and mental preparation to take some risks downfield. We know that he can take what the defense gives him and make that dump off throw. Any quarterback can do that, but if the Browns are going to ascend even with a few extra wins in 2010 they’re going to need Quinn to elevate his game dramatically.

Don’t be surprised if Mike Vick enters the Browns sweepstakes in the off-season. Cleveland needs someone to put the pressure on Quinn to be more of a force. Both Anderson and Quinn can argue they had zero talent this year to accomplish anything. The main weapon for them happened to be Joshua Cribbs who has only 20 catches but was who they used to run gadget plays to break up the routine throws of Quinn. Holmgren will come in and get his quarterback some play makers. It’ll be up to Quinn to shake his overall career sixty six quarterback rating. If not, the Quinn project in Cleveland will be over and over quickly.

Maybe when Quinn slipped in the 2007 draft there was a main reason for it. Why EAS has used him as a spokesman we have no idea. It must be recession low budget spending.

By Zack Cimini
notjustagame23@gmail.com

The Atlanta Hawks were supposed to be a team similar to the Golden State Warriors of several years ago. A team that has budding young talent that can be scary on any night but the truth in their 8th seed would not blossom into much more than that. We saw the Warriors use their youth to upset the Dallas Mavericks and cause quite a stir for their style on the court. That did not make the proper move forward partly due to poor veteran leadership and the powerhouse of the western conference. Over in the East though the divisiveness of power has been usually considered between a few teams. The Boston Celtics, Cleveland Cavaliers, Orlando Magic, and up until last year the Detroit Pistons.

The team that’s replaced the Pistons and maybe started to even edge up on a few some of the top tier are the Atlanta Hawks. The organization has let coach Mike Woodson develop a great young core and it’s translated to an extremely unselfish team. On any given night a different Hawk player may rise to the occasion and be the leading scorer. Unlike most teams that have to rely on that go to player or second primary scorer the Hawks are so talented that they’ve deferred without flinching to the hot hand on a particular night. The generosity of distribution has the Hawks flying high and for the first time in awhile the leading sports franchise in the Atlanta area over the Falcons and Braves.

This isn’t more evident by the fact that six of their players are averaging ten points a game. What other team in the NBA has that type of potency and reliability on a given night? It’d be hard to find one. Currently, Joe Johnson, Jamal Crawford, Marvin Williams, Mike Bibby, Josh Smith, and Al Horford are the leading dynamic players that have stirred this tremendous turnabout. The good willed unselfishness displayed by their superior talent is started by their leader in Joe Johnson. Questioning his aggressiveness offensively to take over games use to be a problem, but with the growth of the team as a whole his all around talent is rubbing off. Johnson’s averaged over five assists a game for quite some time, and is the veteran leader of this team with Mike Bibby.

There is one key ingredient that has been the biggest difference of addition to this Atlanta Hawks team. That was the key signing of Jamal Crawford. Players know his game as he has been one of the leagues most electrifying scorers on several teams. He comes in and is not necessarily going to be a guy that sets up the offense and passes the ball into the post to Horford and Smith. When he is on the court you can expect Crawford to want to take over the game offensively. Be it no surprise that Crawford is the second leading scorer on the team averaging sixteen a game. He gets his shot off with regularity and is putting a shot up at a rapid pace per minutes played.

There are just moves that make perfect sense. Crawford was that missing piece to just slightly take that pressure off of guys that necessarily couldn’t put up 15-20 points a game every night. Players like Josh Smith, Al Horford, and Marvin Williams are going to have their nights of dominance, but bring more to the table with their athleticism to hinder teams. Credit for this team getting to the level of play they’re at has to all circle back to their leader in Mike Woodson. Woodson’s been a patient developer with this team and has brought in the necessary ingredients to get to this point.

How Crawford is only owned in 80 percent of Yahoo leagues is mind boggling. We would consider highly in grabbing Crawford as he is content with his role and you know he is going to be a consistent factor each night. As long as this team stays healthy expect to see Atlanta challenge strongly in the Eastern Conference playoffs just as they did two years ago taking the Celtics seven games, and then last year by defeating the Heat in round one. They’ve taken the necessary steps the past few years to get to this point. With all the attention still centered on the Celtics tremendous talent and LeBron that’s exactly how the Hawks would like it to remain.

By Zack Cimini
Notjustagame23@gmail.com

It seemed as if JJ Redick was ready to be labeled as most Duke high profiled college athletes do, and that is a major bust. Often times college powerhouses are built by the coaches too have complimentary players that fit the team perfectly. When Redick was drafted as a high first round pick by the Magic it seemed a pretty fair assessment that Redick was not going to pan out. Similar to Chris Duhon, another former Duke Blue Devil, Redick kept working on his game and improvements began to show here and there.

In the playoffs of 2009 Redick was able to show some toughness to knock down some shots here and there and by playing aggressive defense. Once the Magic signed Vince Carter, Jason Williams, and Matt Barnes it looked as if there would be limited minutes for Redick. When you can shoot the ball like Redick can though a team is going to find minutes for you. With Rashard Lewis’s early season suspension, Jameer Nelson going down to injury, and Jason Williams coming off a year in which he did not play basketball, minutes have arose to a career high average in 24 minutes a game for Redick.

When you enter the NBA and things don’t go your way off the bat it can be hard to remain focused on being that 10th-12th person on your teams rotation. That’s exactly what Redick was, and most of those players buried on benches get maneuvered around their whole career in that same role. Redick is worth a look at including on your fantasy nba teams if you are in a deeper league. He has eclipsed Anthony Johnson in the rotation for coming off the bench. With Jason Williams only playing 25 minutes a game it favors to see Redick likely keep hovering around the 20-24 minutes a game area.

Redick has exploded for a 27 point game already this year, and is coming off another game of over 20 points, scoring 20 against the Jazz. He is shooting the ball just about as good as any guard in the NBA right now. Percentage wise he is shooting 48 percent overall and 46 percent from three point range. Great statistics for people hurting in those columns in your rotisserie leagues. Factor in that over his last seven games he is averaging 12 points a game and two triples as well, while shooting 60 percent from beyond the arc.