Day 67: Second and third thoughts

("Promise Land," by one of my favorite minimalistic illustrators: FaustSketcher)

Hey guys. We need to talk.

I've been doing this blogging-everyday thing for a little over two months now, and there's still about 100 days left in the NBA season. And... well, I've done some soul-searching. (I know, uh-oh right?) And I've decided that while I love this blog and don't mind writing about fake hoops, the rate at which I've been doing it is simply unsustainable. It takes me about an hour to an hour and a half each day to go over what happened in the NBA the previous night, and to gather the stats, and to then make a guestimate on what those stats mean. For that effort, I'd like to think I've provided a pretty comprehensive service, especially in a field like fantasy basketball -- where there seriously aren't a lot of good fantasy basketball blogs. (Erik from Points in the Paint recently closed up shop, which is quite the bummer.)

I had something of an epiphany this morning, as for the first time in a long time, I realized that I really didn't feel like writing about fantasy basketball today. And yet, I also felt that I had to, that it was an obligation, which is a problem. You see, even though I don't mind all this writing I do and would honestly love to be able to make money from it, the return-on-investment for this fantasy basketball blog is very, very small. It's not practical to do this much writing when the returns are so minimal. In the beginning, I was able to look at what I considered mediocre site stats and disregard them, because surely -- as time went on -- the site would grow in popularity, and the numbers would go up. But in fact, the opposite has occurred.

The number of visitors Broken Leagues gets has dropped steadily over the past few weeks, and I finally figured out why. At the beginning of the season, fantasy basketball advice was in high demand, since everyone was still alive in their league, and they were unsure which dudes were good and which ones sucked. So, this site had some amount of appeal. But as time went on, a lot of people either fell into a good comfort place with their teams, or they started to do so badly that they more or less abandoned their leagues, and thus no longer were interested in getting advice about it. And so (I speculate), the only people who'd still be interested in fantasy basketball advice this late into the season are either diehards or people who genuinely enjoy my writing (if so, thanks!) or both. (It also probably has a lot to do with my schedule, which has forced me to get these articles out later and later in the day, but there's not a lot I can do about that.)

No, I'm not pulling the rug completely out from under you, dear reader, or at least I'm not trying to. I'm not totally going away; I'm going to try to post things basketball-ish every few days. But I just can't keep up this once-a-day commitment anymore -- at least, not while this site is independent. I realize that in breaking this rhythm, I may lose some of the visitors who actually do come here fairly regularly (since the once-a-day thing is kind of the selling point of this blog), and that's unfortunate. But what can I say? Such is life.

The frustrating thing, if you don't mind me bearing my soul for a minute, is that I know I'm a good enough writer to babble about fantasy sports for a living, and yet there's like this impenetrable wall between me and all the sites I'd like to write for because the editors -- the gatekeepers for those sites -- are incredibly difficult to get in contact with. Even if I could get in contact with those people, it's really, really, REALLY hard to find a writing situation that doesn't suck ass, as zombie Lincoln would say. Editors are finicky, annoying, bitchy people to deal with, and unless you already have a name or resume that they're totally smitten with, there's a good chance they'll forget who you are, and why you want to write for them, and generally disregard your very existence. You'd think that people who are on the computer all the time would be really good at checking their emails and getting back to you in timely manner, but oh would you be wrong. (I can go more into specifics if you want, but I'd get totally side-tracked, so I'll cut it off there.)

Essentially, I'm calling it quits on The Dailies. The day could very well arise when I'll want to resurrect it, but consider these the last Daily blurbs you're get on here for a while, ever. So soak em' up!

• Iman Shumpert decided that he'd make me look bad after I poo-pooed his awesome performance on Thursday night. Shump was almost better on Friday, dropping 26 points on 6-6 shooting from downtown to go with 5 assists and 4 rebounds. He had scored a grand total of 42 points and had 6 three's in the span of 12 games, but in his last two, Shumpert has scored 53 points and has gone 12-14 from three-point range, which is astonishing. So long as he plays on a team with Carmelo Anthony, J.R. Smith, Andrea Bargnani and no point guard of note, I can't fathom him being that great of a fantasy option, though I'm happy to eat my words after being so negative towards him yesterday. Way to go, Shump.
• Kendall Marshall was extraordinary in his first ever start with the Lakers, scoring 20 points and adding 15 assists in what I would term a MCW-esque debut in their starting lineup. Marshall, obviously, is a must-own player over the next month or so, and if he can actually maintain such a high level of play, it's not impossible he could keep the job outright. There are way too many variables and other point guards on the Lakers to determine how good he'll be in a month or two, but the important thing isn't to worry about that and to just pick him up now while you have the chance.
• Chris Paul will be out for 3-5 weeks, becoming yet another high-profile point guard to catch the injury bug. And so begins the era of Darren Collison, who should be quite excellent over the next month or so for the Clippers. He's a must-own guy as well, although, I would much rather own Marshall, if only because that Lakers roster is so barren right now that he could put up some tantalizingly good numbers over the next few weeks.
• Pau Gasol went bonkers against the Jazz, scoring 23 to go with 17 rebounds, 8 assists and 3 blocks. This could very well be the last great game he'll ever have in a Lakers uniform, as it's entirely possible he'll get dealt to the Cavs next week for Andrew Bynum. Either way, it's a much-needed great line from him, which was likely helped from him playing against the worst team in the NBA.
• Ryan Anderson left yesterday's game on a stretcher and he was taken to the hospital after a scary fall against the Celtics. Any time a player has to leave the playing area on a cart, you know you're dealing with a pretty severe injury, and hopefully Anderson will be able to recover from whatever it is he suffered. Assuming he'll be out for at least a few weeks, Al-Farouq Aminu becomes a viable option in standard leagues, as with Jason Smith also out, he should be in line for plenty of minutes for quite a while.
• By the way, you guys are always welcome to hit me up at @reetae_ on Twitter, if you're ever so inclined.