Day 43: D-Will ain't dead yet, and Paul Millsap is awesome

(The Black Mamba. Illustration courtesy of Roger Huang)

It's draft day, and it's a snake draft. It's the third round. All the players you wanted to take here, all the guys you were hoping would fall to you, have been taken, and now you don't know what to do. Sure, there are a slew of guy's in the 30's and 40's that you'd want to take. But, you could just as easily get them later in the draft. You want to optimize your position, to get the most highly-rated player who's still lingering on the draft board. So you make the move to get A PLAYER, and all the way up to the start of the season, you're convinced you've done the right the thing. You convince yourself that this player is going to be an invaluable cog in your championship-bound fantasy basketball team.

And then the season starts. And you realize, quite suddenly, that you HATE the player you chose. In a fit of horror, you notice that some of the guys you skipped by (Paul Millsap, Josh Smith, Monta Ellis, Roy Hibbert) are all having awesome seasons, and meanwhile you're stuck with your not-quite-as-good contemporary, who's barely helping you at all.

You're smart though, so you try to get out ahead of this. You start sending out offers like crazy, hoping that someone will buy into your player's name recognition. You're hoping you can get out ahead of the impending wave of fantasy basketball advice articles saying that the guy you own is nowhere near as good as many initially thought. You see what Andre Drummond and Evan Turner and Isaiah Thomas are doing, and you consider trading for them. But you don't... because you feel that your player has so much value that you could do better. After all, why settle for just Drummond or Turner when you could get more?

So time passes, and it does little to justify your decision to draft this player. In fact, your player has somehow gotten worse. He's now on the injury report, and the analysts are starting to take out their retracting knives. You're running out of time to move this guy. Pretty soon the consensus is going to be that he's a total bust, so you go into a whole new gear with your trade offers. Now, you're offering him for guys who you could have taken at a much later round in the draft, and you feel kind of ashamed in doing this. It doesn't matter though, because you still can't get rid of this guy. He's still on your team.

Finally, you reach your limit. You're convinced that this disappointing player is actually a cancer -- that the whole reason he's playing this poorly is so he can personally sabotage your team. So you go crazy with your trade offers. You're sending him out for anyone even slightly close to him. In fact, you're so zealous to shell this guy that you're sending out offers that you, personally, know to be incredibly uneven deals in favor of the other team. Damn it, you just want him GONE. And you know what? You still can't get rid of him! The analysts are now ripping into this player like it's no tomorrow. He's now viewed as a pox, a raging disappointment. Everyone knows why you're offering these deals; they can sense your desperation, your eagerness to lose him. And as a result, they want no part of him.

Now, we're in the middle of December. You've tried -- god, how you've tried -- to lose this player. But you just can't do it. And it's not like you can just drop him; that'd be insanity. So, you've resigned yourself to riding it out with him. You're convinced you have no choice but to hope that he miraculously turns things around and starts playing better.

It sucks, but we all have an albatross like this on our fantasy team. Who's yours? Because mine is definitely Joakim Noah. Holy moly has he been a raging disappointment. (More on that later.) In the meantime...

• Deron Williams, who many might have viewed as such an albatross, finally returned to the court for the Nets and played terrific, scoring 25 points and adding 7 assists and 3 rebounds in 37 minutes. This was a much-needed outburst for his fantasy owners, who had to endure him being underused and playing terribly even before his prolonged injury absence. With this though, there's reason to believe he can again be a regular fantasy star. If it's still possible for you to buy into him, I highly recommend it.
• Paul Pierce also returned to the court for the Nets, playing 22 minutes off the bench and finishing with 4 points, 7 rebounds and 3 assists. Pierce should usurp Alan Anderson for the starting small forward job in the relative future, so while Pierce is nowhere near the player that he was in his Boston days, he should still be an okay enough stat-producer to be worth owning in most to all leagues.
• Kyrie Irving was terrific against the Knicks, scoring 37 points and adding 11 assists to go with 4 three's. Irving was in the midst of a rather disappointing season (by his standards), so this outing was no doubt greatly appreciated by his owners. His numbers are still down across the board from where they were a year ago though.
• J.R. Smith had a rough shooting night for the Knicks, scoring 14 points on 4 three's and going just 5-14 overall from the field. Smith's ownership has plummeted recently, and there's a small opportunity in place to buy low for him. No, he's not the player he was a year ago, but he can still be a decent source of three's and points, and he's such a streaky shooter that he's liable to put up a string of 20-point games right as you least expect it. When Tyson Chandler returns, Andrea Bargnani is going to see his role reduced, and Smith will go back to being the clear-cut No. 2 scoring option on the Knicks. Yes, there's a chance he could be moved if the Knicks continue to spiral into oblivion, but at some point this year, you'll be thrilled to own him (if only temporarily).
• Danny Granger is last exorcising himself from the bench and is set to make his season debut this Friday. Paul George has so clearly established himself as a superstar, and Lance Stephenson is such a key role player for the Pacers, that it's hard to see Granger being much of a fantasy factor off the bench for Indy, unless he can somehow stay perfectly healthy -- which he's incapable of doing. Granger is in the Paul Pierce realm of value right now. He could be an okay fantasy play, but by no means is he someone who you have to run out and get.
• Terrence Ross started at small forward for the Raptors and got 14 points, 4 three's and 4 rebounds in 38 minutes. Ross is looking like he'll be a nice source of three's if nothing else, but with the incoming flux of players from Sacramento in the Rudy Gay trade, I'm skeptical that he'll be much of a scoring factor. He's an okay add if you need three's, but otherwise I'm not drooling over him.
• Paul Millsap has been amazing lately. He posted 23 points, 12 rebounds, 3 assists, a block and 2 three's yesterday, and he's now hit a three in his last seven games, which is amazing considering he'd hit just 31 three's in the first seven years of his career. Almost overnight, Millsap has transformed into a dependable three-point shooter, and as a result, his value is now exponentially higher than what we thought it'd be at the start of the year. A poor man's Kevin Love who, unlike Love, can actually block shots and pick up steals, Millsap is a fantasy beast this season. Hopefully you didn't pass him up in favor of Joakim Noah, like ole ReetaeVelodus here did. God, what a mistake...
• John Henson continued his awesome play of late, notching 25 points, 14 rebounds, 3 steals and 6 blocks for the Milwaukee Bucks. Henson, quite simply, is making Larry Sanders an afterthought. Larry Drew may be a wacky coach who likes to screw with his lineup at any given opportunity, but I can't imagine that Henson could lose his starting job to Larry Sanders if the latter was magically healthy right now. Henson has no business being on the waiver wire, and Sanders doesn't deserve to be taking up space on your fantasy roster, at least until he's actually able to play.
• Khris Middleton had 8 points and 4 rebounds the other night. So, yeah. So much for that guy being someone you'd want to rush out and get. (I hate to be cynical, but for the most part, those super trendy guys who pop up on the waiver wire usually stop being good after a few games. Vitor Faverani? Shaun Livingston? Timofey Mozgov? And don't get me started on John Leur. Unless a player is trending in adds because they have a more significant role on their team, ala Tony Wroten, Terrence Jones and Kosta Koufos, most of the trendy waiver wire dudes in fantasy basketball are skippable if you're looking at the big picture.)
• Joakim Noah did not play for the Bulls on Tuesday, as he's now dealing with a bruised thigh. Noah is traveling with the team on the road and could play against the Bulls tonight, so this injury obviously isn't that severe. Still, the least Noah can do is be healthy right now, because he's been a galactic underachiever this season.
• Kobe Bryant had 20 points in 29 minutes for the Lakers. I imagine he'll be at full strength pretty soon -- though it remains to be seen if he'll be as athletic as we're accustomed to seeing. Steve Blake had 9 points, 10 assists and 5 rebounds and needs to be added pronto if he was dropped, as there's a legitimate concern that Steve Nash could retire and never play another second for the Lakers. Finally, Jodie Meeks got the nod at small forward for L.A., replacing Wesley Johnson in the starting unit. Meeks went for 13 points and 5 rebounds and should still be an okay source of three's, though that'll probably be about it. Johnson, meanwhile, can be safely abandoned in fantasy leagues.
• The Morris twins did work on Tuesday. Markieff Morris went for 15-and-7 and a block, while his twin brother Marcus Morris (who I've neglected to discuss this year, partially so no one would accuse Markieff for him) scored 22 points on 10-13 shooting and added 2 three's, 4 rebounds and a block. Markieff is the more complete star-ready performer, while Marcus is a fairly consistent three-point shooter with almost-as-good numbers. It's conceivable both brothers could be must-own players down the line, if of course both are able to play their way into the starting lineup over Miles Plumlee and Channing Frye. For now though, Markieff is the one you want to get ahold of.