It's been awhile since I last talked about my league (Rotowire Rules, League ID 128896, password ball) in this space, but in the last few weeks I've learned something: it can be good to stand pat if you have a strong team.  At my last update I was in 12th place and my budget was down into the $190s as my team stalled due to mismanagement.  Or, more accurately lack of management, because though I give you guys all of my tips in this article I often don't have time to take my own advice.  Worse, I suffered from "a little knowledge is a dangerous thing" syndrome, as I would make early-week moves due to concentrated games that would require that I sell a player mid-week when the games dried up…only I wouldn't get back to sell them, and by the time I did it was too late and I had already taken a loss.  If you are going to speculate in the market you have to be committed and do it full-force, and since I wasn't my team was taking a beating.

In the last few weeks, though, I have finally recognized my weaknesses and made strengths out of them.  Since I know I don't have the time to micro-manage my team I stopped trying to and instead spent my entire budget on the best nine players that I could afford.  I didn't worry about schedule at all, and if anything I used the info that I gather for the Team Building section every week to make sure that even the lower-priced players that I picked would produce.  After that, I let it go.  Every so often one of my players gets injured or hits a prolonged cold streak and I trade him for someone else, but for the most part I have been getting out of the way and letting my team play.

And you know what?  My squad is slowly sneaking back into this.  I'm up to eighth place now and within realistic range to catch most of the teams in front of me.  The guy in first (X Box All Stars) has put some major separation between his team and the pack, but everyone else is a potential target. 

Am I completely maximizing my team?  No, I don't think so, because every week I miss out on potential quick-gains in the budget or concentrations of big points that I could be taking advantage of if I lived and breathed this game like I used to be able to before I discovered the joys (and lacks of sleep) of fatherhood.  But in the absence of that time it can be better to emphasize quality over quantity and let your team grow around your good value picks.  It may be hard to get your team to look exactly the way you want it, but once you do maybe let it ride for awhile and see if the understated approach might not work better for you too.

Team Building: Weekly scoring trends for bargain shoppers

Through this season I will identify the highest priced players in the league, and then give you alternative players that produced at a similar level but with a much lower price tag.  The point is to show that spending your entire budget on the high priced players isn't the best use of your money. 

The top of the leader board this week looks like a throwback to last season among the High Priced Crew (average cost $49.80), with LeBron James, Chris Paul and Dwyane Wade battling for the best average of the week.  The market is slowly realizing that Paul and Wade are turning it on, with both of their price tags getting up into the mid-$40s this week.  LeBron has actually come down about $10, but for some reason Kobe Bryant's price is holding steady in the mid-upper $60s despite his scoring average being the lowest among the High Priced Crew among those that played.  Carmelo Anthony also continues to hold a slot on the team with a tag over $37 despite missing a week of game action.

On the Budget Squad (average cost $11.65) we have the first crew lacking Zach Randolph and Gilbert Arenas for the first time in more than a month.  Probably just an off week for Randolph, but for obvious reasons we won't see Arenas' name in this space for awhile.  We've got two player in Kenyon Martin and Lamar Odom that made this team while picking up the slack for injured teammates, and we have another in Samuel Dalembert that consistently produces huge numbers when he plays…but his playing time is so sporadic that it is hard to predict.  Nevertheless, all have done well over the last week and are low-priced value that has competed with the big boys of late.

• Kenyon Martin $10.36 (LeBron James $67.15)
• Lamar Odom $16.23 (Kobe Bryant $65.21)
• Corey Maggette $13.82 (Dwyane Wade $45.19)
• Tyreke Evans $15.25 (Chris Paul $42.50)
• Samuel Dalembert $6.80 (Dwight Howard $41.60)
• Antawn Jamison $13.82 (Carmelo Anthony $37.12)

Beating the Market: the week ahead

Two short-term strategies have emerged to try to beat the market.  One is to pick up players that are going to play a lot of games in a given week, to maximize short-term profit vs. production without having to worry much about player locks and rising commissions.  The other is to schedule on a daily basis, paying attention to players that play back-to-back games and/or play on days with not very many games scheduled that might see daily spikes in price.  Each strategy can be good for making money in a hurry, but you need to really stay on top of things for it to work.  So in this space, I will give you the information that you need to adopt either strategy for the upcoming week. 

Weekly prospectors (1/11 - 1/17): There are 12 teams with four games this week (Pistons, Pacers, Clippers, Heat, Bucks, Hornets, Knicks, Thunder, Suns, Spurs, Jazz, Wizards) and two teams with two games (Nets, Trail Blazers).  Everyone else plays three times this week.

Daily Prospectors: There are three days this week with fewer than six games:
Tuesday (1/12) five games: Pistons/Wizards, Rockets/Bobcats, Clippers/Grizzlies, Lakers/Spurs, Magic/Kings
Thursday (1/14) two games: Bulls/Celtics, Cavaliers/Jazz
Sunday (1/17) two games: Mavericks/Raptors, Jazz/Nuggets

Back-to-back schedule:

Monday/Tuesday
Two games: Pistons
Zero games: Mavericks, Nets, Trail Blazers

Tuesday/Wednesday
Two games: Rockets, Clippers, Lakers, Magic, Spurs, Wizards
Zero games: Bulls, Cavaliers, Raptors, Jazz

Wednesday/Thursday
Two games: Celtics
Zero games: Bobcats, Pistons, Grizzlies, Kings, Raptors

Thursday/Friday
Two games: Bulls
Zero games: Nuggets

Friday/Saturday
Two games: Bobcats, Pistons, Pacers, Clippers, Grizzlies, Heat, Bucks, hornets, Knicks, Thunder, Suns, Kings, Spurs, Wizards
Zero games: Celtics, Nuggets

Saturday/Sunday
Two games: Jazz
Zero games: Hawks, Celtics, Bulls, Warriors, Rockets, Lakers, Timbewolves, Nets, Magic, 76ers, Trail Blazers

Sunday/Monday
Two games: Mavericks
Zero games: Cavaliers, Pacers, Heat

Value stocks

The market moves so fast that by the time this article comes out many of the player values will have already changed.  Nevertheless, these are some players worth keeping your eyes on. 

Danny Granger ($25.82) and Troy Murphy ($10.89): Both Granger and Murphy returned from injury this week and still have slightly depressed prices.  When healthy Granger is a threat to break onto the High Priced team, and Murphy consistently outproduces his moderate price tag.

David Lee ($21.08):  Lee has been a high efficiency scorer with excellent rebound numbers for a long time now, but over the last few weeks he has been adding assists to the repertoire.  He has at least five assists in six of his last 10 games, a wrinkle that cements him among the higher scorers in the league.

Lamar Odom ($16.23) and Andrew Bynum ($15.62): With Pau Gasol on the shelf, the other two talented big men on the Lakers have been putting up their own huge numbers.  Odom in particular has stepped up, pulling down 16.3 boards to go with 11.5 points, 7.0 assists and 1.5 steals over the last week.

Antawn Jamison ($12.83): Jamison has taken the early lead in filling in for Gilbert Arenas' production, scoring 29.5 points with 8.8 boards over the last week since Arenas' suspension.

Rajon Rondo ($33.47), Rasheed Wallace ($8.65) and Kendrick Perkins ($9.11): Much like Gasol on the Lakers, Kevin Garnett's absence from the Celtics line-up has opened up time and production opportunities for the other two big men.  Rondo has taken the most advantage, though, with the extra available rebounds making him a nightly triple-double threat.

Samuel Dalembert ($6.80): In the 21 games this season that Dalembert has played fewer than 29 minutes he has averaged 6.5 boards and 1.5 blocks per game.  In the 15 games that he has played 29 or more minutes he has averaged 11.7 boards and 3.1 blocks.  Dalembert has played more than 29 minutes in three straight games now, and as long as he holds onto his playing time makes a good value pick.

The views expressed by RotoWire.com represent only the views of  the writers; they do not represent the views of the NBA or any NBA  team.