---

Thinkin’ About Early Blockbuster Fantasy Basketball Trades So you need boards or blocks and you have way too many threes. You’re thinkin’ about packaging Wally Szczerbiak and Mo Pete and convincing the Elton Brand owner that these two scrubs make his team better. He thinks you’re crazy. I think you’re crazy. Heck, Wally and Mo think you’re crazy.

So, you’re a bad trader.

Well here’s a nice strategy to use when trying to shake up your team a bit. You should first remember to offer something that actually helps both teams so the league will qualify it as fair, and, most importantly, you should always consider the buy low, sell high method. This way, you’re only temporarily making your trade partner’s team better, while keeping yours from enduring the trauma you’ll receive when your players stock begins to fall.

Buy when stock is low and you see it rising soon, and sell when stock is high and you see it dropping. You learned this in Econ right? Remember college? Me neither.

Here are some guys you should buy low or sell high before it’s too late:

Buy Low

Mike Bibby (Sac – PG) Big mini me is off to a shaky start at best. With Shareef and Bonzi in the mix, the Kings have had trouble getting into their normal offensive flow. Bibby’s numbers are down across the board and because of his early struggles, his minutes have suffered as well. Don’t expect this for much longer. When the new pieces adjust to the old ways of Sacramento, look for Bibby to play even better than last season. The Sacramento bench is no longer loaded and the losses of ball handlers Bobby Jackson and Cuttino Mobley make it absolutely necessary for Bibby’s minutes and production to rise. Buy this guy low while you still can. Hey, he’s averaging 15 points and 5 assists but it’s just a matter of time before he averages 20 and 6.

Emeka Okafor (Cha – PF, C) Last year’s rookie of the year is headed for big things, but how he’s started this season, some have been saying he’s headed for the bench. You hear about a sophomore slump and now you can see just what they’re talking about. But that’s not bad news. If there’s ever a good time to slump it’s at the beginning of the season, no doubt. He’s shooting under 40%, which in no way will continue and as he begins to shoot a better percentage, look for his aggressiveness on the defensive end to spike, meaning more boards and blocks. He’s worked with Hakeem “The Dream” Olajuwon in the off season, and while that may mean 10 pump fakes and 5 spins before a shot, it also means new moves and a better all around game. Buy now before “The Nightmare” becomes “The Dream 2”.

Jamal Crawford (NY – SG) In the fantasy world, the Knicks are like Hawks on the hard court; inconsistent, inefficient, and a cause for severe migraines. There are two people to blame. 1. Isiah Thomas for being the worst gm in the league, and 2. Larry Brown for his elusive style of coaching and play. But as they continue to lose, look for something to change. Marbury wants to play the 2, and the only other viable option at the point is Crawford (little Nate can’t start this soon). Whether Marbury stays or goes, or whether or not he moves to the 2, look for the ball to spend more time in Crawford’s hands. Buy him now while the Knicks lineups are still uncertain and Marbury continues to mope like the leader he never was. Richardson has found his way to the doghouse early meaning more minutes for Crawford and the other Knick swingmen. Though he won’t shoot as many threes, his efficiency should rise, meaning more assists and for the first time in a long time a fg% over 40%. And one more thing, shame on you Isiah, you let your one future star go, I can’t wait for Sweetney to unload on your no good Knicks. Oh, and Isiah, as you look to trade away another star in the making, look to the Lakers, we need someone else’s mistakes to help us out.

Brad Miller (Sac – C) Just as Bibby is struggling with his new teammates, so is Brad Miller, and thus his monstrous fantasy abilities seem to have dwindled. But let’s not speak too soon. We draft Brad for his domination of the stat lines and so far this year, he isn’t cutting it. But it’s early, and he’s learning that though he can pass the rock like its hot, his new teammates are used to holding the ball and freezing out the rest of the team. Is everybody still wondering how Shareef has been so good but never on a playoff team? I’m not. Brad has a good b ball IQ and I expect him to find a way to get it done, help his team, and become monster Miller once again. The team executes best when the ball is in this guy’s hands and soon enough, his team will recognize it. I expect he’ll shoot above 50%, grab 8.5 boards, and his points will spike up to somewhere around 16. 4.5 assists should make this guy a top center once again in fantasy ball. And to think, had Shaq connected on that wild punch years ago, we may have never mentioned this guy again. Thanks for purposely missing, Shaq.

Buy Low if you still can!

Michael Sweetney (Chi – PF) If you’ve had him on your bench, just waiting until this moment, congratulations, you saved yourself a star. He’s cracked the starting line up as the “Tyson Chandler the scorer” experiment showed worse results than the “Isiah Thomas GM” experiment. This guy is big as a bus, clogging up lanes and filling the paint, banging away with that huge caboose and scoring like the scorer the Bulls need. I see him at 16 and 10 and with a fg% somewhere around 50%. Isiah, can you say “Huge Mistake?” Of course you can.

Sell High

Michael Redd (Mil – SG) This guy has started hot, leading the young Bucks to a surprising start. Sure this guy can shoot, I won’t say otherwise, but can he continue to shoot this well? Right now Redd is shooting a blistering 55% from three point land and close to 48% from the field. In years past, he’s shot about 35% from three and as the Bucks lose momentum I’d expect Redd’s shot attempts to go up and his percentages to go down. There’s no way he shoots even close to 50% from three for the season, so why not trade him now while he still does? He’s overrated regardless, people see he scores in the twenties and forget that he can’t board or pass, and even though it’s in the eighties, his ft% is down as well. In one league I’m in, some fool traded away Brad Miller for Michael Redd, and because of their ill-fitting starts nobody complained about the trade, but in a month the Miller owner will most definitely call his old trade partner a fool on the message board and we’ll all laugh and question his GM ability. Get rid of Redd while he’s still Red hot. Trust me, that fire’s out soon.

Alonzo Mourning (Mia – C) He blocks shots and gets dunked on and we love to see both, and in Shaq’s absence he does a fine job of grabbing boards and scoring when they need him to, but you can see the minutes taking their toll on ZO. His production will most certainly be down when Shaq returns as his minutes will be cut in half and though some might say that Shaq will play less time this year and ZO will be valuable still, they are forgetting about Michael Doleac. Van Gundy gets this guy about 14 minutes a game and so ZO has even less minutes to play when Doleac returns from injury. Look for the guy in your league that’s last in blocks and trade ZO while you can still get some value in return.

Eddie Jones (Mem – SG, SF) Nobody saw this one coming, and hopefully, nobody sees it going away, which leaves you, his owner, in perfect position to sell high and rejoice as Eddie Jones falls from the top. Like Michael Redd, Eddie is shooting at a great percentage in this early season. In seasons past, from three point land, Eddie has shot around 37% and this season, that number’s skyrocketed up to 46%. With his threes being up to 2.8 a game (last season he was at 1.8) nobody has noticed his rebounding totals taking a hit as well as his assists, which are minimal anyway. His minutes and production are slowly decreasing under Mike Fratello and as Mike Miller continues heating up, look for Eddie to drop off even further. In his last three games his fg attempts have dropped as Fratello has probably started to stress the team’s need to feed Pau in the post. Its hell in Memphis for fantasy ball, and that ain’t changing anytime soon.

Agree? Disagree? Argue for arguments sake? Fantasy NBA questions? Email me at stankubrick@aol.com

InsideHoops.com is the web's best basketball site. Read daily.