Week 8 is Great...

It's Saturday morning, 8am. Jayne and Ryan are still sleeping. I am up watching soccer in HD. It's one week to Christmas. The busiest 4 week stretch of my 14 year career at ICBC is over. And the JBL is as competitve as ever. Life is good.

Week 8 has been an interesting one as we've seen a couple of significant injuries to key players. Namely Joakim Noah, Rajon Rondo, and Yao Ming. Yes, Yao hasn't been a factor this season but I think French's next move regarding the big fella is pretty easy at this point. Yao is done in the NBA in my opinion.

I already discussed Benny's loss of Noah. He has put Lebron on the block. I would imagine this is the classic - "I'll trade one of my grade A players for two of your grade B players". We'll see if he can get it done.

And it appears that Arctic has lost Rondo for a couple of weeks as well. Arctic did the right thing last night and signed Nate Robinson. When you lose a stud player - you have to get his back-up. Smart move by Crikker.

Idaho pulled off another good move on the FA wire last night. He signed Ben Gordon. Sure, BG is not one of my favorite players, but with Idaho losing Brandon Roy for a week it's not a bad idea to sign a player who is clearly underachieving on a very bad team. Idaho now has to hope that BG wakes up from his coma. Of course, Idaho could have signed Rudy Fernandez as it appears Rudy could benefit from the absence of Roy and now Batum.

I also like Bangkok's signing of JJ Hickson. Here's another player with significant upside who is just sucking the bone right now. However, long term, do we think that Antawn Jamison is simply going to play out the year in Cleveland? Won't the Cavs trade him for youngsters at some point? Which means Hickson should be fantasy relevant again down the road. Rick is hoping sooner rather than later I'm sure.

So if Hickson is going to be good again - why did Golden drop him. Well, a couple of reasons. I needed steals desperately (Thabo and Brewer) and I may have discovered a gem in Spencer Hawes. He has been a real find for my squad this week. I know he's not going to average 13ppg, 8reb, and 2blks a game for the rest of the season - but it certainly appears that he can be a serviceable center moving forward. So, with Hawes emerging, Hickson was the odd man out. I don't have time to wait for him to fantasy relevant again. I need to put players out there now that can play and hopefully improve my place in the standings. Also, Hickson is $17 bucks so he's not worth keeping.

Talk about a big surprise player in week 8. Let's discuss Kyle Lowry. Oh my. What a week. And for that matter, what a stretch he's had since Aaron Brooks has been out. When Brussels traded Tyreke Evans for Iggy and Lowry - who knew that Lowry was the best player in the deal?? What a great deal for Brussels.

What will Houston do when Brooks comes back? Can the two co-exist? Will Houston want to move Brooks or Lowry? I say Brooks because it seems clear to me that Houston is better with Lowry at the helm. I also think the trade market for Aaron Brooks would be very good as well. Teams like Sacramento and Charlotte could certainly use a PG with 20ppg potential. And what about Portland?? With Roy out - and Andre Miller apparently "slow" - wouldn't a homecoming of the Oregon product make sense? Anyways, Brooks is one of the players I expect to be moved in the coming weeks.

Plenty of rumors surrounding Gilbert Arenas and the Magic. Really? Acquiring Gilbert makes the Magic a contender with the Celtics and Heat? Really? I'm not buying it. We'll see if this deal goes down.

And Charlotte is apparently shopping S-Jax and Gerald Wallace. Will they move one of them? I think the answer could be yes considering last season Charlotte was a playoff team (albeit a bad one) and now they are struggling mightily at 9-17. With MJ and Larry Brown running the show, I can't see them standing pat and watching this team struggle all season. I really expect Charlotte to make a deal.

Well, that's it for me this morning. Ryan is up. Coffee is brewing. Today will be a great day.