TOP 5 NBA NEWSMAKERS FROM WEDNESDAY 7/21/10 TO TUESDAY 7/27/10

We have many great articles planned leading up to the 2010-2011 Fantasy Basketball season including sleepers, busts, rookies, strategy, full player rankings and projections all wrapped up into a nifty draft kit to help you win your league next year. Below, we analyze the top fantasy basketball news items from the previous week.

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5. Bynum, Andrew C LAL had surgery

The surgery repaired a torn meniscus. He will be fine to start the season, but you have to assume reduced minutes, scheduled rest, and a week or two off due to soreness/injury this season. He's on my no-draft list, despite his obvious talent.

4. Pekovic, Nikola C/PF officially signed with MIN

If you're in a deep league, you may want to keep an eye on him as he backs up Darko Milicic and Kevin Love. If he can manage 30 minutes per game, he could put up decent numbers for a fantasy C2. His European numbers were similar to those of Marc Gasol.

3. Barnes, Matt SF (ORL) signed with LAL

It's a two-year discount deal ($3.6M), but he is clearly more concerned with getting a ring than with padding his personal stats and wallet, which is admirable in this day and age. He is not draft-worthy in fantasy, but if Artest gets hurt, he could be a good fill-in both for the Lakers and fantasy teams.

2. Flynn, Jonny PG MIN will miss 3-4 months

It's hip surgery, so he could have a slow November (if he plays) and December, and then he might have trouble winning more than 25 minutes of the point guard job from Luke Ridnour after returning. And now he has Telfair hanging around. Flynn is now an end-game pick only in deep leagues where you can use some extra assists from January on.

Sessions escapes the Flynn/Ridnour timeshare only to land behind Mo Williams. Williams can play shooting guard, so Sessions should get his 25 minutes, but don't expect a break-out by any means. Hollins is worthless in fantasy, as is Telfair. West was waived, and it'll be somewhat interesting to see where he lands, but he will likely be worthless in fantasy, too. You just can't count on him for anything more than inconsistent spurts of production.

ALSO

Josh Howard F/G WAS hopes to be 100% by October after ACL surgery. You could do worse than spend a lottery pick on him late in a deep league... Austin Daye SF DET will apparently play some shooting guard this year. The bottom line is that the Pistons are looking to get him more involved, so though he's not worth drafting, just keep in mind that he could be a reasonable injury replacement in a 4-game week in a deep league... The following players signed this past week, but they aren't likely to be fantasy assets: Will Bynum PG DET, Jannero Pargo G (CHI) GS, and Josh Powell PF (LAL) ATL.

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