A Brewer and a Fisher

OK, some fantasy game news, plus a rant that you can feel free to skip. As far as the fantasy game, you should now be able to sign up, login, and choose your team. Let me know if you come up against any bugs, anything confusing, etc. I haven't set the limits yet, but here are my general thoughts:

1. Each person chooses 20 players
2. Points are gained through all rounds of the playoffs, based on Win Score
3. Total points gained are simply the total Win Score for each player added together

So you would have to look at which players are going to go far in the playoffs, which will get a lot of time, which will play best. I think the first few players are no-brainers, but after that it could get interesting based on which team you think will go far.

Anyway, please leave comments on how things are working. It's still very rough, but the playoffs start in about week, so I wanted to get it out there.

Note: the following rant was written yesterday, before the last Jazz loss. It applies even more with Fisher's latest PAWS/min of -0.267, and Brewer only seeing 5 minutes of action.
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I hate to put another Utah post on here, but I just gotta rant. The Jazz and the Houston Rockets are in a race for home court advantage in their first-round playoff series, and the Jazz have just finished up a pathetic performance against Golden State and extended their losing streak to four.

Granted, streaks happen. Good teams lose a few in a row. Bad teams win. No big deal. But it gets more aggravating the closer we come to the playoffs, especially knowing this could cost the team home court against the Rockets. Winning playoff games in Houston? Not a trivial task.

As much as I love Jerry Sloan and the way he coaches, there is one thing he does that drives me insane, and that is how he always gives veteran players the benefit of the doubt over rookies. Sometimes it seems like he doesn't even consider talent level when doing so.

Now, Derek Fisher is a fantastic person. I respect him, I like him, I'm even glad he is on the Jazz, because I think his knowledge and experience has helped Deron Williams advance quicker than he may have otherwise done. But the man is killing the Jazz on the court. Killing them.

He's shooting under 39% on the year, 33% in the past month. He's been playing a lot of shooting guard, and I'd like someone to explain to me why a 32-year old man who is 6'1" is guarding the likes of Kobe Bryant and Michael Redd. Fisher's WP48(approx.) is -0.015. Negative!

This would all make sense if there were no other options. But there is a 22-year old, 6 foot 7 inch option sitting on the bench. Sometimes this option sits on the bench ALL. GAME. LONG. It's Ronnie Brewer. He's shooting 52% on the year, and has an approximate WP48 of .139.

We can go over all the arguments against giving minutes from Fish to Brewer. He's inexperienced. His stats came in garbage minutes. He can't sustain over more playing time. He doesn't know how to defend the superstars. He's just a rookie!

Fine. But we'll never know until he gets more time, right? Hopefully the last two games are signs of the future. Brewer played 18 and 33 minutes, garnering PAWS/min of .282 and .138. Unfortunately, those were negated by Fisher's 31 and 29 minutes with PAWS/min of -.113 and -.215, and the Jazz lost both games.

If I were in charge here (and luckily I'm not) the main lineup would be Williams, Brewer, Kirilenko(or Millsap when Andrei is injured), Boozer and Okur. Fisher would only get in the game for the 10-12 minutes Deron Williams is resting. Then the Jazz could maximize his leadership and teamwork skills while minimizing his effect on the court.