I've been near the top in the RotoWire staff league and feeling pretty good about my team until a spate of injuries hit this week. Tracy McGrady, Ron Artest, Chris Wilcox and Andrei Kirilenko are all hurt and costing me places in the standings. That's cool, injuries are a part of fantasy. It's happened before and it will happen again. Winning fantasy leagues involves luck sometimes. Until this past week, it looked like blocks was the only category keeping me down. This is a pretty deep league and the pickings were mighty slim on the waiver wire. David Harrison? I tried him and be barely played. He had a nice little run when Jermaine O'Neal was out of action, but Harrison was little used when J.O. came back, then got hurt himself.

Then came an NBA transaction and it was time for me to pounce: the Bobcats traded two guys to get Nazr Mohammed. There must be a reason why Mohammed only averages 18 minutes per game for his career, but surely a team so in need of a frontcourt presence to take some of the pressure of Emeka Okafor would play Mohammed 30 minutes a night. I haven't watched a lot of Mohammed before, but I knew what he could do with regular playing time. He's not a ferociuos shot blocker, but his blocks per minute numbers indicated he'd have 1-plus as a starter getting 30 minutes a night. I overbid on him, too, thinking his blocks would move me up in the category. I'm paying $20 (FAAB $100) for what he can do for me here and now. I won't need him next year. And my plan was working perfectly. Once he entered the Bobcats' starting lineup, Mohammed looked like a shrewd acquisition. In five starts, he had three double-doubles, blocked eight shots and was averaging over 14 points and nearly 12 rebounds per game. I remember watching him play a couple of games on NBA League Pass. He was slow to react on defense, wasn't very good on switches and didn't look he was paying very good attention while out there, but I wouldn't sweat the defense as long as the Bobcats needed a big body -- and that looked like it would be the case for rest of the season at the very least.

Problem... problem solved. Not so fast. Charlotte is led by first-year coach Sam Vincent. And apparently, Vincent is a tweaker. He likes to fiddle with his rotations and lineups. Vincent has decided he doesn't want Okafor guarding quicker power forwards and having to guard near the perimeter. That doesn't utilize his strength. I'm down with that; Okafor is a strong interior defender and the team can maximize his value near the basket. But that means he moves to center and Gerald Wallace starts at power forward. Not Mohammed. If Mohammed has trouble reacting on the inside, he'll be toast guarding away from the basket. So Vincent is brining Mohammed off the bench, where he's averaging about 18 minutes a game -- his career average. I guess if the cream rises to the top, the other stuff sinks to its own level. Mohammed has two blocks in four games off the bench -- all of which have been single-singles to the tune of 5 ppg and 5 rpg. And with me missing production from the aforementioned injured players, I can't afford to keep his buttocks in the lineup and wait for Vincent to change his mind, which I expect him to do at some point. That's what I'm noticing about Vincent: he doesn't stay with a plan too long. And he's a little inconsistent. I remember in training camp, when May went down and Primoz Brezec was mysteriously absent, he said Ryan Hollins would start at center because he wanted to keep Okafor at power forward. He didn't want Okafor playing center, and now he's got him playing center. And with Raymond Felton, he said he didn't want Felton playing too much shooting guard because it was stifling his development as a point guard. And now he's moved Felton to the two, because he felt Felton had become less aggressive as a point guard. Felton seemed fine to me. He was getting to the line over five times a game and it doesn't seem like Charlotte is 13th in the Eastern Conference because Felton was playing point guard. And I'm still waiting to see Jared Dudley play more. Vincent feels his job is to win this season, and while Charlotte's only four games out of eighth place, clearly Vincent needs to think about a year down the road. Doesn't he? I don't know if any of this is a good reason to continue starting Mohammed, but his contract goes on for another three years after this one, and the team isn't about to solve its big man problem overnight. May has to come back from microfracture surgery and the soon-to-be 34-year-old Othella Harrington is outta here after this year. It looks like it will be Plan B for me starting next week. Hello to my starting lineup, Brian Skinner.

Here and There

I'm all amped for the Celtics/Pistons tonight. Detroit's won 11 in a row and the Celtics haven't lost since Detroit beat them at the Garden eight Celtic wins ago. In the parlance of the times, that game was an "instant classic." I expect nothing less tonight in Detroit.

Love seeing the Hornets at 22-11 and in the playoff hunt. Chris Paul will be the league's MVP, or should be given serious consideration. Tyson Chandler is a beast, and David West is among the top scoring fours in the league right now. New Orleans' starting five is among the best in the league and are second only to Boston in the NBA's Lenovo +/- Stat. There's a good reason they are second: they have no bench. The starters are playing a ton of minutes lately and I don't know how long they can last. I saw that problem before the season started and it continues today. If they are going to stay in top 4-5 of the Western Conference, they will need to avoid injuries and trade for some bench help. They need scorers at forward or in the backcourt, along with a competent backup for Chandler. Once Melvin Ely (fractured eye socket) gets healthy, he'll be given a chance to back up Chandler, but if West goes down (he hurt his hip Friday night and is questionable Saturday), there's no one to replace him. My apologies to Ryan Bowen.