How long do you give your sleeper/young players to produce before cutting them loose? This is always one of the key questions early in any season, and answering it correctly any given year can be the difference between a good team and a so-so one. The problem is that there's no consistent right answer. If you cut Ben Gordon in his rookie season after his bad first week you missed out on the eventual 6th Man of the Year. On the other hand, last year I held onto Randy Foye long enough to miss out on hot early season pickups like Leandro Barbosa and Monta Ellis. It's hard to gauge.

This season, I'm approaching it on a team-by-team basis but I'm more likely to cut my losses early for a hot producer than I've been in the past. I've already cut Thaddeus Young (one of my favorite rookie sleepers) for Antoine Wright in one league, and Marco Belinelli for Damon Stoudamire in another league. My feeling this year (after being burnt last year) is that I'd rather take advantage of a hot player and hope that, at the very least, I can find a tradeable. And then later on, if it appears that my former young player is about to start producing, hopefully I can get to them on the FA wire before any of my league-mates do. It is risky, but every decision in fantasy sports carries risk, and sometimes risk and reward go hand-in-hand.