This is a critical time of year for both the NBA and your fantasy teams, because we have entered the home stretch. In the NBA, the good teams are ramping up their games for a playoffs push while the poor teams are limping to the finish line with one eye upon their future draft picks and summer moves. This translates to fantasy as well, because the impact players from good teams will tend to play at a high level consistently from here on in, whereas the impact players on poor teams may not play as much or as hard down the stretch as they succumb to injuries, poor team chemistry, or just the mental strain of finishing a grindingly long season when there is no chance for a postseason reward.

Because the fantasy trade deadline in most leagues is either here already or is coming up very soon, for many of you this is the last chance to make trades to set your team up best for your fantasy postseason run. Therefore, let's talk about a few of the impact players that are on poor teams that you may want to consider trading before their value fades down the stretch.

•Dwyane Wade, MIA: We have been preaching for months that he is a big late-season risk, as the Heat are completely out of the postseason race and he has so many injuries that it would be smart for the Heat to shut him down early. He has already missed a game on Friday with "general soreness", so it may be too late now to get value for him in a trade. But if you can, do it.

•Al Jefferson, MIN: Jefferson is the young franchise player of the future for a Timberwolves team that is trying to convince its fan base that the future will be brighter than the presence, so he may not shut it down completely this year. On the other hand, this is the first time that Jefferson has had to endure the grind of being the focal point of opposing defenses for a full 82 games. Combine the mental and physical fatigue from that with the emotional fatigue of playing on a team that is challenging for the worst record in the NBA, and it would not be surprising to see Jefferson slow down over the last month of the year.

•Zach Randolph, NY: Randolph has had a couple of publicized/rumored run-ins with the Knicks this season and presumably is not the happiest camper there. With the Knicks again far out of the playoffs race, and the questions surrounding the future direction of the team, it would not be surprising if Randolph were to either miss some games or slow down his production at the end of the year.