Tracy McGrady agrees to deal with Atlanta – The deal can't become official until Friday, but it looks like McGrady will be suiting up for the Hawks next season. McGrady is long past his heyday, but he did have a couple stretches of fantasy usefulness with the Pistons last season. That said, I'm not betting on T-Mac being worth much this year. At best, McGrady will repeat the type of production we saw from him in Detroit last season. Strange that McGrady has opted to sign with a team that isn't considered a title contender and won't give him an opportunity to try and reignite his star.
Stephen Curry's name keeps popping up in CP3 trade rumors – The Warriors are considered one of the favorites to land Chris Paul if/when the star point guard is traded. Golden State would much rather part with the likes of Monta Ellis, but New Orleans has been insistent on landing Curry if they trade Paul to the Warriors. Curry has already established himself as a top-20 fantasy talent during his first two seasons in the NBA, but I think he would see a huge boost moving to a team like New Orleans. While he has to defer to Ellis in Golden State, Curry would become the clearcut No. 1 option for the Hornets. A huge boost in scoring would be in store for Curry should this deal materialize.
Spurs to cut ties with Richard Jefferson – San Antonio has opted to use the amnesty clause to send Jefferson packing. The 31-year-old forward is coming off the two worst seasons of his career and is owed $30 million over the next three years, so this doesn't come as much of a surprise. I fully expect Jefferson to latch on with a contender, which will likely put him in a similar role as he was in with the Spurs or one with even less significance. His days of making an impact in fantasy have come and gone.
Lockout Shortened Schedule Released – The NBA released the complete schedule for the 2011-12 season Tuesday. Starting on Christmas Day, teams will squeeze 66 games into 124 days. The jam-packed schedule calls for a boatload of back-to-backs and at least one back-to-back-to-back for each team. That means you'll see plenty of teams play four games in five nights at multiple stretches this season.
It'll be interesting to see what kind of affect a tighter schedule will have on the players. The condensed schedule will definitely give me pause when considering older or injury-prone players who are accustomed to getting more recovery time between games. If players do begin to wear down, we could see NBA coaches go deeper on their benches than usual. This wouldn't be all bad, as it could result in more players being useful for fantasy purposes than in a regular 82-game season.