How To Handle an Injury

I've been sounding off for quite a while now about the need for people to deal away Danny Granger. It's such a huge blow in any fantasy sport to lose your top player. But it isn't the end of the world, or even the end of your season. It's all about what you do the moment you find out he is injured that matters most. To illustrate my lines of thinking, I'll contrast the two major injuries of Danny Granger and Kevin Martin.

For starters, let's define the difference between injured and hurt. Hurt, is when a guy is out anywhere from a game to 3 weeks. Especially when the injury is not something that could linger (say knee contusion) and won't change his game. Conversely, injured is when they'll be out longer than 3 weeks, and it is imperative that we do a little digging and figure out what the injury is and what to expect during recovery.



Danny Granger and Kevin Martin both went down in November. Both were playing well up to the point of injury, both are expected out about the same amount of time. Now instantly, when one of these guys goes down, no matter what, I'm trying to work a deal. If a guy is going to be out for nearly 2 months, you're going to lose huge production from him. Drop down one Tier and start making offers. For Danny G, if I could've landed anyone like Brandon Roy, Al Jeff, or Tim Duncan, even if i gotta toss in some marginal Channing Frye type player, I'm pulling the trigger. I'm working these deals every day for the entire first week.

Why? Because the stats I lose from my player will be huge. Going from Danny G to a bench player is a BIG drop off. Going from Danny G to a Tier two player keeps you in the race. But truth be told, you'd have been lucky as anything to land one of these deals. If someone made you an offer like this and you said no, you're an idiot, nuff said.

Fast forward say three weeks and now we're into the thick of the injury time off and the reports start coming out. Take notice of what they say, google the injury. For contrast, Kevin Martin fractured his wrist in a game. The next night he went out, fractured wrist and all, dropped 29 points and snagged 11 boards. I have the utmost confidence that when he returns, I will get back the same player.

On the flip side, Danny Granger has a torn right plantar fascia. It was discovered some time late in preseason, he talked about trying to play through it but couldn't and eventually got shelved. Google the injury (or just click on the link I placed), cause it's not obvious what it entails. For those of you familiar with baseball, this is what Carlos Quentin had. Quentin is a stud OF for the ChiSox, who spent 70% of the season on the DL this year, and when he finally came back, he was NOT the same.

Thus, I do NOT feel comfortable with Danny Granger's status. Now you need to weigh the risk/reward properties and start hitting the trade block. Do I think you should deal Danny G for a pack of smokes and Marquis Daniels? NO. Do I think you should deal him straight up for Stephen Jackson, NO. But if you can get a Tier Two or Tier Three player in return for Danny, yeah you gotta knock it down. One of our readers Pavel is working a 2-2 deal, where he sends Granger and Aldridge for Amare and Kevin Martin. THAT's the type of deal you need to knock down.

If I'm right, you just dealt away a major headache, AND severely damaged an opponents team. You're still in the game. If I'm wrong, then you're left with Amare and Kevin Martin....a small price to pay for shedding that risk.