Stat's All Folks

In honor of NBA All-Star Weekend, this week's edition of Stat's All Folks will turn into Stat's All-Star Folks where I'll hand out All-Star berths for the six main cumulative categories in fantasy basketball. I'll cite the category leader as the starter and a value choice as a reserve. This value choice will be a player that I think has exceeded his expectations before the season started and/or will come on strong after the break.

Just like the shots during the Three-Point Shootout, let's get poppin'.

Starter: Carmelo Anthony, SF, Denver Nuggets (30.7 ppg) Unfortunately for Melo, he is known for the quickest backpedal after the cheapest shot as much as he is for leading the league in scoring. However, he's remained a consistent scorer even with Allen Iverson now on the team. I'd expect him to continue being one of the top scorers when it's all said and done.

Reserve: Kobe Bryant, SG, Los Angeles Lakers (28.8 ppg) Gilbert Arenas and Dwyane Wade are averaging as many points as Kobe, but they've either been inconsistent from month-to-month and/or have injured teammates who are pretty good scorers themselves on their way back. So, the choice here is the Black Mamba, whose scoring average has been level for the whole season thus far and just like last year, KB81 can go off post-break. Maybe not 81 points again, but you never know.

Starter: Steve Nash, PG, Phoenix Suns (11.8 apg) Nash is averaging a career-high in dime drops this season and is putting up all-around better statistics than the past two seasons, both of which were MVP campaigns. It's looking like he'll be taking that picture with David Stern and hoisting that hardware again at the end of this season. One of the main reasons is his ability to find the open man.

Reserve: Deron Williams, PG, Utah Jazz (9.2 apg) Williams has obviously improved from his rookie campaign last season and has a firm grasp on the offense, thanks to spending the offseason with none other than John Stockton. In 16 games last month, Williams averaged 10.0 assists, and in five games thus far in February is averaging 10.8 dime drops. The torch has been passed.

Starter: Kevin Garnett, SF/PF, Minnesota Timberwolves (12.6 rpg) The Big Ticket has had big hands thus far this season and is grabbing mucho boards. Check the trend from month-to-month from the start of the season: 11.9 (Nov), 12.4 (Dec), 12.8 (Jan), 13.9 (Feb). That's an upward trend with zero decline. Yeah, that KG is pretty good.

Reserve: Tyson Chandler, C, New Orleans Hornets (12.2 rpg) As good as Garnett has been on the glass, Chandler has been the hottest thing lately sweeping missed shots. In eight February games, Chandler has been grabbing 16.9 rebounds per game. Don't think that month alone has padded his stats as he averaged 11.9 in November, 10.3 in December, and 11.7 in January. He was a great trade pickup by the Hornets and an even better player for fantasy owners.

Starter: Ray Allen, SG, Seattle SuperSonics (3.0 3pg) Well, Allen is at it again. After averaging a career-high 3.5 trey makes last season and setting an NBA record for three-pointers made (269) in a season, Allen is hitting three triples per contest. I don't expect this to change as he's been taking an average of 8.9 three-point attempts in the past two months. Can you say "three happy"? And I'm not even talking about Allen. I'm talking about his fantasy owners.

Reserve: Mike Miller, SG/SF, Memphis Grizzlies (2.9 3pg) Right behind Allen is Mike Miller, who is actually tied with Agent Zero, Mr. Arenas, but the Grizzlies are faltering, their star player Pau Gasol is strongly rumored to be traded, and basically things are out of control down in Memphis. But, in the chaos of it all, Miller has been consistently strong and should continue to do so, even if the Grizz add more perimeter players IF Gasol gets traded. Just like Nash's shoulder, the shots will be jacked up.