The New Year seems as good a time as any to update everyone on the action in our Dropping Dime Experts League. The league is set up as a rotisserie league using the standard nine categories. There are no limits in adding and dropping players and a two day waiting period. Roster changes can only be made on a weekly basis. Compared to other fantasy sites, we seem to back Lebron James more than other experts. So even though none of us here at Dropping Dimes employs LBJ on our squad, we do not mind propping him up because he has his team atop this fantasy league.

Here are the league standings as of January 1, 2007.

1. Give Me WLS AM 89, Nels Wadycki...78 points
2. DD.com, Dennis Velasco…77 points
3. Fantasy Lounge - ritz, Brandon Haraway...65 points
4. RW Hood Bangers,Evan Silva...61 points
5. ProFantasySports.com, Matt Satten...59 points
6. DD.com,. Ron Chow…57 points
7. DD.com, Alvin Lai…57 points
8. DD.com, Scott Sargent…57 points
9. ElevationMag.com, Mike Slane...55 points
10.RICKROCKERS (fsru), Richard Christ...47 points
11.The Uwe Blab Confab, J.E. Skeets and Tas Melas, The Basketball Jones…45 points
12.TalentedMrRoto.com, Neil Tardy...45 points

Here is who makes up the first place squad:
Guards: Baron Davis, Andre Iguodala, T.J. Ford
Forwards: Lebron James, Dwight Howard, Tayshaun Prince
Centers: Jermaine O’Neal, Andrew Bogut
Utility: Stephen Jackson, Earl Boykins
Bench: J.R. Smith, Travis Outlaw, Delonte West

The Baron pick was a question mark after the draft, because in the past Baron has killed roto teams even when healthy and playing his best. However he has played very well under Don Nelson and with Jason Richardson out with a broken hand, Baron will have the rock in his hands at all times. And except for Jermaine O’Neal being in and out of the lineup, the rest of this team has been producing pretty much as expected.

As for the Dropping Dimes team, Dennis is leading the way. Rashard Lewis is out for him right now, and Wally Szczerbiak is just getting back on the court. But hey, the old ball is coming back and there are still many months left in the season. D can still come away with the victory, which means the staff here would not hear the end of it…

Over the first month of the season, there were times when we here owned the top four spots. However as the saying goes, the season is a marathon, not a sprint. The difference between third and ninth place right now is only 10 points.

Dear Lamar Odom, come back soon. I need your point forward skills back! I was also a bit unlucky with Ray Allen missing a slew of games and Joe Johnson ending his iron man streak after a calf injury. Oh well, them’s the breaks!

Recently Ron made a trade with Brandon Haraway of the Fantasy Lounge: Kevin Martin and Richard Hamilton for Tim Duncan and Kyle Korver. Pipe up in the comments section and give us your thoughts on this trade!

Finally, a note for next year; weekly roster moves totally blows. Yahoo already imposes an 82 game max for most roto league set-ups. When I traded for Ray Allen, it took almost two weeks to get him in the lineup because of the lineup restrictions. Then he sustained a significant injury. And if a player goes down early in the week, you are stuck with a dead roster slot for the remainder of the week. Daily moves with a total games limit works better and is more fair.

Peace.