So the bloom came off the rose for this dynamic guard career seemingly the first half of last year. It wasn't till they reverted back to the glory running days that he awoke. Now because of the mixed year he has gone almost undrafted in standard leagues. Its been reported he is clearly their #1 option off the bench. Nash is a year older. And they are running like no tomorrow once again. What is everyone's projection for what I think personally could be his best year in the NBA. A good chance he could see 28 minutes a night. Maybe more if guys like Frye struggle or they want to go small and the fact that they are light overall in their frontcourt with depth. He's a pure offensive force that you could have for free and if he could just bump up his steals and assists a little could have some great value.

Barbosa is not going undrafted in any league... He is going in the mid round of all leagues I have participated in.

Went early 7th in my league, and I would have taken him at 7.11 if he was available.

I've drafted in 3 10 team winners leagues. 2 he went in the 11th and 13th round and another he actually went undrafted which I found shocking. Maybe its just the group of guys either drafting by ADP or winners of dead leagues that are clueles haha. I think the only thing that has held him back has mostly been minutes and being too light on assists and steals last few seasons. He's actually improved his FG% year to year up to 48%. Sure some of that is his slashing ability to the hole but he can stroke outside shots at an above average clip too. I love this guy.

Especially considering he'll be matched 16 games against the Warriors, Kings, Grizzlies and Wolves who are up tempo teams that are dreadful defensively. I'd flex start the guy everytime against them.

Wow, that is absurd. I hope you got him in all those leagues. That would be an absolute steal.

In any league with many serious players, he is not going undrafted..
When Porter got fired and the Suns went back to run-n-gun, Barbosa took off for a while and was one of the better players in fantasy for a stretch.
I would expect Barbosa to get plenty of PT. I think maybe the Suns try to preserve Nash's legs for 4th Q's and the playoffs and Leo should be the benefeciary of that. Also, no more shaq means even more running.
I think this dude is a nice mid round player in points leagues. He also seems to bring a few good qualities to the table for those roto teams also.
Dont be shy on this guy, he is a good value pick. And if Nash goes down for any period of time(knock on wood), Leo will be a bonified stud

In both my leagues he went 6th round and 8th round (i got him in the 8th) I think he is gonna be a freak this year... no more shaq to slow him down... get out of his way and let him do his thing...

You could at least spell his name right!

Jason Terry > Barbosa.

I drafted them both in my 12 h2h 9 cat league at pick 70 and 75 respectively. I dont think there is any way either will fail to return those values.

I'll take him or eric gordon in round 7 all day and night... one them is always there.

If Suns plays high octaine offense this year, no way.

Yes way. Because there is still the addition of Jrich that should put up 20 pts.

Barbosa is a diamond when he plays in a run-n-gun system

Absolute stud. He's 90% owned in Yahoo! leagues

NO WAY YES WAY NO WAY lol

You forgot about about the void that Shaq and Matt Barnes left, which is a decent chunk of points

Barbosa = Terry going forward

Once J-Ho is healthy, Terry's minutes and scoring may dip slightly from last year's 19 ppg and 33 minutes with Marion now in the mix. Jet averaged 19 last year but the three previous years, he averaged around 16-17 ppg. That sounds about right. I think Jet and Blur will both average around 16-17 again this year, with their usual efficient percentages/low turnovers

JRich was there after the trade last year and Barbosa was still doing very well afterporter got fired. Even with jrich there. Besides, if your gonna play that argument, you dont think Marion coming in is gonna take away from Terry? Less minutes to go round and a few less points... Probably not a factor for terry right? Well neither is Jrich

i got him in round 11

espn roto standard 8 cats, 10-team

Barbosa is going to be great this year.

Can't wait till the Warriors game with this guy on Friday.

i think he'll do better this year than last year.

I love Barbosa this year, with the return of run-and-gun and the aging Steve Nash he should get plenty of back up minutes at PG as well as SG to spell Jason Richardson.

I like LB for 16PTS/1.7-3ptm/3REB/3AST/1SPG/1.5TO this season with all the goodies in percentages that come with him. I loved him so much that I targeted him in drafts, missed him, drafted Bibby instead, and then just jettisoned Bibby for him.

sitting for jrich for a LONG time. sign of things to come?

Frye is hot. I think this is the biggest reason for sitting Leandro.

Yeah but you have to expect Leandro will be knocked back to 25 minutes most nights. If he doesn't catch fire when he's off the bench he might put up some very light numbers. It sucks but at this point he's a very iffy starter and best used against teams you think the Suns will blow out and of course any and all Warriors and Kings games.

That is probably true, I'm not a believer that Grant Hill/Jason Richardson/Steve Nash are going to last the whole season collectively playing 30+ MPG every night and if one of them go down for an extended period of time, you have a bonafide scorer.

i'm discouraged by his minutes tonight, but i am not ready to give up on him yet. his 3pm/stls/%s potential is too mesmerizing to give up on so quickly.

i'm a little surprised that grant hill is such an integral part of this team, but he seems to be working well with everyone. i hope they will find a way to get barbosa more involved this season.

He'll be fine. Hill, Frye, and J-Rich were all playing out of their minds. That won't happen too often, particularly Hill and Frye playing as well as they did tonight. He'll still get 25-30 minutes most nights.

I just don't see him getting enough minutes for his %'s to make that much of an impact. If he plays 25-28 minutes a game he is not worth a roster spot in my league. He has to play 30+ mins to be relevant.

If one of Nash/JRich/Hill goes down (decent chance) he can make some noise, if they stay healthy I don't see him being roster worthy.

todays game worries me. the minutes worry me. idk about barbosa anymore, im think im going to try to deal him.

i would be glad if barbosa gets close to 30 minutes. 2 years ago, when barbosa averaged 29minutes, he was extremely valuable:

15.7 pts, 2.8 rebs, 2.6 asts, 2 3pm, 0.8 stls on 46FG% and 82FT%

if he could replicate that, i would be ecstatic. those 3s are definitely key, and i think the steals will hover around 1.0 spg.

You could shop around Barbosa, but I think I'd rather just sit him on my bench until I see some pattern of consistency in terms of minutes. Even if it is even 20MPG, he is still capable of 12-15 PTS and 2-3PTM in that allotted playing time. I think for right now if you have better options you play them until the picture is clearer and know that if Grant Hill/Steve Nash break down during the season you should have an instant 20PPG scorer in your pocket.

Did you watch the game? I'm not so sure about that. Both Hill and Frye didn't look like they were doing anything extraordinary. I don't think that Frye will average 20+ points a game, but at this point, I think you have to begin looking at a 16+ average a game. It's clear that his shot is for REAL. It was incredibly smooth, and the defensive nightmares it caused for the Wolves were evident. Barbosa was an afterthought in this game, and when he was in, he was trying to do too much. If I were a Barbosa owner, I would be slightly worried, but not enough to sell or (godforbid) drop. Frye is locked and loaded into that starting five.

Frye and Hill are seriously playing out of their minds right now, even though Frye's jumper looks good there is obviously no chance that he can continue shooting at the FG%/3PT% that he is sporting right now but he does look locked in the starting lineup. Grant Hill is another guy who is basically scoring at will on opposing defenses.

If you are Gentry, there is no way you can even think about limiting Frye/Hill/Nash's minutes with them playing the way they are right now. You have to believe that the numbers will normalize and throughout the season the minutes will be scaled back and Barbosa will get more run, but that could be 20, 40, or 60 more games into the season and it will be tough to tell (especially with what people hear about the Suns' training staff) when/if the older veterans start to feel the wear and tear.

I'd think that once Frye starts slumping he will have his minutes scaled back some, he's never been asked to take this many shots and defenses will start to never leave his sight and he will be forced to either put the ball on the floor and create his own shot or pass the ball right back to Steve Nash. This might lead the Suns to go old-school small ball with Amare Stoudemire at C and play guys like Jason Richardson/Grant Hill at SF/PF and have Barbosa in the game with Nash to get more spacing and offensive firepower (remember that defenders MUST respect Barbosa's driving ability and will be unable to play defense on him the way that they will be on Frye).

I know I wasn't earlier advocating you drop or even sell the guy. There are going to be night someone is in foul trouble, shooting poorly or don't match defensively and Barbosa will be the first guy in line to take the load when needed, or when they are behind and need his offense, or just want to go small. Tonight isn't a blueprint of what you'll see all 82 games. But depending on your league size its a risk right now to start him outside of certain matchups like the Warriors, Kings, Knicks and a few others you know he will play a big part. His 3's aren't that valuable in limited minutes that can't be replaced by someone else who is actually getting more minutes or starting. If you see him on the waiver line god forbid snatch him up. He, to me anyway, epitomizes what a perfect bench player can be. A spot starter when needed and someone should injury arise would bring you an instant 20 point scorer. Hold on tight would be my humble opinion and play him with some intelligence and you will still not regret drafting him.

the difference between barbosa this year, and the past few years is dragic. barbosa used to come in an play both the 1 and 2. now, he only plays the 2 because dragic is better and he's getting minutes barbosa used to get at the point. i think best case scenario, and one that is most likely to happen is grant hill wearing down fast, slide jrich to the 3, barbosa at 2, nash at point. or if hill continues to play well, slide him to the 4, jr 3, barbosa 2 and nash point. barbosa is too good to not get 25 min a game, as the season goes on, i think he'll get at least that

I did watch the game. Gentry didn't take his starters out until there was less than a minute left in the first quarter. It wasn't the way he normally coaches, but I got the sense he really wanted to ride his starting unit pretty hard last night. I doubt that's the way it'll be every night. Normally, Gentry will go to the bench with four or five minutes and bring in Barbosa and Dudley. He's not going to play his starters all 30+ minutes every game, especially considering the age of Hill and Nash. Frye's not going to play 36 minutes every game. He's Channing Frye; he'll have some nice games mixed in with typical mediocrity. The point is there will be enough minutes for Barbosa. I just think people need to relax and let things play out. Or maybe I need to play in these shallow leagues where dropping Barbosa for some other 15 ppg scorer is an option.

Why would J-Rich and Nash have any issue playing every day 30+ mins they done it every other year. Hill for all the injury history has been pretty healthy the last few years as well.

yeah i definitely think dragic might become a huge part of the reason why barbosa isn't as successful as he could be. it's his second year in the league, and phx will want give him minutes to see if he can be their pg of the future. he'll definitely limit barbosa's minutes, and he actually might be the biggest concern i have regarding barbosa right now.

Nash has been playing 30+ minutes, but for the last couple of years he has been playing in the very low 30's. For some reason in the MIN game Gentry decided to play his whole backcourt for the full 12 MIN before even looking at giving them a rest. If you follow Suns basketball at all in the last couple of years, Nash has pretty much had the same rotation of minutes since he has had his back issues, he always gets taken out around the 4MIN remaining mark and returns around the 7-8TH MIN mark in the second quarter, rinse and repeat.

Maybe I'm being a skeptic, but Richardson seems to have a lot of miles on his wheels for being relatively young and forgive me for not believing that Grant Hill's lower body will not break down possibly playing the most minutes since his 2004-2005 season in an uptempo system.

I do however, feel that Barbosa will have a hard time getting consistent minutes without an injury SOMEWHERE in the back court, even one to Dragic would instantly increase Barbosa's value. On that subject, for some reason PHX feels that he can be a serviceable back up PG which is not the case considering he struggles mightly against strong defensive pressure, doesn't know when to make the roll-pass, and is even more of a liability than Steve Nash on the defensive end.

I came here to say exactly this. Watching the game, compared to the previous Suns games, it was clear that Barbosa was being used solely to back up JRich. In previous seasons, he backed up Nash too. And the current rotation (Dragic at #2 PG) actually makes a lot of sense for the Suns. Everyone used to notice the dropoff in years past when Nash was not on the floor. Barbosa is a prototypical SG, and not a great passer.

So, if Barbosa is just the #2 SG on this team, it's a serious problem. Nothing to do with Frye or Hill, unless there's an injury that changes this rotation.

I'm officially beginning to worry. It's early in the season, but this rotation seems out of whack, and unless Barbosa can produce in 20 minutes, he's borderline droppable this week.

I think Dr A did a good job of summarizing the issue here in today's daily dose.

I think thats pretty accurate. good observation.

he played few minutes because his wrist became inflamed again. he's not falling out of the rotation

http://www.brightsideofthesun.com/2009/11/...e-injures-wrist


it does, however, seem like it could be a nagging injury that persists for a while.

Looks like he's likely out tonight per RW,

Leandro Barbosa now appears doubtful for Tuesday's game due to a wrist injury that limited him in Sunday's game.
Soreness in his right wrist has worsened recently, although the injury happened back in September. An MRI revealed a cyst, but it's too small to require surgery. "We'll see how I feel later. But in a game, I don't think I'll be able to do much," Barbosa said. "I can barely open my hand. It's tough." If you benched him after his 14-minute stint on Sunday, it may have been the right call.

So we're looking at an inoperable cyst in his wrist. One that's he's had since the summer. And sometimes it will flame up and make him sit out a week.

I'm thinking time to just drop and move on? I don't see any way that this just goes away after sitting out a couple games.

i might offer barbosa as a potentially high reward throw in for trades, much like a few other of my guards right now.

so, no body thinks he will do good this year?
since just drop him, i was thinking about adding him

I'm not as high on him as I was, but he still has potential to be top 30 value this year. Obviously it is less likely if this cyst is going to be causing him problems the whole year, but unless your team is really deep he's worth owning.