Reserve forward/center, Marresse Speights, of the Philadelphia 76ers is going to be sidelined for six to eight weeks due to a partial tear in his MCL. Due to this development, I would have to say that the next two weeks should properly define where Elton Brand's fantasy value will be headed.

To say that "Elton Brand's first 10 games have been disappointing as far as fantasy basketball is concerned", would be an understatement of epic proportions. Let's call it what it is. He sucks, bad. And his owners, who drafted him in the third or fourth rounds of most fantasy drafts are feeling the hurt, big time. Late-round-selection big men Marc Gasol, Brendan Haywood, and Joakim Noah are all outperforming him in fantasy basketball so far.

Repercussions of his lack of effectiveness and noticeable underwhelming impact on the floor have resulted in Speights being inserted in the dying minutes of a few games whose wins were being contested. Speights, during his good nights, was able to eat away precious playing time from both Elton and starting center, Samuel Dalembert.

Now Brand has a no excuse that some young upstart is "stealing his thunder", he will have to prove his worth still though. Coach Eddie Jordan will give the playing time to whoever can contribute productively on the floor.

It's kind of ironic, this situation and all. Normally, we would expect a reserve to step-up when a starting fantasy stud goes down with an injury. In this case, however, we might just see how necessity can become a wake-up call for a "sleeping" fantasy force that we know is in there...somewhere.

Some people have given up on Brand. I think that these next couple of weeks should prove to be a fair enough testing period to see IF Brand can step-up and produce averages that better than his nine-point and five-rebound averages. I'd be happy to see him slowly transition to become a 14PPG, 8.5 RPG, and 1.5 BPG averager over the course of the next few games. God forbid, that Jason Smith should be next in line to steal his minutes. Oh the horror!

If he still sucks this bad at the end of the next two weeks, then I don't see any way or reason for him to wake-up. The time is now.

Patience has limits... Brand, it's your time to shine.

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