It isn't uncommon for fantasy owners to panic early in the season when one, two or more of their higher selected players struggles. They’ll dump or trade away players who have a high likelihood of pulling through the slump and watch bitterly as other fantasy owners use their players to pass them in the rankings.
  

Don’t be one of these victims.
 

There are certainly players whom you shouldn’t waste your time with. However, there are also players who you should probably sit on for a while so they can have a chance to pull out of their slumps.
 

When it comes to making trades, think “buy low/sell high”. For example, Boris Diaw is frustrating fantasy owners with his poor fantasy production early in the season. But, it might not be wise to dump him after only seven games. For starters, Diaw is still getting enough minutes to produce, averaging just under 29 minutes a game (which is about seven less minutes a game than last season for him), so it seems he just hasn’t been able to adjust yet to new players rejoining the lineup and a newly defined role. Also, Amare Stoudemire is taking a lot of his minutes right now. If Amare ever goes down, which many expect to happen at some point in the season, Diaw’s role with the Suns becomes much more important. Also, Leandro Barbosa is on fire right now, which is also eating into the amount of touches Diaw gets. These factors could easily turn, which makes holding onto Diaw – at least at this point in the season – an important, if not difficult, act of discipline.
 

Chances are you’re looking to make a trade or two. Here’s a tip: Don’t try to trade away players who are struggling, because you’ll likely get less value in return than they’re worth. Conversely, players you should be targeting are the ones who might be in a bit of a slump. There is a better chance of a fantasy owner – out of frustration – parting with those players for cheaper than they’re normally worth.
 

In a competitive league, owners will know to be cautious of players with a history of injury problems, such as Carlos Boozer and Marcus Camby. So, you might have to sit tight with those guys and ride their hot streak out.
 

Here are some players who are off to slow starts. You might try to sway one of these guys from their current fantasy team. Be patient with these guys.
 

• Kobe Bryant – Not a big surprise, considering he’s still nursing the knee a little. He’s averaging less than half as many shots per game this year than last year, and as a result, his scoring is down 14 ppg. Also, he’s not shooting the threes like he did last year.
   
• Elton Brand – He’s notorious for his consistency, but he’s down 9 ppg from last season, about 2 rbpg, and is shooting 20% under what he shot last year from the foul line. You’ve got to think that these poor numbers won’t last long.
   
• Allen Iverson – While he scores his usual near-30 ppg, his steals are down to less than half of what they were last season (which was low already compared to the previous season). Also, over 5 turnovers per game is killing his fantasy stock right now.
   
• Tim Duncan – Scoring and rebounding have increased, but so has turnovers. Blocks are slightly down, but what is really hurting Duncan is his abysmal 56.3% foul shooting on 9.1 attempts per game.
   
• Amare Stoudemire – What do people expect? He missed virtually all of last season with a knee injury and was complaining about knee pain during the pre-season. He’s not getting the minutes right now and fantasy owners – the same ones who didn’t heed the warning – are whining about it now.
   
• Tracy McGrady – He’s still working off a lot of rust after missing a hefty bulk of last season. Yao Ming’s brilliant play early might actually help T-Mac, as it means he won’t force anything and won’t feel as pressured to rush anything.
   
• Chauncey Billups – Scoring and assists are slightly down, but the big killer for him has been the lack of three pointers. He’s made 1.0 fewer threes per game than last year.
   
• Jason Richardson – He’s been a disaster so far. 10 ppg less than last year, 10% less from the field than last season, 1 fewer steals, about 1 less three and 8 fewer minutes per game. Ouch.
   
• Boris Diaw – He was never a guy I was really high on and I didn’t consider drafting him in any of my leagues. Still, if you took the chance in drafting him, you ought to hold onto him. He probably won’t bring much value in a trade and he has too much potential to simply drop to waivers. Read the above paragraph for more on Diaw.
   
• Mike Bibby – Having a problem with turnovers early on. Also, his FG% is unusually low. He’s really slumping, but he has the ability to catch fire at any time.
   
• Gerald Wallace – His numbers are down across the board. There’s not much to do but weight out this drought and hope he stays healthy. He’s capable of huge fantasy numbers when he’s playing the way he should be playing.
   
• Ben Wallace – 1.3 blocks per game? I don’t think this is what the Bulls signed on for. Keep in mind that the Bulls are struggling as a team and a lot of that has to do with them getting to know one another. So far they have no chemistry. I suspect that when the Bulls find a rhythm, Big Ben will as well.
   
• Raymond Felton – Everyone had high hopes for him after he finished last season so strong. Beware of young players who finish a season with a boom, but who have yet to put in a full season’s worth of fantasy worthy statistics. One, on the down stretch of the season, the opposition that has already clinched the playoffs tends to be weary about over-playing their stars. So, Felton may have gone up against slightly lesser competition more often than during the first half of the season. Also, Felton has a bit of a streakiness in him and could simply be in a slump. With Brevin Knight playing so well and Adam Morrison eating into some minutes, Felton may be out of sync.
   
• Stephon Marbury – He’s a guy who could be really difficult to find patience for. The Knicks are frustrating and Marbury’s confidence are shot. If he could only find that player in him that was good enough for 20 plus points and 8 plus assists.
   
• Zydrunas Ilgauskas – Part of his slumping might have to do with Larry Hughes being back. I don’t buy that though. I think he’s just slumping and sooner or later he’ll come out of it.
   
• Chris Webber – You have to expect that his age will only continue to wear him down. I think he might be struggling because Iverson’s struggling in a manner of speaking.
   
• Chris Kaman – A lot of big men seem to be struggling early. He and Brand both seem out of sync. 

Remember not to panic on these players. It’s still very early in the season. Case in point…
 

A couple years ago, I was playing in a 10 team, standard 9 stat cat league via Yahoo. In the middle of January I was in dead last. I had an insane amount of injuries and my players were playing like they belonged in baseball. Anyway, they started getting healthy again and finally catching fire. From that, some nice wire pickups and a trade or two, I finished in first place that year!
 

Remember, it’s not a sprint…it’s a marathon.