Owning a player in the dreaded time share is a situation all astute fantasy owners try to avoid. Each week I’ve been taking a look at a few position battles that could affect your fantasy team and then I and my Magic 8 Ball have been giving advice on the best course of action if you own these players or are considering adding or trading for one of them. Last week we took a look gander at the Eastern Conference. This week we’ll peek in at some crucial position battles in the Western Conference. This week’s story will conclude the weekly series for the season but we’ll be starting up again next season right from week one to help you win your league! In the meantime, I wish the best of luck to all of you guys and girls still out there grinding in this crazy, fast paced NBA season. Now let’s get to the battles, shall we?
Since visiting this battle a couple of weeks ago, things have really changed. That’s fantasy basketball for you, it’s always so fluid. Anyway, Sam Dalembert, or Dalembear if you want to get all French about it, was already having an up and down season before the Marcus Camby trade and now it seems to have turned for the worse again. Over his last 5, Sam has averaged a putrid 13.8 mpg/2.8 ppg/4.2 rpg/.8 bpg. Numbers that are clearly fantasy useless. Meanwhile, over that same 5 game span, Marcus Camby has averaged 28.6 mpg/7 ppg/9.4 rpg/2.6 bpg. Clearly, Bamby has taken over the job and it’s his to run with until he hurts his nose hair and misses a few games. As for Sam, well he can be lost for a hot free agent, there’s no time to waste anymore.
Two weeks ago I told you to dismiss Randy Foye as fantasy relevant after he took a DNP-CD once Nick Young was in the fold. Then everything changed. Mo Willams hurt his toe bone and Randy not only found himself back in the rotation but in the starting five. Over his last 5, Randy has averaged 32 mpg/19.2 ppg/3 rpg/3.2 apg/3.6 3pm. Clearly, pretty hefty numbers for a guy who was dropped in a majority of leagues following the Nick Young deal. He’s probably been scooped up in your league by now but if he’s floating out there in your standard league then go ahead and give Randy a whirl. He’s been en-foye-go! Conversely, Nick Young has disappointed his owners averaging just 21 minutes and 10 points over his last 5 games and Mo Williams hasn’t even hit the court yet. Go ahead and drop Young Gun for a hot free agent getting minutes and leave Mo on the wire in anything but the deepest leagues when he returns. Frankly, when all three are healthy, it’s a situation I’d just try to avoid all together if I could. There’s gonna be a serious minutes squeeze, y’all!
You waited, waited, waited for Zach Randolph to return from injury hoping that he would lead your team to fantasy glory. Alas, that has proven not to be the case to date. Over his last 5, Zach is averaging a very disappointing 22.6 mpg/7.8 ppg/4.6 rpg. Not very Z-Bo like! Is he hurt or just out of shape? Maybe both, I don’t know and neither does my Magic 8 Ball. What we do know though is Zach is currently killing his head to head owner’s fantasy hopes and dreams. If you need to win now then consider losing him for a hot free agent getting minutes. A guy like Kevin Seraphin comes to mind or Tristan Thompson. As for Marreese Speights, he’s been the starter but in name only. Over his last 5, he too is only averaging 20.4 mpg. He’s managed to averaged 8.4 boards per over that span but the minutes aren’t enough to help on a consistent basis. Thank him for his services and then lose him for a hot free agent if you haven’t already.
Due to injury to Marcus Thornton, minutes have opened up temporarily which has made it hard to tell if Terrence Williams is real or just a mirage. My guess is once MT comes back, T-Will’s fantasy relevance may go poof. In the meantime, go ahead and keep riding him and then hold him for a few games after Thornton comes back to see what kind of burn he’s going to get. As for John Salmons and Francisco Garcia, they are nothing but deeeep league fodder. I’m not bothering with either.
JaValee McGee has already hit George Karl’s doghouse in a big way. Over his last 5 he’s averaging just 19 minutes per game as his basketball IQ is questioned. Um, shouldn’t that have been investigated before you traded for him?, said the Jets G.M. Anyway, Kenneth Faried, who at 6’8 isn’t a true center has been filling the minutes gap a bit to the tune of 24.6 minutes over his last 5. If you’re in a head to head playoff and need to win now then I wouldn’t hesitate to lose JaVale for a hot free agent getting minutes. Yes, it could bite you in the behind but more likely it won’t. As for Faried, I think what you see is what you’re going to get the rest of the way, around 25 mpg/10 ppg/7 rpg/1 bpg. If those numbers float your boat, then float away.
I can’t tell you how many times J.J. Hickson has disappointed me over the past few seasons. When he was traded to the Kings I had high hopes for him but he quickly flamed out and was first overshadowed by Chuch Hayes and then, later on, Jason Thompson before he was finally launched by Sacramento. Fortunately, he landed in a soft spot in Portland where minutes have opened up for him and over his last 5 J.J. has averaged 30.6 mpg/15.6 ppg/8.2 rpg/1 bpg. I don’t believe he can sustain said point average but the boards and block averages are possible making him a candidate for a double-double on any given night going forward. If he’s still floating around your wire in your sleepy league then go, go and grab him quick, quick. As for Joel Pryzbilla, he can be lost pretty much every where if you grabbed him in your deep league. It’s all on J.J. right now.
The Warriors are pretty much done for the season so there’s no reason not to give Charles Jenkins a nice long look-gander to see what they’ve got on their hands. Stephen Curry is toast and Nate Robinson is in his walk year. If Charles is still floating around your wire, then go ahead and give him a whirl. I wouldn’t lose Nate just yet because he’s a feisty one who could still contribute but I’d definitely hesitate to start him in a weekly head to head league. It wouldn’t surprise me if these two traded off nice nights making this a fairly reasonable stay away if possible situation. If I had to roll with one though, it’d be Charles for his upside.
Owning a player in the dreaded time share is a situation all astute fantasy owners try to avoid finding themselves in. Each week I’ll take a look at a few position battles that could affect your fantasy team and then I and my Magic 8 Ball which moonlights as a crystal ball on weekends will try to predict the best course of action if you own these players or are considering adding or trading for one of them. Last week we took a look gander at the Eastern Conference. This week we’ll peek in at the Western Conference. If there was a Southern Conference we’d look at that next week but there’s not so we’ll just hit up the Eastern Conference again. Back and forth we’ll go each week like a ping pong ball, or something like that. Let’s get to it, shall we?
What do you think of that snazzy headline “Class is in Sessions”? I thought it was rather clever. You see, of course, it’s a play on “class is in session” but it also means Ramon Sessions has class. Pretty cool, right? Maybe it’s not as cool as I thought since I’m explaining it. Anyway, at the moment Mike Brown is content starting Steve Blake while Ramon acclimates himself to the Lakers offense but it seems only a matter of time before Sessions is garnering close to 30 minutes of burn a night. Let me ask you a question though, Mr. Fantasy Basketball Enthusiast. When was the last time a Kobe Bryant led team had a solid fantasy producing point guard? Every year! Never. With Ramon in the fold, however, that could change a bit. On Tuesday night, he dropped 14 points, 2 boards and 4 dimes with a steal in 29 minutes while Steve Blake started but posted 2/1/3 in just 19 minutes of burn. Keep in mind that Sessions hardly shoots threes but as long as you have expectations in check you’ll be good to go in standard leagues. I’d look for something along the lines of 12 points, 6 assists, 3 boards and around a steal per and 2.2ish tovs. Those are solid, yet unspectacular numbers. As for Steve Blake, well, he’s deep league material only. I mean deeep.
Last week’s trade for Nick Young confirms the Clippers lack of faith in Randy Foye as the starting shooting guard. Right off the bat let’s go ahead and dismiss Randy as fantasy relevant in anything but the deepest of leagues. That leaves us with Mo Williams fighting with Young Gun for the majority of the minutes while Foye pulls a Ross Perot on us. Remember Ross Perot? He cost the Republicans the Presidential election back in 1992 because he stole votes from Bob Dole. Bill Clinton won and the rest is, well, on the dress. Anyway, Nick basically provides you with points (16.6), threes (1.8), FT (.862) and close to a steal per (.8). He did all that while averaging 30.3 mpg and 14.8 FGAs per in DC. Can Nick average 14.8 FGAs in Clipperland? My Magic 8 Ball says heck no. It’s a special Magic 8 Ball, got it on eBay. Just on that fact alone, you have to slightly downgrade him but if you need low teen points and close to 2 threes per, Nick is still your man. As for Mo, go ahead and assign him similar value with just a slight downgrade but not enough to consider losing him. Foye can be lost for a hot free agent. Insert sad face emoticon here.
O.J. Mayo has played pretty darn well this year after a terribly disappointing 2010/11 campaign. With Zach Randolph now back in action, however, there’s going to be a minutes squeeze and something has to give between O.J. and Tony Allen. Right off the bat, you have to downgrade both of them since they will be cutting into each other’s minutes going forward but will they both be able to maintain their fantasy value? Good question, excellent question. Let’s try to predict the future. If you own Tony you have him for steals and that’s pretty much it outside of a smattering of points. On the season he’s averaging 25.9 mpg while stealing the ball 1.8 times. For his career Tony has averaged 19.5 mpg and stolen the ball 1.2 times per. Reasonably assuming Tony Tony Tony garners somewhere between 20-25 mpg, then he will have done it again. Done what again, you ask? Why steal the ball! Go ahead and assign him similar fantasy value even with a slight reduction in minutes. As for O.J., he needs minutes to produce. In March he’s averaging 31 mpg but this past Sunday that number dipped to 20 while he posted just 4/1/2. On Tuesday he saw only 16 minutes of burn and dropped 6/1/2. That’s not gonna get it done no mo’ in standard and semi-deep (14 team) leagues so start looking to cut bait for a hot free agent. The O.J. got squeezed! (for minutes).
Out goes Jordan Hill who was averaging 15 mpg and in comes Marcus Camby who should see 20+ minutes of burn per. Sam Dalembert is averaging 24.8 mpg while grabbing 7.7 boards and swatting 1.9 balls per. The boards and blocks guys just seem to tend to do what they do. Look at DeAndre Jordan since Kenyon Martin was signed, for example, he’s still getting his boards and his blocks. Go ahead and hold onto Sammy and figure he’ll just keep doin’ what he do. As for Camby, did you know that he was just traded for the number 2 (Hasheem Thabeet) and number 6 (Jonny Flynn) overall picks in the 2009 NBA Draft. Camby is that good! Anyway, Bamby does two things well, rebound the basketball and block the basketball and sometimes he can even steal the basketball so let’s call it 2 1/2 things. Now let’s look at his minutes per game while he’s doing the things he does well: 22.4 mpg. Yep, that’s all, 22.4 mpg to average 8.4 rpg/1.4 bpg/.8 spg. Reasonably assuming Marcus gets similar run, I’d go ahead and assign him the same value in Houston as he had in Portland.
Pardon me but I’m not as excited about Captain Jack as other fantasy media seem to be. Nope, I’m not drinking the Kool-Aid because he’s reunited with Pop in San Antone’. Go ahead and take a whirl in deep leagues but I’m not dropping anyone getting steady minutes for him. Kawhi Leonard will see just enough minutes to keep both of them a tough play in standard sized leagues. You’ll see, my Magic 8 Ball says so.
Joel Przybilla should be owned in deeep leagues while Kurt Thomas and Hasheem Thabeet should only be monitored at this point. I remember watching the unathletic Hasheem Thabeet while he starred at UConn and couldn’t actually believe he was going to be a lottery pick. I’m not holding out much hope for him to become fantasy relevant after 3 busted years in the NBA. With apologies to his mother, of course.
Over the last week, multiple key impact fantasy players have fallen short to injury. With that in mind, below is a list of players that are stepping up and benefiting tremendously from extra playing time.
Drew Gooden (PF, MIL)- With Andrew Bogut out for 2 months at the very minimum, Drew Gooden slides into the starting five for the Milwaukee Bucks. Gooden has proven in the past that he can be a solid fantasy player when given the opportunity to play.
In two starts, Gooden has logged 36 minutes, averaging 23 points, 11.5 rebounds, and 3.5 assists per game.
The power-forward is a MUST ADD in all fantasy leagues and should no longer be on the waiver wire.
Roddy Beaubois (PG, DAL)- Beaubois has been starting in replace of the injured Jason Kidd as of late and has excelled during this short period of time. In two games, Beaubois is averaging 18 PPG, 4.5 RPG, 7 APG, and 3.5 BPG in 36 minutes of action.
Beaubois is really starting to make a name for himself and should definitely cut into Kidd’s playing time once he does return to the court. He should be picked up in all fantasy leagues immediately.
Jerryd Bayless (PG, TOR)- Bayless finally got a starting opportunity the other night and he certainly didn’t disappoint. In 34 minutes of action, the guard dropped 17 points, along with 6 rebounds and 3 assists.
With the Raptors not playing very well, Bayless should continue to earn more playing time and could prove to be a solid fantasy player going forward. If you are in need of a guard, Bayless should be your go to guy off the waiver wire.
Marcus Camby (C, POR)- Camby has been on fire as of late, averaging just under 20 rebounds per game during his last three contests. Camby isn’t even logging 30+ minutes per game and he is still grabbing boards at a ridiculous rate. If you are in a roto league and are in need of rebounds, its a no brainer who should be picked up if still available in your league.
Brandon Ribak, CEO/Co-Founder of www.FanSkills.com, provides you with weekly advice, strategy and tips on how to win your fantasy basketball league. If you have any fantasy questions or would like to contact Brandon, please reach him at brandonribak@gmail.com.
