With players starting to return from China to play in the NBA, a lot of Fantasy landscapes will change. We have our first preview of what it will be like when Wilson Chandler, J.R. Smith and Aaron Brooks return. It’s happening on the Clippers. Kenyon Martin signed with them at the beginning of the month and is gutting minutes right from DeAndre Jordan. Jordan’s playing time has dropped almost 10 minutes per game. How can that be good?
Jordan’s value may be falling, but there are always other players with rising value. Anderson Varejao’s out for at least a month and someone will have to step up in his absence. Find out below which rookie could be headed for close to 30 minutes per game by the beginning of March.
BULL MARKET
Stephen Curry, PG, Warriors: Earlier in the season, Curry’s value was falling. He didn’t get off to a hot start entering the season as he had a bum ankle which eventually forced him to miss eight straight games in the middle of January. It looks like he is back to full strength though and he is living up to lofty projections. Looking at his numbers starting in February (at about 100 percent), not many can beat him. He’s averaging 21 points, almost nine assists, four boards and over two steals per game. Hello! If he can keep that up, he’ll be one of the top Fantasy players in the game and I didn’t even mention he shoots a healthy dose of threes and is accurate. I highly doubt his assist rate will continue that high, but every other stat should.
Ersan Ilyasova, SF/PF, Bucks: So this is what happens when you give Ilyasova more time. He becomes Fantasy relevant. In his last two seasons, Ilyasova averaged 24 MPG, 10 PPG and 6.2 RPG. In short time, those are actually pretty good numbers. Expand that to his past five games in which he’s averaging 27.7 MPG, 11.2 PPG and 10.8 RPG. Those are still good numbers for getting under 30 minutes of court time. Throw in about block and steal per game as well and he’s a real nice pickup. The only thing you hope for now is that he continues to get this kind of time. I think at this point he deserves at least a consistent 25 minutes per game. As long as that happens, give the Turk some love.
DeAndre Jordan wasn’t the biggest fan of Kenyon Martin coming to town. Photo Credit: Keith Allison
Tristan Thompson, PF, Cavaliers: Addition by subtraction (injury). That’s basically how Fantasy Basketball has been and will continue to be this season. There are too many games in a short period of time. Varejao is out for at least a month with a broken wrist. Head Coach Byron Scott has already come out and said he doesn’t want to stick Thompson into the starting lineup immediately because of his inexperience. Is this going to stop you from getting him? Possibly, but it shouldn’t. Thompson should see close to 25 minutes each night. He already got 28 minutes in the game Varejao got injured (although that includes overtime). Let’s face the facts, he’s not going to score a whole lot. We can put that behind us as he’s averaging 6.8 points at the moment. What you want to look at is the rebounds. In his last 47 minutes of game action he has 21 rebounds and five blocks. I don’t know about you, but if you need a big man, these are acceptable numbers. With more time comes more experience. His numbers will increase along with the time.
Nikola Pekovic, C, Timberwolves: If you’re playing in a regular-sized competitive league, this mid-season waiver wonder is probably gone. If not, you may want to grab him. He became a starter when Darko Milicic picked up an injury in the end of January. Since, Pekovic has turned into a fiend averaging 15 points and 10 boards per game. What?! And you could’ve grabbed this guy as a free agent a month into the season. Not to mention Rick Adelman has already said Pekovic will remain the starter even when Darko returns. I don’t think Darko will be a very big threat to Pekovic’s minutes which means Peko is here to stay.
C.J. Watson, PG/SG, Bulls: Derrick Rose is out for who knows how long. He’s dealing with a back injury and he recently needed a specialist to check it out because it’s not getting better. It’s something he dealt with even in high school. Obviously, Rose is going to come back at some point but why not reap the benefits while he’s out. Watson can score and dish out the ball decently. In five starts this year he’s averaging 15.6 PPG, 6.4 AST and 2.0 STL. I’ll take that any day. Even when Rose returns, Watson can still be a viable backup point guard. He won’t get the same numbers, but he can hit the three ball and swipe a few.
BEAR MARKET
Amar’e Stoudemire, PF/C, Knicks: It feels like I just wrote about him, but he has to be mentioned again. Stoudemire is having one of the worst seasons of his career. Once he and Carmelo Anthony return, they have another scorer to deal with in Jeremy Lin. How is this going to help him? Maybe Lin can open up the lane more for Stoudemire, but it’s also going to mean fewer shots. Lin is taking about 20 shots per game at the moment and you know Anthony is going to get his dosage of shots because that’s just how it is. Stoudemire on the other hand could be the odd man out. Only time will tell, but my money says Stoudemire should be traded away from your Fantasy team.
Raymond Felton, PG/SG, Trail Blazers: Even though he’s still getting backing to be the team’s starting PG, that doesn’t mean he’s your starting Fantasy PG. The numbers are just not there for him. A lot of people felt that it would take time for him to get acclimated to Portland, but should that take half a season? Felton is barely averaging 10 points per game, in fact he has only reached double-digits in three of his past nine games. He gets a decent amount of assists, but nothing over the top and his boards are in the gutter. Every other stat is about useless for him besides steals. Even when Stoudemire and Anthony come back, I would probably put Lin above Felton. The Trail Blazers are just too balanced for Felton to be worthy any more. Maybe you can sell him based on name or maybe you can find someone with more upside as a free agent.
DeAndre Jordan, PF/C, Clippers: He was probably the least excited about signing Kenyon Martin as they are kind of the same player. Big men that aren’t great on offense, but can play defense around the rim. The only problem is that K-Mart has more experience. Jordan is currently averaging 8.0 PPG, 8.8 REB and 2.7 BLK in 30 minutes per game. The chance that this continues is about zero. Since Martin started with the team, Jordan’s time has dipped to about 22 MPG. That isn’t going to get the job done. It’s not like you can replace him with Martin either because they’ll be splitting time. It’s kind of like a running back by committee situation now which is never good in the Fantasy World. Unless Martin gets hurt, Jordan’s value will be down for the rest of the season.
Lamar Odom, SF/PF, Mavericks: Honestly, his numbers aren’t coming back. The Mavs don’t need him like the Lakers did, get over it. Odom’s numbers are about as good as Mike Miller’s. The only difference is that Odom is on about 50 percent more Fantasy teams than Miller and Miller even hits more threes. Right now there should be no reason to have Odom on your team unless you’re in a 20-team league.
*Stats up-to-date as of 02/14/12
“The Fantasies” on SiriusXM Fantasy Sports Radio honors the top performers in Fantasy Sports!
Thursday, February 23rd from 8-11pm ET on Sirius 210, XM 87
Vote now at www.SiriusXM.com/
Want to relive the key moments of the 2011 Fantasy Football season and scout players for 2012? NFL Rewind is your pass to all the game footage you want! Check it out here.
Need to talk sports or argue with him about SFTC picks? Find Adam @RotoZdroik or email him here if you have a story worth telling.
