Ruben Patterson: Takes the Redd Out

Categorized as: Fantasy Basketball, Milwaukee Bucks
Posted on: January 9th, 2007

First, let me apologize for this post’s title, it ridiculous and barely makes sense, yet I couldn’t stop myself. Ok, onto the best and worst fantasy basketball performances last night:

Performance of the Night

With all due respect to Sam Cassell and a great first game back from injury, the fantasy line of the night goes to Ruben Patterson. With Michael Redd out 4-6 weeks with a strained patellar tendon in his left knee, Charlie Villanueva out with right shoulder tendonitis and Maurice Williams leaving last night’s game at halftime with a sprained left shoulder, someone had to play for the Bucks. And it was Ruben Patterson, putting up 29 points, 12 rebounds, 7 assists, and 4 steals on the night. Patterson’s not going to make you feel ok about Redd sitting on your bench for at least the next month, but he’s definitely worth the add while Redd is out. So far this year, in games where Patterson’s played over 30 minutes he’s averaged 16.6 points, 6.7 rebounds, 3.8 assists, and 1.7 steals a game. Patterson is now #88 on the GMTR Player Rater, meaning he’s a starter is just about every league format.

Non-Performance of the Night

Staying with the Bucks, I’m handing out the worst game of the night to Andrew Bogut. On the positive side, he managed to grab 11 rebounds and 2 steals. But, Bogut shot just 3 of 15 on the night and percentages matter to fantasy basketball more than we think. That shooting performance was enough to drop him from #74 to #81 on the GMTR Player Rater.

Trimesters Only Count For Pregnant Women and College Students

One final note, I don’t usually read Rick Kamla, so I’m not sure if it’s his latest work or not, but Kamla recently handed out his “trimester” MVP award to Caron Butler, writing:

When judging the Fantasy MVP of the first third or the entire season, you can’t just take the top guy (Gilbert Arenas) and automatically hand him the hardware. You need to weigh a player’s preseason value against his up-to-the-minute value.

I like Caron Butler a lot, in fact, I’ve been pursuing him in a non-sexual, but still very active way in fantasy leagues. However, I typically like my most valuable players to be, ah, hmm, the most valuable. And that’s exactly what Gilbert Arenas is so far this year. Also, speaking of actual value vs. preseason value, aren’t teams who drafted Arenas doing backflips right now? They got the best fantasy player so far this year in the mid to late first round of their draft. Clearly, Gilbert Arenas is the fantasy MVP (and birthday party MVP) so far this season.

Other Stuff Like This:

• No Related Post