Give Me The Rock

It’s April 5th, and thanks to With Malice, we have a new holiday to enjoy: Unsung Player Day (with the gap between Easter and Memorial Day, April is sorely lacking in holidays). I loves me a good holiday (although I’m not sure why he made this one for a Saturday. The first rule for any good holiday is to make it on a WEEKDAY. That’s why Thanksgiving is awesome. Well, that and stuffing and mashed potatoes). But Unsung Player Day is here, which means “we should recognize the guys who toil and work hard every day, for no recognition.”

This being a fantasy basketball blog, that means it’s the day to recognize a good and useful fantasy guy who doesn’t get any attention, respect, or possibly even play.

So, in the bon esprit of the day, what do you think of when you hear the name Ryan Gomes? Have you even heard the name Ryan Gomes? (Unless you’re a basketball fan from Minnesota, the name probably doesn’t come up often in conversation.) At best, Gomes is thought of as a lower level “glue guy,” or as Empty the Bench puts it, a guy who manages “to be pivotal in a good team’s performance each night with hustle, defense, leadership, selfless play, grit and all-around games that complement the big scorers and big names on their squad.” To sum that up even further, Kelly Dwyer on Yahoo’s Sports Blog recently called Gomes “a little ball of energy.”

To be honest, that sounds a lot like the Ryan Gomes I use to watch on the Celtics. Doc Rivers primarily used Gomes, who is 6-7, to backup Al Jefferson at PF and, on occasion, Kendrick Perkins at center. Now Gomes, who has no business playing power forward much less center, not only held is own on the court, but provided an offensive and defensive spark on a 2006-07 Celtics’ team that sorely lacked motivation (or was tanking, your choice). Gomes always seemed to be in the exact right position to grab a rebound over a bigger opponent, block a shot out of nowhere, or score a put back off an all too often Celtics miss. To sum it up, he was in fact a little ball of energy.

In the summer of 2007, Gomes was a throwaway piece in the famous KG-to-the-Celtics trade. So throwaway that he was less important than Theo Ratliff and his huge expiring contract. I went back to research what was said about Gomes and the trade at the time and the number of words written about him would comfortably fit into Paris Hilton’s vocabulary. Gomes was lucky to have his name mentioned as part of the trade. If he was talked about at all, it was to say that he was “a good bench player.” In October of 2007, Bill Simmons wrote a novel on Gomes by calling him “an intangibles guy who’s useless on a bad team.”

But it was hard to argue with the wisdom of the crowd. “Energy” and “intangibles” are usually not standard categories in fantasy and, as a result, Gomes presence on the Celtics didn’t always add up to much attention in the world of fantasy basketball.

And the story was the same for Gomes in his first two months with the Wolves. He was indeed a little ball of energy on and off the bench, averaging 25 minutes, 10 points, 4.7 rebounds, 1.3 assists, 0.8 steals and almost no blocks a game though mid-December. It was a role that was eerily similar to his on the Celtics: an energy guy on a bad team. And his stats left him hanging out at number 152 on the GMTR player rater.

But as the Wolves got comfortable playing together (or possibly continued sucking together) Gomes saw more playing time. Since March 7, Gomes has been a solid starter for the Wolves, averaging 32 minutes, 17 points, 6.5 boards, and 1 steal a game. And given those extra minutes, he is currently ranked number 80 on the rater going back the past two weeks. So while Minnesota Timberwolves fans have already been showing the love to Ryan Gomes, now it’s time for fantasy owners to do the same. He’s more than a little ball of energy; he’s a guy who is talented enough to be in the league for a long time.