Ronny On The Radar

Categorized as: Author: Erik, Fantasy Basketball
Posted on: February 3rd, 2009

Well Marcus Camby is back and is starting again and we all know what that means, don’t we? Yup, it’s time to thank DeAndre Jordan for his few days of dutiful and helpful fantasy service for our teams and send him and his fantasy value off with a warm goodbye.

Fret not folks! For some new brave, hardworking, and now recently fantasy relevant soul has resonated a ping on our fantasy radars.

Target sighted!
Keep an eye on that bogie and track where it’s headed!
Sir, the target looks like it is on its way up the rankings…
Don’t lose it, soldier. We may actually be able to plug him in our fantasy team’s line up soon.

Up until recently, Ronny Turiaf (PF/C) of the Golden State Warriors has had little to no fantasy significance beyond the insanely large number of blocks he seems to be able to generate given the limited amount of minutes spared and disbursed to him by Coach Don Nelson.  He’s currently second in the league in total blocks, trailing only Dwight Howard in that category. He was like a less palatable Theo Ratliff  of old. Remember him? You’d normally cringe at the thought of slipping Ronny into your roster simply to boost ONE category.

In the last four games, however, we have noticed an increase in his minutes, 25 MPG from a season average of 18 MPG and production (in other cats other than blocks), and he appears to look more like a slightly more effective – uh well, Andris Biedrins (who seems to be in a slight fantasy slump as of late). 7.8 boards, 1.2 steals, 3 blocks per game do look more enticing at this point. He just recently logged in 7 rebounds, 2 steals and 4 blocks versus the San Antonio Spurs, no less and even spent more time on the floor than starting C, Biedrins.

Ronny is just one heck of a solid worker bee, ranked 86 in Yahoo based on season totals. He knows his role on the team. He does the dirty work for the Warriors. You know, stuff like crashing the boards and actually playing some defense. Stuff like that.  He knows he is not the star, or even going to be considered in the team’s TOP 5 in terms of “star power.” But Ronny isn’t about the big contracts or the limelight. He goes on the court and plays his heart out on defense, bubbling with hustle-energy. His intensity, strong work ethic, and effectiveness on the defensive end of the floor may have caught “the Don’s” eye and Ronny is being rewarded with a bump in PT. It makes me glad to see these unsung hero-types get chances to be plugged into fantasy rosters. Don’t  jump the gun and get deluded into thinking that he will suddenly transmogrify into another Andris Biedrins or even a vintage Ben Wallace, but you should keep an eye on him on your fantasy radars for his increased fantasy viability as he is only owned by 20% of teams in Yahoo.

Shameless Plug:

Actually, I recently picked him up in exchange for Daequan Cook, who might not see action this week, in my small ball team in an 18-man, head to head league (daily roster changes). You might be wondering why on earth I would grab him for my small ball team. Well I’m playing catch up in that league (15th of 18) and my opponent for the week is relatively light on the blocks department. He only has David Lee and Luis Scola, both of whom aren’t known to block all that much, to help out his Al Jefferson in the front court. I opted to diversify my targeted cats instead of consolidating my small ball numbers against his Chris Duhon, Joe Johnson, and Tony Parker.

As I outlined in my latest post, The Final Push: Clawing Your Way to the Top, on my new blog, http://pointsinthepaint.com/, the road from the bottom to the top is paved with attempts to win as many categories as possible. Brendan of 2RR, a fellow bloguin member blog, highlights Ronny’s “streamability” for his blocks HERE.

Seriously folks, thanks for reading my stuff here at GMTR and over the old Points in the Paint. I look forward to your continued support for my new blog as I fill it and GMTR with fantasy-flustered ramblings while I continue on this road of fantasy basketball blogging bliss.

Cheers!

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Tags: Daequan Cook, Golden State Warriors, Ronny Turiaf