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It’s a Sprint to the Finish: Guards Who Can Help You Out

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Categorized as: Author: Patrick, Ballin Outta Control, Fantasy Basketball, NBA Basketball, Player News, Random Stuff
Posted on: March 2nd, 2009

Most fantasy leagues have entered the stretch run. Trading deadlines are about to come to a close (if they haven’t already) and some teams are fighting for playoff position while others are out of it altogether.

With many NBA teams finding themselves in the same position, it has opened up opportunities for a lot of players. So who are some of the guys who can help out your team? Who has picked up their game the most since the all-star break?

Instead of just randomly picking names off the top of my head, I used our handy player rater to look at the difference between a player’s year-to-date rating and their last 10 game rating. This gives a sense of who has stepped up their game recently. It’s not a perfect measure, but it’s math-e-matical. Here are some of the guards you came out at the top of this list:

Nate Robinson (ranked #44 on the year/#5 over the last 10 games) – Besides tagging Dwight Howard with his balls in the dunk contest, the second best thing that Robinson has done this month is become a scoring machine, with games of 29, 32, 41, 26, and 32 points since the break. The addition of Larry Hughes to the Knicks isn’t the greatest news for Robinson’s playing time, but as long as Hughes continues to play like crap, Nate Rob should continue to get his 30 minutes a game.

Leandro Barbosa (93/13) – Shaquille O’Neal 45-point outbursts aside, Barbosa is the guy who has benefited the most under new Suns coach Alvin Gentry. Since the all-star break, Barbosa has started in 7 of the 8 Suns games, averaging 20.5 points, 1.4 threes, and 4.6 assists. The Amare injury was probably not part of any master plan, but Gentry has used the injury to go small, putting Grant Hill at PF and using the Suns speed to their advantage. Since speed is something Barbosa has plenty of, he should be fantasy gold the rest of the season.

Leandro Barbosa

Kelenna Azubuike (105/37) – Azubuike’s game has been all over the place this season, partly because of all the disruption in the Warriors lineup and partly because of his tendency not to give 100% effort 100% of the time. But with recent injuries to Monta Ellis and Don Nelson beginning to sit veterans to give more time to younger players, Azubuike has seen his minutes increase to 30+ the past few games. As the regular season whines down, Corey Maggette seems like a guy who is going to take some time off to rest his broken down body, which is good news for Azubuike’s playing time.

Jarrett Jack (119/34) – Jack is another guy who has been thrown into a starting role thanks to injuries – in this case Danny Granger and Mike Dunleavy. He’s been starting alongside TJ Ford in Indiana’s backcourt and getting 40+ minutes on a lot of nights. Since the break, Jack has had scoring games of 28, 20, and 33 points, while bringing decent assist, steal, and three numbers. He does turn the ball over a lot, so that drops his value a bit in leagues that count turnovers.

Charlie Bell (205/96) – Well, he’s no Michael Redd… but like his teammate Bell isn’t afraid to shoot the three. He’s averaging 3.3 attempts per game on the year and 6.6 over the past couple weeks. Bell is coming off the bench for about 30 minutes a game since Redd went down and that’s likely to keep up the rest of the year. Grab him if you need the threes and can deal with the general blahness of the rest of his game.

Bobby Jackson (217/81) – The soon to be 36-year old point guard has gotten a recent boost in fantasy value thanks to an injury to starting Kings PG, Beno Udrih. In the past two games, Jackson has gotten the start and 30+ minutes and has averaged 16 points, 2 steals, and a block. While most people like to see more than 2 assists a game from their point guard, fantasy owners in desperate situations often need to think of creative solutions.

Antoine Wright (235/123) – Ok, now we’re in deep. Wright has been starting at SG for the Mavs for most of 2009 and while he doesn’t actually do much of anything, he is starting and is available in just about every kind of league there is. The return of Jason Terry from injury doesn’t help Wright’s value, but he was starting ahead of Terry earlier in the year and he should do the same for the rest of it.

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