Give Me The Rock
this is fantasy basketball
Tommy Beer over at Hoopsworld hosted the most recent fantasy basketball roundtable. His topic of debate for the week was:
“Last week we highlighted players who had not lived up to draft day expectations, but were expected to turn it around over the second half of the season. This week, let’s flip it: Pick out a few players that performed like studs over the first two months of the season, but will turn into duds in 2010?”
Check out the entire post over at Hoopsworld, but here are Nels and my answers to that question.
Nels
Tim Duncan – Shooting 55% and 77% from the field and line respectively. The former is a career-high, the latter is the second-best of his career. He’s also hanging in at 2.0 blocks per game in only 32 minutes per game this year. We all know that as soon as the Spurs clinch a playoff spot, Duncan is going to get to skip some games, and his minutes will decline. His numbers will see a corresponding drop.
Paul Pierce – Currently playing like a Top 20 player, when his historical rank is more around the mid-30’s. The knee surgery will drop him down a bit, and with the Celtics currently at the top of the Eastern Conference, they’re not in any rush to get him back on the floor, and especially not at 35 minutes per game.
Patrick
After scanning the list of the top fantasy performers so far this year, I can’t say that I’m surprised by all that many of them. Obviously Beno Udrih (who currently sits on 60 on the GMTR player rater) is going to take a big hit when Kevin Martin returns sometime in January. He’ll return to his 20 minute a game role off the bench behind Martin and Tyreke Evans and that’s just not enough minutes for anyone this side of Chris Andersen to be productive enough for fantasy purposes.
Marcus Camby (13th on the GMTR rater) hadn’t missed a game all year until a knee injury kept him off the court against the Celtics on the 27th. It’s just a hyperextension at this point, but it is a sign of what Camby’s 2010 will be like. He’s not going to play in 81 games this season and the law of averages says that eventually he will miss some time. The imminent arrival of Blake Griffin will likely also affect his production.
Lou Williams isn’t exactly going to be a dud in 2010, but Allen Iverson reuniting with the Sixers is not good news for Williams. Yes, the two are currently starting together as the team’s guards, but there is no doubt that Iverson will be taking shots and assists from Williams. Small sample size alert, but in their first game playing together, Williams attempted only 9 shots and finished with 9 points (his average on the year is 12.1 and 15.4, respectively).
[UPDATE: In their second and third game together, Lou Williams showed me up by scoring 22 and 19 points, respectively, while Iverson was the one who struggled with his shot. Still, I stand by my statement. Iverson is a siphon who is going to take touches away from Williams over the long haul.]
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