Posts Tagged Chase Budinger

Week 13 was really all about the pickups.  I haven’t seen this many players resurrect their fantasy basketball seasons/careers in a week that didn’t involve any major trades in a long while.  But first, the recap…

Mo Williams

The biggest fantasy news of the week involved Mo Williams’ shoulder sprain, which will sideline him 4-6 weeks.  He passed the injury bug to his replacement, Delonte West (fractured finger in shooting hand), and while I still like West over the next several weeks, it might take him a few games to heal and the another few games to regain his shooting touch, so temper your expectations.

I'm sorry, Grant Hill. This is just wrong. (Getty Images)

Corey Maggette

The biggest fantasy news of the month is Corey Frickin Maggette.  I’ve hated him for years and vowed never to own him (unless I owned Dwight Howard in a roto league).  Now I hate him because I vowed never to own him.  He continues to put up top 10 numbers — amazingly, despite averaging less than ONE three/stl/blk per game — which is a tribute to his efficiency.  (He’s averaging 29 ppg on ~15 shot attempts per game.)  The fact that I want to underline this entire paragraph makes me hate him even more.

Logic says to sell high, although I probably wouldn’t do so unless I was getting a near-sure bet in return.  (That GSW squad just can’t seem to stay healthy, so Maggette will likely get his minutes.)  But, because of the sub-1 threes/stl/blk, once Maggette’s 55% FG rate dips closer to his career averages, he’ll likely plummet out of top 10 status back into the top 50 range.  That’s still nice, but if you can snag someone like, say, Brandon Roy from a panicked owner (in a packaged deal), go for it.  Hey, you never know…

ROY Race

Aided by Monta Ellis’ gimpy anke, Stephen Curry continued to take steps forward, and in my mind he took a big step ahead of the pack in the fantasy ROY race, averaging 23, 5, and 5 with a whopping 3.8 threes and 1.5 spg.  Tyreke Evans, on the other hand, had a mediocre week (still averaging 20+ ppg with great percentages), although in his defense that entire SAC squad had a pretty terrible week.

And while he’s in danger of becoming an Also Ran, Brandon Jennings showed some signs of life, averaging 18 ppg and 7 apg with 2 threes/spg (albeit still shooting sub-40% from the field).  The emergence of Carlos Delfino and return of Jerry Stackhouse — both of which (at least for this week) seem much more like playmakers than Michael Redd ever was this year — seems to be having a positive effect on Young Money.  Sure, his big games this week also came against PGs that couldn’t quite abuse him (Aaron Brooks and Jonny Flynn), but at the least Jennings’ trade value has some life again, in case you need to unload that FG% off your squad.

And in other Week 13 news…

Randy Foye continued to hit his shots until a 3-9 dud on Sunday, which made me feel a little better about ’selling high’ on him earlier in the week.  What also made me feel better: Dwyane Wade’s awesome 2 games after my deal went through.  (In case you have no idea what I’m talking about, I traded Iggy, Foye, and Yi Jianlian for Wade + 2 scrubs who turned into Carlos Delfino and Drew Gooden.  Robin Lopez was sadly picked up before my trade cleared waivers.)

Rashard Lewis is still missing a lot of shots, but also seems to be a more active member of the offense.  There is hope…

F my life — Joakim Noah has plantar fasciitis.  He seemed to be upbeat about the situation, but if he’s just being optimistic, Tyrus Thomas owners have to be thrilled.  (Thomas had 6 blk in 20-something minutes against the (undersized) Rockets in Noah’s DNP over the weekend.)  And by the way, here’s a message to FourPointPlay — I know you rigged my last poll!!  Lol.

Andre Miller continues to excel in Brandon Roy’s absence.

Lastly, Lou Williams’ fantasy season is on life support, but if you can afford to, I’d try to wait until the trade deadline next month before bailing on him.  Many think the 76ers will be active in trades, which might even include Lou but will more likely include Elton Brand or maybe even Andre Iguodala, the departure(s) of which would really help Lou’s fantasy life.  If you need more immediate assistance, see below.

WEEK 14 PICKUPS

It seems like we’ve reached a point in the fantasy season where a lot of managers (namely, the ones out of contention) have checked out.  This actually has a fairly significant impact on fantasy leagues — especially leagues that aren’t as deep — because it means there is a lot of talent in the free agent pool.  If you’re in a H2H league where a lot of these guys are available, it might actually pay off to cut those iffy players and start churning players.  (Although you probably want to hang onto some of these guys.)

Robin Lopez (42%)

Last week when I mentioned him, Lopez was owned in 7% of Yahoo leagues.  That’s up to 42% now, and it should be even more.  After Lopez posted two great lines to start the week, Channing Frye bounced back with a nice performance himself against CHI.  But it’s telling that Lopez and not Frye got the minutes in PHO’s next game against run-and-gun GSW.  Expect defenses to pay closer attention to Lopez in the future, but his starting job seems secure for now.

Since I think this site has more pictures of Robin Lopez than it can handle, I'll give Delfino some well-deserved publicity. (Getty Images)

Carlos Delfino (33%)

I’ll let the numbers speak for themselves: 16.5 ppg, 9.3 rpg, and 3.5 apg with 3.0 threes and 1.5 spg in 4 games last week.  Who knows if this can last, but you want to own Delfino while we all find out.

Drew Gooden (21%)

Gooden was projected by many to be the starting C in Dallas when the year began, but due to injury and Erick Dampier’s strong play, he’s mainly played a bench role.  Sunday may have just been a spot start (Dampier was a DNP-nagging injury), as Gooden probably matched up better against the more mobile David Lee anyway, but even in a bench role Gooden has quietly put up top 50 numbers (by averages) over the last month, with 10 and 8 to go along with ~1 stl/blk and great percentages before Sunday’s 15 and 16 outburst.

Delonte West (23%) and Daniel Gibson (8%)

West is the guy to own in February, but for this week Gibson will hit some threes and get some assists just being in the same building as LeBron.

Craig Smith (5%)

I mentioned that Rasual Butler (and Al Thornton) was worth long-term consideration after it was learned Blake Griffin would miss the entire season.  But it’s Craig Smith who has really thrived while not having to look over his shoulder.  He has solidified his place as the third wheel in that Clipper frontcourt, averaging 15 and 5 on 69% shooting over the last week.

George Hill (8%)

Hill has started three games in a row at SG and produced 16 ppg with 2.3 treys.  Keep an eye on this situation.

Other guys to pick up/keep an eye on: Mike Miller (44% — slowly coming around), Corey Brewer (42% — #38 in Yahoo rankings by averages last week), DeJuan Blair (29% — see last week), Matt Barnes (40%), Brandon Rush (26% — he’s been hot since Granger returned), Rasual Butler (30%), Chase Budinger (3% — if you need 3’s in deep leagues), Cartier Martin (1%).

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