anonymous: you know, it’s going to be tough to have any Knick in your starting lineup right now. They’re all going to be inconsistent. If Blount’s available, i’d say make the move, but remember, he can be inconsistent, too. also, with hughes out, i’m a huge fan of donyell marshall right now.

rook: i’d say that right now kirilenko’s got a late-second/early-third round value. from what i can tell, the injuries were not chronic, but neither are any of Camby’s. AK might just be fragile.

big easy: i’d go ridnour, west, then skip - for now. but all of them have pretty volatile value.

nhutty: good call. thanks!

biggs: percentages are just as undervalued - if not more. there are plenty of issues with percentages, i’ll try to tackle them next week.

chars: those guys include Dwight Howard, Lamar Odom, Darius Miles, and T-Mac, but there are plenty of guys who are teetering around 0.9 block and steals.

question: who are the other five averaging a steal and a block a game?

Turnovers can be undervalued as well…and technicals. Overall…people look at the “line”…points/rebounds/assists but not the little things.

As for percentages, I think they are taken more seriously in Roto leagues than in H2H; percentages can vary greatly on a given week if, for example, Kobe Bryant is hot or not. But in Roto, the poor shooting will hurt you much more in the long run.

Overall, I liked the premise for the article a lot. I find that steals are especially ignored in most leagues, probably because there are so few of them when compared to something like points or rebounds. The difference between an above average and below average player in steals can be less than 1 per game.

Blocks are unique because in a few cases they can be overvalued (I’m looking in your direction Theo Ratliff), but for the non-elite shot blockers (especially for non-centers), they seem to be undervalued.

How about percentages? Do you find they are ignored as much as the defensive stats?

I would buy AK47 if you can get him for good value. He has obviously had a drop off since two years ago; HOWEVER, if you look at the stats from all his games returning from injury, he is putting up great numbers that could very easily stay at their current levels.

As far as Blount…I’m fed up with the Boston frontcourt situation. I drafted Raef and Jefferson, and have since dropped them both as no one gets 35 minutes and all just don’t seem to get enough stats. Most of the touches go to Pierce/Davis/West/Banks.

Blount won’t help you with rebounds, although his defense and scoring certainly aren’t bad. I might wait it out a little; his TO’s are really bad.

And as far as Rotisserre, it depends on what you are needing the most West will help in FG the most, with Luke being the best in FT. It also depends on who can stay healthy and get the most PT. Boston has Banks and Houston has Head, but Seattle doesn’t have a contentional backup PG (unless you count Wilkins now).

That’s a tough call…West if you need an all-around contributor. Alston had a horrible start to the year, but could potentially be the best option due to a injury plagued Houston team

but i think you missed another Wallace in your article. Rasheed Wallace.

he’s averaging 1.5stls, 1.5blks and 2 three’s a game

On a completely unrelated topic, does anyone think it would be a good idea to drop Channing Frye for Mark Blount? Despite Larry Brown saying he was going to start playing his younger players more, Frye has been getting way too few minutes to be effective. Frye looks good when he’s in and he has way more upside, but he can’t do much while riding the pine.
Blount has been playing surprisingly well and seems to have secured a starting job, but in my 9-cat H2H league his turnovers could be a killer. My first thought is to hold onto Frye, but it’s frustrating to look at his crappy lines lately.