About a month into the season it was panic time for a couple of fantasy owners. Some of those high-round picks were not just struggling - they were downright disappointing. After a few more weeks, though, some of them are starting to pull themselves out from the abyss and are performing closer to where their owners expected when they drafted them. Let’s take a look at some of the early-season strugglers and see what a few more weeks have done for them:
Gerald Wallace
Who woulda thought that all this time it was Sean May, of all people, who was keeping Wallace down? May went down with an ankle sprain on Saturday night, and Wallace Has responded with his two best games of the season by a wide margin. He’s even blocked four shots filling in for May, matching his total from the previous FIFTEEN GAMES. Still, before this 2-game resurgence, all had not been well in Gerald-land. The blocks obviously haven’t been there, steals have been down, and the FG% has been a major downer as well. The question, of course, is if this resurgence will be a long-lasting lone, or just a ‘comma’ on Wallace’s season. We’ll find out soon enough, as May is due back shortly (he was hoping to play last night but obviously that didn’t happen). if Wallace keeps up his strong play after May returns, then I’ll be willing to reconsider his “bust” status. But until that happens, I’m just not going to be convinced. About a month ago I suggested trading FOR Crash if you’re in last place because of his potential to break out, and I’ll stand by that.
Boris Diaw
There was a great deal of concern about Diaw and his slow start. There were a ton of red flags that suggested he might not pull himself out of it. Number one, of course, was the return of Amare Stoudamire, pushing Diaw out of the middle and out of the comfort zone he had found last year. The other major concern was Diaw’s conditioning, as he apprently showed up to camp out of shape and overweight - which is particularly bad if you’re on a team that flourishes in the open court and runs like crazy for 48 minutes. DM suggested a week into the season that Diaw owners should be patient, and I agreed a few weeks later, but by the time Thanksgiving rolled around I was wondering if maybe fatigue from the World Championships was also a factor.
Well here we are in the middle of December and here’s a familiar looking stat line: 13/6.1/6.2 with 1.2 blocks, .8 steals and over 50% from the field. Yep, that’s what Boris has been up to so far this month, almost identical to his numbers last year. Even more encouraging is the fact that he’s been doing this with a healthy Stoudamire playing beside him. Diaw owners may be looking to sell high here but honestly, if you want to take a risk I think this is a great one to go after. If you can swing a deal for Diaw by giving up 5th or 6th round value I say go for it. He looks to be recovered and should be valuable from here on out.
Ben Wallace
November was not exactly a good month for the new Bull. Big Ben was unhappy, out of sorts, clashing with his coach, and - perhaps worst of all - playing some horrible ball. Wallace owners like our own PR really needed to see a fast start after he played so poorly at the end of last year, but instead Wallace continued to struggle and owners started looking to sell. Of course, PR was the first to mention Wallace’s big coming out party the other night, and I’m obviously impressed by the 47 rebounds in two nights. But I’m also concerned that we may be hopping back on the bandwagon a little too quickly.
Take away those two games and Wallace is still under double-digit rebounds for the month - and the year, for that matter. To me, the good signs about Wallace aren’t the blow-up games, because those only come around once in a great while. I’m more interested to see what Wallace does on an “average” night. And there’s good news here, too. Wallace’s blocks have climed back over the 2.0 mark, and he’s even been scoring a not-disastrous 8 ppg in December. So those are the real encouraging signs here. Let’s be patient with Wallace and get a bigger sample size here before passing judgement.
Speedy Claxton
Remember when you guys all gave me shit for drafting Jarrett Jack in the 7th round, and yet PR took Claxton with the next pick and nobody said a word? Well, here’s a word: DAMN STRAIGHT. OK, so that’s two words, but Jack is clocking in at 42 on the player rater while Claxton is clocking in at KFC.
Really, though, Claxton has started to show some signs of life now that Tyronne Lue has gone down with an injury. Sure the points are nice but even better has been the assists and steals. He’s picked up at least 3 steals in six of his nine games this month and is averaging 2.7 of them to go along with 6.1 assists in December. Claxton may be available in your league and is a great candidate to stash on your bench to see what happens after Lue returns. Claxton is still a pretty big wild card as he struggles to find a role on the Hawks, but they’ve locked him up to a long-term deal so they’re going to give him every opportunity to put it together.
