With all of this talk (mostly by me) about focusing on a) teams with little or nothing to play for and b) a lot of games left on the schedule, I thought it might be worthwhile to discuss a team that meets both of those qualifications - the Milwaukee Bucks.  Not only are they in the thick of trying to get as many ping-pong balls as possible, and not only do they have a whopping 15 games remaining (compared with, say, 10 for Golden State), but they’ve already shut down a couple of big men and they’ve got a new head coach who’s interested in seeing what he’s got on his hands.  

With that in mind, let’s take a look at the new front line for the Bucks, where we find a couple of guys who had no business being even discussed for the last few months, but all of a sudden could be playing decent roles over the last few weeks of the season.  This is going to be a bit of a theme here over the last few weeks as games start needing to be filled and quasi-injuries dominate the fantasy landscape.   Eventually we’ll get down to just one-game fillers but for now we can focus on guys that will possibly be effective for long stretches:

Brian Skinner, C
After plugging along in fantasy obscurity for the majority of the year, all of a sudden down goes Bogut and Villanueva and all of a sudden Skinner has gotten 44 and 34 minutes in the last two games.  Combine those minutes with his qualification at center and we’ve got a legitimate fantasy option on our hands.  Skinner has pretty much establised himself as a no-score, decent-board kinda guy who will at least contribute in blocks.  That doesn’t sound great, but for example, when I look at the guys available in my league right now and sort them by rebound numbers over the last month, I see Joe Smith and Jeff Foster at the top of the list, followed by guys like Chuck Hayes, Antonio McDyess, and Brendan Haywood.  Skinner may not be a better player than any of them, but he will see more consistent minutes and - don’t forget - he’s got 15 games remaining.

Skinner is a good bet for 8 or 9 boards and maybe 1.5 blocks over the last few weeks of the year and for teams that are looking to move in those areas, he’s a nice pickup, particularly if you’ve got games to fill at C.  He’s still no great shakes, but as the season winds down he could be the difference between first and second place for some teams.

Ersan Ilyasova, F
Who?  Well, how about a little refresher: Ilyasova is just 19 - probably - and despite being drafted in ‘05 is playing in the NBA for the first time after spending most of last year in the D-League.  I say “probably” because it’s been contested that he was actually born in 1984, but FIBA believes that Ilyasova is really 19, and that’s good enough for me.  He’s had a couple of spot starts and even got 22 mpg in January (who knew?) and seems to be content to hang out around the 3-point line, which is where over 40% of his shots come from. 

Still, you may have noticed that Ilyasova started yesterday and knocked down five threes on his way to 21 points, which is impressive, but I’m not exactly sold.  Despite the hot shooting outside he was only 2-9 from inside the arc and that doesn’t really bode well for a guy who’s 6-9 and should be doing most of his damage inside.  I think you’d be able to get the same kind of 3-point production out of, say, Brent Barry or Linas Kleiza as you will out of Ilyasova going forward.  Now, if Michael Redd or Charlie Bell shuts it down, we may have a different story on our hands, but for now I’d still hold off.