I almost titled this post “C Bud Run, Run Chase, Run” but thought that might make everyone go crosseyed. Also, he didn’t have a great game last night and I’ve had this loaded since Saturday, so I went with the title that suggested rockier times ahead. Last night, the hottest of all Rockets, Chase Budinger, only had 7 pts/4 rbd, 1 turnover, hair yellow enough to have played the lead Nazi in any action movie from the ’80s and 1 three. Yet, despite the underwhelming play of … just about the entire Houston starting lineup lately, Buddy’s still coming off the bench. Why? Because he’s “an energy guy.” Energy guys come off their benches and go crazy on other teams’ second-unit guys. It’s not about minutes. If the minutes were there, his per minute stats suggest he’d lead the team in threes, place third in total points, lead in FT% and outrank all other Houston SG/SF in FG%. No, it’s about energy and matchups and the fact that Budinger’s defense is spotty and he doesn’t move the ball or rebound particularly well. Still, Budinger has averaged 11/5/2 in his last six, nearly 2 3ptm, rarely turns the ball over and is shooting .500/1.000 in 22 mpg. Deep leaguers shoulda already grabbed him. Medium leaguers should start circling the wagons around him to see if the solid play by Houston’s starters continues and shallow leaguers should get more friends and create bigger leagues. Here’s who else did some serious basketballin’ last night.
Whoa, Nellie! Just a quick announcement. We’re looking for a few good men (or women if you’re out there) interested in writing for Razzball Hoops next season. E-mail me Razzball.Hoops [at] yahoo.com if you’re interested, or even if you’re not interested and just want to chat. That’s cool too, but far less likely to garner a response. Okay, back to the roundup.
Kevin Martin – “A slump…” 3pt swish “…ain’t no reason…” 3pt swish “…to freak out…” 3pt swish “…so for those of you who benched me…” 3pt swish “… or traded me away for Ben Gordon…” 3p swish “…suck on this!” Five threes last night, on his way to 28 points. Slump. Busted.
Klay Thompson – Dropped 14 points and 4 threes. The problem is, he doesn’t do this often, which means you shouldn’t play him often, which basically means you shouldn’t own him. Not yet, anyway.
D.J. Augustin – Not in tonight, more likely in Wednesday. Settle down, settle down. I didn’t say “Lin.” I said “in.” And Jeremy isn’t even on the Bobcats. Sheesh.
Nene Hilario – Could miss this next week because of an injured calf. And I want to make it clear that I am talking about Nene’s leg, not a young cow. Nene has people to take care of his sick livestock. Anyway, Mozgov will be the ineffectual add, who I would not suggest actually adding.
Steve Blake – Went 7/2/4 in 29 minutes on Sunday. Over the course of the last three since returning from injury, Blake has amassed 17/4/12 in 90 minutes, compared to Derek Fisher‘s 10/2/8, in 66 minutes. What’s it all mean? It means owning a Laker PG isn’t helping your team.
DeMar DeRozan – He’s shot 28-of-57 (.491) in his last four leading up to yesterday’s game. He’s also spent all January shooting .367. Clearly he had yesterday’s 2-for-13 performance coming to him. Those previous four games were nice, but you should have known he was playing with the casino’s money.
Richard Hamilton – He’s missed 19 of the team’s 30 games and stands to miss anywhere between another week or two. Bully! Bully! (note: those bullies were for everyone except Rip and fantasy owners inexplicably holding onto Rip).
Joakim Noah – Playing out of his head lately (relative to JoaNoa), averaging 31.1 mpg, .620/.905 (woot! woot!), 11.6 pt/9.9 rbd Compare that to his January averages of 28.6 mpg, .483/.702, 8.2 pts/9.7 rbd. I give it no more than three games before Noah injures himself until May.
C.J. Watson – He’s averaging 15/3/6 in five games as a starter in place of the oft-injured Derrick Rose. With the exception of maybe Andre Miller, there just isn’t a better backup PG in the NBA than C.J. Alternatively put: schoolin’ is elementary for my dear Watson.
Chris Wilcox – Well, it’s mid-season. It was only a matter of time before Wilcox came up as someone to add for a game or two. Brandon Bass is out, allowing Crox to hang in there for 23 minutes and go 10/9. He’ll get these minutes for the next week or so and you could do much worse. Sharing a bathroom with Ke$ha is an example of you doing much worse.
Trevor Booker – Nick and JaVale both had solid games, but Booker’s been the second-best Wizard on the team in the last two weeks. Last night’s 9/7/1 line doesn’t do much to back up my case until you figure in the 1 stl/2 blk/2 tov levels that were not approached by any other Wizard last night except for …
Jan Vesely – With pretty much the entire second half to play around in, Vesely finished with 10/8/2, stealing it twice, blocking it thrice and turning it over a quartet of times. It’s nice to know he’s got this in him, but this was the second-most minutes he’s played and these minutes came against Detroit’s J.V. squad. Don’t get too excited about Jan in this blowout win. … Win. I said win, not “Lin.” Relax. Not everything this week involved that dude. Gawd!
Darko Milicic – Set to return tonight. Nikola Pekovic is still a hold for fantasy owners lucky enough to have grabbed onto his .645/.731 and 16.7/10.1 in his last seven games. Top 30 production like that shouldn’t be tossed away so that Milicic can futz around for 24 minutes a game.
Marvin Williams – Remember when Williams was averaging 13/7/2 and it looked like he might make due on at least a little of the promise from the 2005 draft? Man, those were the days. Literally. That shizz lasted a matter of days. Now? You get 6/3, 2 tovs and shame.
Willie Green – 17/3/3, with 3 3ptm. It was Green’s best game of the season, brought about because Miami was monkey-punching the Hawks by 27 after three quarters. Until he does that in a closer game, or it becomes clear Atlanta will never lose another game by less than 20 points, sit on your hands. Adding him now would be a sin. … *sigh* Yup. That’s right. I just mentioned the PG from the New York Knicks: Jeremy Sin. Can we move on now? All week with this! You know what, I’m done. I’ll see you tomorrow.
____________
