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NBA Picks and Rolls: Kwame Won’t Cut It

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Ronny Turiaf Out-hustles Kwame Brown

Kwame Brown and Ronny Turiaf Photo Credit: Icon SMI

They sure do miss their Andrew Bynum in Los Angeles. In Friday’s contest against Phoenix Kwame Brown, Bynum’s replacement, was mercilessly booed every time he took the court or touched the ball. Sure, Brown finished with 7 turnovers, 5 personal fouls, 0 blocks and just 6 boards and 8 points on 3-of-8 shooting, but the crowd disapproval rained down even before Small Hands had a chance to stink up the joint. It was so bad that Brown felt the need to publicly apologize to fans for “going into a shell.” Kwame went on to say, “I apologized to Kobe and my teammates… They tried to pick me up and I just kept making turnovers and playing hot potato with the ball. There’s no excuse for the dunks that I missed.”

Los Angeles had won the first two games against their Phoenix rivals this season with Bynum in the lineup, but were embarrassed without Bynum on Friday. As Kobe Bryant said, Los Angeles is a title contender with Bynum in the lineup. Without him, they simply aren’t in the conversation.

When the emerging superstar Bynum went down, it appeared that Kwame was a shoo-in to get a vast majority of his minutes, but perhaps Phil Jackson will be forced to rethink that approach. It’s hard to ignore the fact that, while slightly undersized, 2005 second-round pick Ronny Turiaf is playing better basketball right now. He brings more energy than Brown night in and night out, he scraps around the basket, he plays hard on the glass, he gets after loose balls, he knocks down mid-range jumpers and he’s even hitting 50.3% FGs and 74.1% FTs this season. Turiaf plays with heart, he’s a fan favorite and he’s earned the minutes more than the underachieving Brown.

* * *

In not-so-related news from the Left Coast, Keith Smart will apparently miss his pornography almost as much as Lake Show fans like their Bynum. On Saturday Smart, an assistant coach in Golden State, accidentally left Matt Barnes off the roster for the game. It caused Barnes to miss the contest. Head coach Don Nelson cleared up the situation today, saying “Keith Smart left him off because he was watching the adult movie channel and he should have been concentrating on drawing up the roster… So we’re going to take that privilege away from him for the rest of the year.”

Ouch. Talk about calling a guy out in public. While Smart looks for another hobby, we move on to the fantasy analysis…

Up and Down Game:

Push It Up:

Andrew Bogut, PF/C, Bucks: What in the world has gotten into Andrew Bogut? He’s been on fire in 2008, averaging 18.6 points and 9.9 boards on 60.5% FGs in January. He’s been even better of late, with 21.7 points and 10.0 rebounds on 60% FGs over the last week. It started on January 6th when Bogut had 25 points on 10-for-15 shooting, and it was no fluke. The following day Bucks coach Larry Krystkowiak said:

“We’re certainly going to do that. I think what’s gone on in the past is we’ve have a couple of sets that throw it to Andrew and he hasn’t been productive and we’ve kind of stopped. I think from a coach’s perspective, you have to have confidence in your big guy and that’s what I’m doing is instilling that in him, that we’re going to keep coming at you… We’re looking to get him the ball inside and telling the other four guys, ‘Look, take a peek at him in there.’ It can be real effective.”

He’s averaging 12.4 FG attempts a game this month, by far the most in his career. If his owner thinks this production is a fluke or just hasn’t been paying attention, now is a great time to target Bogut.

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Thabo Sefolosha: Player
Thabo Sefolosha, SG/SF, Bulls: Thabo was featured in our list of players we wanted to see more of, and our wish has been granted. He’s started each of the last four games for Chicago, playing at least 26 minutes in each contest. He has 7 steals in those games, and posted perhaps the best game of his career in the win over Detroit on Saturday: 12 points, 13 rebounds, 2 steals and 1 three-pointer while playing great defense on Detroit’s perimeter players.

In that same game Chris Duhon went down with what appeared to be a serious knee injury. Meanwhile, Luol Deng was already struggling through an Achilles injury and Kirk Hinrich has been losing minutes because of poor play. That means minutes should be plentiful for Thabo in the coming weeks, and he plays such suffocating D that he should earn them.

Thabo Sefolosha Photo Credit: Icon SMI

Nate Robinson, PG/SG, Knicks: I have never seen a pro athlete as excited to undergo season-ending surgery as Stephon Marbury was last week. Then again, the Knicks are setting a lot of new lows for professional sports this season. With “Starbury” out, Nate Robinson has been playing big minutes and playing well. Isiah Thomas has said that Nate isn’t the Knicks point guard of the future, but he’s still seeing over 30 minutes a game in January and responding with 15.8 points, 4.6 points and 2 threes on 47.3% FG.s

Kareem Rush, SG, Pacers: Rush has been a big disappointment in Indy this season, but he was given a starting job five games ago and has been playing better over the last month. He attempted a season-high 17 FGs on Saturday and hit 10 of them for 22 points and 2 threes. Rush is a bit of a chucker, but he’s getting about 27 minutes this month and taking 12 FG attempts, good for 12.6 points, 1.9 three-pointers and 1.2 steals. He won’t give you much else, but that’s enough to be a fringe fantasy player.

Anthony Parker, SG/SF, Raptors: Parker has started to pick up his offensive game the last two weeks, and Sam Mitchell said he plans to keep it up, “We’re trying to move him more, putting the ball in his hands a little bit more and I think he likes that.” Over his last nine games Parker is hitting 48.6% FGs and producing across the board with 14 points, 2.2 threes, 4.3 boards, 3.0 assists and 1.3 steals.

Dorell Wright, SG/SF, Heat: Wright is a personal favorite of mine, an extremely athletic SG/SF taken with the 19th pick in 2004 out of high school. He isn’t doing all that much right now, but given minutes I’m confident he can be a sneaky source of blocks and solid FG% from the SG position. Wright is back from injury and has started the last three games for Miami, finishing with 8 points, 9 boards and 2 blocks on 4-of-7 shooting on Saturday. As a starter Wright is shooting 50% FGs, averaging 1.4 blocks and nearly 1 steal a game. He could be a solid glue player for fantasy squads.

JR Smith, SG, Nuggets: Smith is finally emerging from George Karl’s doghouse once again, and while he’s always a streaky player, I think he either sticks in the rotation this time or is traded. Denver may just be showcasing the 22-year-old, but a change of scenery could do him good, and over the last four games Smith is averaging 14.3 points and 2.0 threes on 46.5% FGs and 81.8% FTs. Smith is really just a pure scorer, but he can be a great source of threes when he’s on his game (2.7 as a starter last season).

Slow It Down:

Jermaine O’Neal, PF/C, Pacers: O’Neal was on everybody’s list of guys to avoid on draft day, and he’s proving why in another injury-riddled campaign and now being out 2-3 weeks with a knee injury. He hasn’t played in 70 games since the 03-04 season, and the chronic leg injuries are severely limiting Jermaine even when he’s on the floor. With just 15.3 points per game, this is his worst scoring season since 00-01, his first in Indianapolis. Maybe somebody in your league still thinks he’s an impact fantasy player and you can pawn him off, because O’Neal is just a headache to own right now.

Rasheed Wallace, PF, pistons: ‘Sheed is one of the most talented big men in the league, but he’s the definition of mercurial, as in, “characterized by rapid and unpredictable changeableness of mood.” You just never know when he’s going to show up, and in recent seasons thats been less and less in the regular season. He was a complete non-factor in the Pistons’ loss to Chicago on Saturday, and over the last week his line is truly anemic: 27.5% FGs 60% FTs, 0.3, threes, 6.5 points and 4.8, boards. That’s not what you wanted out of your fourth-round pick.

Luol Deng, SG, Bulls: Luol Deng returned from an Achilles injury on the 13th and played well over his next four games, but was suddenly out of the Bulls’ lineup again on Saturday when the injury flared up again. Everything I’m hearing out of Chicago is that it’s a minor setback and Deng should be fine, but I have a feeling this injury is going to be of the nagging variety. I’m a huge Deng fan, but when you add in the fact that his stats are down in literally every category this season his stock is bottoming out right now.

Kirk Hinrich, PG, Bulls: Perhaps it really hurt his feelings when Scottie Pippen said of Hinrich, “He’s not that talented… You can’t have midgets running your backcourt.” For whatever reason, Hinrich is in another funk in the worst season of his career. Captain Kirk’s 11.3 points, 6.0 assists, 0.9 threes and 1.1 steals are all the lowest of his career and the 9.5 points, 3.5 assists and 0.5 steals on 31.6% FGs over the last week are even worse.

Tony Parker, PG, Spurs: Tony has a foot injury and he doesn’t want to talk about it. His stats are also down of late, and there has been talk he’ll need surgery on the foot at some point, so this is a major cause for concern. Concern, not panic. According to MySA.com:

Parker danced around questions about his health after the Cavs won 90-88 Thursday.

“We’ve been talking about that for a long time,” he said. “There’s nothing new. I just have to get some treatments and get some rest. Hopefully it will go away.”

Asked a second time if he was all right, Parker paused a few seconds before answering.

“I’m playing,” he said. “I’ve got no excuse. I’m just playing.

Parker’s bread and butter is his explosive first step on offense and his ability to get to the rack, to penetrate and score or dish. If this thing is going to slow him down it will impact his fantasy value. Tony’s FG%, scoring, and assists are down this month, so now might be a good time to think about dealing the talented but hobbled point.

Ben Wallace, C, Bulls: Ben Wallace has fallen off a cliff this season, making the $44 million he’s owed between this season and the next two seem utterly absurd. While Ben has never had much of an offensive game, the 35.1% FGs is the worst since his rookie season in 96-97 and the 4.6 points/per is the worst since his second season in Washington in 97-98. Chicago knew he would fade (though not this fast), so they drafted Tyrus Thomas last year and Joakim Noah this year to eventually replace him. Thomas has been a bust, and Noah has been a bit of a headache but he’s starting to take Big Ben’s minutes of late. As a result, Ben has put up just 6.8 boards, 0.4 steals and 0.8 blocks over the last week.

The post NBA Picks and Rolls: Kwame Won’t Cut It appeared first on Empty the Bench.


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