Fantasy Basketball Dilemma: Abandon Ship or Hold Tight On These Underachievers?
With so few bright spots in Cleveland this season it’s far easier to point a finger at the players who
haven’t performed up to expectations following the King’s departure. Point guard and floor leader Mo Williams, a consensus top 50 player entering the ’10-’11 season, has fallen well short of filling LeBron’s gaping void.Since being acquired from Milwaukee in 2008, Williams has presented himself as one of the league’s most dynamic point guards while proving to be an effective and reliable second option for the Cavaliers. The ’10-’11 campaign has been a struggle now that the former Alabama Crimson Tide guard is expected to carry the weight of a diminished Cavaliers team and the burden of a downdraught basketball city.
Entering another week of play, Williams continues to post career lows shooting the ball from the field (38.7 FG percent) and posts career low free throw marks (82 percent) while heaving a grotesque 26.6 3PT percentage. Mo’s struggles on the offensive end have had reverberating affects causing the 29-year-old to strain at the defensive end of the floor and thus struggle to rebound (2.8 RPG), his lowest rate since 2005.
Part of the blame for William’s poor first half can be attributed to a nagging hip injury that forced him to leave a January 15th game against Denver after playing only five minutes. The Cavaliers have been cautious considering their paper thin depth and their investment in Williams who has two years remaining on his $51 MM contract.
The Cavaliers have seemingly hit rock-bottom and so has Williams. A healthy second half would go a long way to returning some value on a Mo Williams investment—and thus some wins for a desperate team. Considering his sustained track record and his ability to both score and distribute, Williams appears to be an ideal buy low candidate poised for an impressive spring.
Brandon Roy’s surgery on both knees last week queued the arrival of Wesley Matthews as the beneficiary of newly bequeathed playing time. Averaging above 32 minutes nightly, Matthews has been something of a “Mc-Substitute”: All filler and no nutrition—a player who gets the playing time but posts deceptively ineffective statistics.
Matthews 16 points per contest looks great on paper but considering the heavy workload he’s seen while filling in for Roy, Matthews has failed to produce. His 1.6 assists is among league lows for the guards and his 3.1 rebounds per night is a disappointing accruement compared to that of Brandon Roy whose career rebound averages hover just below five rebounds per game.
Wes Matthews may have a handful of impressive scoring displays during December and January since being named the interim starter, but does however lack the consistency and overall peripheral production to place him among a the league’s elevated echelon of guards.
Portland will attempt to retool as the team looks to improve beyond their near .500 record. The Trail Blazers will need young Wes Matthews to provide his best Brandon Roy impression in order for his team to have any shot at playing into late April.
The tribulations of O.J. Mayo in Memphis have been well documented during this 2010-2011 season, the worst of the 23-year-old guard’s career. After beginning the first 13 games of the season in a starting role, Mayo has since seen his role reduced and struggled to find his offensive groove off the bench. His 12.5 PPG this season are the lowest of his career and have triggered swirling trade rumors that would send the former third overall draft pick somewhere where he could see more playing time.
Mayo’s shooting rates are slightly below where we’re accustomed to seeing them which leads one to believe that O.J.’s down season is nothing more than the result of seeing less playing time. The former USC Trojan is far too talented to continue his low first half production into the late winter months and ultimately making Mayo a buy low possibility.
Memphis is loaded with a litany of players who require the ball in order to succeed: Rudy Gay, Zach Randolph, Marc Gasol, and Mike Conley. The trade deadline swap to send Mayo elsewhere would again open new opportunities for Mayo to display his potential in what is currently an overcrowded array of scorers in Memphis.
Following an early January quarrel on the team’s flight over unpaid debt from a card game with teammate Tony Allen, it appears that moving O.J. Mayo would be in best interest for both the Grizzlies and Mayo fans. At only 23, there is still plenty of reason to believe that Mayo has yet to reach his ceiling.
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Tags: The Fantasy Fix, Fantasy Sports Advice, Fantasy Basketball, Fantasy Basketball Blog, NBA, Hoops, Conor Gereg, Mo Williams, Brandon Roy, Wesley Matthews, O.J. Mayo
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