Greg Monroe Steps Up Big in Detroit: NBA Fantasy Basketball Market Watch

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· January 18, 2011

↑ Greg Monroe, C – Detroit Pistons

This week the spotlight shines bright on a rookie center playing for the lowly Detroit Pistons. Monroe was taking a back seat to the 36-year-old Ben Wallace and his 3.2 points/6.5 rebounds per game average. That is, until Big Ben went down with an ankle injury.

Monroe promptly stepped in and has been taking advantage of the extra playing time with Wallace’s absence. He posted four straight double-doubles highlighted by his 16 point/13 rebound performance versus the Sixers last Saturday.

His FG percentage has been on the rise since December as well as his minutes played. In fact, he’s averaging a season-high 33 minutes/game in January after seeing increases each of the past two months. He’s also almost doubled his scoring and rebounding averages from December to January to a season high of 11.3 PPG and 9.1 rebounds/game this month.

The ex-Hoya had a polished game for a big man which is a major reason Detroit made him their seventh overall pick. After a rocky start to the season, Mr. Monroe is starting to pay dividends for the Pistons. He’s proving to be an integral part of the Pistons upcoming youth movement and rebuilding process.

Last week Monroe was owned in only 20 percent of CBS leagues, but he tops the list of the most added players and his ownership has already risen to 51 percent. By next week, he is projected to be owned by 77 percent. So, strike while the iron is hot because it appears that young Greg Monroe has arrived.

↑ Ryan Anderson, PF – Orlando Magic

Ryan Anderson is making it easy for the Magic to forget about Rashard Lewis and his bloated contract which was banished to Washington last month. Since that point, Anderson has become an integral part of Stan Van Gundy’s front court rotation.

In Anderson’s last twelve games, he’s averaged over 20 minutes and has scored in double digits in all but two of them. In the new year, he’s averaging 13 PPG along with 6 rebounds. What’s even more impressive is that he’s shooting 44 percent from three-point range while allowing the Magic to spread the court…similar to how Lewis used to, but for a lot less money. Anderson has also mixed in a handful of assists, steals and blocks making him a contributor across multiple fantasy categories on any given night.

The former first round pick of the New Jersey Nets was sent packing to Orlando in the Vince Carter dump, err trade in ‘09. Ironically, since that trade, the Nets have searched high and low for a quality PF. Meanwhile, Orlando was thought to have a glut of front court players, until their recent roster makeover when they traded Marcin Gortat and Lewis, leaving them with little front-court depth.

Anderson has quietly been making his case to wrestle the starting PF spot from Brandon Bass. And at this point, even though Bass still is the starter, the minutes are being split almost 50-50. It makes sense to jump on the Anderson bandwagon now while he’s owned in only 15 percent of CBS leagues.

↓ Jonny Flynn, PG – Minnesota Timberwolves

To say that Jonny Flynn has struggled in his sophomore season would be a tremendous understatement of his on-court performance to date. After missing the first 24 games of the season, he has returned to very little fanfare in Minnesota.

Jonny has played in only 16 games and eclipsed twenty minutes a whopping two times. He’s scored in single-digits in every game except for two. In January he has scored 23 points TOTAL for a 3.3 PPG average on 23.5 percent shooting. There really are no significant contributions from Flynn to be found, fantasy or reality.

The 2009 first round pick (6th) is still being shown some respect by fantasy owners with 51 percent holding onto him in CBS leagues. The flipside of that is he’s only being started by 4 percent, for obvious reasons. It’s best to avoid the ugly situation in the land of 10,000 guards.

↓ Kenyon Martin, PF – Denver Nuggets

What can be said about Kenyon and the albatross known as his contract which pays him $16 MM in its final year? After a promising start to his career, Martin has been besieged by injuries during his tenure in Denver.

This season, of course has been no different. After missing the first 26 games of the season, K-Mart suited up for only ten of the next 14 games. He’s averaging 5.9 PPG and 4.4 rebounds and playing only 18.4 minutes per game. If you’re looking for any silver lining in his stats, I guess you can point to his 51.9 percent shooting from the field.

It’s very unfortunate when a player is robbed of his athleticism and his career is derailed by injury after injury. But, there is no doubt that Denver’s front office will be very pleased to see Martin ride off into the sunset and clear his contract off the books once the season is over.

And the Goat Award goes to…This edition of the Stock Watch’s Goat Award goes out to the Zen Master himself, Phil Jackson. Yes, I know he is the second Laker to receive this prestigious award. But I can promise you, I’m not picking on them just because I’m a Celtics fan.

I’ve followed the career of Mr. Jackson for many years and have seen him amass every one of his championship rings with the Bulls and Lakers. I have nothing but the utmost respect for him as a coach.

However, it seems this year Jackson is coming off as a grumpy old man. He has a certain aura of negativity surrounding him, whether it’s feuding through the media, with Ron Artest or Mark Cuban; or losing games to teams they should beat handily.

They’ve already had two bad losses (Memphis, LAC) sandwiching a seven game winning streak, and that’s just in 2011. For the elite team they’re supposed to still be, they also lost to Milwaukee and Miami at home (by 19 and 16 respectively) and then to San Antonio by 15 in December.

I know, I know, the Lakers are still in first and do have 30-12 record on the season, tied for 3rd best overall in the NBA. It’s just that we’re not seeing the same swagger from Phil Jax and the Lakers we’re used to seeing. Maybe it has to do with him finally being fed up by dealing with the likes of Ron Artest and Andrew Bynum??

Written by Rosti Satanovsky exclusively for TheFantasyFix.com. You can follow him on Facebook or Twitter@TheSportsFariah

Tags: The Fantasy Fix, Fantasy Sports Advice, Fantasy Basketball Advice, Fantasy Basketball, 2010, NBA, Stock Watch, Greg Monroe, Ryan Anderson, Jonny Flynn, Kenyon Martin, Phil Jackson

Greg Monroe Steps Up Big in Detroit: NBA Fantasy Basketball Market Watch