Every week there are at least five players, probably on your waiver wire depending on the depth of your league, that you need to pay attention to. This week we look at:
- John Salmons- Easy one. Salmons absolutely exploded averaging over 20+ a game when he was inserted in the starting lineup early in the season in place of Artest. Kevin Martin, the teams leading scorer and shot taker went down with a groin strain and will be out 4-6 weeks. Salmons is again inserted in the starting lineup and will be an even bigger part of the offense now with Martin out. Expect his early season numbers to return.
- Carlos Delfino- The Raptor 6th man is absolutely on fire over the past two weeks. Chances are, even though Delfino does not start someone took notice and grabbed him. If not, and your team needs threes, points and steals look him up, because though he may only average 27-30 minutes a game he is putting up starter like numbers while Bosh and Andreas are on the sidelines.
- Travis Outlaw- Just when it appeared Martell Webster had found his game and secured the starting small forward position for the TrailBlazers, Webster has gone cold while Outlaw is just heating up. Webster is still starting, but for the last four games most of the minutes have been going to Outlaw and he has been producing points, rebounds and blocks with three games going for at least 17 and 7 rebounds. He is extremely athletic so he can provide stats in almost any category. Watch for Outlaw to push Webster out of the lineup in coming weeks.
- David Lee- Lee got a chance to start a couple games with Eddy Curry out and it may have woke up the rebounder. Curry is back, but Lee has played well in three straight games even when coming off the bench, and when he gets minutes he will always provide points and rebounds. You may want to watch him a couple more games, to make sure he doesn’t go back to sleep (a common trend in NY these days), but anyone that helps NY win games will get serious minutes in the rotation right now, and Lee is on the verge of that. If Curry goes out again, or is limited due to nagging injuries, Lee is an automatic pickup.
- Bonzi Wells- Wells teased us earlier in the season with a 3-4 game stretch where he appeared to have secured 30 minutes in the roatation, before disappearing to the bench. If Adelman was not the coach for this Rockets team I would say to assume Bonzi will only ever be good for 1 or 2 games here and there, but Adelman knows how Bonzi can produce in his offense from their days (just two years ago) in Sacramento. Bonzi was a triple double waiting to happen while he was a King, so given that Bonzi has averaged over 26 minutes in four straight games and exploded for 24 and 7 rebounds on 11-14 shooting in one of those games, he may finally be ready to get consistent minutes. It won’t be the same as Sacramento as the Rockets will still go through T-Mac and Ming, but Bonzi could easily become a 12-7 player with good steals and FG% if he averages 30 minutes a game. He is worth a very close watch right now.