Five (+1) NBA Players On The Rise

Mike James, Minnesota

OK, anyone still holding out hope for the 2005-2006 numbers (20.3 points, 3.3 boards and 5.8 assists per game in his seventh year and sixth team – truly a Contract Year for the Ages) can officially wake up and smell the mediocrity now, as his 11.5, 2.3 and 4.4 have made him free agent fodder in smaller leagues. Rookie Randy Foye’s minutes going from 19 to 27 a game in January also had to make some folks pull the chute.

But James is, well, better than his current numbers, and now that the Marko Jaric Experience (memo to NBA GMs – do not sign cross-eyed players to long-term deals and expect it to work) seems to be leaving town… and Foye could be getting the Larry Brown Rookie Hazing treatment from new Wolf Coach Randy Whitman, as the 20-21 Wolves make their bid to be the #8 Washington Generals to the #1 Suns Globetrotters in the Western playoffs.

So one can easily see James’s current 28 minutes a game going to 35, which is, like, 25% more. But the other nice thing here is that with Foye and Jaric getting pine, the Wolves are embracing the offensively offense-free game of Trenton Hassell at 2. So James is going to play more, shoot more, and give you 15/5/6 in the second half. And from what little you might give up to get him, that’ll do, pig.

Fun fact: Mike James is, without a doubt, the second-best James in the league, behind only Le Bron. (Jerome? Girl, please!)

Larry Hughes, Cleveland

Here’s something that’s easy to forget about Fragile Larry… when he’s right, his coach never takes him off the floor. In January, he’s been out there for 38 minutes a game. So his current season-long numbers (15.0 points, 3.6 boards, 3.3 assists) are about to kick it up a notch, and there’s even more to like than that.

When you watch the Cavs this year, they just seem not to care. Blame the coach, blame a bored-looking LeBron, or the post-contract status of Drew Gooden, or the always surprising bench work of Jones and Marshall. So Larry’s really starting to look healthy.

What would make him special, of course, is anything close to the jaw-dropping 2.9 steals a game that he delivered in his Washington walk year. That’s probably not happening, but in his first five games back from the latest injury, he’s been at 19 points a game, mostly from getting to the line a lot, and the steals are starting to tick up. He’s poised to make some noise.

Nick Collison, Seattle

Anyone looking at the January numbers (14.7 points, 11.1 boards on 62.6% from the floor) is probably dancing over this waiver wire pick-up (in our league, he’s been on more teams than Tom Cruise), but don’t think this is a one-month wonder. Collison has always put up numbers when given minutes, but Seattle’s bizarre fascination with unproductive bigs (Danny Fortston, Johan Petro, Mouhamed Sene, Andreas Glyniadakis) has always made Darling Nicky a dicey play.

The reason why Collison’s minutes have been in and out are obvious: he’s slow laterally, has problems passing, and won’t provide much of a shot-blocking presence. But it’s not like the other clowns in this car were giving them anything else, and after giving them a great January, Collison will have earned some burn even when he's not hitting at 62%.

So long as you can live with so-so blocks, Collison will be the kind of under-the-radar double-double #2 center that championships are made of. (By the way, it's not a small point that Collison's emergence coincided with Earl Watson taking the starter's minutes away from Luke Ridenour.)

Allen Iverson and Carmelo Anthony, Denver

This one’s kind of obvious, but still needs to be stated – AI and Melo are about to become two of the best offensive players in the league, and wear opponents out at the foul line.

What AI haters fail to realize is that whenever he’s been on a team with top-line talent (Olympics, All Star Games), he’s involved his teammates a lot more than his career norms. This is not, for the record, a panacea; Dishing AI turns the ball over too much. But the people who snark that the Nuggets won’t have enough basketballs on the floor to keep both men happy are missing the point. They are both going to take it to the rack, and they are both going to shoot 8 to 10 free throws a game.

The real reason why AI and Melo won't win it all this year is that neither man is a plus player defensively (and especially not AI against a guard that can post him). That won’t matter so much in the regular season, and it really won’t matter to fantasy players in February, March and April, when the Nuggets try to catch the Jazz for the division lead despite playing just 17 of 39 games at home. That means big star minutes and big star production.

Ben Wallace, Chicago

Remember HeadbandGate? Big Ben might, but you’d never know from his play of late, where he’s returned to the double digit boards and defensive numbers that have endeared him to so many owners over the years. But he might still be had cheap by owners who are scared by that gut-ugly free throw percentage (41%!), which is keeping him off the floor in the late going of games.

The reason we think Big Ben is worth rolling the dice is that the blocks have been coming back – two 6-block games in January – and in your average head-to-head league, blocks and steals can frequently swing the whole shooting match. Assuming that you’ve got some big-time scorers on your roster, he’s worth the risk.