5 Reasons to pick up Delonte West
February 22, 2008
West should be picked up in almost all leagues. Can you say Whyyaaa Haangaa???
#1. Change of Scenery
Just a few days ago, Delonte West revealed how miserable he was in Seattle, when he stated: “My career has definitely taken a major leap backward.”
He had to battle injuries, endure a 14-game losing streak, fight for minutes, play multiple positions, and listen to PJ Carlesimo yell at him all day (ask Latrell Sprewell about that).
Now he’s in Cleveland, where he’ll get to play solid minutes alongside the most gifted basketball player on the planet. Mike Brown is much more of a “player’s coach,” so West will also feel more comfortable on the court now. I suppose going from Western Conference doormats to Eastern Conference kings won’t hurt either.
As an added bonus, West won’t have to worry about THIS happening to him again!
#2. Who Else is Gonna Play?
Daniel Gibson is averaging 32 minutes per game, but he severely sprained his left ankle on Wednesday and could miss up to 6 weeks! Solid swingman Sasha Pavlovic is still dealing with a foot injury and isn’t scheduled to return until April. Larry Hughes was getting 30 mpg, but now he’s gone.
Eric Snow has barely played this season and his jump shot has gone from questionable to terrible: if he makes his next shot, his FG% will go from 15.6% to 18.2%. Yikes! Yes, Damon Jones is still in the league. Now he’ll get a chance to play some minutes, but he spends more time at shooting guard and won’t do enough to warrant fantasy consideration. The Cavs are desperate for able bodies in their backcourt, so expect West and Wally to get big minutes right away.
#3. Why West over Wally?
Wally is worth a pickup as well (especially for FG% and FT% help), but West is going to be the better fantasy player. For those of you who don’t know about the defensive liability known as Wally Szczerbiak, check out this stat:
Chris Paul has racked up 428 career steals in 7,044 total minutes (1 every 16.5 minutes), while Wally world has managed to amass 351 steals in a mere 17,972 minutes (1 every 51.2 minutes)!
And despite being much smaller, Delonte is actually the superior rebounder and shot-blocker. Feel free to go with Wally if you need a shooter, but I recommend picking up West.
#4. Delonte can Ball!
Lest you forget, Delonte was a Top 50 fantasy player for the ’05-06 season. He averaged:
34.1 mpg, 11.8 points, 4.1 boards, 4.6 assists, 1.2 steals, .6 blocks, 1.2 threes, 48.7% FG, 85.1% FT.
Those are rock solid numbers across the board. His assists are going to go down thanks to LeBron, but he should get more open looks and chances to score as a result. If he gets 36 mpg, I wouldn’t be surprised to see him put up a line like this:
14.5 points, 3.5 boards, 3.5 assists, 1.2 steals, .5 blocks, 1.4 threes, 47% FG, 80% FT.
That’s a poor man’s Ginobili right there! Manu and Delonte are also both lefties. A coincidence? I think not.
You’re so money Evil E! Right when I saw the trade go down yesterday I picked up Delonte. I know he’s going to get a lot more minutes in CLE, and sadly now, even more due to Boobie being on the shelf. I hope you’re right about those stats, I could use just a little help at AST, REB and STLs. Keep up the great columns.
Hah, thanks JJ!
Damon Jones blew up last night for 27 points on 7-11 3P shooting, to go with 4 assists in 44 minutes. Eric Snow didn’t do too much and the Cavs are going to need offense over defense, so I doubt Snow will play much going forward.
However, if Damon keeps playing like that, Delonte’s minutes may be closer to 30-32 than 34-36. If so, I would downgrade his projection to:
13 points, 3 boards, 3 assists, 1 steal, .4 blocks, 1.2 threes, 47% FG, 80% FT.
Which is still worthy of a pickup in my book!
Do you think salmons is done? also how about martell webster?
Yeah, it looks like the Salmons train is coming to a halt. He really needed Artest to be dealt for him to maintain his value. If one of their frontcourt players get hurt he’ll have value again, but now it’s safe to drop him.
You’ve got to give it up to Salmons for performing like a top 50 fantasy player whenever he got 30+ minutes tho. Thanks for the ride Salmons! I don’t like Webster. My boy T. Outlaw limits his minutes, and deservingly so.
It sounds like you need a swingman? I can’t handle Bonzi’s poor FT%, but you may want to take a flier on him. I’d also jump on Ty Thomas if he’s somehow available.
Hey Evil E! First let me say keep up the great work! I do have a question though and would love your input. I have a roster consisting of Bryant, Bynum, Odom, and Gasol. How do you see Odom being impacted when Bynum returns? I am afraid my rebounding will take a dip and thus I am looking for another guy to put on my bench just in case that does occur. I was thinking of Joakim Noah (since Tyrus Thomas had already been picked up)? I really could use help with rebounding and blocks.
Well I’m in a 15 player 9cat 14 team league with no bench. So it’s a very deep league, and there are no negative categories with oreb and dreb instead.
I have baron, nate robinson, jjohnson, delonte west!, j-rich, luis scola, d-lee, ak47, bogut, noah, shaq, and then I’m allowed 3 injured players and right now i have bynum and devin harris there.
Lastly rounding out my team i have martell, salmons, travis diener, desmond mason, and amir johnson. I need to drop one now, and probably one later.
In our league the top 6 make the playoffs, and there are only 6 teams that are competitive so I’m not worried about making the playoffs, but I am worried about doing well there.
People are reluctant to make trades, and I’m not sure who I’d target anyways.
And thanks for responding
Hey Walter - I don’t think anyone knows whats going to happen to Odom when Bynum comes back, but it makes sense that his rebounds would go down.
The Bulls would be wise to play Noah a lot to close out the season, so he’s definitely worth taking a flier on right now if you need board and blocks. Again, I’ll focus on cat-specific players to pickup in my big article coming soon…
ihope - Desmond Mason struggles to have value even when he plays 30 mpg, so I’ve never been a fan of his. I also expect Yi and Charlie V. to get more minutes down the stretch, so I would drop Mason. He also doesn’t specialize in any category (like Amir can in blocks).
I think this is probably the best site for fantasy basketball on the internet right now, at least as far as for any one author.
Evil E, great insight man!!
what’s your take on luol Deng.. …………….it’s his contract yr! Is he gonna wake up and ball like it’s 06-07??
o yea n how about RJ- goin for consecutive 30+points games. Does he hav higher value now jkidd left?
alwayz luv ur work, i tell my friends to check out your site.
Evil E, I also was wondering about Deng. I need rebounds and blocks, and both McDyess and Blatche are available on the waiver wire.
What’s going on with Corey Brewer? Is his offense that bad that he’s not getting the run. He’s solid defensively. Will he get the minutes the rest of the season?
kool site, evil!
I have been following you for the past few seasons and never finished below top3. thanks!
regarding west, who do you think would have higher value going forward into the season, him or tinsley? now, during my draft, i drafted tinsley with my late round pick in a 12 team h2h, default yahoo settings except for o.reb. added. tinsley, of coz, was a gem, until he decided to take 30 shot that game (missing most of them), then the following 10 games before injury taking less than 5 per game (missing most of them as well). since the injury, i let tinsley rot on the bench without picking replacement, coz i wasn’t sure on how long he would miss. Now it appears that he will be back not before 1-2 weeks, but if west is projected to bring such numbers without hurting u in % and tos that much, why not west? Pls help!
my roster as of now:
hinrich, felton, navarro, josh smth, idougala, battier, jamison, aldrige, gasol, horford, dampier, foye, moon, west
Zoolander - West is healthy and playing w/ LeBron James. Tinsley is injured and playing w/ Mike Dunleavy. You do the math.
Ron - If I were coaching Minnesota I would give Brewer more minutes, but there are reasons that the T-Wolves suck so bad.
Arjun & Chris - My take on Luol Deng is that he just came back from an injury and his team’s rotation was a mess before the trade and is even messier now. I think that Deng is still their best player and still capable of being a top 40 fantasy player, but I have no clue if his achilles injury is still affecting him or how Chicago’s rotation is going to shake out. On Sunday, 9 guys played 22-28 minutes, so they’re obviously figuring that out still.
Now if you guys want me to do something comprehensive and much more beneficial, please stop asking me questions. I’ll try to make it worth your wait!
Yeah, I’m surprised about all the talk I hear of Wally being a key acquisition there. West is better.
And no, criticism of Wally’s defensive abilities does not require statistical evidence.
Evil what color is the sky? Why do you feel the need to answer all our questions? ANd this morning when I woke up I stepped in dog crap should I get rid of mans best friend? Just playin’, but it is difficult to manage a team while your in the bat cave!
Can’t wait for the guide.
The sky has been pretty gray where I live. As for the dog, I suggest taking a leak on his favorite piss spot. It will confuse the hell out of him the next time he sniffs there, but you’ve got to show him who’s boss!
I do feel a little bad about picking up and starting Delfino this week without telling any of you. He made 6 threes tonight! I also started Posey (4 threes), but I mentioned him a couple weeks ago. Pay attention to these guys if you need cheap threes!
Hey Evil,
I’m currently in first place in a regular HtH yahoo league.
my team currently consists of…
Kidd, Wade, Beno, Manu, Kev.Martin, LeBron, Gay, Granger, Tyrus, Aldridge, Scola, Bogut, D-Howard.
obviously I rarely win FT”% or TOs, so I gave up trying to pad those categories.
Who would u recommend to as my 2nd PG?
Beno (who i have), Delonte, or Dev. Harris?
I was riding Dev. Harris until he was injured, and then jumped on Beno after the Bibby trade. I noticed Sac has 2 more games than NJ in the long run, but I love Harris’ FG%.
Keep up the good work!
MT - how are all 3 of those guys available in your league?
It’s hard to choose and I don’t think you can go wrong with any of them, especially since your team is loaded to begin with. You may want to consider Delonte because he can get boards and blocks, which you may need since the Man-Beast has a weak schedule left.
But like you said, Harris can post a solid FG% and it looks like he’ll get a lot of minutes in Jersey.
aaaa Whyyaaa Haanngaaa!!!
Thanks E,
I just recieved/accepted a KG for Manu straight up. So that will help my FG%
I think this will be my third heist of the season.
Hinrich+Barbosa for Wade+Harris
Josh Smith+Tyson=Howard+Manu
now
Manu=KG
And so I think I will go with Delonte, because he should fill up the other categories better than Beno is/Harris will.
Hey Evil E,
Talking about PGs, during the last week I dropped and picked several times the following three - Anthony Carter, Brevin Knight, Travis Diener… I will appreciate if you can briefly rank them for the remainder of the season… Thanks
West is still available in my league. I have two players on the bubble I’m considering dropping him for -
Jason Terry and Marvin Williams. Am I better off keeping those two or should I drop one for Delonte?
My bad Damian. Carter and Diener are definitely a notch above Knight.
Whatup Floppy! Keep Terry if you need threes. If you need dimes, I would drop Marvin for him, but his schedule down the stretch isn’t as nice as Atlanta’s.
Thanks Evil E… I had Carter in three leagues but I was so tired with him and while planning to keep him in at least one I dropped him everywhere… He is playing very well the last 4 games but it seems Chucky will play today so maybe Carter’s minutes will go down… I have Diener in couple of leagues (it doesn’t look Tinsley will play soon so in general I am happy with him) … Knight is on my bench in one league where I have 5 guards (Iverson, Parker, Roy, Dunleavy, Foye) better than him…