Caron Butler: Fantasy All-Star

Caron Butler was named by the coaches as a reserve to the Eastern Conference All-Star team for the first time in his career last year. Will he repeat this year? From the returns thus far, it seems that if he makes a return to the game on Sunday this year, it will again be as a reserve. Being an owner of Butler, I think he’s put up numbers that qualify, but KG, and LBJ so far have a commanding lead, and rightly so. As an article in USA today has pointed out, KG, LBJ, and Butler are the only players in the entire league averaging at least 20 points, 6 rebounds, and 4 assists. What’s puzzling and slightly irksome is the fact that Chris Bosh, Paul Pierce, and Yi Jianlian are numbers 3, 4, and 5 respectively in the fan voting.

Let’s take a closer look at these three players from a fantasy standpoint. Butler has Pierce beat in every meaningful fantasy category except 3ptm. While Pierce is great player, it’s just amazing the magnitude of the halo effect of playing with KG. Last year Pierce was putting up similar numbers on a terrible Boston team and the idea of him being voted onto the All-Star team was a joke. Likewise, Butler has far more impact on a fantasy roster than Bosh. Although Bosh rebounds and blocks more shots, Caron is equivalent or better in all other categories. The only way Bosh would make a fantasy all-star team would be as a center. And Yi Jianlian? The numbers simply aren’t even close. Luckily, he’s not as popular as Yao yet, and couldn’t possibly get voted in as a reserve by the coaches. We’ll see you in the Rookie-Sophomore game for the next two years while you develop, Yi.

This goes to show that fan popularity is not always correlated to fantasy performance. It’ll be interesting if this changes in the future as more people get involved in fantasy hoops.

CP3 vs. D-Will

Much has been made over picks number 3 and 4 in the 2005 NBA draft, particularly recently at the worldwide leader in sports. While there has been no consensus as to who is the better real-life player, fantasy-wise the pg of the Hornets has a commanding lead. In the Yahoo game Paul is the top-ranked player while Williams sits at number 38 (avg. stats). At first glance the stats between the two aren’t really all that different. However, across all categories, it’s clearly enough to give one team the edge over another in a head-to-head matchup. While Paul shoots slightly worse, he has a commanding lead in ft%. He’s ahead of D-Will a whole rebound, assist, and most importantly, 2 steals. Assuming both play 3 times in a week, that turns out to be 6 extra steals, enough to dominate that category. Moreover, Paul turns the ball over one time fewer per game.

The two played each other in November, but the game was a blowout for the Jazz and neither player got the opportunity to make any significant fantasy impact. Last night, both had big fantasy showings in separate games. Consistent with his numbers so far, Paul outscored Williams while racking up more dimes, steals, and boards but lost the shooting percentage battle (including the ugly 1-7 from 3). This difference will continue to get magnified as the Jazz are struggling and dealing with injuries. However, for D-Will owners, there is hope while the Jazz try to turn it around. Try to see if starting shooting guard Ronnie Brewer has been dropped in your league or trade for him on the cheap. After the recent Kyle Korver trade, Brewer’s minutes have decreased, but yet he’s still averaging 1.5 steals and 11 points in the last two games. Between the two of them, Williams and Brewer will surpass Paul on most nights. Of course this is no substitute for actually owning CP3, but then again it’s hard convincing an owner to trade away the top-ranked player.