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Friday September 8, 2006 4:55 pm
Dropping Dimes Draft Blog: Round 2, Pick 10
Posted by Dennis Velasco Categories: Central Division, Chicago Bulls, Editorial, Free Agency, H2H, Pacific Division, Phoenix Suns, Props, Roto, Site Features, Waiver Pick Ups,
Round 2, Pick 10: Ben Wallace, PF/C, Chicago Bulls
After signing a four year, $60 million dollar deal during the offseason to join the Chicago Bulls, there are big expectations for the team this upcoming season. Can one man really make that much of a difference? Well, when you have personnel in place and have the foresight and vision on how you want to build a team, the answer is YES. Big Ben Wallace will make a difference on the Bulls and guess what.
He can make a difference for your fantasy basketball team as well.
Unfortunately, and I’ll get this out of the way, Wallace can absolutely kill your FT% in both ROTO and H2H leagues. There is no question about this the way there is no question that a lot of people witnessed greatness in Cleveland the past few seasons. So, with the aforementioned foresight and vision, you can definitely build the rest of your team to hopefully buffer how much Wallace stinks at the charity stripe. We’ll call those guys the Lysol Liberation Line Lads. Sorry, just felt like be alliterative just now. In any case, taking the risk of ranking in the nether region of the FT category can be forgiven since Big Ben brings exceptional contributions in other categories.
As I noted with my Shawn Marion pick (see link below and click), I like coming strong with the defensive categories since those are typically hard to make up in both ROTO and H2H, as opposed to a category such as scoring or 3PTM (Example: Eddie House can help boost your team in both categories and he is usually waiver fodder in normal sized leagues because he’s not a starter or plays a lot of minutes). And, since both Marion and Wallace contribute to more than just the defensive categories, bonus! And I love their position versatility, which may help me later on as I draft. And, of course, Wallace is eligible at center in this two center start league.
But, back to Wallace’s defensive prowess.
Big Ben has been on the NBA 1st Team All Defensive team since the ‘01-‘02 season and has won the Defensive Player of the Year award four of the last five seasons. Plain and simple, Wallace can both swat the ball and swipe it away. Last season, he averaged 2.2 get that shiznit out of heres and 1.8 steals per game. Getting these numbers from the four or five spot is excellent production for your fantasy team, but Mr. Big Hair can do more than that, which is what makes Ben Wallace special… not the hair (although some like Don King or Dustin Diamond may argue that), but the other things Wallace can do.
To say that Ben Wallace can board is an understatment. It’s much like saying that Kobe Bryant can score… Marcus Camby will eventually get injured at some point during the season… or that the gap between Michael Strahan’s two top front teeth is just slightly wider than Ryan Howard’s nostrils. As a fourth grader would say with eyes rolled up - DUH! Beginning with the ‘00-‘01 season, Wallace has never finished lower than fourth in rebounds per game average, which was last season at a “poor” 11.3 rate. In that span of seasons, he’s won the rebounding title twice and averaged 12.9 glass cleanings per game. I don’t think it’s out of the question that he averages double digit figures again with his new team, as I don’t really see anyone taking away Wallace’s thunder in this category. Seriously, who’s going to do it, P.J. Brown? Somehow, I don’t think he’s a threat, so let me be juvenile and say DUH!
Wallace should also favorably contribute to your FG% as most of his shots are in close off of offensive rebounds, a category he finished first in last season with 301 total offensive rebounds (3.7 per game clip). This basically led to a very good 51.0 shooting percentage from the field, which was an improvement from the two previous seasons when Wallace shot 42.1% (‘03-‘04) and 45.3%(‘04-‘05), after shooting 49.0% (‘00-‘01), 53.1% (‘01-‘02), and 48.1% (‘02-‘03) the three previous seasons. Why the anamolous two seasons in field goal percentage?
In those two seasons, Wallace tried to be an offensive threat, shooting the ball 9.0 times per game, but only making just a little under four shots per game. So, while Wallace wasn’t an offensive shooting threat, his shooting was undeniably offensive. Like, “you’re going to make me throw up” offensive. In the three previous seasons and last season, Wallace averaged 5.8 shots per game and hit just about three of them per contest for a 50.4 percentage. So, what does this mean for this upcoming season? With the likes of Ben Gordon, Kirk Hinrich, Luol Deng, Andres Nocioni and company, I think it’s safe to say that Ben won’t be shooting that much, other than whatever he gets off the offensive boards. So, look for a FG% around 50, which will be a great help to your FG% output. Sure, he doesn’t get the points, but just like the FT%, I’ll make up for that in future selections.
How He Fits On This Fantasy Basketball Team
Adding Wallace to Marion will give me a strong hold on three categories - rebounds, steals, and blocks. Granted Wallace’s atrocious FT% hurts, but Marion’s career 83.3% should help elevate this team’s showing in this category. The FG% category is also strong combining Wallace’s 48.2% production with Marion’s career 47.3 clip, this team is looking good in at least one percentage category. The front line is looking good for this team.
Other Team Members:
1.3. Shawn Marion, SF/PF, Phoenix Suns
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Comments:
I like Ben. And he is a good match for Marion. But I wouldn’t pick him in the 2nd round even in a two-center league.
1. His FG% is generally good but he doesn’t put up enough shots to be the big advantage it initially looks like it is. But Marion’s FG% is also good, and thus so far, so good.
2. His FT% is terrible. I think comparing it to LBJ is unfair. Lebron will hit at least 7 out of 10 even with no improvement this year. Ben will be lucky to hit the rim 7 out of 10 times. Thankfully he doesn’t get to the line much.
3. I’ve heard the argument regarding certain categories being easier to make up than others, and have used it myself. But you can do that with any player. Yes, Eddie House can help your team make up 3’s and he will be waiver wire fodder. Well, I can pick up Alonzo Mourning or Eddie Griffin for blocks, or pick up Smush Parker or Derek Fisher for steals. The fact of the matter is Ben is a huge negative in points. Maybe this is easier to make up in a roto league. But you’re picking up a guy who gets 7-9 pts, when most of the guys being picked are good for at least 20. I equate it to drafting a point guard here for drops about 3 dimes a game when the other guards being chosen are good for 9 or 10. Or grabbing a big man who gets only 4 boards a game when everyone else has guys that grab 10-11.
4. Is this pick gonna kill your team? NO WAY. It probably isn’t the way I woulda gone, and the onus will be on your next few picks to really solidify this team. That’s why we have this draft, to show different ways to do things.
5. Overall, I like your Yao/AK-47 combo better even though I am a bit of an AK hater this year.
In the end you are rocking FG%, rebs, stls, blks, and your turnovers is also probably the lowest among the two player combos so far. Your FT% and 3’s could go either way depending on the rest of your team. And you are behind in points and assists.
Looking forward to your next “surprise” pick!
D…thanks for the response. Good stuff as usual. Sorry if I got my back up on LBJ, cuz that guy is a supa sta! I’m gonna go to bat for him.
I’m not going to get into what is a long suffering flaw of public boards…person A makes a point by giving examples, person B disagrees and presents counter-examples, person A shoots down all counter-examples, person B calls out person A’s mother, etc, etc.
I hesitated to use specific examples for the above reason. And I understand your points. Let me just say this…there are emergency plug-ins for any cat. Some, like pts, rebs and 3’s may be a bit “easier” than asts, stls and blks. I’d love to do the math on that, but don’t think I’m that smart. All I was trying to say was if you’re gonna say you’re gonna draft Ben cuz you can pick up Eddie House or someone like that to plug the trey hole, then I can say there’s a scrub out there for me to pick up in blocks. I accept that maybe I didn’t give the best examples, but those players are out there. Maybe they get drafted, maybe they don’t. At some point, these players hit the waiver wire cuz 1) they are already there or 2) they were dropped due to injury or frustrations on lack of consistent production. These players are who they are cuz they can’t bring it every night. Whether they are later round picks or waiver wire fodder, I don’t think that matters. All the teams have cats they need to make up a bit on. Yours happen to be points and dimes.
Last I checked all these categories count for the same unless you are in a points league. A 1 out of 12 in roto league hurts the same no matter what category. We should do something on this, category scarcity or “category make-up” as you said. You know what, I’m on it.
We can also debate/discuss (like the way you said that above!) the benefits to “roll the dice” on a second round pick. Not being in your war room, it looks like you like that (Kirilenko, Kidd and Ben).
I love steals and blocks too; they are the “sexy” categories. I hate sweating the % and especially turnovers week to week. But even for the top 20 in the league, stls and blks are events that happen only a little more than once a game for individual players. That’s why Marion is so special. And Ben is too, but he certainly is not as special. Not anymore.
You presenting the stats are Fisher do not reflect the overall scarcity of steals (and this applies for blocks too). I guarantee there will be someone in the top 20 in blocks and steals this season who was not drafted. Same with 3’s. That’s just the way it is.
I’m worried about Ben this year. He’s getting old, he just got paid and he’s on a new team. At his very best, he’s good for 8 ppg. Points aren’t everything, but he will be one of the only players who last on a fantasy roster the whole season with such a low scoring average. This says two things. 1) His other stats still make it worthwhile to take him at some point. 2) His scoring is way below average, even for an 8 team league.
That’s why we are doing this draft. To consider stuff like this!
peace.