| Dalembert - A Fantasy Year Authored by Craig Huffman - January 15, 2006 - 8:11 pm
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If you look at Dalembert's stats as a starter over the last few years, you'd realize that he hasn't shown a whole lot of progress:
03-04 (53 games @ 31 mpg) – 9.2 PTS, 9.2 REB, 0.3 AST, 0.6 STL, 2.7 BLK
04-05 (60 games @ 26 mpg) – 9.0 PTS, 8.0 REB, 0.5 AST, 0.7 STL, 1.8 BLK
05-06 (26 games @ 30 mpg) – 9.4 PTS, 10.2 REB, 0.5 AST, 0.7 STL, 3.4 BLK
But why, suddenly, are managers drooling over the prospect of having Dalembert on their roster?
1. Consistency. Fortunately in fantasyland, but not for Philadelphia faithful, the 76ers have an anemic bench. Shavlik Randolph, Michael Bradley and Steven Hunter are their back-up big men... not exactly a threat to jump ahead of Dally's 6-year, $60+ million contract in the depth charts, if you know what I mean.
2. Upside. Chris Webber hasn't seen more than 70 games played since '00-01, and he's averaging 40 mpg right now. Not surprisingly, he has had to sit out a few games recently... and the odds are that the worst is yet to come. Oh yeah, and Dally averaged 12.5 PTS, 16 REB, 1.5 AST, 1 STL and 3 BLK in the two games that Webber sat out with a sore back this year. His points and rebounds will be up if Webber misses any time down the stretch.
3. Schedule. The 76ers have one of the top schedules in the NBA when it comes down to the fantasy playoffs in H2H leagues. Obviously, more games equal more value.
4. Center eligibility. On average, 34 percent of the top 150 fantasy basketball players are SG-eligible. 32 percent are SF-eligible, 29 percent are PG-eligible, 27 percent are PF-eligible, and 15 percent are C-eligible. There's a reason why quality centers are hard to obtain via trade. Since few managers have a back-up plan in place, they're often reluctant to trade them (especially in smaller leagues).
Don't get me wrong, Dally's troubles on the court do catch up to him at times in fantasy basketball. Most notably, his league worst 4.4 personal fouls per game thwart his mpg potential. His turnovers have also increased - from 1.6 per game to 2.1 per game. Even at his worst, Dally is still productive in the rebound and block columns, though. And, unlike most centers, Dally isn't much of a hurt to your team's FT column. He's shooting nearly 68 percent from the line, and only gives you 2.4 free throw attempts per game.
In a year where few centers have actually live up to their draft positions (perhaps everyone not named Bosh, Kaman, Rasheed Wallace and Okur), and where off-season contracts sent prospect centers into fantasy oblivion (*cough*, Chander | Swift, *cough*), it's nice to see somebody bringing the fantasy goodies this year. Now Dally just needs to stay healthy... stay tuned. |
