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With the news that the Grizzlies’ Mike Conley will be out up four weeks with an ankle injury, rookie guard Nick Calathes is a must own player in all fantasy leagues.
In today’s edition of “All Wired Up”, I’ll delve into the fantasy strengths of potential waiver wire gold like Calathes and the Detroit Pistons’ Kyle Singler for deep league consideration.
»Nick Calathes, SG, Memphis Grizzlies (0.0 percent owned on ESPN.com)
22 points (8-12 FG, 2-3 FT), 4 three-pointers, 5 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 steal, 0 blocks, 0 turnovers vs. Bucks
Nick Calathes has only played over 20 minutes four times this entire season, including Saturday’s game, with the last of those before Saturday coming on the 7th of December. But with the injury to starting poin guard Mike Conley, Calathes was thrust into the starting role as the point man and boy, did he deliver.
He had career highs in points, three-pointers and rebounds, in this his rookie season. He is far from an inexperenced player however.
Calathes was drafted in 2009 by the Minnesota Timberwolves, but chose to play professionally in Greece and then Russia for four seasons, before signing his first NBA contract with the Grizzlies, to whom his rights had been traded to by the Dallas Mavericks.
here’s no point going through Calathes’ numbers for this season as his role is going to change exponentially in the four weeks. He is available is practically every single league and needs to be added across the board as he is going to get all the run he can handle.
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» Kyle Singler, SF, Detroit Pistons (0.2 percent owned):
20 points (6-12 FG, 5-6 FT), 3 three-pointers, 10 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 steal, 1 block, 1 turnover vs. 76ers
With Rodney Stuckey leaving the game complaining of dizziness, Singler took full advantage of the extra minutes to blow up against the Sixers. Singler racked up his second career double double while playing 35 minutes, but it’s not just the last game in which Singler has produced.
Over the past three weeks, Singler has averaged 13.7 points, 1.7 three-pointers, 6.3 rebounds and 1.0 steal per game, good enough to rank him at number 46 in Basketball Monster.com’s ranking.
Singler is a guy who is must own in 14 team leagues and with Stuckey’s known unreliability, he has the ability to cement himself as the top scoring option off the Pistons’ bench. But for a team that is as poorly constrcuted as the Pistons and are crying out for wing players who can knock down the deep ball, there’s every chance Singler moves into the starting lineup in the event of a Greg Monroe trade.
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