Kelley L Cox-USA TODAY Sports
Bulls’ coach Tom Thibodeau likes guys he can trust and has quickly re-inserted Kirk Hinrich back into the starting point guard role in Chicago.
In today’s edition of “All Wired Up”, I’ll delve into the fantasy strengths of potential waiver wire gold like Hinrich and the Brooklyn Nets’ Mason Plumlee.
» Kirk Hinrich, PG/SG, Chicago Bulls (4.8 percent owned on ESPN.com)
17 points (7-13 FG, 0-0 FT), 3 three-pointers, 4 rebounds, 5 assists, 3 steals, 0 blocks, 2 turnovers vs Lakers.
When Kirk Hinrich injured his hamstring and was forced to miss four games in late January, D.J. Augustin took the starting point guard job and balled out. Everyone assumed, perhaps rightly so, that Augustin would remain the Bulls’ starting point guard for the remainder of the season.
But Captain Kirk couldn’t be held down. After playing one game off the bench since returning, Thibodeau stuck Hinrich back into the starting role and he has been producing very handily for the Bulls and for fantasy purposes.
In his past four games, Hinrich has averaged 10.5 points, 1.0 three-pointers, 2.8 assists and a fantastic 2.3 steals per game. That’s good enough to place him at number 110 in Basketball Monster.com’s rankings, a decent number, but by no means something to sell the farm for.
If you drill down further and look just at Hinrich’s last two games, you’ll see a much brighter picture. Hinrich looks fully healthy and has played the most minutes since his return in the games against the Golden State Warriors and the Los Angeles Lakers. In those two games, he is averaging 16 points, 2.0 three-pointers, 3.0 assists and 3.0 steals on over 50 percent shooting from the field.
Those numbers are superb and if he can kep producing at that rate, he’s a must-add on all teams. For the time being, he should be added in 12 team leagues and anything deeper.
Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports
»Mason Plumlee, PF/C, Brooklyn Nets (0.2 percent owned):
22 points (8-10 FG, 6-9 FT), 0 threes, 13 rebounds, 0 assists, 3 steals, 2 blocks, 1 turnover vs Pelicans.
I, for one, raised an eyebrow when Mason Plumlee was selected for the Rising Stars challenge at All-Star Weekend. But over the last two weeks, Plumlee has started to get that look about him. That look of things clicking. And clicking they seem to be.
With the Nets already missing star center Brook Lopez, a lot of minutes opened up for big men. Initially that role was mainly filled by Andray Blatche, Kevin Garnett and Mirza Teletovic.
Since the game on January 31st against the Oklahoma City Thunder, Plumlee has gotten over 11 minutes in each game. That mightn’t seem that impressive, but when you consider that he was a DNP-CD in the three previous games and had played an average of three minutes per game in the four games before that, which he didn’t start, it’s a massive improvement.
So impressive, in fact, that it ranks Plumlee as the 51st player according to Basketball Monster.com during the last two weeks. He is averaging 11.2 points, 5.0 rebounds, 1.8 steals and 1.3 blocks, while shooting 64.9 percent from the field and a solid 70.4 percent from the line.
In his last two games, Plumlee has been even better. He’s played 29 and 28 minutes, averaging 17.5 points, 10.5 rebounds, 1.5 steals and 1.5 blocks per contest.
With Kevin Garnett struggling to crack 20 minutes on most nights and Jason Kidd not being able to rely on Andray Blatche to fill the role consistently, Plumlee is in prime position to grab 20-plus minutes per game off the Nets’ bench. And if he gets the minutes, we’ve seen that the production will come. In anything deeper than a 12 team league, Plumlee must be owned, but I’d be watching him very closely in all leagues and if he can produce in his third straight game, add him to your roster.