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The Toronto Raptors’ Patrick Patterson has already been traded twice in his four-year NBA career, but now that he’s landed across the border, he seems to be settling in to a decent role, chock full of fantasy value.
In today’s edition of “All Wired Up”, I’ll delve into the fantasy strengths of potential waiver wire gold like Patterson and the New Orleans Pelicans’ Brian Roberts.
»Patrick Patterson, PF, Toronto Raptors (1.0 percent owned on ESPN.com)
22 points (7-11 FG, 5-6 FT), 3 three-pointers, 6 rebounds, 2 assists, 0 steals, 0 blocks, 1 turnover vs Pelicans.
I’ve also thought Patrick Patterson could be a decent, if not good, NBA starter at power forward. He’s a decent scorer, a good rebounder, can hit the three-pointer, and shoots a very well from the field and the charity stripe. That’s why it amazes me that he’s shipped out of two NBA cities so far in his career.
In his third NBA stop — now in Toronto — Patterson is still coming off the pine, but it getting more consistent minutes and is locked into the first big man off the bench role behind Jonas Valanciunas and Amir Johnson. With Johnson nursing a sore ankle in Monday’s matchup versus the Pelicans, Patterson got his first start in Toronto and showed exactly what he can do.
Even though he’s been a bench player for his entire Raptor career before Monday, his numbers are actually really good. Good enough to have him ranked 67th overall on Basketball Monster.com for the past month, in fact.
If you look at the numbers for Patterson and incumbent power forward Johnson for the past month, it’s clear how much more valuable Patterson is in fantasy.
Amir Johnson – 8.4 points, 0.3 three-pointers, 5.7 rebounds, 0.6 steals, 0.8 blocks, 47.9 FG%, 60.7 FT%
Patrick Patterson – 11.4 points, 0.9 three-pointers, 5.9 rebounds, 0.9 steals, 0.4 blocks, 51.7 FG%, 80.8 FT%
Apart from the advantage in blocks, Patterson is clearly the better option. And he’s doing this in only 23 minutes per game — as opposed to Johnson’s 25. The numbers become even more lopsided toward Pat-Pat if we look at the last two weeks. Patterson is trending up.
The reason I highlight these stats is that it would not surprise me in the slightest if coach Dwayne Casey makes a permanent move to start Patterson for the stretch run in Toronto. If he was to increase his minutes up to 28-30 per game, he could very easily become a top 50 player, and that, dear readers, is someone you need on your roster.
Tim Fuller-USA TODAY Sports
»Brian Roberts, PG, New Orleans Pelicans (4.7 percent owned):
18 points (7-14 FG, 1-1 FT), 3 three-pointers, 3 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 steals, 0 blocks, 2 turnovers vs Raptors.
With no concrete return time frame for usual starting point guard Jrue Holiday, Brian Roberts is the unchallenged starter in New Orleans. It absolutely baffles me that he is a starting point guard in the NBA and is sitting below five percent ownership in ESPN fantasy leagues.
Roberts has started all 17 games that Holiday has missed, and in those starts he has averaged 29.7 minutes, 12.4 points, 1.2 three-pointers, 2.8 rebounds, 4.1 assists and 0.8 steals, while shooting 46.5 percent from the field and 93.8 percent from the line. Those numbers are good enough to rank him 109th on Basketball Monster.com during that span, which is well within the must-own range for all leagues.
Even though he’s played the same amount of minutes over his last four games, his production has exploded, scoring 16.3 points with 4.5 assists and a fantastic 2.0 steals per contest.
Holiday is due to be re-evaluated for his stress reaction after the All-Star Game, but by no means does that indicate he will be ready to come back at that time. Roberts has at least two more weeks of value left in him, but don’t be shocked if the Pelicans shut Holiday down for the rest of the season, given the nature of his injury and the way the Pelicans are currently playing.
Roberts must be owned across the board and if you make the move for him, I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised.