Mandatory Credit: Steve Mitchell-USA TODAY Sports
It’s officially the NBA’s All-Star break, meaning there are just about two months remaining in the fantasy basketball season. But just because the NBA is on break, it doesn’t mean you should be, too.
While everyone is spending their Saturday night watching the Slam Dunk Contest and Three-Point Shootout, you should be finding players in your league worth targeting in trades, like the Miami Heat’s Chris Bosh and the Chicago Bulls’ Jimmy Butler.
Bosh and Butler can still be bought at a low price and make excellent trade targets for the stretch run. Fantasy league trade deadlines are fast approaching, and with this All-Star Weekend lull, now is the time to strike while your competition has their guard down.
» Chris Bosh, C/PF, Miami Heat:
Chris Bosh is the undisputed third wheel in Miami — even when Dwyane Wade sits out — but that type of anonymity makes him the perfect trade target.
His stats aren’t flashy. In fact, they’ve decreased nearly every season he’s been in Miami. He’s no longer the double-double machine he was in Toronto, but he has well-rounded numbers and very good shooting percentages for a big man — qualities that have made him the 26th-ranked player on Basketball Monster.com for the 2013-14 season.
A Bosh owner more fixated on his superficial numbers — 16.6 points, 6.8 rebounds, 1.0 blocks — could very well gloss over his 53 percent field goal percentage and 80 percent free throw percentage. He’s even hitting one 3-pointer a game over his last 22 outings.
The Heat are cruising and have at least the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference locked up. They have very good incentive to sit Wade in as many games as possible.
In the 15 games Wade has missed, Bosh’s average goes up from 16.6 to 18.1 points. If LeBron James were to get the night off with Wade, Bosh would become the main weapon in the Miami offense.
Trading for Bosh now could prove to be very helpful in crunch time, especially since the Heat are one of just two teams that have four or more games each week during the fantasy playoffs.
Mandatory Credit: Rob Grabowski-USA TODAY Sports
» Jimmy Butler, SG/SF, Chicago Bulls:
A case of turf toe plagued Jimmy Butler for nearly the entire first month of the season, causing many fantasy owners to drop the third-year pro.
After missing 11 games, Butler had a difficult time getting into any sort of a groove when he came back.
With Derrick Rose out for the season, and the Bulls looking for answers on offense, coach Tom Thibodeau immediately thrust him into a major role as soon as he returned — which only seemed to make his confidence drop even further. In his first seven games back, Butler shot 34.8 percent from the field and averaged a measly 11.4 points.
The Bulls originally drafted Butler knowing he was a defensive standout at Marquette University, but also knew he had the makeup to be a solid offensive contributor.
It took a couple of months, but Butler has quietly improved his shooting. The changes are subtle enough, though, that owners who have complained about his percentage-killing qualities probably haven’t even noticed. It’s possible they are even overlooking his defensive contributions as well.
Time to pounce.
After an abysmal January that saw him connect on just 34.1 percent of his field goals (20.3 percent from downtown), Butler is now shooting 41.1 percent over seven February games. And yet despite those woeful percentages, Butler is still ranked 49th on Basketball Monster.com over the past month.
Butler continues to get more comfortable, though. In just this week alone, he has seen marked improvements. In wins over Atlanta and Brooklyn, the Bulls’ shooting guard went 5-of-9 and 6-of-8 from the field, marking the first time since Nov. 16-18 that he shot 50 percent or better in consecutive games. Those fine performances can be attributed to the fact that he didn’t attempt a single 3-pointer in either game — something he hadn’t done all season.
Lost amid the hoopla over his newfound shooting efficiency has been his superb rebounding (9.0 over his last four games) and excellent defense (2.0 steals for the season) — two things that have never been in question. Also, he’s playing 42 minutes per game over the past two months, which makes it almost a certainty that he’ll never walk away with a complete dud in the box score. Since the new year, Butler has failed to score in double-digits four times, but still managed to tally 5.3 boards, 3.0 assists and 3.0 steals during those games.
The Bulls claim they won’t be “sellers” at the trade deadline, but it would make sense for them to ship vets like Kirk Hinrich and Mike Dunleavy out of the Windy City. If those guys were to leave town, Butler would be the go-to guy on offense for the Bulls, making him extremely valuable in fantasy basketball.
Butler is not a hot commodity right now, but could be a major factor for fantasy teams down the line. Making an offer to his owner could net you a future stud, and you probably won’t have to give up much to acquire him.