Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports
After suffering a scary injury earlier this season, the Clippers’ Matt Barnes is starting to find his feet in Los Angeles.
In today’s edition of “All Wired Up”, I’ll delve into the fantasy strengths of potential waiver wire gold like Barnes and the Oklahoma City Thunder’s Derek Fisher.
» Matt Barnes, SF, Los Angeles Clippers (0.8 percent owned on ESPN.com)
24 points (8-14 FG, 2-2 FT), 6 three-pointers, 7 rebounds, 1 assist, 2 steals, 0 blocks, 0 turnovers vs Thunder.
Early this season, I thought Matt Barnes had a decent amount of fantasy value, especially in deeper leagues. But initially, he was stuck on the bench behind Jared Dudley. To make matters worse, Barnes then suffered a tear in the retina in his eye, a quite serious injury.
He had surgery on his eye and although he was slated to miss two weeks when the injury was first announced, he ended missing a month of basketball.
Upon his return, he went back to his bench role, and remained there for another month. At the end of January, Doc Rivers finally made the right move and slotted Barnes into the starting five. Since then, Barnes has really stepped up his game and is looming as a key piece in the Clippers’ title run.
What does this mean in fantasy though? It means that Barnes is providing the wing scoring that the Clippers need to run their system as well as providing elite level defense.
In his past two games, he’s averaged 19.5 points, 4.5 three-pointers and 7.0 rebounds, fantastic numbers to be sure. He’s also accumulated nine steals in his past seven games, highlighting the defense he brings to the court.
There’s no question that Barnes is the starter at small forward for the Clippers — former starter Dudley has been really struggling — and when J.J. Redick also out long term with an injury, Barnes is set to be a massive part of the Clippers’ stretch run to the playoffs.
Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports
»Derek Fisher, PG, Oklahoma City Thunder (0.2 percent owned)
15 points (5-8 FG, 0-0 FT), 5 three-pointers, 4 rebounds, 0 assists, 2 steals, 0 blocks, 0 turnovers vs Clippers.
Did that just happen? Did I really just recommend Derek Fisher as not only a fantasy-viable player, but someone to target and add? Excuse me while I go and scrub my typing fingers clean.
I can’t for the life of me work out why Fisher is getting minutes at the expense of Reggie Jackson and Jeremy Lamb, but this is Scott Brooks we are talking about. The same coach who thinks Kendrick Perkins is an actual NBA player.
But, he is getting the minutes, playing in double digits in 48 of the season’s 56 contests. He’s gone over 20 minutes in two of the last three games as well. Amazingly, in the past two weeks, Fisher is ranked 38th on Basketball Monster.com.
In that time, he has averaged 8.8 points, 2.3 three-pointers and 2.3 steals. His fantasy value comes from the three-pointers, steals and the fact that he shoots above average from the field and the line and doesn’t turn the ball over.
He’s not a 10 or 12 team league option, but in anything deeper, you have to consider adding Fisher — if you can stomach it.