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Since being traded to the Houston Rockets on deadline day, Jordan Hamilton has shown a spark in his game that deserves your attention.
In today’s edition of “All Wired Up”, I’ll delve into the fantasy strengths of potential waiver wire gold like Hamilton and the Portland Trail Blazers’ Mo Williams.
» Jordan Hamilton, SG, Houston Rockets (0.1 percent owned on ESPN.com)
16 points (6-12 FG, 0-0 FT), 4 three-pointers, 3 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 steals, 0 blocks, 1 turnover vs Clippers.
Sometimes, all a player needs is a change of scenery.
That’s not to say that Jordan Hamilton was playing horribly when he was a member of the Denver Nuggets. The biggest handbrake on Hamilton’s production seemed to be Brian Shaw‘s horrible rotations.
In the games he played starter’s minutes in Denver, he was able to put up fantasy relevant lines more often than not. For example, in his second last game in a Nuggets uniform, Hamilton had 16 points, six rebounds, seven assists and three steals. That is a fantastic line.
But Shaw yanked him around, playing with his minutes like a yo-yo.
When Denver sent Hamilton to Houston in exchange for Aaron Brooks on the trade deadline, I was quite excited for Hamilton’s prospects. James Harden is obviously the unquestioned starter at shooting guard and Chandler Parsons has the three locked down for the foreseeable future, but Hamilton quickly assumed the role as the team’s best wing reserve.
In the two games since landing in Houston, Hamilton has played 24 minutes in both contests, backing up Harden and Parsons. He’s averaged 14.0 points, 3.0 three-pointers, 4.0 rebounds, 2.0 assists and 1.5 steals, shooting 52.6 percent from the field.
Obviously it’s only two games worth of data, but what’s happened so far meshes exactly with what I thought he would do upon hearing news of his trade. And as I mentioned earlier, he also did it for Denver when he was given decent court time.
I’d be grabbing Hamilton in all 12 team leagues and deeper, and having my finger hover on the ‘add’ button in 10 team leagues, ready to pounce if he does this again.
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»Mo Williams, PG/SG, Portland Trail Blazers (3.5 percent owned)
21 points (8-13 FG, 2-2 FT), 3 three-pointers, 6 rebounds, 7 assists, 1 steal, 0 blocks, 2 turnovers vs Nets.
Mo Williams has been pretty much the definition of an average NBA player over the last few seasons — especially from a fantasy perspective.
His Basketball Monster.com rank for seasons 2011-12 (110th) and 2012-13 (125th) had him sitting right on the brink of ownership in 10 team leagues. Interestingly enough, his PER was 15.0 in 11-12 and 14.4 in 12-13 — a stat where the league average is always 15.0.
This season, particularly early on, Williams was a little disappointing, but he’s righted the ship of late.
In his last five games, he’s averaging 14.2 points, 1.4 three-pointers and 2.6 assists, which has him sitting right at 111 on Basketball Monster.com.
The major difference is this year, no-one is owning him.
The assists are a little low recently, but for the year he is averaging 4.4 and he could be a really nice addition in leagues deeper than 14 teams.