Fantasy Notebook 12/1: Efficiency, Efficiency, Efficiency

Last week, the NBA passed the one-month mark of its 2014-15 season. On the court, as well as on your fantasy roster, this is usually when you can expect teams and players to sort of round into what they are going to be the rest of the way. There will be blips on the radar — your Joe Harrises and your Zach LaVines — but, outside of occasional injuries and little ups and downs for your players, the players on your team are likely performing somewhere near a level that (one hopes) will continue.

This can make your waiver wire pick-ups seem a lot less appealing, since it’s unlikely that you’re going to find a solid, regular contributor in your constant scrolls through the list of available players than was possible in the season’s early weeks. Then, you could find a Tony Wroten (before his recent injury) or a DeMarre Carroll or a Robin Lopez — a player who is going to give you something predictable regularly. As we lower our expectations bar one notch lower, though, there can be spot pick ups who can really help out your team if you choose them wisely.

Now, more than ever, efficiency reigns supreme.

Too quickly, we fantasy owners gravitate toward the flashy categories — points, assists, rebounds — forgetting that most leagues have some percentages as categories too. A nice, efficient player could wind up helping you more even if some of his glam stats are slightly lower than another comparable player.

As an example, let’s look at two former Cavalier point guards who are both ranked reasonably close together on ESPN’s fantasy player board:

Are whatever extra points and/or assists Jarrett Jack provides worth the fact that he’s shooting 43% from the field and 12.5% from three over the last five games?

Answer: no, they’re not. Jack’s averaging 11.8 points and 4.4 assists over that stretch and, while those aren’t bad numbers for a waiver wire point guard, not all 11.8 and 4.4s are created equal. If you are in a league with FG%, FT% and/or 3P% (rather than just 3PM), always go for the players who, at least, won’t kill one or more of those categories for you while you reap whatever relatively small statistical reward they provide.

In Jack’s defense, he did shoot 82.4% from the free throw line to help compensate, but you can do better (as the Cavs themselves learned) than Jack.

Mo Williams, on the other hand, has been chipping in more points (16.8) and assists (8.3) in the last five — which can be credited to him now playing starters minutes in place of the injured Ricky Rubio — and while he’s hovering near Jack’s 43% from the field, Mo will help you from the charity stripe (an above average 77.8%). What’s more, Mo is contributing 2.5 threes a game while shooting a ridiculous 47.6% from deep.

So, Williams can help in four categories — points, assists, 3P% and 3PM — while only slightly dipping your FG%.

A more modest example of this: Dennis Schroeder. Schroeder’s not logging a ton of minutes but, last week saw the Atlanta Hawks guard average 10 points and three assists a game. Nothing to write home about, right? But those contributions are all gains, as Schroeder shot 55% from the floor and 83% from the foul line. Even if a player like Shroeder gets shut out, he’ll likely still be an asset from the floor (he doesn’t shoot many threes) and the line (should he get there).

Unfortunately, though, with lower-end rotation players like this, even efficiency can be fleeting.

CtFL Update:

We here at Cavs: The Fantasy League believe in parity and — well, outside of David Wood’s Team Alex Dirk — most of us have had a taste of a good week here or there. After taking last week off from writing this column, I was all prepared to tout my team, The Waiters Invaders, as crushing the very life out of our good friend, Evil Genius. Then, I scrolled down only to have my own hopes shattered by Team Alex Dirk.

DIIIIIIRK!!!!

This week, I’d like to once again (though grudgingly) congratulate Mr. Wood and Team Alex Dirk for dispatching Mallory Factor’s Team Factors of Love as easily as licking an envelope sealed.

Team Evil Genius rebounded nicely from the utter battering he took from The Waiters Invaders last week to similarly sock it to league whipping boy Tom Pestak (sorry, Tom — Hey, at least I didn’t call you the Philadelphia 76ers of CtFL!) and his Team PESTAK.

Nate Smith’s Team Stark Delly Treys (I just said it out loud and I get it now!) was a surprising 9-3-1 against Cols’s Team Buckets Don’t Lie (though Cols is still the overall leader… yep… you heard me right… *sigh*) and Team Hughey topped Ben Werth’s Team The Duetschiest 9-4-0.

Thanks everyone for making this a league you can believe in…