Pickup of the Day: Marvin Williams

(AP Photo / Rick Bowmer)

This season I will highlight a notable player, based on the games played each night, who’s owned in less than 40% of Yahoo! Fantasy Basketball leagues.

The Sneaky Fantasy Basketball Pickup for Monday, November 25 is Marvin Williams. He’s owned in 6% of Yahoo! Leagues and 5.8% of ESPN Leagues, which is the closest I’ve ever seen fantasy owners in the two formats agreeing. Unfortunately, this is a short week for Utah, which doesn’t have another game until Friday. At that point Enes Kanter will have returned to the line-up, but Williams has done enough recently to merit a roster spot.

Here’s a look at his line last night against Chicago:

That’s an above-average but not atypical line from Williams, who’s averaged 14.0 pts, 6.2 reb, 1.2 stl, 2.2 3’s and only 0.8 TO in his last five games. He’s been coming on stronger lately, first jumping over Alec Burks in the rotation to become the sixth man and then pushing Enes Kanter to the bench to become the starting PF.

Kanter missed this game with a sore ankle, which explains Williams’s 44 minutes. Rudy Gobert is the high upside pick when either Kanter or Derrick Favors misses time, but last night was the first time Gobert has even topped 16 min all season. Kanter returns this Friday, and there’s no news yet whether he or Williams starts, but Williams has been productive long enough to justify a fantasy roster spot regardless.

Is he legit? Ah, Marvin Williams. He will forever be the guy drafted ahead of Chris Paul. And Deron Williams. And Andrew Bynum. And Danny Granger, David Lee, Monta Ellis, Marcin Gortat, Ersan Ilyasova, Raymond Felton, Amir Johnson and about a half dozen other players from the 2005 draft class who turned out to be more productive NBA players than he has. Williams perfected his three-point shot this year, but otherwise he hasn’t changed much as a player, a guy who’ll score in the teens and grab 5-6 rebounds while shooting mediocre percentages. This year, Williams is shooting his best percentage yet from three and his worst from the line. He’s not an exciting player, but he’s a serviceable “3 & D” guy in the Martell Webster/Gerald Green mold.

Other Notable Players: Back on the Brandon Bass bandwagon everybody! In the two games since reclaiming a starting spot after Kelly Olynyk sprained his ankle, Bass has posted a 17-7 and a 16-5 in over 30 min. Olynyk is out for at least another week and a half…Gerald Wallace is hovering at 40% owned right and just had a good game. His first good game in the last seven. He should be owned less…Josh McRoberts: 5-7-5-1-1, one three. Despite everything else, it’s getting hard to ignore his lack of points and awful shooting. I still argue his value is higher next to Al Jefferson, but keep an eye on him…Non-pickups news: Brandon Jennings is averaging a career-high 8.4 apg. What he was missing most of his career were people to pass it to…It’s getting hard to practice patience about ignoring the Bucks starters’ minutes during blowouts when they’re getting blown out of every game. John Henson seems to have the most stable value (15-7-1-2-2 tonight), though Khris Middleton was productive after being moved into the starting line-up over Caron Butler. You should just ignore all Bucks other than Henson until coach Larry Drew figures it out. But hang on to Brandon Knight for now…I’ve been getting warmer and warmer on him, but now I’m just telling you to go pick up Channing Frye. I’m not sure what Eric Bledsoe’s return on Wednesday will mean for him, but it should affect Gerald Green a lot more than Frye…Bench mob alert in Houston! Omri Casspi scored 16 pts and Omer Asik actually saw 21 min, his most in over two weeks. No need to pick either up, but watch how the latter might affect Terrence Jones’s value…Kosta Koufos: 8-13-2-0-2 in 30 min in his first start during Marc Gasol’s two-month hiatus. Koufos will stay at the top of the Top 5 tonight…DeJuan Blair got the start tonight, but he still couldn’t crack 20 min, his average this season. This not a permanent move, as Samuel Dalembert only didn’t start because he missed practice, but he’ll get you some surprisingly steals numbers from the C position if you can afford to keep him in your line-up…Boris Diaw had an excellent 13-5-2-1 game night as he played the Henson role of bench player with starter minutes who stays productive even in a blowout. I was ready to make him the Pickup after Tiago Splitter sprained his ankle and didn’t return, but Rotoworld is reporting that Splitter didn’t return only because it was a blowout, not because of the injury…The season just keeps getting worse for the Chicago Bulls, who lost Derrick Rose for the season after surgery this morning (Remember when Greg Oden only played 82 games in three seasons? After this season, Rose will have only played 50 in three, albeit one was lockout shortened to 66). Now the Bulls have lost to the 2-14 Utah Jazz, the team with the worst record in the league. Neither Kirk Hinrich, Mike Dunleavy, nor new starter Tony Snell could get anything going for their backcourt…And tonight Beno Udrih is good again (13-5-5-1, 3 3’s). I need to see more…Not really Pickup news because none of the players involved are under 40% owned, but important nonetheless. Some people may have dropped Martell Webster upon hearing news that Trevor Ariza is back and will return to the starting line-up. Now Bradley Beal may miss extended time after an MRI today revealed he aggravated the same leg injury that ended his rookie season last year. Pick Webster back up immediately, as he’ll become the starting SG if Beal is out. Deep leaguers may also want to keep an eye on Otto Porter Jr., the Wizards’ third overall pick this year, and Chris Singleton, who had productive games for them last year. Both returned to practice today as well.

Top 5 Sneaky Pickups (owned in under 40% of Yahoo! Leagues):

1. Kosta Koufos (22%)
2. Jared Sullinger (34%)
3. Marvin Williams (6%)
4. Glen Davis (30%)
5. Patrick Beverley (31%)

Taking my own advice and avoiding Brandon Knight and all other non-Henson Bucks for the time being. Mo Williams also dropped, not because of his suspension but because, after three lousy games, I have to go with the lower-upside but also higher-downside Beverley.

Hindsight: Those last two Pickups, Glen Davis and Brandon Knight, are looking like 0-2 so far…Gerald Green and Channing Frye should’ve been in the Top 5 every day for the last two weeks, but I kept getting nervous about when Eric Bledsoe would be back to pull the trigger. Now Bledsoe is reportedly back on Wednesday, and I never got to pop off any rounds.