Stat's All Folks

Stat's All Folks' aim is to advise picking up players off the waiver wire in shallow (6-8 teams), standard (10-12 teams), deep (14-16 teams), and really deep (18-20+ teams) leagues. These players are merely recommendations by the writer and should be claimed at your own risk. By no means are these suggestions a reflection of the Web site's other (smarter) writers.

Welcome to another edition of Stat's All Folks where I do my best in suggesting players to help you win your league championship. In fact, I'm looking at my crystal ball right now, OK, it's really a Magic 8 Ball and I am asking it a very important question -- will my suggestions below help the reader(s) this week? (Shake)... hmm... (shake)... it's stuck. Now how does that happen? I guess you'll just have to trust me.

Stats are through Monday, December 5

Caron Butler, SF, Washington Wizards 13 G; 28.2 MIN; 15.0 PPG; 4.8 RPG; 2.7 APG; 0 3PTM; 46.1 FG%; 84.1 FT%; 1.5 SPG; 0.3 BPG

This former All-Rookie first-teamer had loads of that "P" word coming out of UConn. Of course, I'm talking about "potential" as Butler has the ability to bang inside, step outside, steal the ball, and finish on the break. Obviously, that potential translated well his rookie season, but something happened his sophomore season -- a couple of guys named Lamar Odom and Dwyane Wade started taking shots and touches away from Butler, which resulted in his scoring average dropping six points. Then along with Odom and Brian Grant, Butler was traded to the Los Angeles Kobees ... umm, Lakers ... for Shaquille O'Neal during the offseason. Butler has found his game again, improving on his numbers from his first two seasons. However, this season brings another change of address for Butler as he now comes off the magical pine for the Wizards, providing scoring punch and good on-ball defense. Butler gets a good amount of minutes with the Wiz, despite coming off the bench, and could possibly be a Sixth Man of the Year candidate if he remains in that role. However, I don't see how either Jarvis Hayes or Jared Jeffries can continue to start over him because Butler has more talent than both. But, this is the Wiz we're talking about here. In any case, don't make the same mistake and make sure you get Butler on your team because he's "producing" (the most important "P" word for us fantasy basketball geeks) and will do even more of that if/when he gets the starting nod.

Joel Przybilla, C, Portland Trailblazers 16 G; 25.8 MIN; 6.2 PPG; 6.9 RPG; 0.9 APG; 0 3PTM; 58.8 FG%; 46.3 FT%; 0.5 SPG; 2.4 BPG

Admit it. You dropped Przybilla at some point at the beginning of the season when he was stinking up the joint and disappointing BIG TIME. OK, maybe that statement goes more for those in standard-sized leagues, but it can apply here as well. If no one's noticed (and it's hard not to), the Vanilla Gorilla has gone off in the last week, filling the stat box with about 10 points and 12 boards a night in the past week along with 3.5 rejections. OK, OK, OK, I know that Przybilla might be one of those players that's already on your radar and probably picked up, but I may never be able to write about Przybilla again in this wavier wire column as I look for him to start matching last season's production, including the uglier than Nick Nolte's mugshot free throw percentage. Seriously, I've seen Przybilla dropped in a lot of leagues in favor of players like Ike Diogu and Channing Frye, players I've suggested in the past to pick up. But, if by some miracle of Jordan (the god of basketball) Przybilla is still available in your shallow league, cage the animal and drag him back to your team because he's been beastly on the boards and in blocking shots. To steal from Denzel Washington's character in Training Day -- "King Kong ain't got nothin' on [Prz]!"

Luke Ridnour, PG, Seattle Supersonics 16 G; 33.8 MIN; 10.1 PPG; 2.6 RPG; 6.9 APG; 10 3PTM; 35.6 FG%; 97.9 FT%; 1.8 SPG; 0.3 BPG

Ridnour was another player that was dropped in a lot of leagues after the beginning of the season and whom I've still seen available in some leagues. So jump on Ridnour while you can as his performance last week (12/2/9 and almost two steals a night) has raised eyebrows in the direction of this Coeur d'Alene product. Couer d'Alene? No, Ridnour isn't one of those European products that plays the game like they did back in the day (that is to say, with a grasp of fundamentals). Nope, I'm talking about Couer d'Alene in ... Idaho. Seems like something doesn't quite belong, does it? Well the same can almost be said of Ridnour and his pass-first, let-me-set-up-my-teammates, hit-my-free-throws style of play in today's me-first, I'll-jump-over-everyone-like-I'm- Carl Lewis (although I dang well don't want to sing like him), what's-a-bounce-pass? mentality prevalent in today's dunk-dominated NBA. Just like Przybilla, I expect this to be the last I'll write of Ridnour in this column. So, take my words of wisdom and pick up these two players like they were dollar bills on the floor as they'll be money the rest of the way. Of course, this isn't a trade column, but I'd suggest trading for these guys as well. And since they're not superstars, their owners may be open to trading them.

Melvin Ely, PF/C, Charlotte Bobcats 13 G; 21.5 MIN; 9.5 PPG; 5.0 RPG; 1.2 APG; 0 3PTM; 44.6 FG%; 76.9 FT%; 0.8 SPG; 0.5 BPG