A large media contingent surrounded Yao Ming in one of his first public practices since his foot injury in May of 2009. During his interview with the media, he was asked about the chances that he would be ready for the season opener. Yao responded with a confident “Pretty Good….Pretty Good.” That’s good enough for us! After a very frustrating year, Yao Ming appeared relieved to be back on the court and according to the team doctor, his surgically repaired foot is fully healed.
With a month before training camp and two months before the season starts, Yao should have enough time to regain his conditioning of two years ago. He will definitely be fantasy-relevant, but we are not ready to crown him as a round-one pick based on his post-up moves on vertically-limited Chuck Hayes or on NBA D-Leaguer James Cripe. His overall ranking will have to be determined at later date, but we are predicting that Yao will be one of the top high-risk, high-reward fantasy players in this year’s draft. Stay tuned to WinMyFantasyLeague.com for an update on Yao’s progress. .
While Yao revels in his ‘pretty good’ assurance to the media, among the top fantasy players on the Rockets, Kevin Martin looks to take the biggest hit. On Sacramento (with Houston last year) he was the primary scorer with no post presence to feed. With Yao, a bonafide post-threat in the picture, Martin shares the secondary scoring duties alongside backcourt teammate Aaron Brooks. As we have learned from the Tyreke Evans impact last season, Little K-Mart’s production fell when playing second-fiddle in Sac-town.
In the recent deal that sent Trevor Ariza to the Hornets, the Houston Rockets acquired Courtney Lee. The addition of Lee (averaged 12.5 points per game for the Nets last year) will prevent Martin from accumulating those heavy minutes that he was so accustomed to in Sacramento, further limiting his scoring opportunities. Finally, Martin has never played a full season over his 6-year career, and is fairly labelled as an injury-prone player.
This season will not be all bad news for the shooting guard; Yao does command a lot of attention from the opposition, which leads to open shots for his team mates. So, although Martin’s scoring will see a drop, his field-goal percentage and 3-pointers-made should slightly increase.
Luis Scola should return to a 10-point, 8 rebound workhorse. The loss of Ron Artest to free agency and Yao Ming’s injury forced Scola to produce on the offensive end, resulting in a career-high 16 points per game last year. Now with a full dose of Kevin Martin and the return of Yao, Scola will revert to his more comfortable supporting cast role for the Rockets. He is extremely durable (played every game of his 3-year career), and will shoot a strong percentage (51.4% last year). The acquisition of Brad Miller has little impact on Scola as Miller will be likely backing up Yao.
Aaron Brooks will benefit the most from Yao’s return as every game should produce a few lob passes from Brooks to Yao for dunks. These easy assist opportunities could raise Brooks’ dimes to 8 per game, while continuing to knock down over 2 three-pointers per game. With Yao and Martin demanding the majority of attention, the speedy Point Guard should improve on his 43% field goal percentage as a byproduct of open shots.
The latest Yahoo! Sports fantasy rankings have Brooks outside of the top 20 Point Guards, so there is a lot of room for improvement. It is unacceptable for a player with his quickness and opportunities (35 minutes per game) to average 0.8 steals per game. With a full season as starting Point Guard under his belt, a healthy sharp-shooting Kevin Martin on the wing, and most importantly, Yao Ming dominating in the post, all signs point towards Brooks having an overall improved fantasy year.
Of course the above analysis will change slightly significantly if Carmelo Anthony ends up on the Rockets. For now, it is strictly a rumour.
Written by Justin Hasan exclusively for WinMyFantasyLeague.com
Comment below or e-mail him at Justin.Hasan@WinMyFantasyLeague.com
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