There's a block party in Charlotte.
Well, maybe not the kind you were thinking of. There’s no old-school Michael Jackson tunes playing across the “block” and some break-dancing to go along…this kind of block party only takes place in Time Warner Cable Arena.
We all know that Dwight Howard, Chris Anderson, and company are truly among the elite shot-blockers in this game of basketball, but that’s the problem. Everyone knows that. If everyone knows it, then the asking price for such players will skyrocket through the roof. What everyone doesn’t know is that the Charlotte Bobcats are clearly the weakest team in the league in terms of shot protection or in other words, Charlotte cannot effectively get a shot off that isn’t partially swatted by an opposing player.
Before we dig in a little deeper, let’s take a look at the blocks allowed per game leaders through this point of the NBA season. At this point, we can assume that these numbers won’t vary all that much as the season draws closer to the 82-game mark:
|
RK
|
TEAM
|
Blocks Allowed
|
|
1
|
Orlando
|
3.5
|
|
2
|
Portland
|
3.9
|
|
3
|
Cleveland
|
4
|
|
4
|
Phoenix
|
4.1
|
|
5
|
Dallas
|
4.2
|
|
6
|
Philadelphia
|
4.3
|
|
7
|
LA Clippers
|
4.3
|
|
8
|
Boston
|
4.4
|
|
9
|
Toronto
|
4.4
|
|
10
|
New York
|
4.5
|
|
11
|
Oklahoma City
|
4.5
|
|
12
|
LA Lakers
|
4.5
|
|
13
|
New Orleans
|
4.6
|
|
14
|
Atlanta
|
4.7
|
|
15
|
Utah
|
4.8
|
|
16
|
Milwaukee
|
4.9
|
|
17
|
Miami
|
5.2
|
|
18
|
Washington
|
5.2
|
|
19
|
Detroit
|
5.3
|
|
20
|
Indiana
|
5.4
|
|
21
|
San Antonio
|
5.4
|
|
22
|
Sacramento
|
5.6
|
|
23
|
Memphis
|
5.8
|
|
24
|
Minnesota
|
5.8
|
|
25
|
Chicago
|
6
|
|
26
|
New Jersey
|
6
|
|
27
|
Golden State
|
6
|
|
28
|
Denver
|
6.2
|
|
29
|
Houston
|
6.4
|
|
30
|
Charlotte
|
7.1
|
As you can see the normal range for blocks allowed per game is between 4.5 and 5.5. Charlotte absolutely blows that mark out of the water, even allowing nearly one full block per game more than their closest competition for this prestigious award, the Houston Rockets. Keep in mind that Houston doesn’t play a post player taller than 6’9” as they are playing without Yao Ming. Charlotte does have a new piece at the Center position in the offensively inept Tyson Chandler, but their allowance of 7.1 blocks per game is absolutely atrocious.
The significance of Charlotte’s inability to protect their own shot cannot be explained by the 7.1 mark alone. As crazy as this may seem, Charlotte plays one of the slowest games in the NBA, only totaling 93 possessions per game, placing them 28th in the league in that category. So the Bobcats are taking fewer shots than almost every team in the league and still allowing seven blocks per game.
Here we have the recipe for fantasy super sleepers in the blocks department.
Of course, if you have Dwight Howard or Chris Anderson, you will always start them given their dominance in blocks as it is (or in Howard’s case, his dominance in every other category but free-throw shooting). But at the end of our benches, the situation can be a little more hairy.
To further demonstrate this, let’s look at a couple of games that will be played this Saturday:
Portland at Orlando
Given the season-ending injury (again) to Greg Oden, fantasy owners who quickly snagged Joel Przybilla have been rewarded nicely with his shot-blocking and rebounding numbers. Przybilla has always been an efficient player, making him fantasy gold when he’s given starter’s minutes. Typically, he would be a starter every night, but in tese circumstances, he faces Dwight Howard down in the post. It goes without saying that his rebounds and blocks could take a one-game hit against Orlando. For that matter, temper your expectations for Howard’s blocks as well, since Portland is primarily a jump-shooting team, now that Oden is out of the lineup.
Utah at Charlotte
On the other hand, Utah is a team typically weak in the shot-blocking department. The savvy fantasy basketball owner who drafted Carlos Boozer made sure to quickly draft someone else to make up for Boozer’s deficiencies in blocks. Well every now and again, a blind squirrel will find a nut, and Carlos Boozer will find his blocks. That night should be Saturday night in Charlotte. Paul Millsap and Mehmet Okur are also very viable block options, even though they typically aren’t on a nightly basis. For any reason if Millsap or Okur are on waivers or your bench, be sure to insert them into your starting lineup for Saturday night.