Buy Low - Ben Gordon - Detroit Pistons

Thief’s been working hard so you don’t have to! Boy do I have a nice buy low guy right now; I’m sitting here working my own trade wire to get him on the cheapy cheap myself. I’m talking about none other than Ben Gordon. There are quite a few things working in unison that make Ben a great opportunity, especially for those who do not look closely at the numbers. To begin with, he’s just coming off an ankle injury. Now I’m not sure where the rumor started, but for some reason people view ole Ben as an injury risk. It’s just not true, in fact prior to this season Ben missed an average of 2 games a year! However he did miss 10 games in ’07, but that hardly makes a player an injury risk. Still, chances are the guy who owns him in your league is concerned that he’ll go down again, and is anxious to deal him off.

Second, he comes off the bench. This has been the case since his early days in the NBA. Who cares! He averages over 30 minutes a game which is what really counts. In fact, sometimes (like in Ben’s case) it’s better that he comes off the bench because it means that when he is in the game, he is the focal point for the offense. Yet, without a doubt, the owner of Ben in your league will discount his game because he doesn’t start.



Finally, Ben is down in one key statistical area that WE know is going to bounce back in the near future. Let’s take a look at the numbers…

BUY LOW – Ben Gordon – G – Detroit Pistons

CAT 2009 Career

PTS 18.5 18.5

AST 2.8 3.0

3’s 1.5 1.9

REB 2.4 3.0

STL 0.8 0.8

BLK 0.1 0.2

TO’s 1.7 2.4

FT% 82.5 85.7

FG% 43.8 43.7

3PT% 34.2!!! 41.2!!!

I added that last line in there to show you all what we’re keying on. Over his entire career (this being his sixth year) Ben has shot between 40.5% and 43.5% from the 3 point line, dropping an average of almost 2 per game. This year his accuracy is down 7%! However his attempts are still sitting right on his career average too. This can only be explained by one cause, luck. As luck would have it, thus far, some of his shots just haven’t dropped. And as luck usually goes, that will turn around by season ends. Lucky for us it hasn’t happened yet as Ben was only 4-15 in his last game from the field and 1-5 from outside. Perfect time to buy low.

About that injury he had…… Glad you asked! Ben had a sprained ankle, if we discounted every NBA player that sprained their ankle, we’d have no players left on our team. Its basketball and these things happen, nothing lingering, nothing to worry about. Might take a week to shake off the rust, but I have no doubt he’ll be back to dropping shots like it’s his business. Looking over the Sauce, you can expect Ben to help you out in 3’s, points, and FT%. His assists, steals and FG% are pretty neutral, and you should expect a small drop in TO’s and Blocks. Typical guard stuff.

Remember ballaz, it’s all about who we deal to get ole Ben to make this trade worth it. I’d love to see you move guys like Beno Udrih or Channing Frye to snag him. Trying to move a big instead? What about Brendan Haywood or Erick Dampier? Still yet, don’t shy off those 2- 1 or 2 -2 deals to bring him home.

One last note here, remember you need to be receiving these posts via email in order to get the password to access the SS calculator. If you are receiving them via email (it can take up to an hour after the post goes up), it will be below. If not, you can sign up at any of the various links on this blog. Also, do note, the calculator does NOT use just current stats but also incorporates historical stats and a couple of other ‘tweaks’ to account for specific factors. For instance Rookies are tilted a bit down, Old timers are too, and if a player has been injured we account for that too (whether it be this year or in a past year). So having the most recent stats won’t help, and I’ll update the spreadsheet weekly (which will be more than enough). Also do note that the password will change each week, gotta make sure that only true readers get access. Now get out there and DOMINATE!