Biedrins...

Andris Biedrins is in an interesting situation. After having a great back to back to back seasons from 2006-2009, in 09-10 he apparently he had his confidence plummet due to his 16% free throw shooting and hasn’t been the same since. A lot of this is due to the fact that he hasn’t really been given much of a chance since that fateful season. In the three seasons where he played well, from oldest to most recent he was being 29, 27, and 30 minutes a game respectively. In these three seasons he had a combined average of 10.5 points, 10 rebounds, 1.5 blocks on 60.2% shooting. The only downside was that he was shooting free throws at 56.5%, and has never had a ft% higher than 62%. Regardless, these are numbers that any center would love to have, and are also amazing for any fantasy team.  So what happened? Well after that confidence problem, Don Nelson basically dropped him from the team. He lost a lot of playing time and in the season of his confidence loss and the year after, he averaged about 23.5 minutes a game. He still put up decent numbers, about 5 points, 7.5 boards, a blocked shot and 55% shooting from the field, which still made him somewhat valuable in deep leagues. The fact that he rarely got to the line made it easier to take his horrible free throw shooting. But this past year his playing time has dropped down to 17 minutes a game. He is averaging 3.4 points, 5.2 rebounds on 71% shooting, but is only taking 2.4 shots a game. He lost his starting job to Kwame Brown, and even then Kwame is getting around 20 minutes a game. It seems like Mark Jackson can’t really decide on a center, or just dislikes both of them. Or he likes different aspects of each player’s game. Regardless, stay away from Biedrins. Even with Brown out, Biedrins isn’t playing much more than 20 minutes a game and is averaging 1.85 shots a game and 3 rebounds a game. So unless you really need blocks, and even then he’s only averaging about 1 a game, stay away from Biedrins. Kwame is a story for another time…