Coming On Late.

You would’ve copped long odds, back in the long hot summer, that any of these krazy kidzzz would’ve ended up on active NBA rosters, let alone be big enough contributors that they could clock up enough statistical relevance to be considered worthy of fantasy basketball ownership. Yet, with the preseason hosed and the real games set to start, here are five guys who came on late, and played well enough that they’ve become at least blips on the fantasy radar.

BRANDON BASS, Mavericks.
In his two seasons playing for his (kinda) homestate Hornets, the Bayou Bengal clocked up a mighty 50 appearances, almost all of which were meaningless. Whilst it’s fun to work out that Bass averaged 10.2 points and 10.3 rebounds per 40 minutes in his scant Oklahoma City career, it was hard to see how that would apply when Bass latched onto the Mavericks over summer, seemingly as the roster’s 17th man. But after an impressive preseason —11.8 PPG, 7.5 RPG, 1.0 BPG, 54.4 FG%, in 25.0 MPG— the 6’8 forward looks set to open the season in the Mavs’ rotation. With Erick Dampier out for the foreseeable future, Didier Ilunga-Mbenga hurting/hurting-for-coordination, and Nick Fazekas the least athletic NBA player since Todd MacCulloch, Bass actually shapes as the only possible frontcourt reserve in Avery Johnson’s arsenal. Whilst the 12 MPG backing up the Diggler ain’t much to crow about, keep in mind that DeSagana Diop played only 18 MPG last season, and is so foul prone that it’d be nearly impossible for him to play any more than about 24 a night. Whilst Johnson’ll surely play some smallball with either Josh Howard or Devean George at the four and Dirk at the five, I’m finding it hard to find a scenario where Bass doesn’t average at least the 25 minutes an outing he did in the exhibition.

AARON GRAY, Bulls.
Early in the exhibition season, as the big white Gray showed NBA-level skill to go with his monster frame, rumours began to float that the ramblin’ Panther was already shaping up as a starter in Scott Skiles’ mind, despite having never played an NBA game. With 6’7 Ben Wallace already locked into the first five, favouring Gray over second-year future-stud Tyrus Thomas, the rationale went, would save Chicago from a starting unit whose tallest player was 6’8, and whose average height is a tiny 6’5. Recent ankle-related developments in Chicago may’ve cemented this Gray-the-starter notion in stone. Last week, Ben Wallace, Joakim Noah, and Tyrus Thomas all were hurt in the Bulls’ final preseason barney. Whilst Thomas was called, thereafter ‘day-to-day’ with a foot strain, both Wallace and Noah were outed by Chicago as being out ‘indefinitely’ with sprained ankles. Given this was only three days ago, it might be a safe bet that neither will play when the Bulls open their season Wednesday in the cultural global epicentre that is East Rutherford. And, thus, Gray looks likely to be in the opening lineup. Whilst it’s possible he’ll be little more than the big white space-eater inside, after a preseason in which he posted 9.0 PPG, 5.4 RPG (incl. 1.8 offensive), 53.6 FG% in only 16.7 MPG, Gray should definitely be on the radar of size-seeking fantasy GMs.

JASON SMITH, Sixers.
In the leadup to the draft, piles of professional opinionaters were proffering Jason Smith as their ‘most likely to be a bust’ type choice, going simply by his size (seven feet), his skin colour (as the cold driven snow), and the fact that he suited up for Mountain West powerhouse Colorado State. How many of these “draft experts” had bothered to actually watch Smith play is another matter; for anyone who watched the generically-named big-man blossom from skinny small-forward freshman to dominating five-spot junior surely would’ve been impressed by Smith’s most un-white combination of quickness and skill. Whilst his exhibition stats aren’t exactly stuffed —8.2 PPG, 4.4 RPG, 1.1 BPG, a dreadful 38.6% from the floor, in 26.2 MPG— Smith has never seemed overmatched, and has looked roughly ten trillion times better than project lottery-pick Thaddeus Young, and is playing in a Philly frontcourt aching for real, live, healthy big-man bodies. I can’t imagine he’ll do much of anything in the season’s beginnings, but Smith’s shown some intriguing signs for a guy who no one expected absolutely anything of. At all.

VON WAFER, Nuggets.
With the groin-poppin’ injury to ever-chuckin’ Chucky Atkins, the eye-poppin’ bricklayin’ of Yakhouba Diawara, and the continued miseducation of Earl Smith III, the spot on the floor between the Answer and the Backpedaller is far from settled. The smokie to end all smokies in this scenario is Von Wafer, a 6’5, fleet-footed, unrepentant gunner who, as luck has it, hasn’t been arrested a single time this year. Fresh off of averaging 21 points an outing in the D-League last season, and 24.2 PPG in summer league, Wafer’s shown some serious jacking-it-up abilities in the preseason. Without a hole in Furious George’s rotation, Wafer’s chances to make a splash this season appeared minimal. But with Atkins on the sideline and Smith perhaps headed to the doghouse, Wafer could come on strong.

SHAWNE WILLIAMS, Pacers.
Given that he’s out for the first three games of the season for brainless goondom, you can’t exactly watch Williams on the opening night, then pounce upon him if he gets the right amount of court-time. For, there’s no doubt that the young, ridiculously-talented, rangy wing could produce if, say, poured upon the court for as much time as his fellow sophomore Rudy Gay will hit the floor this year. In his fleeting glimpses last year, Williams showed his tantalising, lottery-level package of skills —namely: athleticism, shooting, and defence— when he was trotted out onto the court. If we’re to go by his summer-league, Williams could actually produce in actual meaningful minutes this season, if Coach Jim O’Brien —and his famously-retooled offence— find him a place. Given Danny Granger’s Indiana’s only locked-in piece at the moment, that may not be so easy; but, in the four exhibition tilts in which he hit the court for more than 20 minutes, Williams went off. In 28 MPG, he hung up 17.0 PPG, 6.5 RPG, 3.0 APG, 1.0 SPG, 0.7 BPG, and 8/23 threes (including a 5/10 versus Chicago). At the moment, Williams looks caught in a numbers crunch; but if O’Brien’s Pacers could actually push the pace and do 110+ type games in the regular season, Williams could be intriguing. And if Granger were to go down, he’d be the prized waiver-wire pounce.

Chucky Atkins, Groin Popper, Will Miss 6-8 Weeks.

30-something chucker Chucky Atkins felt his groin "pop" when trying to guard Marcus Banks in the Denver Nuggets' second-to-last exhibition run Thursday, surely feeling more pain than any man need ever know. Whilst Atkins —who is no relation to Dr. Robert Atkins, creator of the high-protein, low-carbohydrate Atkins Diet— had shaped up as a genuine fantasy contributor when signed by the McNuggets in the summer, he was struggling in preseason even prior to the groin-popping. And, now, with a lengthy stint on the sidelines, the veteran guard has come close to losing all of his fantasy value.

Of course, his absence will open up minutes for others, and with 74-year-old bricklayer Anthony 'Remember When My Agent Forgot To Exercise My $4.1mil Option?' Carter thankfully injured, it won't mean him. Really, there're two guys who would shape up as likely contributors in the absence of Atkins. And neither of them are the likely fifth-starter for Denver, Yakhouba Diawara. Nor are they, at this stage, Von Wafer, who I'm quietly eyeing off as late-rising sleeper.

Firstly, there's our old friend JR Smith. When not hitting the town, spitting on girls, or killing friends in unintentional vehicular homicide, the most notorious JR since Rider is known as an unrepentant jacker from deep. Last year, in his first 41 appearances, JR threw up 292 threes —7.1 per night!— thereby gaining a well-deserved reputation as the most conscience-free of 'volume shooters'. Of course, late in the year, Coach Karl tired of the hired goon, riddling his final months with DNP-CDs and garbage-time appearances; and, this season, the Nuggets've been reportedly seeing if there're any trade takers out there for young, hyper-talented, possibly-crazy wings. Yet, Smith has one characteristic that sets him apart from every other player on the Nuggets roster: he's a shooter. If we're to go by the preseason, Smith isn't a particularly good shooter, his six exhibition appearances finding the 6'6 gunner gunning it for 4/26 from range. Yikes. Of course, lacking any other guys with ridiculous range, and playing at the crazy pace that he favours, Furious George may be forced to function with a short memory. And, if he doles out even a decent amount of court-time for JR, Mr.Smith is immediately back into fantasy play as a deep-ball shooter.

A more intriguing possibility is the Vanilla Gorilla, Linas Kleiza. Though the hulking Lithuanian would probably best be suited to a Nocioni-esque role as undersized, hustling, ornery four, Karl has, at times, dared to play the 6'8 beast at shooting guard. Whilst it mightn't seem to make immediate sense, remember that Karl played Boobs Patterson at the two down the stretch in '06; in a lineup —Andre Miller, Melo, K-Mart, Camby— that actually featured no shooters. Kleiza, at least, has a deep-ball stroke, even if it's not the sweetest. And whereas Smith struggled in the exhibitions, Kleiza's preseason was impressive: 15.8 PPG, 4.3 RPG, 5/15 threes, 52.1 FG% in 27.5 MPG. Whilst he's unlikely to be hanging up anywhere near that once Melo, K-Mart, Camby, Nenê and the gang are all on the court every night, Kleiza holds definite intrigue as a wait-and-see possibility heading into the year.