No matter the sport, players can go through hot or cold streaks during the season. In fantasy hoops, a cold streak to start the season gives owners the opportunity to try and grab a player who?s struggling at a discount. Here?s a look at some players to target if you want to land a buy low option:
Buy Low Targets
Steve Nash, G, LAL -- Nash started off slow, averaging 4.5 points and four assists before suffering a small fracture in his left leg half way during the Lakers second game of the season. The injury has kept him sidelined over the past two weeks, but Nash is expected to return to action next week. When he returns to the hardwood, Nash will be reunited with his ex-coach Mike D'Antoni. The veteran point guard didn't look too comfortable in Mike Brown's Princeton offense, but he'll be back in his comfort zone running D'Antoni's fast-paced attack. At 38, Nash comes with plenty of injury risk, but he's worth grabbing on the cheap if his owners are worried about his current injury and slow start.
Ersan Ilyasova, F, MIL -- Big things were expected from Ilyasova after his second-half breakout last season, but he's got off to an extremely slow start thanks to an early-season shooting slump. Through five games, Ilyasova has hit just 29.8 percent of his shots from the floor. As a result, he's averaging just 25 minutes per game on a surprisingly deep Bucks team. Milwaukee's depth is somewhat of a worry, but I still expect Ilyasova to be one of the team's most productive players by the end of the season. He's a career 44-percent shooter, so look for his shots to start falling with more regularity soon and the extra playing time to follow.
Josh Smith, F, ATL -- The early-round pick is currently ranked as the 323rd most valuable player on Yahoo! based on per-game averages. He has underwhelmed in many categories, including points (13.3), boards (7.3), field-goal percentage (39.4) and free-throw percentage (14.3!). All of those numbers would be steep drops from Smith's production from a year ago. He was slowed slightly because of an ankle injury last week, but Smith has looked healthy in his past three appearances. Smith is in the midst of a contract year (for what it's worth) and he'll be asked to carry a bigger offensive load for the Hawks now that Joe Johnson is in Brooklyn. Ignore the slow start and make offers for Smith immediately.
Roy Hibbert, C, IND -- Hibbert has seen his scoring average drop over four points this season, bottoming out at 8.7 points through the first seven games of the season. Like other names on this list, Hibbert has been battling a shooting slump. His current clip of 38.4 percent is a steep drop-off from the 47.8 percent he has shot throughout his career. While Hibbert's never been the most efficient big man, he should start climbing back up to his career shooting percentage soon. Over 72-percent of Hibbert's shot attempts came from inside eight feet last season -- at 7-2, and working that close to the basket, it's only a matter of time before he starts shooting better percentages.
Danilo Gallinari, F, DEN -- Gallinari has struggled with his stroke in the earlier going, hitting just 30 percent of his shots from the floor while going 9-of-44 from downtown. While he's never hit more than 42 percent of his shots as a full-time player, anyone who has watched Galo play knows he's a much better shooter than we've seen these first couple weeks. The good news is Nuggets coach George Karl is letting Gallinari try to shoot out of his slump, as the fifth-year forward is playing a career-high 36 mpg while launching 7.3 three-point attempts per game. If Gallinari continues to get that many opportunities on offense, he'll be in line for a breakout season.
Rodney Stuckey, G, DET -- After a disastrous 1-of-23 stretch to open the season, many fantasy owners wrote off Stuckey. He's turned things around slightly over the past four games, but the Pistons' combo guard is still hitting just 23.6 percent of his field-goal attempts. Fortunately for Stuckey, the Pistons are paying him a lot of money over the next couple of years and the team doesn't have many other options at shooting guard. That means Stuckey will be given every opportunity to break out of his slump. He'll continue to see ample playing time and should end up right around that 15-point per game average we've become accustomed to the past few years.