Fantasy Friday: Jordan Hamilton

This week, the Clippers found themselves in a sudden injury bind. Already missing star forward Blake Griffin, the team lost fellow starter Matt Barnes and key reserve Jamal Crawford in consecutive games. Both missed Wednesday's tilt against the Trail Blazers.

For the past two games, Doc Rivers has started paradoxically young journeyman Jordan Hamilton, who the Clippers had signed to a 10-day contract on February 24. With Barnes' and Crawford's status still unknown as of last night, it's likely the Clippers will award Hamilton with a second 10-day contract.

Hamilton was a late first round draft choice way back in 2011. To give you a frame of reference, that draft brought us current NBA stars Klay Thompson, Kyrie Irving, and Kawhi Leonard. Hamilton is still 24. He's only two months older than buried rookie C.J.Wilcox. He's played for four teams in four seasons, and that doesn't even count the Mavericks, who drafted and traded him on the same night, the Raptors, who signed him last August and waived him in October, and the Jazz, who claimed him and waived him shortly after that.

Even with those four seasons of experience, there's not a lot of information with which to work. Hamilton has logged 1,720 NBA minutes, which is 400 less than DeAndre Jordan has compiled just this year. Hamilton had only 15 starts to his name before this season, 12 of which came last year. His career slash line is 5.7/2.7/0.7 on 40.5% shooting, although he has converted 36% of his three-point attempts, of which he takes a lot. (Seriously, a lot. He put up 3.3 threes in just 17 minutes of burn per game last season. He has been described to be "without conscience".)

Add it all up, and Hamilton sounds like fantasy scraps. He defines replacement-level. Don't give him a second look, right?

Wrong.

In daily fantasy, there are so few teams that any player getting starting minutes has value. Even if Hamilton doesn't play that efficiently, most daily fantasy sites won't penalize you. You'll get credit for whatever totals he can compile.

Also, there is real value in playing a budget player with a decent probability of playing 30 minutes and lucking into 12-15 points and some rebounds. Hamilton costs just over $3,000 on most daily fantasy sites. That's a lot of extra scratch to spend on elite players.

Hamilton is a short-term value. As soon as Barnes or Crawford comes back, you can bet on Doc parking Hamilton right back on the bench. Until then, he's worth a look at the end of your fantasy lineup.

As always, head over to FanDuel to register and play NBA fantasy games like this one. Pay just $2 and enter a tournament with a prize pool of $10,000.

Disclaimer: Even though this is a sponsored post with affiliate links, all of the opinions in this post are my own. And as an FYI, FanDuel gave me some cash to play its daily fantasy games.