Blowing Up: Dan Dickau

Dan Dickau, PG, New Orleans Hornets

At the beginning of this week, I told you that Dan Dickau in a starter's role was Kirk Hinrich lite, and that he looked like a great short-term add.

He's getting heavier by the day.

Last night, in an OT victory against Philadelphia, Dickau dropped a career-high 16 assists to go along with 19 points on 7-15 1-6 4-5 shooting. He grabbed five boards and three steals and he turned the ball over three times. For those of you keeping score, that's a 5.33 single-game A/T ratio.

What kinds of numbers would your squad have recorded this week if you had added Dick on Sunday?

They look like this:

GP	FG	FT	3PM	PTS	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO
4	.500	.786	2.5	21.3	4.5	9.0	1.5	0.0	2.0

Over this period, his A/T ratio is 4.5 and he's averaging over 40 minutes.

His time as a starter may still be limited, but it just got extended.

Baron Davis is back to the IL for at least two weeks to rest his bruised Achilles. It's also been referred to officially as a bruised right ankle. Either way, it's not good.

It seems official now that dude's body is all messed up. It's easy to forget that his career was in jeopardy after he blew out his knee at UCLA. Those who saw him play before that injury insist that he had lost explosiveness by the time he arrived in the league.

Neverthless, Baron built a reputation as an ironman when he entered the league. Over his first three seasons, Davis played in all 82 games each year.

Over the next two seasons, he averaged 58.5 games. So far this year, the Hornets have played in 41 games. Baron has participated in 17 of them. His sub-40% FG when he's healthy is bad enough; playing in fewer than 40% of your team's games is unforgivable for a guy who was gone in the first three rounds of almost every draft. His back is always in spasms. He has knee history. And now his Achilles is a problem.

To complicate the situation and further reduce his value, trade rumors continue to swirl around Davis, although this latest round of problems might do something to cool those. Davis would love to leave, but he's difficult to move.

For the next two weeks, Dickau is the only true point guard on the roster. Look for his strong production to continue, if not at this ridiculous rate. It will be interesting to see what happens if and when Baron comes back or gets traded. It looks to me like the Hornets have found their elusive "point guard of the future." Trust me: it's not Baron Davis.