Over this past week we’ve seen some great players have some poor performances, some good players finally play up to their potential, and some relatively mediocre players play their hearts out. Which ones could continue the trend?

Raja Bell, after a slow start at the beginning of the season that even saw him being dropped in some leagues, has come on strong. Though he was only ranked 61 in Yahoo to start the season, he should have been ranked much higher. He finished last year ranked 31 in Yahoo, so that begs the question of how he started out the year down 30 places. I have no answer for you, but this I will say — he will continue to be consistently good, just like he was last year.

Bruce Bowen is normally a very good defender, but that rarely translates into anything stats related in his personal box score. For that reason, he isn’t normally very useful, except perhaps in the final round of the draft where his decent three point shooting might help push a team up a few points. This week, however, his field goal percentage, free throw percentage, points, and three pointers have all been excellent. Should we look for this trend to continue? Not on your life. I’ve seen that lots of people are trying to trade him, hoping to dupe somebody. Don’t fall for it. He will continue to be a great guy to come off your bench in the case of an injury, and nothing more than that.

Tayshaun Prince’s stats have been consistently good this year — even better than they were last year. For some reason Yahoo pushed his ranking down about 25 places lower than his last year’s stats would dictate. It appears that Yahoo was wrong in doing that because Tayshaun has done well. Over this last week, he has been even better, averaging 20 points a game. Can he keep it up? Well, having him continue to average 20 points a game might be pushing it, but look for him to have better stats than last year. This isn’t a fluke, and honestly, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if he leads his team in points this year.

Quentin Richardson has had a phenomenal week, averaging 17 points, 10 rebounds, and 3 3-pointers per game. Can he keep it up? New York got rid of Jalen Rose, freeing up a little more playing time for him, but don’t look for him to consistently give you numbers. Richardson has always been a streaky shooter — never consistent. Still, on average, he is bound to do much better than last year’s numbers would indicate. He probably won’t get back to the levels he was giving in Phoenix where Steve Nash was setting him up for shot after shot, but I think his averages will be decent. You’ll have to work through his bad games, but he is still probably better than a lot of the more consistent players with mediocre numbers. His good games are REALLY good.

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