This scorching hot former Trojan highlights a post from Austin Brown, who took Jumping the Waiver Wire on the road in Los Angeles this week.

Until last night I hadn’t set foot inside an NBA arena to watch an official game in a long, long while and I can attest that there’s no better way to come back than a visit to the Staples Center. For those of you who haven’t been, I strongly suggest you pay it a visit. It’s an awesome spectacle to behold. The outside can be likened to Times Square and inside the building from the corporate box level where I watched the game with king sized binoculars, I felt like I was on the floor with the players.

After a full afternoon of playing sloppy street ball games, let me tell you, they’re good.

With this being a busy weekend outside of my native city, I’m going to take it easy on myself and stick to giving you guys the four best free agents on the wire that I haven’t covered recently, as opposed to the standard six, seven or eight I showcase every week. Happy Martin Luther King Day!

Nick Young (Owned in 25 percent of all Yahoo! leagues) Young is playing almost an extra five minutes a game this month without starting two-guard DeShawn Stevenson, who should be out another two weeks, in the lineup. Over his last five games the former Trojan has scored 13, 33, 30, 12 and 28 points respectively. He’s been clearly inconsistent and besides points and threes he brings little to the table. But seeing as how points are the most valuable commodity in fantasy basketball, he’s worth a look until Stevenson gets back.

Boobie Gibson (Owned in 22 percent of all Yahoo! leagues) With Delonte West out six weeks with a broken ankle, his 33 minutes of court time will be divided between Wally Szczerbiak, Sasha Pavlovic and Gibson and on any given night any one of them will come out the winner depending on the match-ups. All three are worth a look but especially Gibson, with his potential for big minutes at backup for both guard spots. Look for the man with the star carved in his scalp to see a solid 35 minutes per night, which alone should give him enough value to start in standard leagues.

Jerryd Bayless (Owned in 8 percent of all Yahoo! leagues) As many disappointed owners know, Steve Blake separated his shoulder last Wednesday against the Sixers and will be out roughly 2-to-4 weeks. This makes Bayless a legitimate play in 12 man leagues over that span. The rookie out of Arizona has only hit one three-point shot all season, which definitely puts limits on his fantasy game. But if he continues to receive the 28 minutes per game he has so far with Blake out, things could change as he settles down. He knocked down two treys a game in college at a 41 percent clip, so added value may be on the horizon.

Brian Skinner (Owned in 1 percent of all Yahoo! leagues) “The Camby Man” sprained his ankle in the fourth quarter last night and from the view I had with my giant binoculars it was obvious the injury prone big man will miss at least a couple games. This makes Skinner, with Camby, Kaman and Randolph all out, the best big man in the Clippers lineup for most of week 13. If last night’s 18 points, eight boards and four blocks was an accurate indication of Skinner’s game, he has potential to do some real damage with the big minutes he’s set to receive. He should also be able to grab some of the 14 boards a game Camby currently pulls down.  

Austin Brown writes the weekly Jumping the Waiver Wire, an article that will help fantasy NBA managers everywhere pull the trigger on hot pickups throught the season. He also has a blog at www.efantasysportsblog.com