Jan. 3 -- Happy New Year! Good luck with your resolutions. Mine is to shorten my intros.

4.17 – Steve Blake’s assist-to-turnover ratio, third best in the league. He and college backcourt teammate Juan Dixon have brought a bit of stability to the tumult that is the Portland Trailblazers. He’s notched at least one three, six assists and one steal in the last four games and both he and Dixon are worth owning now (Blake perhaps only in deeper leagues), and it will be very interesting to see what Nate McMillan does with Sebastian Telfair, who could return Tuesday night.

42 – Number of blocks for Samuel Dalembert over the past month, six more than second-place Andrei Kirilenko. I see Dalembert finishing around nine points, nine rebounds and 2.5 blocks per-game, numbers any fantasy player would love from their second center. Another encouraging aspect of Dalembert’s game is his work ethic, which is often an indication that a player will continue to improve throughout the early stages of his career. The downside of Dalembert is that he leads the league in personal fouls per-game (4.5), so his minutes are often cut short due to foul trouble. Oh well, you can’t win ‘em all.

16 – Number of games since Marko Jaric went without at least one steal. He’s averaging 2.2 steals per-game over the past month, and is looking much, much better than the beginning of the season when he was still acclimating to his new team. Jaric needs to get his threes over one per-game -- if he can, averages of 11 points, six rebounds, two steals and a three are just fine out of a player who was likely on the waiver wire a month ago.

1 – Amount of games that Al Jefferson started in November and December. The good news is it came on December 31st, and if Jefferson proves he’s worthy of a larger portion of minutes he could help fantasy teams, especially in field goal percentage. He’s another player who is hampered by foul trouble, though, as his 7.8 personal fouls per-48 minutes is ninth in the league. Jefferson will need to cut down on his fouls if he wants to get those minutes, but he’s still young and brimming with raw talent.

54 – Primoz Brezec’s field goal percentage, the second best mark in the league behind Shareef Abdur-Rahim. Brezec also averaged a decent 12.5 points and 6.4 rebounds in December, but posted absolutely abysmal blocks (.38) and steals (.08) over the same span. The only way you should be starting Brezec right now is if you’re completely desperate for anything resembling a center or if you have, say, Dalembert, Gerald Wallace, Kirilenko and Elton Brandon your team already. You simply need more blocks out of a center, not to mention rebounds, steals, and just about everything except points and percentages.

26 – Number of three-pointers third-string point guard Earl Watson has drained from behind the arc over the last month in just nineteen minutes per-game. It’s all but certain that Watson will be traded before the deadline, as his services are somewhat unnecessary in Denver and the Nuggets are in desperate need of both another big man and an outside shooter. If Watson is traded into a situation where he can start and log significant minutes he could be set to explode, contributing big-time in threes, steals and assists. If you have an extra roster spot it might not be the worst idea to pick up Watson now before more rumors begin to surface and stash him until his fate is more clear – if he’s traded somewhere where he’ll get around 30 minutes per-game Watson will have an immediate fantasy impact.

1.7 – Assists per-game for Damon Jones this season. Yuck. I understand his role is primarily to sit on the outside and drain open threes while teams collapse on the King, but with wretched steals, below-average percentages and less than half of the assists he averaged in Miami last season, Jones isn’t worth it.

2.2 – Threes per-game for Bobby Jackson for the last month, and that’s before Damon Stoudamire was lost for the season with a knee injury. Although Mike Fratello prefers Jackson in his role as sixth man and offensive spark plug, his minutes are sure to increase, along with his production. Pick him up now. It’s probably too late.

0.6 – Steals per-game this season for Kenyon Martin. Yikes. Prior to this season, Martin was known for being one of the best thieving forwards in the game, with a career average of 1.3 steals per-game. But injuries, inconsistency and the breakout of Marcus Camby have caused Martin to absolutely crash this season, with his numbers down across the board. I have a strong feeling Martin will step it up over these next couple of weeks with Camby out, as he’ll likely receive a greater offensive load without the Nuggets’ best post-presence in the middle. The silver lining for Martin’s season is that his turnovers are down to 1.3 per-game, a full turnover better than his 2.3 career average. If you’re in a turnover league and Martin performs well over the next week he could be a decent buy-low option, considering his owner is likely fed up with mediocre performances.

1026 – Total points for Allen Iverson this season, the first player to top 1000. Here’s to about 4000 more.

10 – Rebounds per-game for Chris Kaman while on the road, compared to 7.7 boards per-game at home. Kaman has surfaced as a quality second center (or marginal first center if you’re hurting), with apt contributions in field goal percentage, rebounds and blocks. He’s even managed to get his free throws up to an acceptable 73 percent.

30.7 – LeBron’s efficiency rating (((Points + Rebounds + Assists + Steals + Blocks) - ((Field Goals Att. - Field Goals Made) + (Free Throws Att. - Free Throws Made) + Turnovers)) for December, good for tops in the league. He upped his assists from 4.5 in November to 6.8 last month, and pretty much increased his numbers across the board. For those of you who thought LeBron’s all-around game would suffer and he’d become more of a scorer, think again. He’s still the one I run to.

1.67 – Ben Wallace’s steal-to-turnover rate, best of any starter in the league. He’s known most for his blocks and boards, but those steals are delightful out of a center, and since Wallace basically never puts the ball on the floor he’s even better in turnover leagues.

12 points, 6.5 rebounds, 5.5 assists, 2.5 steals -- Average numbers for Damien Wilkins in first two starts at point guard. According to the Tacoma News Tribune, recently fired Bob Weiss was likely to keep Wilkins in the role, mostly due to his ability to defend on the perimeter and his size at the position. Wilkins is not a point guard, but the Sonics easily have the worst defense in the league, so if they don’t do something soon their record is going to continue to plummet. Luke Ridnour was putting up nice stats in the assist, steals and free throw percentage category, but failed to find his shot and isn’t exactly the most intimidating defender to man up one-on-one. I don’t see Wilkins staying at the one all season, but his overall minutes could greatly increase. If he gets minutes, look for big steals and rebounds (for a guard), with decent contributions in the other categories.

Josh Whitling is a fantasy expert for NBA.com. His column Inside the Obscure Stats runs every Tuesday as part of the NBA.com Premium Scouting Report. Contact him at FutilityIF@TalentedMrRoto.com.

The views expressed by the TalentedMrRoto.com represent only the views of the writers; they do not represent the views of the NBA or any NBA team.