Fantasy Basketball: Who To Draft, Who To Avoid Late

When it comes to fantasy basketball and fantasy sports in general these days I don’t believe in the word “sleepers.” There is too much information around to not be aware of the late round guys that are available unless you’re going into a draft blind.

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The goal is to find the best value. After hitting on the early rounds in my first post, here we’ll look at guards, forwards and centers to target with your later picks.

Guards

Los Angeles Lakers Jeremy Lin — With Steve Nash out for the season and Ronnie Price being the competition for the other point guard minutes targeting Lin makes a ton of sense. He has Kobe Bryant to contend with, but Bryant can’t take every single shot no matter how much he wants to. Lin will get time handling the ball and should thrive. In 28 minutes per game last season with the Rockets Lin put up 12.5 PPG on 45% shooting with 4.8 APG, 1.3 SPG and over a three a game. Those should see a bump across the board.
Utah Jazz Trey Burke — Burke’s rookie year was a struggle. He shot 38% from the field and 33% from three and this was coming off a poor summer league. The shooting woes continued into summer league this season. After being an excellent shooter in college this was a really big surprise. It looks like in the preseason Burke has found his shot again. He’s knocking down threes with regularity and his overall efficiency has returned. When you add this to how much better the team played when Burke was on the court last year despite the woes it isn’t hard to see a big bounce back year for the sophomore.
Milwaukee Bucks Brandon Knight — I’m really surprised with how late Knight is going. We’re talking about a guard who scored 17.9 PPG and hit 1.5 threes a game last season. He also added in five assists and 3.5 rebounds with 80% free throw shooting. Knight’s supporting cast is better and he’s entering his soon to be age 23 season as a fourth-year veteran. The arrow is pointing up.

Forwards

Boston Celtics Jared Sullinger — Do you like rebounds? Do you like points? Sully is your man! Per 36 minutes as a second year player he averaged just under 18 points and slightly over 10 rebounds. Sullinger finished the preseason putting up 21 and 19 and 15 and 17 in the Celtics last two games. He also hit at least one three in six of Boston’s eight exhibition contests. He’s not going to get you the steals or blocks, but late in the draft Sullinger is a strong value pick.
Brooklyn Nets Joe Johnson — JJ can also be used at guard, but I’m throwing him here because of his small forward eligibility in both Yahoo and ESPN. I have him on every one of my team’s so far. Johnson isn’t putting up the 20 PPG, 5 APG and 4 RPG he was in his prime, that doesn’t mean he should be dropping into the double digit rounds. Johnson tallied 2.1 threes per game last year and scored just under 16 points. This is an example of why I’m passing on players like Wes Matthews and Kyle Korver earlier. With Paul Pierce out of the picture I also think Johnson’s raw numbers will go back up a little bit.
Denver Nuggets Danilo Gallinari — Coming of an entire missed season with a shredded knee Gallo is a risk/reward pick. In the preseason his minutes have been mainly in the teens and it’s very possible he gets brought along slowly. If you can stash him on your bench and wait for him to hit his grove the dividends will pay. The Nuggets forward hits almost every category. Threes, steals, points, free throws, and rebounds all get a check mark.

Centers

Oklahoma City Thunder Steven Adams — This all comes down Scott Brooks and his affection for Kendrick Perkins, oh and maybe Adams not trying to decapitate everyone he guards. As rookie, the Pittsburgh product averaged 6.1 fouls per 36 minutes. That number has to drop a tad for him to stay on the court. If Adams gets 25 MPG he can be a nice source of quality FG%, points, boards and blocks.
Utah Jazz Rudy Gobert — Another sophomore makes the center list and will also be time dependent. Gobert has put together an excellent preseason with blocking all of the shots and grabbing all of the rebounds. Adams is a safer pick, but if the Enes Kanter and Derrick Favors combination flames out Gobert getting serious run with Favors is a possibility. Even if that doesn’t happen he could see 20 MPG and give you some blocks and rebounds.
Detroit Pistons Greg Monroe — On Thursday night I got Greg Monroe for $8 in an auction draft. That’s too low. In a bad situation last year he still put up 15 PPG on 50% shooting with 9 RPG and 1.1 SPG. With Stan Van Gundy now pulling the strings Monroe will be put in a better position to succeed even with the weird roster. His preseason numbers have been excellent and he’s a nice guy to snag for big depth later on.

Fantasy Basketball: Who To Draft, Who To Avoid, Late-Round Edition

By Bryan Gibberman | Oct 25, 2014