Philadelphia 76ers: Evan Turner Is A Fantasy Sleeper

The NBA season is a matter of days away and that means fantasy basketball drafts will shortly be taking place. Picking in the first few rounds is easy enough, but who are the sleepers later on in the draft? Who are the players that will end up making or breaking your fantasy hopes?

Can this be Turner’s breakout season?

(Flickr.com photo/Keith Allison)

Drafting players from bad teams is something that sometimes goes under the radar. Teams that are lottery fodder often have individual players that put up some inflated numbers. 

The Philadelphia 76ers are going to be a bad team. That probably doesn’t do it justice, actually. But someone is going to have to score the basketball as they struggle to reach double digits in wins. 

That someone could be Evan Turner. Putting it mildly, the former No. 2 pick has not lived up to his lofty expectations during his short NBA career. But don’t let that put you off drafting Turner.

With Jason Richardson out for the entire season, Turner is now the most experienced member of the backcourt. He is also a ball-dominant player and will be the No. 1 option for the team. Expect his usage rate — 20.1 in 2012-13 — to go through the roof and the raw numbers he’ll post have the potential to be pretty surprising. 

Turner could realistically average 15 to 20 points per game, on 40 percent shooting, which makes him a very good player to pick up in the mid- to late rounds. The ball will always be in his hands. Not only is he the most experienced backcourt player, but he is also the Sixers’ second-best point guard. The opportunity to shake off the “bust” tag is there for Turner.

And if you take preseason as any indication, it seems as though I’m right about the former Buckeye. Turner has looked a lot more aggressive so far. Against Bilbao Basket for example, Turner went to the line an impressive 12 times. He also racked up 25 points in that game. The signs are there that Turner is ready to step up and be the first option. It might not be efficient, but Turner certainly believes in himself. 

He’s also an above-average passer and rebounder for a shooting guard. The shooting guard position is one that usually doesn’t rack up lots of assists, so Turner’s 4.3 assists last year could be invaluable to fantasy teams around the world. That was last year, too. Expect his assists to possibly reach six with Jrue Holiday no longer dominating the ball.

So to conclude, it’s possible that Evan Turner averages 18 points and six assists a game this season. Those raw figures alone make him a player you might want in your fantasy team this year. Another last thing to consider: The shooting guard position is very thin in the NBA. Aside from the top few (James Harden, Dwyane Wade, Kobe Bryant) there really isn’t much quality. Turner should outperform all of them. 

Of course, having said all of this, he’ll find himself traded two weeks into the season.

[slider_pro id=”23″]