Fantasy Basketball is a weird game. In baseball, having a good hitter in a bad line-up means that the hitter is likely to see fewer good pitches, hit with fewer guys on base and generally be a drain (See: Holliday, Matt with the A’s). In football, a good RB on a team with a crappy passing offense will be stymied every Sunday when opposing defenses put 14 guys in the box (See: Jackson, Stephen), and erstwhile fantasy stud wideouts will become virtually invisible if they have a noodle-arm throwing them the ball (See: Smith, Steve).
But, again, Fantasy Basketball is a weird game. Even the most offensively inept teams will put up about 94 points a game. Somebody has to put up stats. Teams will miss shots, so there will be rebounds. For years, Shareef Abdur-Rahim put up about 20 and 9 on teams that Bedford, NY’s St. Patrick’s CYO 7th Grade Boys team could have beaten (they would have fallen prey to our 28-minutes-of-hell full court press, just like the Mighty Don Bosco).
These players tend to be undervalued because they don’t get as much hype and their teams suck, so they’re not on SportsCenter much. As our friend JR Rider pointed out, money is green everywhere (unless you’ve been out of the US, but I’m pretty sure the State Department wouldn’t give Rider a passport). Well, buckets are worth two points everywhere, too (except for that pesky three-pointer thing). Fielding a winning basketball team is, at least in part, about mining these nuggets of gold out of piles of shit. Without further ado, your 2009-2010 Shareef Abdur-Rahim All-Stars:
Jason Thompson (SAC: SF, PF): I’m not going to waste time talking about Kevin Martin. I had him in his breakout year and loved him, but I think he’s a bit overrated now. When he first blew up, his %’s were usually pretty excellent for the amount he was scoring and the position he played. Now, his FG% is way down because he takes too many shots, so he’s a one category player. Two, if you count ankle sprains. Thompson should put up good numbers on a team that stinks. He was covered by Sean in his Sleepers post, and I agree with everything he said.
Spencer Hawes: (SAC: C): Remember, this is fantasy, not real life. In real life, Hawes is a total stiff. In fact, when he and Aaron Gray matched up in college, it was like a Jim McIlvaine Impersonator Contest. That being said, Sacramento’s frontline is incredibly thin. Jon Brockman, Sean “Tight Shorts” May (all apologies to the original tight shorts, Mike Sweetney), and Kenny Thomas aren’t exactly going to compete with Hawes or Thompson for serious minutes. With the Mr. Miyagi of stiffs, Brad Miller, out of the picture, I think that Hawes can be a cheap source of big man stats. His per 36 stats last year were pretty good, and he should see a spike in minutes this year. I think we can expect: 47% FG, 67% FT, 13.2 pts, 8.8 reb, 2.0 assists, 0.7 steals, 1.4 blocks.
Andrew Bogut: (MIL: C): The Bucks are going to be terrible. Bogut is an injury risk and is a terrible free throw shooter (putting him in a class with 75% of NBA centers). That being said, you can get a double-double and 1.5 blocks in the 9th round. Not a bad haul.
Hakim Warrick: (MIL: SF, PF): Basically, I love the Bucks front court for the same reasons I like the Kings’. Joe Alexander is hurt. The SF position is a competition between Carlos Delfino and Luc Richard Mbah a Moute. Warrick should put up stats with the increase in minutes he is bound to see. I think he’s good for 14 and 7. A block and a steal, with reasonable %’s are probably in there too. You can do a lot worse in the 14th round. He’s a guy you draft for depth so you can make a trade down the line.
Zach Randolph: (MEM: PF, C): I’m aware of the reasons Zach Randolph sucks. I’m a Knicks fan. But he’s going late in drafts, for a guy who 1) has C eligibility and 2) is an almost guaranteed 20 and 10. If you nab a good shot-blocking big, you can pair him with Z-Bo and have a nasty frontcourt. Think Marcus Camby in the 5th and Randolph in the 7th.
Corey Brewer: (MIN: SG, SF): A guy who has proven himself to be offensively challenged, I like Brewer to turn it around this year. He’s been putting up pretty good numbers in the preseason (I know, I know), and the T-Wolves swingman spot is less than stellar. I don’t see them playing Flynn and Sessions together, despite what David Kahn said about Flynn and Rubio after the draft. That’s stupid. Almost as stupid as drafting Johnny Flynn right after Ricky Rubio. Brewer has been scoring about 15 points a game in the preseason. And with the exception of an aberrant 0 board game, been grabbing a good number of boards. He’s also been hitting a trey or two a game, at the expense of his FG%. Plus, he’s long and athletic on a team dying for someone who can play defense. I wouldn’t be surprised if he gets up around 1.8 steals a game.
