Fantasy basketball draft: 14 team results and analysis
By Alex Kouki
The NBA season is around the corner and what better way to start preparing for our fantasy drafts than to actually analyze some fantasy basketball draft results from a real, competitive, H2H league.
Fantasy basketball draft mocks are fantastic, but I always find that no matter how many you do, it just can’t replace learning from a real draft.
Without further ado, let’s dive into the draft results of a 14 team Yahoo league, with other Diamond and Platinum owners. This is part 1 and will cover rounds 1 to 6 (84 picks).
Fantasy Basketball Draft: Round 1
1. Anthony Davis(LAL – PF,C) – Stone Cold
2. Stephen Curry(GS – PG,SG) – MY TEAM
3. James Harden(Hou – PG,SG) – Wrecking Crew
4. Karl-Anthony Towns(Min – C) – General G
5. Giannis Antetokounmpo(Mil – SF,PF) – Breaking Bad
6. LeBron James(LAL – SF,PF)- Jokes on U
7.Nikola Jokic(Den – PF,C) – Don’t knock the knicks
8. Damian Lillard(Por – PG) – Apples to Pears
9. Joel Embiid(Phi – PF,C) – Step 123
10. Bradley Beal(Was – SG)- Team Aces
11. Kyrie Irving(Bkn – PG,SG) -1 nighter
12. Kawhi Leonard(LAC – SG,SF) – Big Boyz
13. Kemba Walker(Bos – PG) -Play2Win
14. Paul George (LAC – SF)- Drewit that way
Value Pick
It’s the first round so nothing too deep to share. If anything Karl-Anthony Towns (aka, KAT) has the potential to be the number 1 player in Fantasy this year, especially with reports coming out of Minnesota that Coach Saunders plans on letting KAT facilitate more and, when possible, lead the break in transition. This could boost up one of only two weaknesses in KATs stat line: assists.
My Pick
I feel that Curry is going to FEAST this year. Thompson is likely out until after the All star break, KD has moved, and the Warriors are relatively thin on the bench. It all seems to be adding up to a monster year for Curry.
In both the 2014-15 season, and the 2015-16 season, Curry was by far the number 1 player in Fantasy. These are of course the years before KD arrived, and now that he is gone, there aren’t many reasons to doubt Curry’s ability to repeat those performances.
And no – I am not worried about D’Angelo Russell.
“Meh” pick
Hard to choose between LeBron James and Kemba here. I honestly feel Play2Win could have had Kemba come back to him in round 2 of this draft. In the past three seasons Kemba has never returned higher value than the second round (unless punting FG). I’d rather have Butler here and hope Kemba comes back to me – even though Kemba is far more durable.
Extra Thoughts
Not too much can go wrong in the first round of a draft. The initial 7 picks tend to be almost set in stone, with Davis, Curry, James, Giannis, KAT, Jokic and Lillard. Bit of a curveball here with James being selected at 6 but otherwise a pretty standard round 1 to me.
Fantasy Basketball Draft: Round 2
1. Trae Young(Atl – PG) – Drewit that way
2. Rudy Gobert(Uta – C) – Play2Win
3. Zion Williamson(NO – PF) – Big Boyz
4. Andre Drummond(Det – PF,C) – 1 nighter
5. Nikola Vucevic(Orl – PF,C) – Team Aces
6. Luka Doncic(Dal – PG) – Step 123
7. Jimmy Butler(Mia – SG,SF) – Apples to Pears
8. Jrue Holiday(NO – PG,SG) – Don’t knock the knicks
9. Draymond Green(GS – PF,C) – Jokes on U
10. Deandre Ayton(Pho – C) – Breaking Bad
11. De’Aaron Fox(Sac – PG) – General G
12. Myles Turner(Ind – PF,C) – Wrecking Crew
13. Donovan Mitchell(Uta – PG,SG)- MY TEAM
14. Jaren Jackson Jr.(Mem – PF,C) – Stone Cold
Value Pick
Jimmy ‘Buckets’ Butler! The new addition to the Miami Heat will likely return first round value as the head honcho there. Granted, he has missed his fair share of games over the years but Jimmy has returned at least top 15 value in 9 cat leagues for 4 years in a row now. No other player in this round can say that.
Butler will clearly be the go-to on offence this year resulting in a usage rate that we can safely assume will be higher than it was in Minnesota or Philadelphia. Don’t be surprised if Butler cracks the top 10 this year. The last time he eclipsed a usage rate of 25% was in 2016-2017 with the Bulls. He was a top 8 player that year.
My Pick
To be honest this was a bit of a panic pick for me. I like Mitchell but I probably would have preferred I guy like Siakam here, or dare I say…Westbrook?
Mitchell is coming off a pretty strong showing with the USA team and we often see players following this kind of experience have fantastic years.
LeBron, Dwayne Wade, and Carmelo Anthony are some examples of this happening post Olympics. But this wasn’t the Olympics, and Mitchell is not quite LeBron, Wade, or Carmelo…at least not yet. I am lukewarm to this pick but hopeful that the arrival of Conley will boost Mitchell’s percentages and lower his turnovers.
“Meh” pick
Luka Doncic is just too early of a draft pick here. He has a ton of upside but his percentages will have to take a large leap this year and his turnovers will have to come down significantly for him to even sniff top 30 value. Hopefully with Porzingis back on the court Luka will get easier looks but this is still too early for me.
Extra Thoughts
Overall I thought this was a strong round. There were a lot of value draft picks here in Drummond, Jrue and Butler. All three have a real chance of pulling round 1 value.
Let’s not forget, Drummond finished last year within the top 20 and was a top 4 player over the last two months of the season in spite of his horrid free throw shooting! He is also extremely durable. Teams punting FT in head to head can go ahead and feel comfortable picking him in the first round.
Holiday at pick 22 looks great here as well. I’ve seen some pro draft results where Jrue has gone as high as 9! While I don’t believe he will quite reach that, there are a lot of weapons on this Pelicans team. Their GM, David Griffin, and Coach Gentry have said they want to lead the league in pace this year which would mean additional opportunities for Jrue to pass last years 22 rank finish.