Are you just as excited for the start of the NBA season as we are? Heck, we’ve already done at least two rounds of fantasy basketball drafts here in our very own offices and cannot wait for opening tip-off to begin our personal seasons of trash-talking and wheelin’-and-dealin’.
But if you’re just about to start your draft or are planning to join a league before the regular season gets underway, then we’ve got just the thing for you. We’ve listed the top five fantasy picks for each position below, plus a couple of mid-round sleepers/studs to get your virtual campaign off on the right pivot foot.
If you’re also into the hot wagering action to come, check out our NBA futures preview to start placing your predictions on who will emerge with the greatest of the NBA’s honors when all is said and done.
[sc:NBAArticles ]
Best Picks for Fantasy Basketball 2015-16
Point Guard
1. Stephen Curry (Golden State Warriors)
2. Chris Paul (Los Angeles Clippers)
3. Damian Lillard (Portland Trailblazers)
4. Russell Westbrook (Oklahoma City Thunder)
5. John Wall (Washington Wizards)
Sleepers: Kyrie Irving (Cleveland Cavaliers), Jeff Teague (Atlanta Hawks)
Perhaps the deepest position in fantasy basketball, the point guard slot is filled to the brim with talent, given how the league has evolved to a more fast-paced flow driven by good ball movement.
[sc:NBA240banner ]Four of the projected top 10 players to fly off the boards are found in this group, headlined by reigning season MVP and championship-winning Steph Curry. Curry’s phenomenal 2014-15 season provided his owners with eye-popping percentages with through-the-roof numbers in scoring and, obviously, lots and lots of threes.
With the exception of Curry and Kyrie Irving, the rest of the names listed above are true point guards in essence. Chris Paul, Damian Lillard, Russell Westbrook and John Wall are all just PG eligible (or without the SG option) this season in most league formats.
However, do not let this be a hindrance towards drafting them crafty dimers. Paul is still playing at a high level with the playoff-contending Clippers; Lillard is all alone in Portland and should post even better numbers than seasons past; Westbrook was a triple-double machine last year and has KD back again to jack up his assists; and Wall is basically CP3-lite for another playoff-bound team over on the East Coast.
Shooting Guard
1. James Harden (Houston Rockets)
2. Klay Thompson (Golden State Warriors)
3. Jimmy Butler (Chicago Bulls)
4. Gordon Hayward (Utah Jazz)
5. Victor Oladipo (Orlando Magic)
Sleepers: Monta Ellis (Indiana Pacers), Danny Green (San Antonio Spurs)
After tackling the deepest position in the draft, we now move on to arguably the shallowest one of them all: shooting guard. We’re only saying that because we are basing this on actual depth chart projections, but these wingmen are no slouches if you’re in need of some big-time buckets and long balls. Case and point: James Harden.
Harden had an MVP-caliber campaign last year, virtually carrying the entire Rockets team towards a deep playoff push. “The Beard” was feared all throughout the season by opposing teams and fantasy managers alike with his innate ability to draw contact and get on the charity stripe, providing his owners more outlets for him to produce points (with a solid FT% to boot) outside of just field goals.
The rest of the list has a bevy of young gunners that had and, at the same time, about to have yet another breakout performance. Splash Brother Klay Thompson is just as streaky as fellow running mate Curry from downtown, Jimmy Butler is now the main man in Chicago, and Hayward and Olapido are also respectively leading up-and-coming teams.
Why are there not a whole lot of top-tier players at shooting guard? That’s because most of the best SG-eligible stars are actually small forwards by virtue. The SF position is the most versatile slot in all of fantasy, with most players likely having an option to either start at SG and/or PF, as what their actual skill set can also attest to.
SFs are jacks-of-all-trades, doing a little of everything on both ends of the hardcourt. Having said that, most of the NBA’s well-rounded superstars and legends in the making are in this tier. For hard evidence, let’s just simply marvel at the hardware between KD (2014 MVP, four-time scoring champion), LBJ (four-time league MVP, two-time Finals MVP) and Kawhi Leonard, who probably won’t be called “KL” anytime soon (2014 Finals MVP, 2015 DPOY).
But outside of Durant, James and Leonard – who are all consensus top 10 fantasy picks – the drop-off in stat-for-stat numbers between these three and the remaining choices is rather significant. Nonetheless, the likes of Paul George, Carmelo Anthony, et al. are still standout selections in their own right, but just make sure that you compliment them with category-specific specialists like the ones we’ve already covered (PGs and SGs) and are about to tackle, which leads us to…
Power Forward
1. Anthony Davis (New Orleans Pelicans)
2. DeMarcus Cousins (Sacramento Kings)
3. Paul Millsap (Atlanta Hawks)
4. Draymond Green (Golden State Warriors)
5. Blake Griffin (Los Angeles Clippers)
Sleepers: Serge Ibaka (Oklahoma City Thunder), Chris Bosh (Miami Heat)
We’re now entering the valley of the giants, beginning with the mighty power forwards. Like at point guard, the PF position is relatively deep this season. And what better way to kick-off this list with the unanimous first-overall draft pick in New Orleans’ Anthony Davis.
The former Rookie of the Year continues to make huge strides each and every campaign. And in this offseason, he seems to have even added three-pointers to his repertoire, making him an even more attractive option than last season, when he was also the consensus top pick of the draft – with the only knock in his game being his health. But with the production he puts up on a nightly basis, it’s as if he’s already covering for two or three players’ outputs already for the price of one.
If you luck out on the hottest fantasy commodity there is, the names listed above and even more that we failed to formally mention here like Pau Gasol, Kevin Love, LaMarcus Aldridge, Chris Bosh and Dirk Nowitzki – just to name a few – all have sound and varying skill sets that will surely bolster your lineup’s needs at a rather flexible position.
Center
1. Rudy Gobert (Utah Jazz)
2. Andre Drummond (Detroit Pistons)
3. Al Horford (Atlanta Hawks)
4. Marc Gasol (Memphis Grizzlies)
5. Nikola Vucevic (Orlando Magic)
Sleepers: Hassan Whiteside (Miami Heat), DeAndre Jordan (Los Angeles Clippers)
Finally, we’re now on to the real skyscrapers of the league: the centers that patrol the paint with their size and altitude. But just like shooting guards, centers are practically specialists at their position, particularly when it comes to harder-to-grasp categories like blocks, boards and field goal percentage.
And in spite of having to punt the cats that these titans have no business pitching into (threes, free-throw percentage and more often than not, assists), top-bill centers are a rare breed indeed, which means that Gobert, Drummond and the like are surely to fly off the boards faster than you think mainly for their expertise at the aforementioned elusive categories – especially in the mid-to-late rounds of the draft when owners begin to hulk up their roster at this thin position.
However you choose to build your lineup, the corny cliché still always applies: it’s all about having fun. The fantasy basketball world is deep and at times overwhelming, and we’ve basically just covered the tip of the draft’s iceberg here. But with further research and a sustained passion for the sport, who knows? Maybe you’ll win a championship in your own league before the city of Cleveland ever does.
Not into the widespread craze that is fantasy sports? Create a betting account now instead to put some real money on all the major sporting events and feel just as much of a winner with your cunning predictions.
