Underrated Fantasy Players:
- Marcus Camby
Fantasy owners like to fret about Camby's proneness to injury. Yet, he's been extremely healthy this season, averaging 12.2 ppg, 12.2 rbpg, 0.9 spg and 3.0 bspg. Moreover, he finished 27th by totals on Y! Fantasy Sports' rankings, despite the missed games.
- Josh Howard
Puts up Shawn Marion-like stat lines every night. Only assists is a weakness.
- Josh Smith
This small forward comes with 7.9 rbpg, 1.6 spg, as well as an incredible 2.7 bspg.
- Manu Ginobili
Provides solid numbers across the boards and with little cost to turnovers (2.2 per game).
- Raja Bell
2.9 threes per game is near the top of the league. Now consider that those threes come with only 1.1 topg.
- Luol Deng
Deng's been playing in Ben Gordon's shadow this season, but has averaged 17.8 ppg, 6.8 rbpg, 1.2 spg, while shooting 52% from the floor.
Overrated
- Dwight Howard
He's a monster on the court, but his fantasy numbers don't necessarily reflect that. Certainly his 16.8 ppg, 12.1 rbpg, 1.8 bspg stat line is impressive, but his 62% foul shooting on 8.1 attempts per game and 3.6 topg put his value below some of the other top power forwards in the league.
- Tony Parker
Parker is a great NBA point guard, but he's really a lousy fantasy contributor and is often picked way too high in fantasy drafts. 19.0 ppg is attractive, as is his 53% FG shooting, but 5.6 isn't enough assists per game to deem him a top-flight assists man, and he doesn't really fill in any other stat that well.
- Raymond Felton
His upside is tremendous, but until he can improve on his 38% shooting from the field, I'll be steering clear of him.
- Rafer Alston
Assists and steals can be so difficult to find, but Alston's 37% from the field is a real downer.
- Chris Bosh
Like Howard, Bosh is an incredible talent. However, he's not much better than Zach Randolph by the numbers. His points, boards and FG% are impressive, but he's done little else this season and really needs to improve in the blocks category.
- Shaquille O'Neal
Why do people keep drafting this guy? We all knew he wouldn't play many games and when he does, he really shows his age.
Childress
RE: Childress
Hey Grover,
Welcome to the group!
Childress is certainly having himself a nice fantasy season. Great boards from the 2-3 spot. To add to that, watch out for Danny Granger. With Harrington gone, he's starting to get more touches and PT. I think in a year or two you'll really see what he's capable of.
Carmelo
I'd add Melo to the list of overrated fantasy ballers. Sure, he's a dynamite player in real life, but aside from tonight's triple-double (very nice game), he really doesn't fill many STAT CATs other than points. He'll shoot good percentages, but he won't give you many threes, steals, or blocks, and turns it over like mad. His assists are up this year, though. Too bad he ruined a great season and improving image with a punk move.
Bosh
The thing that I'm holding on to him for is the fact that he shot over 80% from the line last year -- one of I believe 4 players to shoot 50% from the field and 80% from the line (Nash, Ilgauskas, and Yao were the others -- there may have been one more).
So many big men will just flat-out kill your FT% (Duncan, Howard, Okafor) that it's really nice to have one who won't. Bosh isn't doing quite as well from the line as he did last year, but still, he's right around 75% and could get better. I'll definitely take that, especially considering that the team I have him on needs FT% (4 points, weakest STAT CAT).
In short, rebounds+good FT%=valuable player.
The list
I've been satisfied with Bosh, the only of your overrated players I drafted this year (on just one team), though his insane rebounding numbers certainly dropped off last month.
From the other half, Raja Bell's been really good to me on one team, my worst team. Bell, Nash, and Duncan are the guys keeping me out of the basement of that league. 8th out of 12, yuck. Can't even bring myself to cut Wally Szczerbiak, FA market is too thin.
Nice list
I had the forsite to draft some of the those guys on the underrated list this season with the exception of Camby and Ginobili. I am not convinced Camby will be able to finish the year as strong as he has started. He has to get injured at some point right? He is after all Marcus Camby.
I dont think I got a chance to draft any of the guys on the Overrated list. There are a couple of players you just know they will get picked up way to early in any draft. It just goes to show that just because a player is a talented basketball player doesnt mean he is a good Fantasy pickup.