2014-15 Fantasy Basketball Sleepers: NBA Category Specialists - Three-Pointers

October 26, 2014

RotoBaller Trevor Crippen takes time to focus on some sharpshooting sleepers to target during your fantasy basketball draft or on the waiver wire. These players could each knock down a significant amount of three-pointers in the 2014-15 NBA season.

Okay Fantasy Basketball managers, this is where we dig deep in an attempt to uncover late-round Draft Value of the “Category Specialist” variety. The focus here will be on players who could light in up from beyond the arc in the 2014-15 NBA Season.

Category Specialists

When it comes to category-based H2H fantasy basketball leagues, often having great strength in one statistic is more useful than being simply adequate in several different areas. A certain type of player can help shore up a roster’s weakness, or possibly play to the strength of a team while sharing a weakness in the “punt” categories. On a week-to-week basis, knowing who the best specialists are can help you identify a key pickup in order to eke out a win in a category where you are neck-and-neck with your opponent.

The following is a list of the type of guys that should be available late in your draft, or on waivers, that can contribute strongly to one category. However, I am doing this with an eye towards overall potential, as you will ideally want all of your early draft picks to have some upside as a Top-50 player if things break right for them. With that said, there will be no mention of specialists with capped value such as the Grizzlies’ Tony Allen (steals).

Three-Point Specialists (With Upside)

Position Eligibility Based on Current Yahoo! Fantasy Player List

Mirza Teletovic (BRK, SF/PF)

In taking over Paul Pierce’s spot in the Nets' rotation, Teletovic has big shoes to fill. He is likely going to respond by chucking up non-stop treys. Last year, he sank an average of 1.9 threes (4.8 attempts) per contest, despite only receiving 19 minutes a game coming off the bench. So far in the preseason, given 26+ minutes, he is making good on right around 3-of-7 shots per game from long range. In other words, he means business. Outside the threes, Teletovic will grab some boards, as he has been averaging about 7.0 in the preseason.

Teletovic is likely to offer very little in the other categories (a good thing in turnovers, a bad thing in the other six categoires), but he still has upside for even more minutes – if he were to hit threes at his current 30-minute rate, he would project as the third best three-point shooter in the league behind only the Warriors' backcourt duo of Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson. And if he does get those minutes, Teletovic will likely begin making additional contributions to help out the team – maybe bringing down extra rebounds or even blocking a few shots.

Terrence Ross (TOR, SG/SF)

After jumping into the Raptors' starting lineup following the trade of Rudy Gay last season, Ross became a solid source of three-pointers. He is a superb athlete who has shown flashes of star power, including an out of the blue 51-point performance against the Clippers back on January 25th of this year. However, those flashes were surrounded by long stretches of inconsistency.

Ross is still only 23 years old with plenty of time to grow into himself. If he can realize his tremendous skills on a more consistent basis, the potential to become something special is there. Ross is the kind of guy that is worth a gamble just to see what happens. At worst, you are getting a bunch of three-pointers. At best, you have found a breakout star.

Gerald Green (PHO, SG/SF)

Green is more of a watch list option than a pickup in most leagues. He is a nice three-point specialist who showed last season, during Eric Bledsoe’s absences, that he can put up close to Top-50 fantasy numbers if given starter’s minutes. The trouble is, he is a long shot to get that type of playing time in the morass which is the Suns' swingman rotation.

To get in the game at shooting guard, Green will be fighting for minutes with three star guards (Bledsoe, Goran Dragic and Isaiah Thomas). At small forward, he will be competing with starter P.J. Tucker and number 14 overall draft pick TJ Warren.

Due to a potential lack of playing time, there is not a great deal of upside for Green in Phoenix. However, he is a prime candidate to take a huge leap in value at some point as the result of a trade, which seems to be a possible mid-season development.