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Hey RotoBallers! With the NBA season fast approaching, our team has updated our 2019/2020 draft rankings. Today we are publishing our top 50 rankings, with some analysis from yours truly.
Below is my analysis of the fantasy basketball rankings that us writers here at RotoBaller punched out for this NBA season. The rankings are courtesy of Justin Carter, Dicky Fung, Kev Mahserejian, Jakob Ashlin and myself.
Today I will be taking a closer look at who we ranked inside the top 50, and giving my thoughts on our picks. For those of you still drafting out there, we also published part 2 of these rankings - players ranked numbers #51-100 - in a second article. Good luck with your drafts RotoBallers!
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Updated 2019/2020 Draft Rankings
| Tier | Rank | Player | Team | Positions |
| 1 | 1 | Giannis Antetokounmpo | MIL | SF,PF |
| 1 | 2 | James Harden | HOU | PG,SG |
| 1 | 3 | Stephen Curry | GSW | PG,SG |
| 1 | 4 | Anthony Davis | LAL | PF,C |
| 1 | 5 | Karl-Anthony Towns | MIN | C |
| 1 | 6 | Nikola Jokic | DEN | PF,C |
| 1 | 7 | Damian Lillard | POR | PG |
| 1 | 8 | Joel Embiid | PHI | PF,C |
| 1 | 9 | Kawhi Leonard | LAC | SG,SF |
| 1 | 10 | LeBron James | LAL | SF,PF |
| 2 | 11 | Bradley Beal | WAS | SG |
| 2 | 12 | Jimmy Butler | MIA | SG,SF |
| 2 | 13 | Kyrie Irving | BKN | PG,SG |
| 2 | 14 | Paul George | LAC | SG,SF |
| 2 | 15 | Russell Westbrook | HOU | PG |
| 2 | 16 | Andre Drummond | DET | PF,C |
| 2 | 17 | Jrue Holiday | NOR | PG,SG |
| 2 | 18 | Kemba Walker | BOS | PG |
| 2 | 19 | Nikola Vucevic | ORL | PF,C |
| 2 | 20 | Ben Simmons | PHI | PG,SF |
| 3 | 21 | Rudy Gobert | UTH | C |
| 3 | 22 | Devin Booker | PHO | PG,SG |
| 3 | 23 | Luka Doncic | DAL | PG,SG |
| 3 | 24 | Myles Turner | IND | PF,C |
| 3 | 25 | John Collins | ATL | PF,C |
| 3 | 26 | Trae Young | ATL | PG |
| 3 | 27 | Donovan Mitchell | UTH | PG,SG |
| 3 | 28 | Kristaps Porzingis | DAL | PF,C |
| 3 | 29 | LaMarcus Aldridge | SAS | PF,C |
| 3 | 30 | Deandre Ayton | PHO | C,PF |
| 3 | 31 | Blake Griffin | DET | PF,C |
| 3 | 32 | Pascal Siakam | TOR | PF |
| 4 | 33 | Draymond Green | GSW | PF,C |
| 4 | 34 | Mike Conley | UTH | PG |
| 4 | 35 | Khris Middleton | MIL | SG,SF |
| 4 | 36 | De'Aaron Fox | SAC | PG |
| 4 | 37 | Clint Capela | HOU | PF,C |
| 4 | 38 | DeMar DeRozan | SAS | SG,SF |
| 4 | 39 | D'Angelo Russell | GSW | PG,SG |
| 4 | 40 | Lauri Markkanen | CHI | PF,SG |
| 4 | 41 | Jaren Jackson Jr. | MEM | PF |
| 4 | 42 | Buddy Hield | SAC | SG |
| 4 | 43 | C.J. McCollum | POR | PG, SG |
| 4 | 44 | Chris Paul | OKC | PG |
| 4 | 45 | Tobias Harris | PHI | SF,PF |
| 4 | 46 | Zion Williamson | NOP | PF |
| 4 | 47 | Jamal Murray | DEN | PG,SG |
| 4 | 48 | Kyle Lowry | TOR | PG |
| 4 | 49 | Eric Bledsoe | MIL | PG,SG |
| 5 | 50 | Kevin Love | CLE | PF,C |
The Top 10
There is sort of a consensus for the top six this year and we didn't stray too far from that either.
Giannis Antetokounmpo, James Harden, Anthony Davis, Stephen Curry, and Karl-Anthony Towns are at the top of our list as well. Although it seems that here at RotoBaller we value Giannis' consistency, flexibility and reliability a bit more and that is why he is our #1. Next we have The Beard, AD and Steph neck and neck for the spots two through four and KAT at five.
The spots six and seven are also pretty usual with Nikola Jokic and Damian Lillard, although The Joker came quite close to being ahead of KAT. And while Jokic is a jack of all trades and a great source of out-of-positions assists, Dame is ranked this high in large part because he never misses any games.
At the eight we have Joel Embiid which is pretty template as well. He has a unique set of skills for a big man and can set you up well for a punt turnovers build.
Now it gets interesting. Apparently, we don't buy the "Kawhi Leonard will get too many rest days" talk that is going on in fantasy circles and we have him at nine. The Klaw is one of the best players and best fantasy players as well, but unfortunately it's his body (or coach) that will determine if his owners will be happy or pissed.
LeBron James is our #10 for this season. Even with AD in LA and his injury woes from last season, he is still one of the best players in the NBA, and with the West being so competitive it's pretty possible that LeBron will have to have a large role to ensure his Lakers a good seed for the playoffs.
#11-25 Ranked
Our rankings here don't differ too much from the current ADP in Yahoo leagues with Bradley Beal, Jimmy Butler, Kyrie Irving, Paul George, and Russell Westbrook all coming in the 11-15 range.
Now, something to make note of here is that we ranked Paul George at #14. Now, realistically, the news of PG13 missing the first few weeks of regular season has some impact and if I'm being honest, this made me change my own rankings and push him down from 9th to 19th. Ten or so games that he will miss is not too much, but when it's your first-round pick it can hurt quite a bit to be without him for the first two or three matchups. It's not ideal to start your season with a few loses to your name so beware of this.
I believe it might be more valuable to you if I point out players that we like or dislike compared to their ADPs as this is something you might use in your drafts to validate your pick if a guy you and we like falls to you or to save you from picking some players too early.
The guys we prefer compared to their ADP:
- #16 Andre Drummond (ADP #21) - With Drummond playing 78 or more games in each except his rookie season and being very easy to commit to a punting strategy with, he is one of our favorites.
- #20 Ben Simmons (ADP #26) - Similarly to Drummond, Simmons is very easy to punt with since he is quite strong in his strong categories and quite weak in his weak ones. He has a very unique skill set that gets you big guy stats + assists from a PG spot which can be very useful if deployed correctly in a punt build.
The guys we don't like as much as their ADP:
- #21 Rudy Gobert (ADP #18) - It pains me to see my colleagues rate Gobert so much lower than I do, even though I have him irrationally high at #11. While it is true that Gobert only has a few strong categories and will kill your FT% occasionally, he still contributes a bit in every counting column except threes. This makes him a wonderful fit in several punting strategies and the reason I have him as high as I do.
- #23 Luka Doncic (ADP #19) - I absolutely love Luka! I've been convinced that he will be one of the best players in the world ever since I saw him in his rookie season for Real Madrid a few years back. His first season in the NBA just further confirmed my opinion of him. And even though I believe he will take another step forward this season, with poor percentages and over 3 turnovers per game, I just can't see him providing enough statistics just yet to warrant a top-20 pick.
#26-50 Ranked
Again, I will be focusing on guys we rate quite a bit higher or lower than their ADP and guys who us writers here at RotoBaller have different opinions on.
The guys we prefer compared to their ADP:
#29 LaMarcus Aldridge (ADP #45) - With LMA not being too flashy, him getting up there in age (he is 34), and being ranked at #46 it's not too difficult to understand why many fantasy owners are sleeping on him. I would suggest you not make that mistake. With the exception of three-pointers, Aldridge contributes across the board and has decent percentages. Furthermore, since joining the Spurs four seasons ago, he played 72 or more games every time with this streak culminating last season with 81 games in the regular season.
#35 Khris Middleton (ADP #48) - Khris was top-20 for total scored three-pointers last season with 179 in 77 games. Although 44.1% from the field isn't great, it's not too bad either if you factor in that number of 3PM. Furthermore, Middleton gives you nice FT%, six boards, four assists and a steal per game. It baffles me that he is falling so deep in drafts, but it's something to use to our advantage, isn't it.
The guys we don't like as much as their ADP:
#44 Chris Paul (ADP #34) - While CP3 will have a larger role on the Thunder compared to playing second fiddle to Harden in Houston, it is still a big question whether he will finish the year in OKC. Furthermore, the last time CP3 played more than 61 games in a regular season, his current team OKC almost made an upset in the West Conference Final but fell 4-3 to Golden State after having a 3-1 lead. Yes, it seems like a decade ago... There's too much uncertainty surrounding this otherwise great player to justify a pick in the top-40.
#46 Zion Williamson (ADP #33) - As always when a rookie is entering the NBA, there is a lot of unknowns. But this time it's not just your ordinary rookie. It's Zion! The hype surrounding him has him picked at #33 on average which is pretty high for an unproven player on a team that has been totally reconstructed in the last nine months, and we are not buying it just yet. Zion has been playing great in the preseason though and has us in quite a disagreement with him being ranked anywhere from #24 to #64 in our individual rankings, so if you feel like taking a risk on him even with a higher pick it wouldn't be crazy to do so.
