RADIO
The regular season is inching closer by the day, and most offseason moves have already been completed--barring a surprising Simmons/Beal/Dame trade before tipoff. Each team's depth chart is mostly complete, so it makes sense to start analyzing how it could work come October. Before diving into the fantasy season, RotoBaller has you covered with some last-minute basketball depth chart recaps for each team, including some useful bits of analysis for players you want to keep on your radar.
The charts below are based on usage rates and minutes per game data from the 2021 season, while the rosters have been updated to reflect these offseason moves. The charts don't include players drafted this past July, as we don't have data about them regarding MPG/USG% in the NBA. That being said, comments will be made on rookies when deemed necessary in each team breakdown blurb.
Here are the current preseason depth charts for the Western Conference Pacific Division.
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Western Conference - Pacific Division Depth Charts
Phoenix Suns
Shout-out to Phoenix for making it all the way to the Finals when no one gave a dime for the Suns! Not only are the Suns bringing the full band back, but they also were able to snatch a couple of interesting players to bolster the talent at least a bit entering the 2022 season: Landry Shamet came virtually in exchange for nothing and Elfrid Payton will be a good off-the-pine option to back-up Chris Paul when the latter got to rest for a minute.
Book is obviously going to keep racking up monster usage rates and shooting his customary 19+ FGA per game, so it's not that I need to tell you that he would be a savvy early-round draftee for your fantasy team--top-20 finishes in the last two seasons speak for themselves. As old as Chris Paul is these days, he just hasn't lost even the tiniest bit of talent as he keeps playing at the top of his abilities. He ain't cheap at all and that gives me pause because we're talking about a 36-year-old grown man that while comes off playing 70 games in back-to-back seasons still has shown injury concerns in the postseason on a yearly basis. Definitely not drafting CP3 at a 24-carat price.
Bridges, Crowder, and Ayton aren't asked to be go-to scorers, so the USG% will stay low for all of them. That being said, Ayton was a freaking machine in his sophomore year in 2021 already averaging a 14-10 dub-dub that can only grow as he keeps developing. Great fantasy asset, though worth double-checking because the run to the Finals might put his draft price above any reasonable and affordable ADP. As far as the new guys go, they are going to take on specific roles (Shamet the snipping, Payton the second-unit handling) and I'm not sure if they offer too much upside on the draft--Payton should at least have some value as a WW addition given his 10-3-3 baseline last year in just 23 MPG.
Los Angeles Clippers
Let's start by addressing the elephant in the room first: don't expect to see Kawhi's name popping up in any Clippers game for the next bunch of months, folks. After getting an ACL injury, we'll be lucky if we have Leonard back in time for the postseason, but that will be it and by then our fantasy champs will have already been crowned. Patrick Beverly also left LA, but he barely topped 22 MPG so he'd have been an afterthought anyway.
Leonard out, Eric Bledsoe in. Bledsoe was acquired via trade and he will bump up his usage rate from last season (below-average 18.5%) whether he likes it or not. Expect Bledsoe to fill Kawhi's shoes big time. The production is not going to be the same, obviously, but Eric B will have as many chances as he can handle playing next to Pandemic P. Bledsoe hasn't even been a top-65 fantasy player in the past two years (one in MIL, one in NOLA), but that's not bad; the ADP will be low but the environment and the opportunities will be tasty and plenty.
Ivica Zubac and Serge Ibaka will fight for minutes in the paint, but it's not that LAC has many options outside of those two to crowd the PF/C spots. No matter how the rotation looks like, I'll still bank on my shares of Zubac, whose 9-7-1 (with 1 BPG) baseline wasn't that bad considering he was playing just 22 MPG. Ibaka has more upside, but also most probably a higher ADP too. Watch out for a Justise Winslow renascence in Hollywood. He won't be part of many fantasy GMs draft plans but he could turn into a steal playing for a reasonably good team for the first time in ages.
Los Angeles Lakers
Welp. Someone's gotta give, my men. Between LBJ, AD, and Russ, the usage rates add all the way up to 91.3% (!!!) and all three of them are obvious starters in this team. Forget about seeing those molly-bonkers individual rates staying that high in 2022. Russell Westbrook will be adapting his game for the first time since KD left him alone in OKC, and we'll see how that works. LeBron James and Anthony Davis aren't mindbending targets because we know their upside at this point, but don't bitch about them missing games down the road. It's not that they are injury prone, but they have been forced out quite a bit so recently that you have to temper your expectations just in case.
Carmelo Anthony's usage rate could very well stay the same as his last season mark in Portland. He will most probably come off the pine to bulk up the second unit a bit, but he was a below-average player on a per-minute basis last season, and that is sadly not going to change this late in his career. If there is a washed reserve I'd target from LA, that's Dwight Howard. Call me crazy, but he made it to my WW columns weekly last season because even on super-low usage and little opportunities he still contributed a mighty 7-8 with a block per game in just 17 MPG. Howard won't be out there a lot of minutes, nor share the floor a ton with all LBJ/AD/Russ, but he can rack up numbers with gusto and he will take advantage of those three whenever he is on the court with any of them. And the ADP/WW availability is always going to be cheap/there.
I wouldn't fall for any of Monk or THT or Nunn or Ellington or Bazemore or Ariza (Scrubs Et Al.) at least to start the season. Let them marinate for a few weeks, and then we'll see. Ariza was one of my most-chased WW targets in 2021 as a productive free asset after he got to Miami, but all of those guys profile as mega-spot-on players in the Lake Show with very clear, singled-out duties that just won't cut it in the fantasy realm.
Golden State Warriors
Impact Rookies: Jonathan Kuminga (SF)
If this is not the most stupid USG% chart of the whole NBA in the 2021 season, then I don't even know. What you're seeing is right: only three players broke the 22 MPG mark last season for the Warriors and remain on the team, and only two of them had an above-average 20+ USG% throughout the year. Insane in the brain. Kelly Oubre Jr., who would have been the fourth to pop up in the chart above, is now a Hornet; Eric Paschall also left for Utah while Bazemore flew to LA.
Obviously, Golden State is eagerly awaiting Klay Thompson's return and will also welcome James Wiseman back after he got injured last season. They also drafted a couple of interesting players in Kuminga and Moses Moody, though only the former projects as a kinda-impactful player as a rook. Main takeaways from analyzing GSW: draft Curry whatever it costs, take a valuable flier on Klay Thompson late (don't overpay because who knows his real shape and when he'll actually get activated), and avoid Draymond at all costs if the price is a bit high.
Dray was fantastic with nearly a 7-7-9-2-1 per-game baseline in 31 minutes. That's good and all, and he contributes all across the board, but he's the ultimate bouncer and King of the Volatiles while carrying a low fantasy ceiling--yes, that means the floor is ground-level low. Iggy is molly-washed and while I like Otto Porter Jr.'s addition we will need to see how Coach Kerr fits all pieces once Klay is back and Wiseman/Kuminga/Dray/Bjelica are all playing bulky minutes. Can't close this section without mentioning Andrew Wiggins: top-50 and top-75 player in back-to-back seasons scoring pretty much the same fantasy points as Paul George, Ja Morant, Kawhi Leonard, and Anthony Edwards in 2021. Take advantage of sleeping GMs and get you some Wig shares, you won't regret it.
Sacramento Kings
Impact Rookies: Davion Mitchell (SG)
The Kings make my heart hurt. Sacramento has a few players I love, but the full equation isn't quite working and that's pretty obvious. De'Aaron Fox is the clear leader of the team as his 31 USG% while manning the point shows. No-brainer to draft early, as he keeps improving, putting up numbers, and he's already turned into one of the best PGs of the league doing it on scoring, diming, and rebounding. Now, after that, things get way murkier.
Buddy Hield nearly got traded to the Lakers, but ultimately that didn't come to happen. Playing 71 games helped, but the truth is that he was the only other King to reach a top-50 fantasy finish last season along with Fox--the problem: the league-average per-minute production of Buddy at just 0.90 FP/min. Ugh. Whiteside came in third, but he's now gone and replaced by Alex Len. You can't compare those two because they played totally different roles last season but I got to like Len here and there given his 0% rostership and low-maintenance production--don't overthink this, though: fade Len and only grab him from the WW if you're ultra needy at the C position.
Richaun Holmes is promising, but he seems to be caught right in the middle of the wing-big conundrum. What I mean is that he doesn't score enough nor rebounds enough rocks to consider him a must-have fantasy player, or at least one to draft early or in the mid-rounds of your draft. Haliburton could be a pleasing surprise if he keeps growing in his sophomore season, but Sacramento went and drafted another guard in Davion Mitchell to make a mess of the backcourt rotation. And as good as Harrison Barnes was in 2021 (16-6-4 per game) he needed to play 36+ MPG to get there while not even finishing as a top-70 performer in fantasy leagues. Yikes.
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