RADIO
Free agency can be a great opportunity for players to find new homes that mesh with their playing styles and help them achieve their potential. It can also be a chance for players to think they're doing that and then wind up in a bad situation where they're unable to find NBA success.
This article is about the latter, and while it's only been hours since the market officially opened, we're here to analyze some of the deals that have been confirmed in advance of the 2021-22 season tipoff later this fall.
Let's take a look at some players who recently changed teams and who should find their stock cratering in advance of the 2022-23 campaign.
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Fantasy Basketball: Losers from 2022-23 Free Agency - Guards and Wings
Goran Dragic, PG - Chicago Bulls
I know this might feel a bit like a stretch. Adding Dragic here – someone who has not been even into the top-200 fantasy players in two of the past four seasons while only finishing 15th overall in 2021 – is definitely into the risky digital-ink wasting realm. What I'm trying to make clear here is that Dragic, in signing with the Bulls, is confirming he's cooked and done for good. We can move on from the Dragon. He will definitely be a great veteran for all of the small young guns in the Bulls depth chart, but that's pretty much it. He will have more impact in training sessions than in regular-season and (we'll see) post-season games.
Chicago is not paying a ton for this addition, but the Bulls already have a stockpile of guards in tow from Lonzo Ball to Alex Caruso, Coby White, Ayo Dosunmu, Devon Dotson, and even rookie Dalen Terry. It just makes no sense for Dragic to pick this team as a retiring place – unless he wants to do so sitting comfortably on a professional bench. Sitting out most of last year in Toronto, the last time Dragic attempted a full-time run was with Miami in 2021 when he played 50 games, 26+ MPG, and averaged a good-not-great 25.8 FPPG and 0.96 FP/min (slightly above the league-average 0.90 figure). Last year those numbers went down to 19.3 FPPG and 0.81 FP/min with a per-game line reading 7-3-4-1. Not even good for a desperate WW addition, honestly.
Reggie Jackson, PG - Los Angeles Clippers
Reggie Jackson is somehow entering his age-32 season. Seriously, go check that fact if you don't believe it. After playing only 23 MPG in his first full season in L.A. with the Clips, Jackson finally broke into the starting unit and played the most minutes in his career (75 starts, 31+ MPG) taking advantage of all of the injuries happening to the dimmer Staples' inhabitant. Not even that helped Jackson improve on what he did in Detroit back in 2016 posting up 33.1 FPPG, as he felt just short of that mark averaging 30.3 last season with the Clips. That said, Jackson went on to average nearly a 17-3-5 line with 0.7 SPG. The shooting was atrocious though, as he fell below a 40-percent FG% for the first time in his career (min. 4+ FGA) and hit a mediocre 32.6% of his 6.8 3PA per game, the lowest mark he's logged since 2018.
Of course, there is a new starting point guard in town entering 2023 and it's not precisely one coming with an unknown name and under-the-radar caché: John Wall just joined the Clippers and will play with a couple of (returning and now healthy) studs in Kawhi Leonard and Paul George. Jackson's starting days are over, and the minutes will go all the way down to the low 20s once more. Jackson has been slightly above average in efficiency terms (0.94 FP/min) in the past three seasons, but he's a clear loser after Wall's addition and there's no sugarcoating that. A lock for the PG2 role, yes, but that's pretty much it unless Wall is an absolute disaster and ends up getting cut at some point.
Patrick Beverley, PG - Utah Jazz
Grizzled veteran Pat Bevs has been around forever and rarely has been the place in which he has not heated the temperature up. After four years with the Clippers in which the L.A. franchise steadily decreased his role year after year, Beverley signed with Minny in advance of the 2022 season and definitely hit the jackpot with such a move. He went on to start 54 of 58 games, played 25+ MPG, and finished the year with an above-average 1.00 FP/min in the fantasy realm that helped him reach a top-150 finish for the first time in the past three seasons when he was starting to be seen as a truly lost cause.
Beverley's season was surprising given his most recent outcomes. The point guard put up a line close to reading 9-4-4-1-1 with barely more than one turnover per game. That is, in fact, his best per-game line since the one he logged in his last year in Houston all the way back in 2017. The Wolves, as you know, made it to the postseason for the first time in 70 years this past April, Bevs celebrated wildly after beating his former team from L.A. in the play-in tournament, and ultimately got ditched by Minnesota a few days ago as a facilitator for landing Gobert. LOL. Beverley knows very well his position and status in the league these days though, so he just took the trade for what it is – business – and accepted it moving on quickly.
He's now a bona fide backup to another veteran in Utah – Mike Conley – and that had not happened to him since the 2019 season. Back then (at 30 years of age) he posted a 7-5-4-1 line. No true point guard other than Trent Forrest appeared in more than 35 games for the Jazz last season and he didn't even play 13 MPG. Conley and Donovan Mitchell are the clear guards in Salt Lake City and they'll keep getting all of the minutes, opportunities, and touches they can handle. Jordan Clarkson didn't get moved to Minny somehow and can also do some playmaking. This is not the best of new environments for Beverley to thrive in, I'm afraid.
Malik Monk, SG - Sacramento Kings
On one side of the Atlanta-Sacramento-San Antonio three-side affair, you can find Kevin Huerter. On the other one, Malik Monk. It's funny because I had Huerter as a clear aftermath-loser of the Dejounte Murray trade and Monk as a clear winner of his move to the Kings as a free agent... only for Atlanta to flip the now-expendable Huerter to soften the economic impact of landing Murray and the tax implications. Of course, dumping Huerter's deal on Sacramento in exchange for a couple of minnows is not making Atlanta's better while it is, on the other hand, truly bolstering the Kings' depth chart. To the detriment of freshly-inked Monk, of course.
Monk used his one-year prove-it deal with the Lakers to build a strong resume after disappointing in Charlotte during a bunch of middling years. He started half of the 76 games he played, shot the rock with gusto (47.3/39.1/79.5 splits), and finished the year as a top-58 guard and top-126 overall player in the fantasy realm. The line almost read 14-3-3-1 when all was said and done and his efficiency was pretty much league average at 0.89 FP/min on 28+ MPG.
With Huerter in Sacramento and coming off a year in which he started 60 of 74 games, played 29+ MPG, and put up pretty similar shooting splits (45.4/38.9/80.8) and an identical stat line (12-3-3-1) while having nearly a three percentage-point lower USG% than Monk (17.5% to 20.1%) in a starting unit, odds are Huerter ends getting the SG1 gig in Sacramento with Monk, once more, coming off the pine. The knockdown isn't huge, though. This is probably more about what Monk looked to be gaining rather what he's losing, but it's still a little bump down in terms of his ceiling and what-could-have-been barring other moves by the Kings, which doesn't really look like they're coming for the remainder of the offseason.
Miles Bridges, SF - Charlotte Hornets
It makes no sense trying to paint a nice picture of this whole mess, right? At this point, you know everything about Miles Bridges, his declining of an extension a few months ago, his breakout year with the Hornets, his sky-high projections when it comes to his next NBA deal, and of course, the domestic violence arrest taking place in Los Angeles on the last day of June. That sucks, but that's a deal-breaker for Bridges and whoever else happens to commit such stupid transgressions.
Off-court and on-court developments have nothing to do when it comes to fantasy sports, at least when looking at in-game production. That said, Bridges is about to face a very harsh reality. For one, he shouldn't get signed by any NBA franchise ahead of the 2023 season – nor any other future campaign, for that matter. Even if he does get a deal – he can forget about getting the max, obviously – there is a great chance his actions will be scrutinized and the slightest of missteps will see him kicked out the door sooner than you blink. This goes more for those of y'all who play dynasty-type leagues and have Bridges in your roster or made him a keeper in such formats. I know for sure I wouldn't lose any sleeping releasing him this very moment whatever happens next. I'd even go the distance and say there's a chance the likes of ESPN, Yahoo, and 99% of other platforms go ahead and remove Bridges from their player pools. Don't be dumb. Do yourself and the world favor and release this man.
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