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With the fantasy basketball season just around the corner, RotoBaller has you covered with our experts' fantasy basketball rankings. We've put together a top-200 ranking to help you with your upcoming drafts.
But that's not all! Our writers have taken the time to break down the various tiers of our rankings to ensure you have as much information as possible heading into draft season.
Below are is the rankings analysis for tiers five, six, and seven of the rankings.
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Fantasy Basketball Rankings - Tiers Five, Six, and Seven
* - Markkanen's placement reflects his pre-injury value.
Tier Five - Fantasy Basketball Rankings Analysis
We’re nearing the middle of the draft in standard leagues and there is still a ton of talent left. This tier highlights a few surprise standouts from last year, a promising rookie, and a couple aging stars.
Jayson Tatum, Taurean Prince and Jarrett Allen impressed and surprised many last year with their standout seasons. Of the three, I think Tatum is the most overrated, not in terms of talent, but in terms of fantasy value this season. Tatum was the product of injuries to all-stars Gordon Hayward and Kyrie Irving. Hayward went down opening night which slotted Tatum into the starting lineup, allowing him to immediately get 30+ minutes a game. Tatum played a great complementary role the next few months, but he really shined once Irving went down in early March. Tatum saw a 4.2 percent jump in usage once Irving and Hayward were out of the lineup. Tatum has earned his right to stay in the starting lineup in Boston, but Hayward and Irving are both healthy and slated to return for Boston's first game. Tatum is expected to take somewhat of a back seat with so many mouths to feed on offense.
Deandre Ayton is extremely promising rookie prospect this season. Arguably the most NBA-ready rookie, Ayton has been compared to Karl-Anthony Towns not just in their offensive ability, but also their defensive ability - or lack thereof. However, for fantasy, does in-game defense actually make much of a difference? Towns is a top-5 fantasy player and averages under 1.5 blocks per game for his career. Now, Ayton is nowhere near the talent Towns is, but Ayton doesn’t need defense to be viable in standard fantasy leagues. I can see Ayton finishing with averages of about 15.0 points, 9.0 rebounds and 1.0 blocks per game in his first season.
DeAndre Jordan and Blake Griffin are both nearing veteran status (feel old yet?). I think Griffin can still put up numbers as a point forward, but with Andre Drummond hoarding rebounds and sometimes leading the break, it’s hard to get excited about Griffin’s value at this point in his career. Jordan has always been a staple in punt free-throw percentage leagues, but shot his career-best of 58.0 percent last season. What concerns me the most about Jordan’s fantasy value is his diminishing block totals. Jordan took a drastic hit in blocks last season, averaging only 0.9 blocks per game compared to his career average of 1.7. Jordan would need to get back around the 1.5 blocks per game average in order to have steady value this year outside of punt free-throw strategies.
Tier Six - Fantasy Basketball Rankings Analysis
With the first half of rankings being more guard heavy, a surprising number of centers are left at this stage of the game.
Hassan Whiteside and Enes Kanter both interest me at this point in the draft. I get it, Whiteside’s antics last year were hard to watch as a fantasy owner, but he still finished with 14.0 points, 11.4 rebounds and 1.7 blocks per game while posting a career-high 70.3 free-throw percentage. Whiteside was plagued by injuries all year and the frustration showed, but he enters this season healthy and with a chip on his shoulder to prove everyone wrong. That’s not a great reason to be persuaded, but it’s a start. With the improved free-throw percentage, Whiteside makes a case to have improved value in punt assist strategies as opposed to punt free-throw percentage. As for Kanter, he was a pleasant surprise last year, averaging a double-double in points and rebounds. Kanter finished tied for sixth in the league for rebounds per game last year, getting an even bigger jump in rebounds after Kristaps Porzingis went down for the season. Porzingis is in danger of missing all of this season, which would only increase Kanter’s value.
Brook Lopez is ranked a little high here due to his scenery change. Lopez is mainly known for his offensive game and lack of rebounds for a seven-footer. Now on the Milwaukee Bucks and turning 30 years old this season, Lopez will have to fight with the younger talent of Giannis Antetokounmpo, Khris Middleton and Eric Bledsoe for usage on offense. I don’t see Lopez having as much impact on offense as he has in past years, but his consistency in blocks will salvage what little fantasy value he has left.
Tier Seven - Fantasy Basketball Rankings Analysis
Here we have a bunch of players on the cusp of top-100 value, but they each have strengths and weaknesses that could push them in or out of this tier. At this point of the draft, you are most likely rounding out your punt strategy or finding complementary pieces to cover your team’s weaknesses.
I find Jaren Jackson Jr. underrated here in his rookie season. The Memphis Grizzlies had a disappointing season last year due to injuries to Mike Conley and the decline of Marc Gasol. Now Memphis drafts a young, promising rookie who’s skill set matches where the league is heading. Jackson shot over 40 percent from three-point range and average 3.0 blocks per game in his freshman year at Michigan State University. With not much competition at the four and a potential mentorship from Gasol, Jackson looks poised to be viable in fantasy sooner rather than later.
Tyreke Evans is ranked higher than I anticipated this season. Evans was absolutely rejuvenated last season with the Memphis Grizzlies. Evans bypassed all the doubts and was the surprise pick up of the first half last year. If it wasn’t for Memphis tanking and sitting him out for trade talks, Evans would have been in the running for the Most Improved award. Now Evans finds himself on the Indiana Pacers, his fourth team in three years. Evans is overrated here as he has much more competition and less free reign at the position. The Pacers will have to get creative with minutes as emerging star Victor Oladipo will have the majority of the run at shooting guard. Evans can still be viable in a limited setting, but expecting anything close to last season is a little far-fetched.
