Fantasy Basketball - Veteran Free Agency Winners (Part 1): Patty Mills, John Wall, Ricky Rubio

August 7, 2022

Antonio Losada looks at a few veteran free agents that got signed by NBA teams this summer who can be seen as fantasy values ahead of the 2022-23 season.

A key part of doing a fantasy draft is avoiding players who find themselves in a bad situation. The wrong pick can completely tank your season. On the other hand, rostering players in perfect situations can be the ultimately league-winning move for savvy fantasy GMs.

Today, let's talk about some veterans that entered Unrestricted Free Agency in early July and address their fantasy futures and situations. For whatever reason– be it talent, lack of opportunity, chances to rack up minutes, good and bad environments, etc – these are some players that can be very valuable on very particular roles for real-life teams, but not so much for their fantasy GMs... and also the exact opposite way in other cases. In other words, monitoring how those are handled by their new front offices and coaches leading up to tipoff night will be crucial to know how viable they will be in terms of their fantasy basketball value.

Let's look at some veterans that can be considered winners in the fantasy realm, will help their fantasy GMs, and explore their situations going forward to build their positive case.

Veteran Free Agency Winners - 2022-23 Fantasy Basketball

John Wall, PG - Los Angeles Clippers

John Wall is back, and while Wall might have not played a single game since mid-2021 and sat out last season entirely (not to mention in the last three campaigns he played he never topped either 41 games or 1,410 minutes), he has always been a perennial top-5 player when active and there is no reason they can be a fantastic value play as an aging vet.

The lone fact that he will play next season makes him a winner already, and the addition of doing so for a monster of a team in the Clippers just puts the cherry on top of his case. As things stand there is still the question of whether Wall would start games or not (he seems to be cool with the latter option though, so no ego-related issues around the final outcome are expected), but even on a diminished role he should thrive.

The Clippers had just one "true" point guard last year in Reggie Jackson and he wasn't nearly close to a real asset in the fantasy realm with an average of just 30.3 FPPG and 0.97 FP/min. Wall and Jackson might work in some sort of PG-by-committee platoon alternating starts.

Wall is a legit superstar and that means that he and Kawhi (returning from injury) will take a rather high usage rate to themselves. Best-case scenario, Wall gets to play 60+ games, logs 32+ MPG, and reaches around 36-to-40 FPPG to finish the year as a top-50 player overall. Whether he starts or not he will get tons of assists (to PG13 and Kawhi, or as the main playmaker in the second unit) and he's also expected to be a legitimate spot-up shooter for the Clips.

Ricky Rubio, PG - Cleveland Cavaliers

Call me crazy or a liar, but I always had Rubio returning to the Cavs after he got injured and subsequently traded. Rubio seemed to have found his place in Ohio and he's returning to play backup point guard next season with the Cavs after he did so last year in the 34 games he got to play.

The Cavs are loaded at the one and two-guard slots though, with Darius Garland and Caris LeVert going nowhere and Raul Neto getting added to the fold. Collin Sexton, too, has yet to decide his future with Cleveland having the right to match any offer he receives as a restricted FA. Rubio already excelled in a very similar team with very similar players and schemes, so it's not that he's entering an unknown situation or an incredibly worse one when it comes to the environment he'd operate in.

There aren't many more solid veteran-on-the-cheap PGs out there for fantasy GMs. Of course, you can tame your expectations a lot in terms of what Rubio will produce next season and beyond. His minutes won't probably top 20 a pop but he will be the main man in the second unit once he's fully available.

The 1.08 FP/min mark was absolutely delightful (league average at around 0.90). and even with little playing time, Rubio finished 2021 at 30.4 FPPG (the 34th-highest figure among players eligible at the G positions). Perhaps not the absolute greatest fantasy player to have on your lineup come tip-off, but definitely one to hold onto the mid/later stages of the regular season once his health, role, and availability settle.

Patty Mills, PG/SG - Brooklyn Nets

Kevin Durant is mostly gone and Kyrie Irving will (should?) be too. Ben Simmons is the only "point guard" in BKN going forward, and we'll see if he doesn't get traded too in order to facilitate other potential deals, which is more than possible given that most of the young talent Brooklyn might be interested in can't play on the same team as Simmons because of a little CBA detail regarding "rookie" deals.

Mills has been a steady performer for years now, and he got to start 48 of 81 games last season with Kyrie playing just 29. Mills, truth be told, was atrocious (0.68 FP/min) compared to his prior numbers, but he still got to 1600 FP over the year for a top-60 finish among G-eligible players. I'm betting on a positive rebound here.

Mills should improve on a career-low year last season and should get much more run and responsibilities in a barren team in which he will get back to his (relatively, for his role) high-usage rates (he's coming off a 16.4 USG% campaign), of course, assuming the Nets truly get into a new era with KD/Kyrie/Ben out of town and who-knows-who arriving in the New York borough.

He's an obvious loser in real life because he joined a title-bound team, re-signed with it for reasons (?), and is now left in a soon-to-be depressing franchise for two years at the very least, but he could be a fantasy winner for those needing depth at the guard positions.

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