Fantasy basketball time is nearly upon us, and nba.com has a position-by-position article up at the moment, detailing who to avoid and who to select (number one is Kevin Garnett; number 366 is David Wesley; sadly, Gary Payton is number 360).
Here's a quick peak at how they ranked the Sonics (note that the rankings are for the respective position, not overall):
Point Guard: Delonte West (#32), Luke Ridnour (36), Earl Watson (39). Surprising that West would rank above the other two. I think I would go Ridnour-West-Watson, but it's a total guess regardless, and until pre-season draws to a close, we won't have any idea who's going to get the minutes this year.
Shooting Guard: Damien Wilkins (36). Wally Szczerbiak's agent is on the phone now. If only they had separate categories for "Ankle Sprains " or "Hair Gel Used/40 minutes" ...
Small Forward: Kevin Durant (10), Jeff Green (29). How sad is it that two guys that haven't played a minute in the NBA are ranked higher than any of the half-dozen guys we've got playing the two guard positions?
Power Forward: Chris Wilcox (21). I have nothing funny to say about this one.
Center: Nick Collison (22). No love for Bob Swift here (yeah, I'm calling him Bob this year, I think he deserves a fresh start; it was either that or 'Bobby', and Bobby Swift sounds like a small bird). Johan Petro and Mo Sene failed to qualify as well, although Mo will definitely be a top 10 pick in the NBDL fantasy draft.
6 comments:
It's interesting that they rank Wilkins so highly at his position. Didn't you project just a few post previously that he'd only get 5-10 minutes per game now that Green, Durant, and West have arrived?
So Wally is unranked? If I played fanatasy, which I don't (I hate having to root for bastard players on other teams), I would definitely pick him up. Hell, there's a fair chance he could be our second leading scorer this year...
It's Friday, and I'm bored at work. So, I looked up all the Sonics (This is not by position, but overall).
Kevin Durant (44)
Delonte West (118)
Chris Wilcox (127)
Nick Collison (131)
Jeff Green (137)
Wally Szczerbiak(164)
Luke Ridnour (166)
Damien Wilkins (182)
Earl Watson (169)
Johan Petro (225)
Kurt Thomas (276, listed as Phoenix)
Mickael Gelabale (290)
Mouhamed Sene (341)
Robert Swift (362)
I'd say Robert Swift and Kurt Thomas would be steals, even if they didn't produce that much.
Surprisingly, Delonte is the second highest ranked Sonic. (Although 118th puts him at being the fourth best player on a team, on average...)
Yeah, having Thomas below Petro is ridiculous; as is having Swift below Petro, or Swift below Sene. Anyone who thinks Mo Sene is going outproduce Robert Swift is either 1) an idiot, or 2) from Senegal.
I should have mentioned this in the article, but I felt those rankings are 90% speculation and 10% statistical. After writing this blog for 3+ years, I have become more and more aware how woefully ignorant the national media is of individual teams and their situations. There's just no way a guy writing an article about 400 players can know the truth to all 400 of them, so he just winds up winging it, and the readers - who have no idea either of the situation - just go with his analysis. Keep that in mind when you read about the status of other teams/players.
West might have ended up rank even higher if he did play hurt for the entire last season. He didnt play 1 game at 100%.
FYI--I started a Supersonicsoul Fantasy league on Yahoo. I'll post more about it later, but if anyone wants to participate, shoot me an email (just click the "contact" link at the upper right of the page).
Post a Comment