While some of you may be competing in leagues that run through Week 24, the final week of the NBA regular season, most fantasy leagues concluded at the end of Week 23. With that in mind, we will discuss some of the hot end-of-season topics for fantasy basketball this week.
While the unsung heroes of the fantasy season were the topic of conversation on Tuesday, Wednesday is for the underachievers. Some players may have been solid but failed to reach lofty preseason expectations, while others were simply poor from start to finish.
Raphielle Johnson, Zak Hanshew, and Noah Rubin make their picks for the players who underachieved the most in fantasy basketball.
Zak Hanshew’s Pick: Jordan Poole
This one seems incredibly simple, so there’s no sense in trying to get cute with this selection. Fantasy basketball’s biggest underachiever is Jordan Poole. The Warrior-turned-Wizard was expected to take a big step forward as a scorer and facilitator in his first season with Washington, but neither happened.
Poole’s play has been much better post-All-Star break, but it’s been too little, too late. On the season, the fifth-year man out of Michigan has averaged 17.3 points, 4.4 dimes, 2.7 boards, 1.1 steals and 2.3 triples across 30.0 minutes while shooting 41.3% from the field. His production in points, assists, rebounds, three-pointers, and shooting percentage mark three-year lows, and Poole has come nowhere near the lofty expectations placed on him in the preseason.
Some basketball fans (myself included) picked Poole to win the NBA scoring title, but his efficiency and shot selection certainly didn’t allow that prediction to materialize. Poole has looked disinterested for most of the season, and his on-court antics are worthy of the Shaqtin’ A Fool Hall of Fame.
Poole’s ADP was mid-to-late fourth round, yet his per-game fantasy value is outside the top 125. There’s been no bigger underachiever in fantasy hoops this season than Poole.
Noah Rubin’s Pick: Mikal Bridges
What a disappointing season it has been for Mikal. After an excellent finish to last season, he was drafted in the late second round in most leagues. However, for the first time since his rookie season, he has ranked outside the top 75 in 9-cat per-game value and outside the top 40 in total value.
The counting stats have been OK; he’s averaging career-highs in 3-pointers, rebounds, and assists per game. The value dip has come from him shooting just 43.8% on 16.1 shots per game after shooting 46.8% on 15.3 shots last season. He is also shooting 81.3% on free throws, which is way down from 89.5% last year.
Bridges was supposed to give an advantage through his availability, and while he is on track to play 82 games once again, “injury-prone” stars like Anthony Davis, Kawhi Leonard, Kevin Durant, Paul George, LeBron James, and Stephen Curry were all able to play in a ton of games this season, which negated some of the impact of Bridges’ availability.
Bridges may bounce back next season, but there’s no way he should be drafted as early as he was this year.
Raphielle Johnson’s Pick: Andrew Wiggins
I thought a lot about Poole and Jalen Green in this spot, as both were expected to take steps forward due to either a change in scenery (Poole) or the addition of key veterans and a new head coach (Green). However, both improved their play down the stretch; regardless of the circumstances, that counts for something, as the improvements were bound to impact fantasy playoff matchups.
So, Wiggins is the player I settled on, as he never needed to get things fully turned around after a brutal start to the season. He entered the season with a Yahoo ADP of 90.0 and has been nowhere near that player, whether we’re talking per-game value or totals. Averaging 13.0 points, 4.5 rebounds, 1.7 assists, 0.6 steals, 0.6 blocks, and 1.3 3-pointers in 27.0 minutes, Wiggins is ranked outside the top 200 in 8- and 9-cat formats.
While he has dealt with some off-court issues the past two seasons, it wasn’t unreasonable for fantasy managers to expect Wiggins to hover around the top 100, if not finish the season ranked safely within that threshold. The good news for fantasy managers is that, based on the ADP, they did not take too big of a hit with Wiggins. However, unlike Poole and Bridges, it will be tough to justify selecting the Warriors wing with a top 100 pick in the fall.
