Offseason Winners and Losers
It has been a busy couple of weeks with the NBA draft on June 26 and the free agency game playing out since July 1, but we are starting to get some early signals of changing fantasy rankings and values for several players. While it is still very early, I’ll try to shed some light on some guys moving up the draft board in ranking and some moving down. First the winners:
WINNERS
Jose Calderon (Toronto) Toronto shipped T.J. Ford to Indiana and brought in Jermaine O’Neal, thereby leaving Calderon as the starting point guard for the Raptors. Calderon averaged 30.3 minutes a game last season putting up 11.2 points, 2.9 rebounds, 8.3 assists, 1.06 steals while shooting 51.9% from the field. His numbers should get even better this year with the extra minutes. Having Jermaine O’Neal will also draw the defense in, leaving Calderon to possibly improve on his three point shooting where he was 79 of 184 (42.9%) last year.
T.J. Ford (Indiana) The trade out of Toronto also helped the ranking value of T.J. Ford as he will likely replace Jamaal Tinsley as the starting point guard for the Pacers. Ford only managed 23.5 minutes last year while fighting for playing time with Jose Calderon, but he was still able to put up 12.1 points, 2.0 rebounds, 6.1 assists, 1.1 steals per game. Indiana has some good scorers and Ford should be able to set them up on a regular basis and improve on his career assist average of 6.9 per game.
Al Thornton (LA Clippers) Elton Brand and Corey Maggette have left town leaving a huge hole which Thornton will surely help fill. Thornton averaged 27.3 minutes a game last season with 12.7 points, 4.5 rebounds, .5 blocks. Those numbers don’t really tell the whole story though, because Thornton really improved in the last 6 weeks of the season, highlighted by a 39 point performance on March 29. He also had a three game streak of 26, 25 and 22 points from April 10 through April 15. Thornton appears set to get big minutes and should produce. Continue reading ‘Offseason Winners and Losers’ »
RSS
