While dutifully browsing the Internet today, I saw that Yahoo sports has a sleeper article up entitled “Fantasy Hoops: Late-Round Miningâ€. The article identifies 10 guys (from every position) you should be targeting in the late rounds of a draft. And they are:
Mo Williams (PG, Milwaukee) (12th)
Speedy Claxton (PG, Atlanta)
Kevin Martin (SG, Sacramento) (11th)
J.R. Smith (SG, Denver)
Mike Miller (GF, Memphis) (8th)
Danny Granger (SF, Indiana) (10th)
Ryan Gomes (PF, Boston) (11th)
Darko Milicic (C, Orlando) (6th)
Nazr Mohammed (C, Detroit) (12th)
Overall, it’s not a bad list, I agree with about 73% of it. I’ve seen that people are passionate about Ryan Gomes, and I think the J.R. Smith and Kevin Martin recommendations are especially good ones. The numbers after each guy and team are the estimated draft rounds from the fantasy team previews that Nels and I have been conducting. Some of my comments on the Yahoo list:
- Rachel reported in about Mike Miller and his possible minutes decrease this year. Nonetheless, decrease or not, I think at this point in his career, Mike Miller is a known commodity in fantasy leagues and he’ll likely go and be worth an 8th or 9th round pick.
- I’m the crazy bastard who penciled in Darko for a 6th round pick. After his performance with Orlando last year (especially with his 2.1 blocks a game), I have a hard time believing he’ll be available at the end of anyone’s draft. I wouldn’t let him fall that far and there’s someone crazy like me in every draft.
- The story for Nazr Mohammed is this year is he’ll be starting and his 30 minutes averages are decent. But even in 2004, when Mohammed played 28 minutes a game for the Knicks (the most he’s played in his career), his fantasy ranking was only in the 120-130 range. Not exactly tearing it up. He’ll be serviceable for the Pistons this year, but don’t count on him to be anything but a mediocre number 2 fantasy center.
- Some real sleepers that I’ve come across while researching the team previews: How about Gomes’ teammate, Kendrick Perkins? Now there’s a center who’ll be available at the end of your draft and could be worth a lot more than that. And how about a super-sleeper: Anthony Parker? I hadn’t heard of him before last week.
Anyone else have any suggestions?
Other Stuff Like This: