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Player Tiers by Position – Power Forwards

Author Icon for Nels

Categorized as: Author: Nels, Fantasy Basketball, Fantasy Draft Guide Mojo 2008
Posted on: October 23rd, 2008

Here’s Patrick on why we do this:

So what are player tiers? It’s the practice of grouping players of similar value into levels or tiers. The goal is to identify areas where there are large gaps in value between groups of players, so that there is a large drop off in value between the players in tier A and those in tier B. This not only simplifies drafting, it also helps you to identify times during a draft where it might be worthwhile to take a lesser ranked player at a certain position because he is the last guy available from his tier, while there maybe be plenty of similarly ranked players are other positions.

End filler.

The following analysis is derived from Give Me The Rock’s positional ranking spreadsheet.

After looking at the 30 players below, I’m pretty well convinced that PF is the deepest position in fantasy basketball this year. I’m also fairly certain that I like bold statements. But seriously, as Patrick pointed out, a lot of these guys are eligible at Center in Yahoo leagues, making them about 14 times more powerful than another player at a comparable ranking.

The PFs below are listed with their overall ranking on the Give Me The Rock Big Board.

TIER 1

5. Shawn Marion
6.5. Kevin Garnett
7.5. Elton Brand
7.5. Dirk Nowitzki

Hotness. I’m not a big fan of Garnett or Dirk when it comes to fantasy basketball… but they will make a solid foundation for a fantasy team, and I can’t really argue with that.

TIER 2

15. Carlos Boozer
17.5. Al Jefferson
17.5. Davis West
19. Chris Bosh
19.5. Antawn Jamison

Five guys you can take in the 2nd round. That’s pretty loaded. I would be pretty happy with any of those guys on my Big Ball team.

TIER 3

26.5. Pau Gasol
37. Josh Smith
46. Lamar Odom
55.5. LaMarcus Aldridge

This was kind of a hard tier to define since they’re pretty spread out. LMA has a lot of upside – yes, even with Greg Oden. Gasol probably has a lot of downside, so these guys are like objects in your rear view mirror.

TIER 4

77. David Lee
82. Troy Murphy
85. Al Harrington

These are some great later round picks. Like the tier 2 guys, I’d be happy with any of these guys. Murphy and Harrington are especially useful as PFs you can put into a Small Ball team. Look for them if too if you’re on Yahoo since they’re Center eligible there, making them especially valuable to Small Ball teams. They go great with a First Round Dirk.

TIER 5

96. Kenyon Martin
97. Emeka Okafor
113.5. Zach Randolph
117. Antonio McDyess
124. Drew Gooden
134. Linas Kleiza
145. Luis Scola

Okay, this is where it gets a little shady… but still, most of these guys have better upside potential than you’ll find at other positions.

TIER 6

150.5. Vladimir Radmanovic
153.5. Udonis Haslem
156. Kevin Love
160. Paul Millsap
163.5. Chris Wilcox
164. Charlie Villanueva
177. Andray Blatche

Here’s where you just kind of have to throw a dart and hope you hit someone in the eye (apologies to Amare and Joakim).

Speaking of Al Jefferson and Joakim Noah in Goggles:

Other Stuff Like This:

  • terrance

    you guys see tyrus thomas in tier 6?

  • http://www.givemetherock.com Patrick

    What? Kevin Love in tier 6? Didn’t I hear somewhere that the ball catches fire as soon as he touches it? That’s got to be worth at least – AT LEAST – a second round pick.

  • http://www.givemetherock.com Nels

    @terrance, I guess so. Thomas is way to erratic still for me to consider drafting him. On ESPN’s rankings, he’s just after Andray Blatche among all Forwards. On the Big Board, he’s down in the “wait until he shows more consistency” area.

  • MC Welk

    Carl Landry late?

  • http://www.givemetherock.com Patrick

    Carl Landry late?

    Not unless Yao Ming goes down (or your confident that he will). The Rockets have a few too many PFs at the moment for Landry to get the PT he needs to improve on last season.

  • http://miracle.realsportsbloggers.com/2008/10/24/rsb-fantasy-nba/ Mike Miracle

    Are the goggles to keep the smoke out of his eyes?

  • Ian

    You guys neglected to rank Al Thornton on either the PF or SF lists… I’m certain his stats this season will push him into Tier 6 status at least, if not Tier 5.

  • http://www.givemetherock.com Nels

    Actually, we did not neglect to rank him. We have Thornton ranked at 211 on the Big Board meaning that he didn’t make the cutoff for any of the tiers.

    If you think he’s going to be worthy of Tier 6 or 5, then go for it! Yahoo has him O-Ranked at 118, and he did got in the 110′s in two of my three leagues, so you’re not the only one who thinks he’s gonna do it.