Fantasy Basketball 2016: Latest Rankings for Top NBA Players and Sleepers
It's now officially time for the NBA regular season. The preseason is over, and teams are working hard to decide who their final cuts will be before 5 p.m. ET next Monday.
If you haven't had your fantasy draft yet, it's also time for you to make final preparations. So let's firm up a top-20 big board, then highlight three sleepers who could produce significantly better numbers than preseason projections are expecting for them.
2016-17 Fantasy Basketball Top 20
| 1 | Russell Westbrook | Oklahoma City Thunder | PG |
| 2 | James Harden | Houston Rockets | PG/SG |
| 3 | Stephen Curry | Golden State Warriors | PG |
| 4 | Kevin Durant | Golden State Warriors | SF |
| 5 | Kawhi Leonard | San Antonio Spurs | SF |
| 6 | LeBron James | Cleveland Cavaliers | SF/PF |
| 7 | Karl-Anthony Towns | Minnesota Timberwolves | C |
| 8 | Chris Paul | Los Angeles Clippers | PG |
| 9 | Anthony Davis | New Orleans Pelicans | PF |
| 10 | Giannis Antetokounmpo | Milwaukee Bucks | SG/SF/PF |
| 11 | DeMarcus Cousins | Sacramento Kings | C |
| 12 | Hassan Whiteside | Miami Heat | PF/C |
| 13 | John Wall | Washington Wizards | PG |
| 14 | Paul George | Indiana Pacers | SF |
| 15 | Damian Lillard | Portland Trail Blazers | PG |
| 16 | Kyle Lowry | Toronto Raptors | PG |
| 17 | Blake Griffin | Los Angeles Clippers | PF |
| 18 | Eric Bledsoe | Phoenix Suns | PG |
| 19 | Paul Millsap | Atlanta Hawks | PF |
| 20 | Draymond Green | Golden State Warriors | SF/PF |
Top Sleepers (ESPN.com fantasy ranking in parentheses)
Andrew Bogut, Dallas Mavericks (113)
The league has gotten used to an Andrew Bogut who doesn't look to score. In his four years with the Golden State Warriors, the Australian big man never averaged more than 7.3 points per game.
But before that, Bogut had strung together six consecutive years of scoring more than 11 points per game, highlighted by his 15.9 points per game average during the 2009-10 season with the Milwaukee Bucks.
Bogut's now in Dallas, where there's no Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson or Draymond Green. Dirk Nowitzki is the top scoring option, but he can't play huge minutes or carry a team offensively like he did in his prime. Most of the rest of the Dallas roster is not skilled enough to run an offense through.
The Mavericks should utilize Bogut's low-post abilities much more than Golden State. The 31-year-old center reminded us during the Olympics that he's still an excellent passer, acting as the low- and high-post hub of Australia's beautiful offense.
Expect Bogut to get a healthy playing time bump in Dallas, as well. The Mavericks won't be blowing teams out very often, they're not deep in the frontcourt and they don't have a stellar small-ball lineup to turn to like the Warriors did.
Clint Capela, Houston Rockets (141)
A team's pace matters a lot in fantasy rankings. Per ESPN.com, the fastest-playing team in the NBA last year, the Sacramento Kings, had nearly nine more offensive possessions per game than the Utah Jazz, who were the slowest squad. Players on faster-paced squads will have significantly inflated statistics.
That's one reason to draft Clint Capela, who's playing for head coach Mike D'Antoni's Rockets squad that will get out in transition every chance it gets.
There are other arguments for Capela's worth, though. He's an excellent rebounder and efficient rim-runner who'll swat his share of shots (2.3 per 36 minutes last season) and get his hands on loose balls (1.4 steals per 36 minutes). He's a disaster in free-throw shooting and assists, but for a low-round pick, he has a lot of potential to produce elite big-man numbers in rebounding, field goal percentage, blocks and steals.
The Rockets also aren't super deep in the frontcourt, either. Nene, Ryan Anderson and Montrezl Harrell will push Capela for minutes, but none of them offer the interior defensive presence that the 22-year-old Swiss center does. He'll see plenty of time in a defense-starved Rockets rotation.
Tyler Johnson, Miami Heat (204)
It's pretty shocking that Johnson is all the way down at No. 204 in ESPN.com's rankings, especially after the Heat showed their commitment to the combo guard with a four-year, $50 million deal in the offseason.
Johnson is going to play quite a bit, especially with Josh Richardson still dealing with a knee injury. And with Richardson, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh, Joe Johnson and Luol Deng all either sidelined or gone from the team, there's a huge production vacuum that needs to be filled. Hassan Whiteside, despite what he's shown in the preseason, can't fill it all by himself.
The 24-year-old Johnson looks like he's ready for a featured role in Miami. According to RealGM, he has produced preseason numbers of 19.2 points, 4.1 rebounds, 4.1 assists, 1.2 steals, 0.9 blocks, 1.5 three-pointers and just 0.9 turnovers per 36 minutes on 55.6 percent shooting from the field. That's great production across the board, even though Johnson will almost certainly play fewer than 36 minutes per contest.
Johnson might start this season, and he might not. But his versatility allows him to play both guard positions, and there's no reason for the Heat to play him fewer than about 23 minutes per game. Even in that amount of time, he'll post respectable numbers for your fantasy team.
