One of my favorite chants in sports is “OVER RATED”
and one of my favorite things in fantasy sports is staying away from the overrated players. These are players whose name brings more value than their fantasy production and that hurts any fantasy squad. Buyer beware when your choosing these players.
Jeremy Lin (yahoo rank 68, ESPN 62, Fake Basketball 80th) - Here are Lins stats from last year 44.6 FG%, 14.6 Points, 6.2 assist,3.1 rebounds, 1.6 steals, 3.6 turnovers per game.How is this guy ranked so high? If you want to believe in the Linsanity hype, then go for it. However, I will not own him in a single league because he is going to be the bust of season. Lin had a good year last year because of the system he was in and the players around him. Lin is not a good shooter, he turns the ball over a lot (7th most T.O. per game last year), and the NBA has had time to figure him out. That last part scares the most because now teams know to make him go left (which he can’t do) or which shots he can’t hit and they will force him to do things he isn’t good at doing. The list of players that are ranked worse than Lin that I want on my team stretches to about 40 players but here is a small sample size of those players, Marcus Thornton, Wes Mathews, Klay Thompson, Jeff Teague, Damian Lillard, and Lou Williams. I know it is only “Preseason”, but he is shooting 22% from the field, 5 PPG, still getting 6.2 assist, 2.4 steals, and 3 turnovers per game. Those stats barely make him own able. Make the smart choice and don’t draft Jeremy Lin.
Danny Granger(Yahoo! 27th, ESPN 47th, FakeBasketball 32nd)- His name provides more value than his actual fantasy numbers. Granger does nothing great, but for some reason is always picked around the 3rd round. Last year he averaged 18.7 points, 5 rebounds, 1.8 asssist, 1 steal, 2.0 3 PM per game and shot 41.6% from the field. That is nothing special and the only thing that stands out for Granger, when you compare him to other Small forwards that are ranked lower than him, is the 3 pointers made per game. Guys like Luol Deng and Tyreke Evans put up very similar numbers and I can include a guy like Demar Derozan in that mix as well that are going a lot later in drafts. Point is, that Granger doesn’t do enough to make him a 3rd round pick and I wouldn’t pick him till round 5 or 6 because that is where his STATS show he should be drafted.
Michael Kidd-Gilchrist (Yahoo! 82nd, ESPN 97th, FakeBasketball 85th)- It is hard for me to take a rookie that I have zero clue on how good he will be in fantasy. It doesn’t seem like he will be scoring that much, he might average 5-6 rebounds per game , sprinkle in a couple of assist, then his line will probably be around 10 points, 5.5 rebounds, 3 assist, with an average FG%, and very few three’s made. There are better value options in the 7th or 8th round than Gilchrist like Luis Scola, N. Pekovic, Kris Humphries, and plenty of other veterans that we know can get the job done. Don’t waste a pick on a guy who hasn’t done anything in the NBA, instead go for the safer route in a crafty veteran.
