OKC Thunder players and sleepers to draft in NBA fantasy league
With preseason ongoing games won’t necessarily offer much in the way of insight for fans who participate in fantasy pools. Aside from cornerstone Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, most OKC Thunder players won’t be on many fantasy experts lists.
Given head coach Mark Daigneault will offer ample opportunity to his youngsters in this tanking season, there could be some great sleepers on the squad to keep in mind particularly in the later rounds of fantasy drafts.
Using the player power rankings isn’t always the best route to take when researching and preparing for your fantasy drafts. While players like LeBron James and Kevin Durant are bound to be in the running for the Most Valuable Player 2022 award, they won’t make that a priority over collecting wins and being healthy down the stretch. Both play on teams with deep benches, other superstars, deep rosters, and at least in the Lakers case, many elder statesmen.
In spite of the league creeping ever closer to being fully vaccinated, there are a few holdouts and that means protocols can still impact clubs. Even being vaccinated doesn’t rule out getting the virus, albeit with a much higher certainty of avoiding the worst side effects of COVID. Yet, that still can result in quarantine.
Over and above that concern will be typical injuries sustained in games and how that impacts players who’ll get more opportunities. For example, Michael Porter Jr., Paul George, and Stephen Curry should all experience upticks statistically as their teammates recover from injury.
Likewise, revamped teams will impact placement on both ends of the spectrum. With the uncertainty of Ben Simmons’ situation. 76ers Joel Embiid, Tobias Harris, and their guards should witness higher production, particularly in the assist category. As of Sunday, Simmons was in Philly but even if he suits up I’m not sure how invested he’ll be.
Conversely, stars on teams adding depth should theoretically drop statistically but there are outliers. Arguably the best example of how one player could impact the dual sides of fantasy is Kyle Lowry joining the Miami Heat.
His presence should find Jimmy Butler’s assists and scoring taking a hit. Alternatively, I’ll be shocked if Lowry doesn’t make a substantial positive impact for Bam Adebayo, especially in scoring. Glance back at every teammate of Lowry’s particularly the bigs and it’s a good bet Bam’s point total should swell.
OKC Thunder guard SGA and other fantasy draft steals
Many fantasy players will complete their drafts this week with the season just a little over a week away. To help prepare you Intentions dove into the list ESPN writer Andre Snellings recently offered. What makes Snellings list interesting is he’s ranking players by tiers. His suggestion being if a certain player he’s earmarked is still available in round X they would be a great pick.
That list is comprised of 22 specific players fantasy buffs should consider and includes OKC Thunder captain Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.
Snelling pinpointed SGA as a fourth-round steal earmarking only 11 players ahead of him on his list. His steals tend to involve the “average draft pick” status of other experts although the points I outlined above were likely factored by the ESPN scribe as well.
Let’s dive into the specific selection by Snellings and offer our perspective …