FanPost

2010-11 Fantasy Basketball Week 0: Fill In Guys

I've talked about assist + steal players, and rebound + block players. But what about the other guys, right? Are there other players out there that do not fall into either category that can help your team? Absolutely, and we want 2 Fill In Players.

So when we're drafting assist + steal guys, we're trying to compile assists, and hope we can get steals, 3s, etc.. But depending on your luck, you're probably going to end up with a guy that dishes the ball out quite a bit, but doesn't really shoot 3s (Westbrook, Andre Miller, etc), and/or may not score a lot of points (Jason Kidd). It can happen, and it probably will happen. For example, if Russell Westbrook is looking like a good option, even though he doesn't shoot 3s, you gotta take it.

You can see where I'm going with this. We need 1 fill in guy that can score some points and hit some 3s... Even if we get 4 guys that score good points, get good assists, get at least 1 steal, and make at least one 3, it still helps a ton to get a 5th guy that can help with your points and 3s. With the 4, you may be able to get into the Top 3, but with 5, you probably have a better shot to win some categories. That's what we want to see.

The guys that fit this profile based on last year's stats would be: Danny Granger, Rashard Lewis, Gallinari, Peja Stojakovic, Channing Frye, J.R. Smith, Jamal Crawford, Anthony Morrow, Jason Richardson, Al Harrington, Trevor Ariza, Ray Allen, Carloa Delfino, Paul Pierce, Kevin Martin, Andrea Bargnani, in no particular order. If you look at 3s made/game and points, you can derive your own rankings.  

What about the other Fill In Player? Well, when you're researching these rebound + block guys, you are going to see a list of guys that fit the bill with points and rebounds, but no blocks, or get blocks and rebounds but fall short of points. Basically you want to take a guy that's going to add to rebounds and either give you more blocks, or points. Whichever you think you will need, based on who you're targeting. Some guys to think of are:

Guys that get good points and boards but not enough blocks include: Zach Randolph, David Lee, Carlos Boozer, Troy Murphy, Lamar Odom, Luis Scola, LaMarcus Aldridge, Drew Gooden, David West. Just look up guys with double digit points and 7 or more boards, but do not block many shots (with many being less than 1/game)... Or put together guys you think that will be in this category.

Guys that get good boards and blocks, but not enough points include: Marcus Camby, Brendan Haywood, Samuel Dalembert, Kendrick Perkins (last year, he was a rebound + block guy. This year, I think points drop with Jermaine O'Neal and Shaq there), and Taj Gibson. Not many, as some shot blocking specialists are only scoring a couple of points and getting a couple of rebounds a game. This just further shows how important getting guys who can block shots are.

Recap

Something I haven't been clear about: if you could 5 rebound + block guys, I do not think I'd need a fill in player there, especially if I feel pretty good about the point totals for my team (if my team is averaging close to 16 points/game across the positions, I'm feeling good).  Where you will probably need a fill in player the most, is with 3 pointers.. You likely will have to sacrifice some 3 point shooters and points to get assists. Assist guys go pretty fast, with a few exceptions. Getting a guy that averages 1.5 3s or more is going to help a ton, because you are likely going to have a guy that collects 7 assists/game, but doesn't shoot any threes. Unless you are really good, lucky, or both. 

Tomorrow, I'll talk about draft strategy, then I will draft my fantasy team(s) on Monday, and will do a recap of my draft on Monday or Tuesday. We can discuss what happened with your draft, and get right into the season!

If anyone has any questions or thoughts about anything I've written, please utilize the comments! I've thrown a lot at ya'll in the past day or two, and that's mostly because I'm trying to catch up on preseason kind stuff. Digest it when you can, and I'll be here to talk!

The plan isn't to rapid-fire all season long, so I apologize with there being so much. One more post, then off for a few days! When season gets rolling, probably 1-2 posts a week if its something people still want. You can always email me with any questions you are having as well about your team, and I'll see if there is anything I can do to help.

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Post #4: Rebound + Block Guys

Post #3: Assist + Steal Guys

Post #2: Putting A Team Together

Post #1: An Overview