Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end and we have reached the end of the 2016-2017 fantasy basketball season. We learned a lot this season. The duties of Forwards in the league have increased and a lot of teams are relying on their bigger players to assist in ball handling responsibilities. This has a direct fantasy correlation as Forwards will not only have more time with the ball in their hands per possession, but they will have more opportunities to score. The Point-Forward is the ultimate trend in the NBA and those players will be given longer leashes and more minutes tacked on. Naturally, it’s easier to trap smaller players in the backcourt and having these bigger players slice through double teams makes total sense. Lets debrief further!

THE OBVIOUS:

Russell Westbrook and James Harden were the top two producers in fantasy basketball this season. With the departure of Kevin Durant, fantasy analysts pegged Westbrook as the player with the highest potential and he proved just how much of a stat-packer he could be. His teammates LET him pad his own stats and while this kind of play and stat packing makes an NBA diehard hate the league, fantasy players foam at the mouth for that kind of easy production. Victor Oladipo proved early that he could not be relied on as a No. 2 weapon because of lack of consistency and OKC was Westbrook’s playground.

The expectations for Harden were very similar because it was announced before the season that Harden would be handling Point Guard responsibilities thus getting even more time with the ball. The Rockets had a ton of offensive weapons this season. Patrick Beverley, Ryan Anderson, Clint Capela, Lou Williams, Eric Gordon and Trevor Ariza are all viable offensive weapons but because the Rockets were THAT high powered of an offense, Harden was still able to produce. The Rockets offense requires both speed and grace and Harden was able to slow down the break whenever he wanted and weave his way to the rim. He has the unique skill of targeting different areas of the court to attack anticipating where the double would occur and go to the opposite side. He’s an excellent driver and was able to keep the tempo up.

Around the time that fantasy drafts were happening, the Joel Embiid parade around the league began and everyone brought in. It was made clear prior to the start of the season that because of his injury history, his minutes would be limited to 25 minutes max per game. For the fantasy players who bought in, they got their 25 minutes of production, but they also found that Embiid would be held out of games along the way. Embiid is a prime example of the 76ers “Trust The Process” mantra because they stayed true to their word of limiting his minutes until he proved he could stay healthy.  It didn’t matter! Embiid still got hurt and next year, when/if you target him, you better believe that he will be on a similar track next season and will play limited minutes and be held out of action every few games. He scored over 20 points per game and carried the Sixers on his back. At the start of 2017, they were competing for a Playoff spot. Beware of the injury plague with Embiid and know that these big men fall hard and once these leg injuries start, they don’t go away.

When Kevin Durant went to the Warriors, a lot of people heading into the season were worried about both his and Stephen Curry’s production dipping. I was not one of those people as I was able to draft Durant sixth and seventh overall in a lot of leagues. The Warriors would not have gotten Durant if they thought it would hinder their foundation. Both Durant and Curry were top 10 fantasy players and while both command the ball a ton, they were both able to work together and produce at high levels individually. Speaking of good individual production, I must take my hat off to Hassan Whiteside. Whiteside was able to feast with a depleted Heat team and proved that he is a top three Center in the NBA. He grabbed over 14 rebounds a game and showed an improved drive game.

THE NOT SO OBVIOUS:

Is Paul George too unselfish for fantasy? Paul George was a projected first round pick in most leagues and while he scored 23.7 points per game and grabbed 6.6 rebounds, he passed off on a lot of scoring opportunities. Teamwork makes the dream work in sports, but when looking for consistent production, this season makes an NBA diehard wonder, is George a No. 1 guy? How about in fantasy? If George goes to a team like the Lakers, it will be hard determining whether or not he will be paired with another Star in the league, or if he would be expected to be the leader on a budding team. This will absolutely have a direct correlation on his value heading into next season.

Remember when people doubted LeBron James? For some reason, the NBA Universe thought that 2017 was the year of decline for James. NAH BRAH! James was still a top three fantasy option and his non-scoring stats improved. A ton of people passed on James in drafts and I have no idea why. Until he proves otherwise, James will always be the perfect balance player for fantasy and he should not be doubted until he gets hurt because that’s the only way you will see decline.

Nikola Jokic was buried on the bench at one point early on in the season as he was being outplayed by both Kenneth Faried and Jusuf Nurkic. Jokic got it together, nearly averaged a double-double and showed that he truly is the most improved player for the season and showed the Western Conference that the Nuggets have a true contender of a piece. He drives down the lane like a bull and he is very hard to box out and Denver was so confident in his ability that they traded Nurkic to Portland. Also, how about Wilson Chandler? He might be the top waiver wire pick up in the season. With a bunch of shooters on the team, the oft-injured Chandler found himself in a timeshare situation and he proved this season that he was a consistent producer in multiple categories and he was given more ball handling responsibilities as the season continued because Emmanuel Mudiay was not doing a good enough job controlling the pace.

If you’re a Forward who does not have a consistent enough jumper that will only hurt fantasy players when they are used more for spacing than scoring. Forwards such as Aaron Gordon, DeMarre Carroll, Nikola Mirotic and Thaddeus Young all had trouble hitting knockdown jumpers. They would often rotate on offense and get open at the elbow but were either too tentative to shoot, or took low percentage shots. All three have slower shot releases making it easy to contend. While Mirotic mainly stayed at the arc, Gordon was an attacker and quite a good one, but then would resort to jump-shooting and the production and Magic’s offensive flow would be stalled. Young was a good slasher, but without consistent post moves, especially when going up against skilled defensive big men, he was stopped in the middle of the paint and had to either force up a wild paint shot, or make a risky pass back outside. When drafting your Forwards next season, check both how many shots they were taking per game along with their outside shooting percentage. If ball-handling Forwards are the true wave of the future, they need to be able to hit those knockdown jumpers like guards do.

PAINFULLY OBVIOUS:

Besides that Victor Oladipo is still the biggest UFO in the league? Unfortunately for Derrick Favors owners, after a strong 2016, and a good start to the season, within a month he was injured. The Jazz lost a ton of production and when Favors returned, he looked like a shell of himself. He was not shooting as much. He was staying out of the paint, and every time he jumped, I would worry he would break something. The Jazz brought him back too early and he was unable to heal properly. Fantasy owners did not get their proper returns from Favors as he didn’t even score 10 points per game. The injury to Favors did however benefit Rudy Gobert owners. Gobert improved his drive and all-around court presence and was the main reason why the Jazz were a top team defensively this season even with a hobbled Favors. It’s never fun talking about the silver lining of injuries, but that’s why this is the PAINFULLY OBVIOUS section. The Jazz were still very productive without Favors and next year, he will be drafted in the middle of drafts.

The Rookie class was painful this year, especially after Embiid went down. Brandon Ingram is clearly a Point-Forward project and is still developing. We did not get a chance to see Ben Simmons this season. Buddy Hield showed he can be a trusted shooter, but has a lot of growing AND he got traded for a certain DeMarcus Cousins in the middle of the season as the Kings think Hield is a future franchise player. When we finally thought the Timberwolves would trade Ricky Rubio, Rubio’s production skyrocketed thus leaving Kris Dunn buried on the bench and we did not get to see him get consistent minutes. We need to keep an eye on these players in the middle of our drafts as all who I just mentioned will be coming into the season at value and should be considered in the mid to late rounds of the draft. Two bright spots from the Rookie class were Dario Saric and Malcolm Brogdon. Brogdon showed that he could handle starting at PG and the Bucks are on the rise. Saric was an aggressive Forward who always looked to bang with the big boys and improved his mid-range game throughout the season.

Going into next season, remember as always playing time gives you production and production helps you win that ring. If a player shows defensive consistency they will get more minutes. Don’t overrate starters as starters can serve as buffers before a more skilled player with fresh legs comes along.