2014 Fantasy Basketball MVP

With the recent conclusion of the NBA regular season Fantasy Alarm's own Mark Kaplan and myself are going to hand out our End of the Season Fantasy Awards with an eye towards next season. The first hardware we are handing out is the 2014 Fantasy Basketball MVP and our choices may suprise you.

Mark Kaplan's 2014 Fantasy Basketball MVP

This award goes to a player that was a great value pick and performed like an elite player. Kevin Durant was the #1 player drafted and finished #1 overall so while he was great, everyone expected him to finish as the #1 player. Cousins was taken 32nd results and finished as a top 10 player that will likely be a first round pick next season. He finished the season averaging a 22.7 points (Tied for ninth in the NBA) while shooting 50% from the field,11.7 rebounds( fifth in the NBA), 2.9 assists, 1.5 steals, and 1.3 blocks. He was the only player in the NBA to average 22 plus points, 1.5 plus steals, and 1 block per game. He carried fantasy squads throughout the season and is my Fantasy MVP for this season.

 

 

Michael Pichan's 2014 Fantasy Basketball MVP

I like Kaplan’s thinking on going against the grain, which I have as well, but before I give my Fantasy MVP I wanted to take a quick minute to revisit my preseason pick for Fantasy Basketball MVP

My Preseason MVP Favorite was Chris Paul

My Preseason Darkhorse for MVP were Paul George and Stephen Curry

George was arguably the lead car for the MVP early in the season, but he ran out of gas as the season went on including finishing the last 30 days as only the 69th ranked fantasy player to finish 11th overall for the season. Chris Paul was so good you would have thought there were two of him on the court as he lead all point guards in double-doubles with 39 yet he played in only 62 games, which makes it difficult to give him the end-of-the-season award.

While CP3 missed a large chunk of time, Stephen Curry, my Fantasy Basketball MVP (and not just because he was my preseason sleeper pick), did not. Curry played 78 games for the second season in a row and 74-plus games for the fourth time in his five year career helping put to rest his injury prone status. Curry finished as the fifth overall ranked fantasy player (total) and while many top players either saw their minutes limited or sat out some games towards the end of the season which may have proved costly to fantasy owners, especially those competing in head-to-head playoffs, Curry did not. Curry was the second overall ranked player (total) over the last 14 days and was the top fantasy producing player the last week of the season. How’s that for a player who many either avoided on draft day or who were cringing when they reluctantly selected him? Then again I may be a little bias since Curry was one of the players I drafted who helped me take down this season’s Fantasy Sports Writers Association title.

Mark Kaplan FSWA League Draft and Final Standings (click on the items in blue to be routed to those pages).

Make sure to bookmark our NBA article's page so you have it going forward as there will be plenty of fantasy basketball content throughout the summer including more Fantasy Awards, DFS recommendations, NBA Draft and Summer League coverage, as well as strategy sessions to help you be on top of the competition going into the 2014-15 Fantasy Basketball season.