The NBA lockout has been about as horrifying as sitting in between two of your friends who spontaneously decide to make out with each other in public. Of course, if those two friends were the NBA Players Association and the NBA owners, maybe it wouldn’t be so bad.
Before you start thinking too much about James Dolan getting intimate with Derek Fisher, let’s move on to the point of this post.
Fantasy basketball is, thankfully, immune to such silly things as lockouts. But what the NBA lockout does mean is that any projections made for what we call “2011-12″ are made for a season that might not happen. In other words, we’re making forecasts about fantasy basketball for a season that might not even exist — a season that may be, in fact, a fantasy.
A fantasy within a fantasy — fantasy basketball in the truest sense.
Without further ado, here are my early rankings for the top 150 fantasy basketball players in “2011-12.”
Below is a preview of the top 50 players (assuming H2H, nine categories). For the full list, go here. The link to the rankings is available at the top of this website, and the rankings will, of course, be updated every now and then.
|
Rank |
Player |
Position |
|
1 |
Kevin Durant |
SF |
|
2 |
Lebron James |
SF |
|
3 |
Chris Paul |
PG |
|
4 |
Kevin Love |
PF/C |
|
5 |
Dwyane Wade |
PG/SG |
|
6 |
Derrick Rose |
PG |
|
7 |
Pau Gasol |
PF/C |
|
8 |
Deron Williams |
PG |
|
9 |
Stephen Curry |
PG |
|
10 |
Al Jefferson |
PF/C |
|
11 |
Carmelo Anthony |
SF |
|
12 |
Dirk Nowitzki |
PF |
|
13 |
Dwight Howard |
C |
|
14 |
LaMarcus Aldridge |
PF/C |
|
15 |
Al Horford |
PF/C |
|
16 |
Monta Ellis |
PG/SG |
|
17 |
Gerald Wallace |
SF/PF |
|
18 |
Russell Westbrook |
PG |
|
19 |
Amare Stoudemire |
PF/C |
|
20 |
Rajon Rondo |
PG |
|
21 |
Eric Gordon |
SG |
|
22 |
Dorell Wright |
SG/SF |
|
23 |
Blake Griffin |
PF |
|
24 |
Serge Ibaka |
C |
|
25 |
David Lee |
PF/C |
|
26 |
Kobe Bryant |
SG |
|
27 |
Josh Smith |
PF |
|
28 |
Rudy Gay |
SF/PF |
|
29 |
Kyle Lowry |
PG |
|
30 |
Zach Randolph |
PF/C |
|
31 |
Danny Granger |
SF/PF |
|
32 |
Kevin Martin |
SG |
|
33 |
Brook Lopez |
C |
|
34 |
Manu Ginobili |
SG |
|
35 |
Nene |
PF/C |
|
36 |
Paul Millsap |
PF |
|
37 |
Paul Pierce |
SG/SF |
|
38 |
Jrue Holiday |
PG |
|
39 |
Greg Monroe |
PF/C |
|
40 |
Joakim Noah |
PF/C |
|
41 |
John Wall |
PG |
|
42 |
Chauncey Billups |
PG |
|
43 |
Channing Frye |
PF/C |
|
44 |
Marc Gasol |
C |
|
45 |
Marcin Gortat |
C |
|
46 |
Elton Brand |
PF/C |
|
47 |
Ty Lawson |
PG |
|
48 |
Kevin Garnett |
PF |
|
49 |
James Harden |
SG |
|
50 |
Raymond Felton |
PG/SG |

Serge Ibaka in the 2nd round? Way too early. Al Jefferson in the first round? Way too early. Kobe’s a bit late but 2nd round isn’t too bad. Other than that, nothing’s too off in the first 20-30 picks.
Oh yeah, Dowell Wright as a 2nd round pick is pushing it too. I think his production deserves that spot, but he’s not proven enough yet to warrant that spot and realistically, you can get another player around his value then pick him a few rounds later and likely get him as many people don’t know who the heck Wright is.
Ahem, excuse me, kobe in the 3rd round? Sounds unbelievable. I suppose if you think he’ll be a 22/4/4 guy with 1.5 3ptm and stls with 3.0 TOs yeah. I see him getting 25/5/4 1.5-2.0 3ptm and 1.5 stls about the same TOs. Justifies a 2nd round pick.