From: Charlie Zegers
Sent: Tuesday, March 9, 2010 6:35 AM
To: Carson Cistulli
Subject: Give and Go: Shallow Water
The 2009 NBA draft pool – according to the pundits – was supposed to be about as deep as an average episode of The Real Housewives of Orange County. Factor in Blake Griffin’s injury, Hasheem Thabeet’s general uselessness and Ricky Rubio’s decision to stay in Europe – removing three of the top five picks from consideration – and one might assume the rookie class to be a complete fantasy wasteland.
Nothing, of course, could be farther from the truth. Stephen Curry currently rates 15th on the season in the Yahoo! player rater, and is scoring like he’s still playing against Wofford.
I shouldn’t pick on the Terriers, who just won that conference and their first-ever NCAA Tournament berth.
Tyreke Evans will be a star. Brandon Jennings’ production has fallen off significantly since his monstrous debut, but he’s got the Bucks in contention for a playoff berth, and who saw that coming? James Harden is a very good rotation player who would be a better fantasy option on another team. Same goes for Jonny Flynn.
Later in the first round, teams found guys like Darren Collison – who has people wondering if the Hornets will try to trade Chris Paul. Ty Lawson is producing tremendous numbers for a bench player. Omri Casspi, Taj Gibson and Rodrigue Beaubois are all worth owning in most league formats right now. Even second-rounders like DeJuan Blair, Jon Brockman, Jonas Jerebko – the NBA’s Eastern Conference rookie of the month for February – and especially Marcus Thornton have been great buys. So has undrafted free agent Wes Matthews of Utah.
There have been busts, sure… Thabeet is playing in the D-League. Jordan Hill hasn’t shown a ton yet though he did go for 12 and eight against the Pistons on Sunday. Tyler Hansbrough has been limited by a variety of injuries. And the jury is still out on guys like DeMar DeRozan and Terrence Williams and Austin Daye and Wayne Ellington… But doesn’t it seem like we’re getting tremendous fantasy depth from this year’s rookie class?
This raises a few questions. Are rookies succeeding at a higher rate than in the past? Should we expect one or more of these guys to hit the dreaded “rookie wall?” And as the season winds down and we start making keeper league decisions, which of this year’s rookies have the highest fantasy upside for 2010 and beyond?
via Give and Go: Rookie class action – Fantasy – Yahoo! Sports.
