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There’s always a lot of attention on who is the top dog in fantasy basketball and who to take early on, but the back end of the draft is often ignored. This makes sense since a lot of leagues allow for picks ups and drops, so the guys you snag in the end could very well end up on the waiver wire multiple times throughout the season.

But what if I told you that it’s entirely possible to find great value at the end of your drafts? Snagging a mid round value play in the final rounds is my bread and butter, and it sets up a lot of interesting scenarios, as you will have more trade chips to dangle and dominate your league even if your top guys have to miss some time. Pro tip: They will. Even more pro tip: It’s a lot more likely this year with COVID.

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I was raised in a cold and desolate city in Canada known as Winterpeg. A city known for its giant mosquitoes, cruel winters, and incredibly cheap people who always NEED to get a bargain. Today, I put my skills to good use by identifying the early values for fantasy basketball, and passing the savings on to you! I present to you my list of players who should vastly outperform their draft position and help bring joy and happiness to your teams.

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Razzball’s version of the Four Horsemen is back this week, with Son, Brent, Craig, and Viz back together.  We start off by each picking some players from Son’s Top 200 that we are targeting late in drafts and why they could be undervalued.  There are some intense debates!  From there, we look at Craig’s Top 100 and look at the major difference points between his rankings and our fearless leader’s.   Mixed throughout the podcast, there is plenty of draft strategy talk to help you formulate a plan before you draft based on your league settings and during the draft.  All of that and more on the latest edition of the Razzball Basketball Podcast! 

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October is here and you know what that means?  Hoops is just around the corner. With preseason games beginning, the excitement for meaningful basketball is now officially reaching boiling point.

After being out in the wilderness for 6 weeks with no internet access, I return with a slightly different flavor from my previous pieces, but rest assured that if you are tuning in to see “Dynasty rookie rankings 41-60”, then they are just around the corner.

As you can imagine, the excitement of having all TV and internet services installed after such a long delay (man, what did we do in the dark world before the internet?!) were soon quashed by opening my browser and the first piece of news I see in basketball news is Ben Simmons suffering a broken foot in practice. Yet more hurt for those Philly fans, with yet another top draft pick spending significant time with the medical staff. It may well be that there is some kind of curse in Philadelphia, but let’s hope the uber-talented phenom will be back on his feet soon (excuse the poor pun).

If, like me, you have a penchant for the deep league, then this may well be the article for you. Of the big fantasy sports, basketball is obvious sport where you don’t want to miss early in drafts ,with a big drop-off in production differential from the top tier to the middle tier.  But that doesn’t mean leagues can’t be won with crafty, late round selections. Without further ado, here are some late round fliers that might be tempting, depending on the depth of your league:

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Lady and Gents!  The time is here!  Time for me to expose myself to the ridicule of the internet by laying out my somewhat conservatively outrageous predictions for the 2016-2017 NBA season! All positive input would be greatly appreciated.  All disagreements will result in heated comment debates with no one actually being right, since the season hasn’t even started yet…

Last preseason, I had some solid predictions that were quite controversial!  Namely, that Isaiah Thomas would break out, and that Greg Monroe would be a complete bust.  Ironically, the uncontested predictions were the ones that didn’t fare so well… Primarily due to injury, but what can you do about that?  Clearly, nothing, if you’re the Pelicans medical staff that is.

A little note before hand, my bold predictions will be made relative to the fantasy pros consensus projections.

Lets get this party rockin!

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As many of you probably know, I have a major thing for shooters; particularly guys that are great at the end of the game.  Ray Allen, Reggie Miller, Larry Bird, Kyle Korver, Klay Thompson, etc.  Buddy fits that mold to perfection.  In order to be a great shooter, one must have have tremendous focus, and a great work ethic.  Based on that description, these are the kind of high quality guys that you want on your team.

Everyone knows that Buddy can shoot.  Almost 10 attempts from deep per game during his senior year.  He drained over 45% of those.  I see no reason why he won’t average around 3 treys a game in the NBA.  The bigger question is: Is Hield Just a THRAGNOF?  I contend that he is not.

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Hey everyone!  It’s good to be back!  After a nice little break, I figured it was time to get back to the old keyboard.  This series will focus on the real world impact projections for rookies in the coming season, and also their projected fantasy value.  If this post gets any interest, then the next would likely be on Buddy Hield, or possibly a request if anyone has one!  With that housekeeping stuff out of the way, lets dive right in!

Ben Simmons will be a bust.  “How do I know this?”, you incredulously ask.  The answer to that is fairly straight forward.  Simmons shies away from the moment, he has a mediocre jumper at best, and he really doesn’t have a position.  Now by bust, I don’t mean that he won’t be a very productive player.  However, a comparison to Lamar Odom or Boris Diaw is far more warranted than one to say, LeBron James.

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With the ever-growing influence of the three point shot in the NBA’s pace-and-space landscape, wing players without a reliable jumper are now ostracized more than ever. Even in the league’s most talent-starved position, a wing player can only be so productive without the ability to score from distance.

As last season’s playoffs illustrated, wings who are unable to make shots consistently dramatically lose their value, often coming off the court in the most critical moments. Rarely seeing more than 30 minutes per game, their fantasy value is inherently capped by their role.  Since their value is often defined by the inability to space the floor, these players are conversely overlooked and undervalued in fantasy basketball as well.

However, this perception can create excellent draft-day value for fantasy owners as well as spawn one of this season’s biggest fantasy sleepers.

Despite his rank at 163 in the Razzball’s current Top 200 rankings, Phoenix Suns forward T.J. Warren has a unique opportunity to breakout in his sophomore year by shattering fans fixation with 3-and-D wings as well.

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With the NBA preseason in full swing, the fantasy basketball season is now less than a week away. Unfortunately for me, it will not come quickly enough as my fantasy football team is slowly imploding with each passing week. For struggling owners, fantasy basketball may be the life from the turbulent waters of fantasy football, representing an opportunity to return to the shores of fantasy success. This means I’m turning my full attention towards fantasy basketball draft prep in order to numb the pain of my football failures.

With a majority of fantasy basketball leagues carrying a shallow bench (usually three players), it is pivotal for owners to nail their late-round picks. These selections carry added weight since these players will contribute toward the final outcome every week. In order to win, every rostered play must be in the lineup and hold enough value to warrant their spot. Backend production may seem marginal compared to a team’s aggregated weekly totals, but selecting solid backups with upside late in the draft raises the ceiling of your team.

While there are a plethora of high-upside, low investment players to consider this season, Boston Celtics forward Amir Johnson is currently one of the more undervalued fantasy sleepers heading into the regular season.

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Wazzup razz nation!  This article is primarily going to cater to the more casual reader, simply because I’m not going to go into any in-depth stat analysis, for this particular post.  Basically, this is going to address some of the pet players we have on this site, and why we adore them.  I’m not going to cover most of the first few rounds with players like Andrew Wiggins and Rudy Gobert, since they have been covered in a fair amount of detail previously.  Without further ado, lets dive in!

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Hey Razzball nation! We’re getting towards the end of the sleeper stream, so I hope you’ve enjoyed so far!  There probably will only be one more sleeper article from me after this one, so look out for that next week.  My first RCL league draft is coming up on Saturday, so I figured I would just help everyone out and post some of the obvious early ranking screw-ups in Yahoo’s NBA projections.  With no prep you can get screwed over by these ranking problems, but with a little knowledge you can abuse their rankings harder than DeAndre Jordan posterizing Brandon Knight!  At any rate, lets dive in!

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Basketball season is approaching quickly, as signaled by the start of our Razzball Basketball Commenter Leagues!  The RCL leagues are a ton of fun, so make sure to get in one of those.  I’ll be hosting at least one or two in the near future, so if you join one of those, just think of this as a list of guys you should let me draft!  We’re starting to get into the more interesting sleepers as we work our way deeper into the rankings.  So lets get into it!

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