Happy Holidays Razzballers! Welcome to the last entry for the 2022 portion of the season.
We have had some sure-fire hits, a couple misses and some that are still straddling the fence. That is part of what makes fantasy basketball so exciting. We can actively manipulate our individual line-ups and impact outcomes from making the right move or two at the correct time. While the same can be said for making the incorrect move for the wrong player affecting your team negatively.
As the saying goes, “You gotta pay to play”.
That being said, I do like to bake in an element of calculation into the risk of trading for an underperformer but part of pulling off the perfect trade for a player highlighted here is ignoring some of what is happening lately and looking ahead to the possibility of what could be coming.
It is another big man this week and I like targeting these types of players when the opportunity presents itself as their stat set, if it includes blocks, are usually hard to find on the wire much like assists.
We travel to LeBron’s home state of Ohio, with a shout out to Joakim Noah.
“What’s so good about Cleveland?”
Evan Mobley
Well, there is a lot of good in Cleveland these days. This is the best version of the Cavaliers since LeBron James last wore the wine and gold and was dominating the Eastern Conference. Much of the focus for that success has to do with the dynamic back court of Darius Garland and Donovan Mitchell but part of what makes them one the best defensive rated teams in the league is the frontcourt anchoring of Jarret Allen and Evan Mobley.
Mobley is a nightmare for opposing teams because is he a rim protector who can also move his feet well enough to switch out to the perimeter and bother guards and wings with his length and positioning on the floor. In his second season, Mobley is averaging:
55.8% from the field, 70.3% from the line, 14.6 points, 9.0 rebounds, 2.6 assists. 0.7 steals, 1.3 blocks and 0.3 threes.
These numbers have him with an overall rank of 67 on the season, which is still down from his last season rank of 56. This is to be somewhat expected with the addition of Mitchell and keeping in mind he played a large part of last season without Jarrett Allen on the floor.
However, over the past two weeks, he is the 105th ranked player and the number drops further over the past week where he is the 139th ranked player in fantasy. The reason for the drop is glaring and shows obvious scope to improve.
The points are at 9.7 and the rebounds are at 5.7 over the past week. Those numbers are 30% down from his season production and I look for those numbers to bounce back. The other category is the blocks down to 0.9 over the past two weeks. Now, do not expect the blocks to get back to 1.7 from last season because, as I mentioned, Jarrett Allen was out for an extended period and that correlated to an increased block rate. Still, 1.5 blocks on the season are a reasonable expectation with there still being upside for closer to two blocks a game as he continues to play minutes in the mid 30’s.
While you should not expect a top 30 finish in fantasy and he will likely finish below his ADP, he can still be obtained at a great value right now if you can execute a trade.
Float some offers out there and hit me up in the comment section below with your questions and/ or trade ideas to help you get the edge in your league.
Good luck out there,
Peace
