The end of the year is upon us. This week’s fantasy basketball mailbag will be full of what happened. There are plenty of different stories around the league, and some steps taken back. I will be examining each question based on the players that mailbaggers asked about, and how to address those players as a fantasy basketball manager. This includes players who are doing better than they were last season or other previous seasons. Last week was a sneak peek into that thought process when we talked about Keegan Murray and Michael Porter Jr. A few other interesting cases have come up, so let’s get to it.
Weekly Fantasy Basketball Mailbag: WHAT HAPPENED?
Jaylen Brown… what happened? – Davin
Truth be told, I am not sure that Jaylen Brown is the safest fantasy basketball star to gamble on. From a career standpoint, he is not an efficient shooter with a lot of other statistical potential. There have been instances where he has been north of 25 points per game, and/or on good efficiency but that is not the truth of Brown’s career.
If you picked him up in the draft expecting a shooter, then I can understand where this question is coming from. On the other hand, this season rebound rates are down across the league. That would most likely be attributed to other good rebounding guards like Jrue Holiday, and the addition of Kristaps Porzingis. There just are not enough missed shots to crash the boards with for every single player on the Boston Celtics. Based on his averages, Jaylen Brown is having a career season. That is to say, it is almost exactly his career average. 22.5 PPG/4.8 RPG/3.6 APG with 1.8 Stocks on 47.6 FG%/33.9 3P%/73.6 FT% for this season. Over the last four seasons, those numbers would be 22.9/6.3/3.1/1.5 on 48.3/36.5/75.4. Not too dissimilar, but worth noting.
Coby White… what happened? – Tyler
Time to be bad. Time to figure out who he was going to be and what he meant to the Chicago Bulls. It means everything, and you can continue to rely on White as a fantasy starter moving forward. 17.5/4.0/4.9 on 45.2/42.4/83.1 is very good considering he has not started like this in years. Those numbers are just for the season too. He is averaging 25.8/6.8/6.8 on 51.9%/50%/83% in December.
Being a starting point guard can take time. It took getting traded and changing his shooting mechanics for Lonzo Ball to become what he was before his latest injury. With the Bulls forced to make decisions on some key players, the Coby White emergence will allow them to both buy and sell. This will only improve White’s position, and give new life to a team coming into the season devoid of it in light of the Ball injury.
Collin Sexton… what happened? – Chad
Being undersized without being able to see the floor super well. Collin Sexton has the perfect role etched into history: Off the bench dynamic scorer. Anything else would be a hard battle to fight. That’s how you should view him right now and through the future fantasy-wise. His peak may not be the 24-point scorer you knew at 22 years old, but rather the 15-point-per-game scorer that can elevate a championship team. All that being said, his value for fantasy is too low. The back and forth in scoring may be hard to tolerate, but if he scores 12 or 25 it helps all the same.
He could be more efficient, and I personally thought he turned a corner in that respect last season. He will sway back and forth throughout and from season to season. The days though of starting point guard/shooting guard should be over unless he becomes a Donovan Mitchell-level defender. Then he would change his overall viability in the league and from a fantasy perspective.
Khris Middleton… what happened? – Gunnar
Injuries. Some players truly struggle to get their legs underneath them, leading to differences in shooting capability. Since these issues, his three-point percentage went down by 6% in the 2022-2023 season and early into this season. He has started to get back to being the Khris Middleton you know. December has been kind. 50%/44.8%/91.7% with 15.7 PPG/6.3 RPG/4.7 APG. I would gamble on that level of production increasing, especially since he has played 7 more minutes in December than in November.
Buy his stock. The last season+ was the worst he will be until he most likely hits 35 years old. With Damian Lillard on the team, Middleton will only continue to have open shots. I am most likely going to look to acquire him as soon as I am done writing this article. Having another scorer like that with his other numbers will be a great help. I wish I spent the time to draft him and stash him late.
Kwame Brown…what happened? – Ryan
He is a bona fide scrub. Just cannot play the game of basketball whatsoever.
If there’s a player you want analyzed to make a better decision on, please leave it in the comments. There are plenty of cases across the NBA every year, and it is one of my favorite subjects to discuss!