2014-15 NBA Fantasy Basketball Duds

Fantasy basketball is won and lost by the picks people make in the first five or six rounds, and the teams that ultimately win their leagues not only nail their top picks but also find guys in rounds 4-6 that either break out or rebound in a major way. It’s a delicate art and certainly easy to screw up, but we all play the game anyway because finding those gems is, in a lot of ways, the most satisfying part of the game. Everybody wants to feel like they’re smarter than everybody else.

Last week we talked about this year’s fantasy MVPs, but this week we’re going to look at the picks that have absolutely killed some teams. Each of these five players came into the season with huge expectations, but they all have, for the most part, fallen pretty flat through the 2014 part of the 2014-2015 season.

All that said, here are this season’s biggest fantasy duds:

LeBron James, Cleveland Cavaliers – Even before this recent injury, which is expected to sideline James for at least ten or so games, the King had been putting together a less impressive season than what we’ve seen out of him the last several years. His 25.2 PPG and 5.3 RPG are both his lowest since his rookie season, and his 1.3 SPG are the worst of his career. He’s shooting under .500 from the field for the first time in seven years, and even his free-throw percentage, which has been up above 75 percent for six seasons, has dipped below that mark in 2014-2015. All this isn’t to say that LeBron has been worthless; he’s still the 16th-ranked player in fantasy to this point in the season, but considering you probably drafted him first overall, 16th overall from your top pick probably has you quite a ways out of first place at this point.

Carmelo Anthony, New York Knicks – In the midst of a brutal season for the New York Knicks, Anthony is having his worst individual season in years, punctuated recently by rumblings that he could shut it down for the rest of the year. Any time there’s a chance you will lose your first-round pick for the season due to injury, there’s a very low probability that you’re even making the playoffs, let alone winning them, but it’s not like Anthony was on a tear before this news. He’s been averaging only 23.9 PPG this season, putting him below 24 PPG for only the second time since 2009-2010. His rebounding, which jumped way up to 8.1 RPG last season, has dropped right back down to 6.6 RPG, he’s gone from averaging 2.3 three-pointers a game the last two seasons to only 1.4 this year, and his free-throw percentage has dropped below 80 percent for the first time in seven years. After being one of last year’s best late first-round picks, Anthony is a bust this season.

Joakim Noah, Chicago Bulls – While Noah is still a great defender, an elite passing big man and an irreplaceable energy guy on arguably the Eastern Conference’s best team, he is not having anywhere near as good a season as he did last year, where he averaged 12.6 PPG, 11.3 RPG, 5.4 APG, 1.2 SPG and 1.5 BPG, all with decent shooting percentages and manageable turnovers. This season, he’s down in every single one of those categories, posting 8.5 PPG, 9.9 RPG, 3.0 APG, 0.8 SPG and 1.3 BPG, along with career-low field-goal and free-throw shooting percentages. By adding Nikola Mirotic and Paul Gasol in the offseason, it was pretty clear that Noah’s minutes would go down (and they have by almost four per game), but the return of Derrick Rose and emergence of Jimmy Butler has meant that the offense hasn’t had to go through Noah, as it did last year. With a reduced role and less efficient scoring, Noah has not returned second or third round value, which is likely where many of you drafted him. Instead, he’s the 96th best player in fantasy this year.

Nerlens Noel, Philadelphia 76ers – During draft season Noel was a lot of people’s pet sleeper in the middle rounds. Not necessarily a “true” rookie, Noel was supposed to take his redshirt experience into the starting lineup of a team with very little talent and put up big numbers in big minutes for a bad Philly team. We’ve seen flashes of it, and his defensive statistics in steals (1.6 SPG) and blocks (1.4 BPG) have helped a lot of teams, but everywhere else he’s been kind of a downer. He’s averaging only 7.2 RPG and 7.7 PPG, while shooting only .417 from the field and a nasty .500 from the free-throw line. He just isn’t all that good offensively and isn’t even getting it done through attrition despite playing over 30 MPG. There have been some huge games, so the talent is there, but the consistency isn’t. That’s what has killed owners who burned fifth rounder on him when guys like Jeff Teague, Pau Gasol and Kyle Korver were also available.

Lance Stephenson, Charlotte Hornets – Easily this season’s biggest disaster, both in fantasy and real life, Stephenson has gone from a borderline All-Star and Most Improved Player candidate to absolute bust who now is even dealing with a groin injury. Despite getting over 32 minutes a game when he’s been healthy, Stephenson is down 3.6 PPG from last year while also shooting a whole lot worse from the field (.386, down from .491), from deep (.151, down from .352) and even the free throw line (.635, down from .711). Stephenson helped win fantasy championships last year, but this year he’s actively sabotaging the teams the drafted him.

It’s not easy to land all the studs in a given year, but even if you don’t end up with a Jimmy Butler or Draymond Green, it’s nice to at least stay away from the Lance Stephensons and Joakim Noahs of the fantasy world. Hopefully you were among those that made more good decisions than bad ones this year, and if not, there’s always next year.