Fantasy Basketball: 2024-25 Southwest Division Team Previews

By Raphielle Johnson

The 2024-25 NBA season is a little over one month away, making this prime time for fantasy managers to prepare for their drafts. Rotoworld will have articles dropping throughout this time, beginning with fantasy-related thoughts on every team. Next up in our division-by-division previews is the Southwest Division.

After a few seasons in which Denver’s Nikola Jokic was viewed as the unquestioned 1.1, that may change this fall. Victor Wembanyama was elite during his rookie season, and if that represents his fantasy “floor,” look out. And he isn’t the only Southwest Division player projected to be a first-round pick, with Dallas having Luka Doncic, and Kyrie Irving could sneak into that level in larger leagues.

Dallas Mavericks

2023-24 Record: 50-32

Pace: 100.1 (6th)

Offensive Rating: 117.6 (10th)

Defensive Rating: 115.4 (18th)

One Potential Sleeper: Dereck Lively II

Classifying Lively as a sleeper, given the flashes shown when available last season, could be viewed as a stretch of the word’s definition. However, the rookie was ranked outside the top 150 in 9-cat, per-game value after the February trade deadline and finished the season as a 10th-round player, according to Basketball Monster. Fantasy managers should focus more on Lively’s production during the Mavericks’ run to the NBA Finals, as he averaged nearly two minutes more per game than starting center Daniel Gafford. In 21 playoff games, the lottery pick out of Duke averaged 7.9 points, 7.4 rebounds, 1.3 assists, and 1.0 blocks in 22.0 minutes, shooting 67.4% from the field. Lively may not have offered top-100 value as a rookie, but he hasn’t even approached his ceiling. Even in a timeshare with Gafford, Lively can finish safely within the top 100 in 2024-25.

One Potential Bust: Daniel Gafford

Gafford had an excellent 2023-24 season as far as fantasy value is concerned, finishing as a 4th-round player in 9-cat formats and 5th-round in 8-cat. Appearing in 74 games between Washington and Dallas, he averaged 11.0 points, 7.6 rebounds, 1.6 assists, 0.9 steals, and 2.1 blocks in 24.5 minutes, shooting 72.5% from the field and 67.4% from the foul…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/fantasy-basketball-2024-25-southwest-130000339.html

Author : NBC Sports

Publish date : 2024-09-20 13:00:00

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