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While there are many different accounts of who first came up with the phrase, there’s no shortage of people who believe that “your best ability is your availability.” That’s especially true in fantasy basketball, as a player who boasts elite per-game production may not be worth a lot if he’s consistently on the shelf due to injury. The 2024-25 season is a “special” one in that it comes on the heels of an Olympic year.
So, is the longer player calendar of “season-Olympics-season” something fantasy managers should consider when drafting their teams? Honestly, that depends more on the player in question rather than assuming that every player who participated in Paris is at heightened risk of missing time. For this column, I’ve looked back at the Rio (2016) and Tokyo (2020) Olympic Games to see if anything stuck out regarding player production and availability.
Top 200 Rankings credit: Basketball Monster
2016 Rio Olympics
Thirty-seven players in the Rio Olympics saw action in the NBA the season prior, with seven playing 60 games or less in 2015-16. The highest-profile player of the six regarding fantasy value was Kyrie Irving, who appeared in 53 games for the Cavaliers. The other six were Joffrey Lauvergne (France), Manu Ginobili (Argentina), Cristiano Felicio, Marcelo Huertas, Nene (Brazil), and Jonas Valanciunas (Lithuania). Regarding per-game fantasy value, Irving’s 2015-16 season ranked just outside the top 50 in 9-cat formats and the top 100 in totals. But Kyrie’s case is one in which it’s essential to consider when the games were missed instead of simply using the absences as a reason to drop him on draft boards.
Injured during Game 1 of the 2015 NBA Finals and subsequently undergoing surgery to repair a fractured left knee cap, Irving did not make his 2015-16 debut until December 20. From that point onward, he only missed five games, the last being Cleveland’s regular-season finale against Detroit. In 2016-17, Irving appeared in 72 games and was a top 25 fantasy player in both per-game and total value. Valanciunas saw the most NBA action in 2016-17 of the other six players mentioned, appearing in 80 games and…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/fantasy-basketball-much-managers-factor-170000355.html
Author : NBC Sports
Publish date : 2024-10-09 17:00:00
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