Tip-In Points: Top 20 Power Forwards, 2009-10 Fantasy Hoops
We’ve got a bit of a Good News / Bad News situation. The Bad News is that the NBA regular season is finished, and with it, your fantasy team – rendering all your strategery as useless as a neck full of Mardi Gras beads in March. The Good News is that it’s never too early to plan for next season. So we’ll be here all summer scrapin’ and scrappin’ and eatin’ scrapple in order to bring you the best fantasy basketball advice this side of the Mason/Dixon Line. But Adam, I don’t know which side of the Mason/Dixon Line you’re on. Doesn’t matter. I’m everywhere.
We’ve already gone over PG, SG and SF. Today: the 20 best fantasy power forwards from 2009-10.
You know the deal, there were no preseason projections, as there was no Tip-In Points during the preseason. You’ll just have to trust my preseason ranks. We’re still new. Give us time. Ponies don’t come out prancin’. They come out wobbly, then they get to prancin’.
Note: Each player’s season averages use the following pattern:
FG% / FT% / 3PTM / PTM / RBD / AST / STL / BLK / TOV
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1. Dirk Nowitzki, DAL Career-high free throw percentage, career-high in hair shimmer, probable collapse against the Spurs in the playoffs. If all this is a lock … Dirk is the Nowitz-key.
Preseason Rank: #1
Final Numbers: 81 games, .481 / .915 / 0.6 / 25.0 / 7.7 / 2.7 / 0.9 / 1.0 / 1.8
2. David Lee, NY Not knowing about this guy is sooo 2008. Lee is a known entity among fantasy hoopsters, but the word isn’t yet out about how monster he is (If monster is an adjective, DavidLee is an adverb. Deal!) He’s doubled his average points per game since two seasons ago and improved on every counting stat from last year.
Preseason Rank: #3
Final Numbers: 81 games, .545 / .812 / 0.0 / 20.2 / 11.7 / 3.6 / 1.0 / 0.5 / 2.3
3. David West, NO The fourth-most talked about Hornet. The third-best power forward whose name starts with “D.” The second-best power forward whose first name is David. West might not be the best, but he’s stuff teams are made of.
Preseason Rank: #6
Final Numbers: 81 games, .505 / .865 / 0.1 / 19.0 / 7.5 / 3.0 / 0.9 / 0.7 / 2.1
4. Zach Randolph, MEM I’ve never understood why everyone was always so down on Zatch. This is fantasy, and he’s always pulled down numbers similar to this. He averaged 20.8 ppg last season and really only made a huge leap in rebounds. Are people really all that excited about an extra 1.6 rebounds a game? He always got the wrap as a selfish, injury-prone player, because he was always on teams that bred selfishness and injury. Whereas I just injure myself while selfishly breeding.
Preseason Rank: #8
Final Numbers: 81 games, .488 / .778 / 0.2 / 20.8 / 11.7 / 1.8 / 1.0 / 0.4 / 2.1
5. Carlos Boozer, UTA … Boozer on the other hand, I had pegged as a bust. I figured he’d be unhappy about being in Utah and perform worse than last year, get traded to a place he didn’t want to go, and play miserably there too. Instead we got career-highs in field goal percentage and assists and an angry Adam stuck with a Paul Millsap keeper. Don’t think I won’t make the same mistake twice in two seasons.
Preseason Rank: #12
Final Numbers: 78 games, .562 / .742 / 0.0 / 19.5 / 11.2 / 3.2 / 1.1 / 0.5 / 2.7
6. Tim Duncan, SA Career-lows in points and rebounds, but he hung in there for all but four games. And when you set the bar as high as he has, career-lows still amount to a chic pick … Duncan chic.
Preseason Rank: #7
Final Numbers: 78 games, .518 / .725 / 0.0 / 17.9 / 10.1 / 3.2 / 0.6 / 1.5 / 1.8
7. Troy Murphy, IND If you’ve owned Murphy in any of your leagues, you know all about how sweet it is to have a PF/C who sinks almost two treys a game along with 10 rebounds. The thing is, he’s on Indiana and looks like David Schwimmer, so no one other than previous owners fully appreciate this guy. Their loss.
Preseason Rank: #5
Final Numbers: 72 games, .472 / .798 / 1.8 / 14.6 / 10.2 / 2.1 / 1.0 / 0.5 / 1.4
8. Pau Gasol, LAL Don’t get it twisted, sister, Pau’s the second-best PF in the league. But he only managed to play 65 games. Being elite doesn’t stop anyone from having to perform … actually, that’s not even close to true. The biggest perk of being elite is not having to perform. This list is ruined.
Preseason Rank: #2
Final Numbers: 65 games, .536 / .790 / 0.0 / 18.3 / 11.3 / 3.4 / 0.6 / 1.7 / 2.2
9. LaMarcus Aldridge, POR I want you to picture LaMarcus Aldridge in your head. Now I want you to click this. You’ll never think of one without the other from now on.
Preseason Rank: #10
Final Numbers: 78 games, .495 / .757 / 0.1 / 17.9 / 8.0 / 2.1 / 0.9 / 0.6 / 1.3
10. Kevin Garnett, BOS I ranked him 17th in October because of his health issues, but he was healthy for all but 13 games this season and still looked like his legs were held together by rubber bands and bobby pins. I’m sad because I feel like I never really got a chance to say goodbye to the Garnett that was worth a damn.
Preseason Rank: #17
Final Numbers: 69 games, .521 / .837 / 0.0 / 14.3 / 7.3 / 2.7 / 1.0 / 0.8 / 1.5
11. Marcus Camby, POR Yeah, he was Portland’s center, but he was L.A.’s forward. He was also the “healthy” big man between the two teams. That’s like End of Days type shizz right there.
Preseason Rank: #16
Final Numbers: 74 games, .475 / .639 / 0.0 / 7.5 / 11.8 / 2.5 / 1.3 / 2.0 / 1.2
12. Boris Diaw, CHA I keep hoping for something crazy or amazing from monsieur Diaw. Instead, I get Aerosmith’s other Alicia Silverstone hit, Cryin’. And like Silverstone, with each passing year, Diaw just keeps gaining weight instead of doing anything noteworthy.
Preseason Rank: #18
Final Numbers: 82 games, .483 / .769 / 0.8 / 11.3 / 5.2 / 4.0 / 0.7 / 0.7 / 2.2
13. Andrea Bargnani, TOR The 7 ‘n’ 7 Rule: If you’re 7-feet tall and average fewer than seven rebounds, you have a major flaw in your game.
Preseason Rank: #9
Final Numbers: 80 games, .470 / .774 / 1.5 / 17.2 / 6.2 / 1.2 / 0.3 / 1.4 / 1.5
14. Carl Landry, SAC Had the Sixth Man Award wrapped up until he was Sac’ked. And by Sac’ked, I mean his efficiency spiraled. He went from averaging 16 and 5.5 in 27 minutes with Houston to 18 and 6.5 in 37 minutes per game with the Kings.
Preseason Rank: #20
80 games, .536 / .806 / 0.0 / 16.8 / 5.8 / 0.8 / 0.7 / 0.8 / 1.7
15. Andray Blatche, WAS It’s real simple, Blatche is blecch from the bench (9 / 5 in 45 games) and kickatche as a starter (21 / 8 in 36 games). No gray here. Just Blatche and white.
Preseason Rank: NR
Final Numbers: 81 games, .478 / .744 / 0.2 / 14.1 / 6.3 / 2.1 / 1.0 / 0.9 / 2.2
16. Channing Frye, PHO I’m pretty sure Frye shaved an inch off his height bio, just so he doesn’t have to follow the 7 ‘n’ 7 Rule.
Preseason Rank: NR
Final Numbers: 81 games, .451 / .810 / 2.1 / 11.2 / 5.3 / 1.4 / 0.8 / 0.9 / 0.9
17. Paul Millsap, UTA Millsap didn’t take the step forward I’d we’d hoped for. Then again he only started eight games this season, 30 fewer than last season’s Boozer pout-a-palooza. When he finds the minutes, he’ll be a top 10 fantasy forward. So far, his awesomeness is moving along slower than mill sap in January.
Preseason Rank: #14
Final Numbers: 82 games, .538 / .693 / 0.0 / 11.6 / 6.8 / 1.6 / 0.8 / 1.2 / 1.4
18. Rashard Lewis, ORL At this point, a trey- shooting monkey brings more to the table than Lewis. Not that monkeys are anything to scoff at. In many ways, they’re smarter than us humans. Ever been in the mood to toss your poop at someone? Didja ever end up doing it? See what I mean? Monkeys get away with all sorts of stuff. What I’m saying is, a few of those monkeys can all shoot from downtown and I’d rather have them on my team than former top 20 pick Rashard Lewis.
Preseason Rank: #13
Final Numbers: 72 games, .435 / .806 / 2.3 / 14.1 / 4.4 / 1.5 / 1.1 / 0.4 / 1.5
19. Elton Brand, PHI Philly fired Eddie Jordan, so Sir Elton has until January 1 to woo me all over again. Wooing is important – everyone wants to feel wanted. If you were asked whether you thought Garnett or Brand would be the first to have another 15 / 9 season, would you choose either of ‘em?
Preseason Rank: #15
Final Numbers: 76 games, .480 / .738 / 0.0 / 13.1 / 6.1 / 1.4 / 1.1 / 1.1 / 1.7
20. Kevin Love, MIN I’m going to skip right over the fact that this guy should be promoting lingerie boxing with a name like Kevin Love and get right to it. If Kurt Rambis and the Minnesota Timberwoofs gave Love starter’s minutes, he’d have averaged 17 / 13 and almost a trey a game this season. Instead they opted to use him primarily as the “energy guy” off the bench, never really coming to grips with the notion that their energy guy blocks one shot every blue moon and jumps like he’s wearing stilettos.
Preseason Rank: #11
Final Numbers: 60 games, .450 / .815 / 0.6 / 14.0 / 11.0 / 2.3 / 0.7 / 0.4 / 2.0
Close But No Cigar: Anderson Varejao, CLE (I don’t want that hair on my squad. Do you?); Antawn Jamison, CLE (I’ll deal with 66 games or a .647 FT%, not both)
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Photo courtesy of Yahoo! Sports via Getty Images
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