The NBA Playoffs are about to start, but before they do we here at Fantasy Alarm want to give out our end-season fantasy awards to some players that likely helped guide some of you to fantasy basketball championships this season.
MVP – Russell Westbrook
When you rack up a league-record 42 triple-doubles and average one for the season, you are almost assured to win the fantasy MVP for the season. Even with the fantastic seasons for guys like James Harden and Giannis Antetokounpo, Westbrook’s achievements were easily enough to make him Fantasy Alarm’s fantasy MVP and it will hopefully be enough to make him the league MVP as well.
Westbrook not only averaged a triple-double this season, but he led the league in scoring at 31.6 points per game and he shot a respectable 34.3% from downtown despite his three-point attempt rate soaring to .300. He led the league in PER, usage rate, assist rate and VORP and if that isn’t enough to win the MVP in both real life and fantasy, I’m not sure what is.
Best Value Pick – Otto Porter
Coming into the season, no one outside of Washington, DC expected Otto Porter to take the leap he did this season. His ADP on Yahoo was 63 before the season started and since then he has flown up to Top 25 fantasy value in standard nine-category leagues for doing everything well and developing into an elite three-point shooter.
Porter improved his three-point shooting once again this season to 43.4% and at times he was leading the league in that category. He added 12 double-doubles from his improved rebounding and he finished above 50% shooting from the floor and above 80% from the foul line for the first time in his young career. If Porter can keep up his 50/40/80 percentages, plus his defense and rebounding, he is going to be a nine category monster for years to come, especially considering he rarely turns the ball over.
Best Sleeper – Robert Covington
If you can ignore his poor shooting at times, as evidenced by a third straight season of averaging less than 40% shooting from the floor, there is a lot to like about Robert Covington. Big Bob is a strong three-point shooter despite shooting just 33.3% from downtown this season and his 1.9 steals per game make him a nice three-and-d type of player.
Plus, when Joel Embiid went down, Covington turned into a monster and after being ranked 105th in Yahoo’s ADP, Covington finished the year as a top 40 player. If you held onto him, or acquired him somehow late in the season, you likely made a nice run in your fantasy playoffs thanks in part to two massive months from Covington. In February and March, Covington averaged over 16 points per game to go with a 56.8% true shooting percentage and 55 three-pointers over his final 23 games. He also added 81 steals (2.1 per game) and 47 blocks (1.2 per game) over the final three months of the season.
Fantasy Rookie of the Year – Joel Embiid
Covington’s teammate Joel Embiid only played in 31 games this season, but even if you only got 31 games out of the rookie big man in fantasy, he still finished as a top 40 fantasy player this season and easily outperformed his Yahoo ADP of 120th. When compared to the per-36 numbers from other great rookie bigs of the past, Embiid’s per-36 numbers were as good or better than guys like Shaquille O’Neal, Hakeem Olajuwon and Tim Duncan this season. This is definitely enough to make him our fantasy rookie of the year.
Add on the fact that he averaged 20.2 points and 7.8 rebounds in just 25.4 minutes per game and as long as Embiid can stay healthy, he projects as a fantasy monster going forward. The only question is whether or not he can stay healthy. The Sixers were extra cautious this season with him and they shut him down the second they knew they were out of the playoff race. Even though he did have to have his meniscus repaired this offseason, it was reported as minor, so if we can expect 60-plus games from Embiid next season, it’s going to be hard to let him slip too far past the middle of the second, to the beginning of the third round in drafts.
Fantasy Breakout Player of the Year – Isaiah Thomas
Isaiah Thomas was already a fantastic player before this season, but he took his game to new heights this year and his fantasy game picked up with it. His Yahoo ADP was 34th in drafts this year and he finished with first round value. He set a career high with 28.9 points per game and even though his usage rate skyrocketed to 34.0% this season, he also set a career high with a 54.6 effective field goal percentage and he posted a career-best 52.8% shooting clip from two-point range.
Even with his small stature, Thomas has carried the Celtics this season and their ability to make a deep playoff run will rely on Thomas’ ability to keep his magical season alive. The two-time All Star still has a lot to prove to the league in this year’s postseason, but when it comes to fantasy value, the C’s point guard will remain a top 15 value in future drafts as long as he is the starting point guard in Boston.
Waiver Wire Pickup of the Year – James Johnson
James Johnson has seen his fair share of different NBA teams. The former 1st round pick of the Bulls was never a great year-long fantasy option before this season despite being a great DFS play at times. However, this season things changed. With the injury to Chris Bosh, Johnson was immediately elevated to the top power forward on the depth chart for the Miami Heat and despite still coming off the bench for most of the season, he turned into a must-own fantasy option with all of Miami’s injuries.
The main reason for his breakout campaign is the one thing that plagued Johnson throughout his career– his offense. Johnson has always been a great defender, but he was kind of an in-between guy in the league without much game on the offensive end. However, with the way the league has been changing, Johnson excelled at both the power forward and center spots this season for the Heat, averaging a career-best 12.8 points per game while shooting 47.9% from the floor and 34.1% from distance. Along with a career-best 3.6 assists per game and a vastly improved midrange jumper, Johnson turned from fantasy afterthought to a top 80 player for the year. He is going to demand a much bigger contract this offseason as a free agent after betting on himself this past offseason with a one-year deal.
Biggest Bust – Derrick Favors
Derrick Favors had a Yahoo ADP of 33rd this offseason. If you took him anywhere remotely close to that, you likely didn’t make it too far in your fantasy hoops league this season. Favors was limited to only 50 games in 2016-17 and he went from averaging 16.4 points and 8.1 rebounds over 32.0 minutes per game last season to pedestrian averages of 9.5 points and 6.1 rebounds over just 23.7 minutes per game this year.
What makes matters worse is his shooting numbers plummeted as well. Whether it was simply his inability to get into a rhythm, or just a regression in numbers, Favors posted a career-worst 51.2% true shooting percentage and shot just 48.7% from the floor this season. He shot an incredible 71.4% inside of three feet in 2015-16 and this season that fell more than 10 percentage points to 61.1%. It’s safe to say that Favors will be a mid to-late-round flier next season in fantasy drafts.