Fantasy Basketball: The numberFire Hoops Writers' Draft
Round 3
| Pick | Overall | Player | Team | Position | Writer |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 25 | Kemba Walker | CHA | PG | Dale Redman |
| 2 | 26 | Bradley Beal | WAS | SG | Alan Goldsher |
| 3 | 27 | Gordon Hayward | BOS | SG/SF | Abe Schwadron |
| 4 | 28 | Blake Griffin | LAC | PF/C | Jay Kim |
| 5 | 29 | Mike Conley | MEM | PG | Austan Kas |
| 6 | 30 | Klay Thompson | GS | SG/SF | Russell Peddle |
| 7 | 31 | Kevin Love | CLE | PF/C | Sam Hauss |
| 8 | 32 | Marc Gasol | MEM | C | Jordan Sharp |
| 9 | 33 | Joel Embiid | PHI | PF/C | Alex McDonald |
| 10 | 34 | DeMar DeRozan | TOR | SG/SF | Shae Cronin |
| 11 | 35 | Jusuf Nurkic | POR | C | Brett Oswalt |
| 12 | 36 | Otto Porter | WAS | SF | Brandon Gdula |
Joel Embiid is one of the most interesting selections in drafts this season. In only 31 games and 25.2 minutes per contest last year, Embiid managed to rank as the 37th fantasy asset in nine-category leagues, with monster numbers across the board. On a per-36-minute basis, he jumped all the way up to 16th. He's not going to get 36 minutes a night this year, and the Sixers will likely exercise extreme caution with his games and minutes played in general, but he has the potential to be the top fantasy player in any given year going forward. I like the dart throw at 33.
The rest of this round was pretty close to consensus, without any major deviations. Brett grabbing Jusuf Nurkic at 35 comes with a lot of risk given his history of injury and generally not giving a crap when he played for the Denver Nuggets, but we saw a glimpse of his potential last season after he was traded to the Portland Trail Blazers. Over the last two months of the season (20 games), Nurkic ranked 44th in nine-category leagues with a fat stat line. If he can stay healthy and replicate that, he could be the next Nikola Jokic-esque breakout in fantasy hoops.
My pick: I'm not a huge fan of Klay Thompson in fantasy, since he only excels in three areas (points, threes, and free throw percentage) and I want more category juice than that at this juncture in my draft. Given that I got Karl-Anthony Towns and Rudy Gobert with my first two picks, however, I needed help in precisely the areas that Thompson provides and the only other guys I liked in this range (Marc Gasol, Joel Embiid) were centers as well. I'm a big fan of drafting best available this early, but it's not like Thompson was a scrub last year, finishing the season ranked 31st in nine-category leagues. I'll take it.
