Fantasy Basketball: The Punting Game, Version 4

Since version 3, we have had a ridiculous number of injuries- Anthony Davis, Derrick Rose, Paul Pierce, Deron Williams, Marc Gasol and Larry Sanders have all gone down either for an extended IR stay or even worse, the whole season. I knew going into my drafts that I wasn't going to touch D-Rose with 10-foot pole, but man, I didn't expect this. This is just unprecedented bad luck.

Note: For the tables below, I have taken out injured players as their values are unchanging and clog up the data. Obviously Anthony Davis hasn't lost his value, but for the sake of this column, it will be a lot more beneficial to discuss players currently in action.

If you've read any of my other articles here on numberFire, you're probably very aware of my man-crush on Pistons big guy Andre Drummond. He and Anthony Davis are emerging as the future frontcourt superstars of the NBA, and he continues to get better and better. As you can see in the tables below, he is officially the most valuable player in fantasy when punting free throw percentage. If you're in a keeper or dynasty league, do anything to get him.

Last time I dismissed Ryan Anderson as a legitimate top-10 fantasy player, but here he is, still in our tables. His season debut coincided right with Anthony Davis breaking his hand, so Anderson was immediately vaulted into situation where he had to produce at a high level. He will continue to be a good fantasy player, especially with Davis out, but pay attention to Davis' rehab. When you hear that he is coming back, I would trade high on Anderson if I could get top-20 value for him.

A guy I'm looking to buy low on is Spurs wing Kawhi Leonard. He was projected to be a top-25 fantasy guy before the season, but is currently ranked 43 by Yahoo!. This was definitely not the production that Kawhi owners were hoping for as he had the upside to be even a top-15 guy, but there is hope. If you punt points, 3s, or assists, he becomes a top-25 player. He showed last season that he can put up both points and three's, so if you can get him at that 45-50 value range, I expect he'll hit top-25 all around by the end of the year.

Making his way into top 10s in a bunch of these tables is OKC big man Serge Ibaka. With both Anthony Davis and Larry Sanders out for the time being, Ibaka has become one of the most valuable commodities in fantasy basketball. All three of those guys were among the few fantasy players that could single-handedly win you a category (blocks). Now, it's just Ibaka. I would make a move for him if the Ibaka owner in my league was willing.

Updated tables below, go poach some value.

Punting Points

Punting 3PM

Punting Rebounds

Punting Assists

Punting Steals

Punting Blocks

Punting FG%

Punting FT%

Punting Turnovers