Fantasy Basketball: Fantasy All Star Teams

We have a terrible system to vote in NBA All Stars. At least the starters. Yao Ming is going to win the western conference starting position and since he can’t play, Andrew Bynum will take his place. Neither deserve to be credited with all star status. But this isn’t about basketball, this is about fantasy basketball. Let’s take a look at the fantasy basketball all stars of the year thusfar.

If we were basing our all stars on who could help your fantasy team the most the teams would look like this:

East:
Starters:
G – Derrick Rose
G – Dwayne Wade
F – LeBron James
F – Amare Stoudemire
C – Dwight Howard
Bench: Josh Smith, Andrew Bogut, Raymond Felton, Danny Granger, Wilson Chandler, Andre Iguodala, Kevin Garnett (Joakim Noah would except he’s injured, and if they needed another guard it would be Rajon Rondo)

Interestingly enough the starters are the starters that will be voted in by the fans. The bench on the other hand has only 3 to 4 possibly all stars. Bogut while somewhat deserving will not be given a place on the All Star team. Chandler is a fantasy god with threes, blocks, and no turnovers, but will not see the all star court. AI is a badass but no one forsees this year being an all star year for him.

West:
Starters:
G – Chris Paul
G – Monta Ellis
F – Dorrell Wright
F – Kevin Love
C – Marc Gasol
Bench: Kevin Durant, Pau Gasol, Manu Ginobli, Rudy Gay, Stephen Curry, Deron Williams, Eric Gordon

This is not the team you expected. Dorrell Wright has been a three point machine who does well in defensive stats, Eric Gordon has been shooting the lights out this year and Monta Ellis (who I think deserves real consideration for the actual all star team has been shooting like Durant while getting 2 threes, 2 steals and nearly 6 assists a game. Gasol is on there just because the centers in the west are weak (Nene is a very close second).

These are the teams if you take into account all stats and don’t pay attention to how fantasy games are actually won. The real all stars are going to be the players who rank highest when you take into account their best stats – the players that can be easily paired with other players to make certain that you’ve won certain categories.

Here are my fantasy all stars (for real):

East:
Starters:
G – Raymond Felton
G – Dwayne Wade
F – Josh Smith
F – Amare Stoudemire
C – Dwight Howard
Bench: Andrew Bogut, LeBron James, Wilson Chandler, Rajon Rondo, Derrick Rose, Andre Iguodala, Al Horford
Notables: Danny Granger, Stephen Jackson, JaVale McGee

If Bogut had been healthy all season he would be the starter over D12 in fantasy world. Felton as a starter over Rose and Rondo is the biggest surprise here, but it shouldn’t be such a surprise as he averages similar numbers as Rose except for points and with that comes less hurt in the FG% department. LeBron not starting is another unexpected fantasy turn, but the absurd defense numbers from J-Smoove have helped establish him as a fantasy monster.

West:
Starters:
G – Chris Paul
G – Monta Ellis
F – Pau Gasol
F – Kevin Love
C – Serge Ibaka
Bench: Kevin Durant, Dorrell Wright, Manu Ginobli, Deron Williams, Steve Nash, Stephen Curry, Kobe Bryant
Notables: Eric Gordon, Russell Westbrook, Rudy Gay, Jason Kidd, Tim Duncan, Blake Griffin, Al Jefferson

Most notably missing are Dirk Nowitzki and Carmelo Anthony. Kobe Bryant barely made the team and Duncan and Griffin were barely throw ins to the notable section. The fantasy relevance of the players dips significantly after Deron Williams and it is because there are some great stats mongers in the west. Love is averaging 15 rebounds and 2 threes, Wright is averaging 2.5 threes with defensive stats and Manu is across the board a great fantasy player. It may be surprising to see Kidd ranked in the notables while Notizki is not, but the truth is that Kidd can be very helpful to some teams whereas Nowitzki is only somewhat helpful to all teams.

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