Choosing the right players and knowing when to avoid landmines are essential factors in building a competitive fantasy basketball team. Yesterday we covered the guards deal with competition or injury problems; Today we will focus on three forwards who will disappear in fantasy basketball.
(Create or join a Yahoo Fantasy Hoops league for the 2024-25 NBA season)
Before we jump in, it’s worth noting that I was about to include Kawhi Leonard on the list. However, with the news that he’s on the rise for the season opener, I feel what I felt before – his load management is baked into his ADP and I wouldn’t draft him unless he falls on a late fourth-round pick.
Brandon Ingram – SG/SF/PF, Sacramento Kings
Ingram is in an interesting position heading into the 2024-25 season. He’s eligible for a max contract extension, but the Pelicans don’t want to pay him the $200 million deal he’s seeking. Opposing teams didn’t jump at the chance to trade for him either. So from a fantasy standpoint, there isn’t much to look forward to as he plays out the final year of his contract.
BI’s usage rate of 26.8 was the lowest in his four seasons with the Pelicans. His lack of availability is also a concerning trend, failing to play more than 65 games per season since his rookie campaign. Then there’s the emergence of Trey Murphy III and Herb Jones, two contributors to Ingram’s slowdown in minutes to 32.9 per game last season. Insert Dejounte Murray into the equation, and Ingram’s 5.7 assists per game with a 26% assist rate will surely decrease. He might be motivated to get his next bag, but there are too many cooks in this kitchen to confidently select him late in the fifth or early in the sixth round, because his ADP suggests.
Keegan Murray – SF/PF, Sacramento Kings
I’m proud of Murray’s talent; making him disappear depends more on the situation and the arrival of DeMar DeRozan who stunts Murray’s offensive growth. He was the Kings’ fourth-leading scorer at 15.2 points per game, improving in seven categories since his rookie season. Murray excels beyond the arc, and I fear his role with the new-look Kings will remain that of a catch-and-shoot threat.
Murray is essentially a lesser version of Mikal Bridges when he was with the Suns – a guy whose effectiveness should improve with so much attention paid to his supporting cast. Still, his seventh-round ADP points more toward his ceiling. This is a reasonable option if you’re looking for 3s and steals, but I’d probably opt for players who offer more counting stats, like Mark Williams, D’Angelo Russell, or Jabari Smith Jr.
Jerami Grant, SF/PF, Portland Trail Blazers
There are a few reasons why I’m not feeling Jerami Grant. On one hand, he’s transformed into a 3-point sniper with empty stats who plays more like a two-guard than a power forward. Cutting down 3.5 rebounds in almost 34 minutes a night is dirty work. He’s also not accumulating inventory like he used to, accumulating the least amount of inventory of his career last season, which brings me to my next gripe: his availability (or lack thereof).
My man disappeared during the fantasy playoffs, after playing in 11 games over the last two seasons in March. Finally, Grant is a veteran on a rebuilding team who will likely be fixed at some point. Her a lucrative contract is a sticking pointbut expect his minutes to fade the longer he stays with the Blazers. Grant has an ADP in the 10th round, so go in another direction with higher upside potential – players like Derek Lively, Collin Sexton, Zach Edey or Onyeka Okongwu.
