Each Sunday, we here at Today’s Fastbreak have been providing a list of five players for fantasy basketball owners to target as free-agent pickups in the coming week. Today, we’re taking the opposite approach: highlighting five players who are owned in far too many leagues despite diminishing returns.
If you’re an owner of one of these five players, it’s understandable if you’re reluctant to rid yourself of them. After all, you likely sank a relatively high draft pick into them back in October, passing up promising mid-round options like DeMar DeRozan, C.J. McCollum and Marcin Gortat in the process. As fantasy football owners of Eddie Lacy, C.J. Anderson and Andre Johnson can attest, though, sometimes it’s best just to write off a high-round pick as a sunk cost and move on.
While you shouldn’t necessarily cut any of these players outright, it’s worth seeing if you can even get 60 cents on the dollar for them at this point. If you’re able to flip one for a buy-low target — Harrison Barnes, Bradley Beal or Derrick Favors, perhaps? — you’d be wise to entertain the idea.
Kenneth Faried, PF, Denver Nuggets (93.4% owned)
Having Kenneth Faried included here physically pains me, as I was sky-high on him heading into the season, believing new Nuggets head coach Mike Malone would provide a stable environment for him to thrive. Though the Morehead State product started the season off hot, averaging 12.6 points on 55.6 percent shooting, 9.0 rebounds, 1.1 assists, 1.1 blocks and 0.5 steals in 26.8 minutes per game over his first 25 contests, his production has begun to taper off since late December.
Over his past six games — four of which have come with second-year big man Jusuf Nurkic back in the lineup — Faried has averaged 8.8 points on 41.4 percent shooting, 8.7 rebounds, 1.5 assists, 0.7 blocks and 0.5 steals in 25.3 minutes a night. As Nurkic works his way back into the rotation, Faried’s minutes may continue to decline, particularly with Darrell Arthur playing well as of late. It appears as though the fifth-year forward simply can’t be relied upon as a consistent fantasy contributor.
Tobias Harris, PF/SF, Orlando Magic (91.3% owned)
This was always the risk with the Magic hiring Scott Skiles as their head coach, wasn’t it? Given the amount of talent Orlando has on its roster, Skiles’s early-season rotations — in which Evan Fournier and Tobias Harris routinely played 35-plus minutes a night — came as a legitimate surprise, as he long had a reputation in fantasy circles as a needless meddler who shook up the minutes he doled out with little rhyme or reason.
Though Harris is averaging 32.7 minutes per game this season, his scoring has taken a nosedive, as the Magic simply have too many mouths to feed on that end for their own good. He’s scored 20 or more points in just five of his 38 games this season, and he’s been especially cold as of late, averaging just 9.4 points on 37.1 percent shooting, 6.4 rebounds, 2.9 assists, 0.7 blocks and 0.4 steals over his past seven contests. With Aaron Gordon forcing his way into Orlando’s rotations more as of late, Harris’s production may continue dipping as the season progresses.
Kobe Bryant, SG/SF, Los Angeles Lakers (86.8% owned)
Just as Kobe Bryant had begun rounding into form after a historically bad start to the season, the injury bug reared its ugly head. The Mamba played just 16 minutes in the Lakers’ 95-91 win over the New Orleans Pelicans on Tuesday due to a sore right Achilles tendon, which has head Lakers trainer Gary Vitti angling to shut him down for a week or two to recover, per Broderick Turner of the Los Angeles Times.
When asked about Vitti’s plan Wednesday, Bryant “laughed and walked away,” per Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News, but head coach Byron Scott conceded that he, Bryant, Vitti and general manager Mitch Kupchak need to figure out how to help the 37-year-old finish the year healthy, per ESPN.com’s Baxter Holmes. “Obviously he can’t play 30-32 minutes per game,” Scott added. Between the risk of Bryant’s minutes severely declining and his gruesome field goal percentage (35.0 percent) in such a high-volume role, the Lakers legend could soon be doing more harm than good for fantasy rosters.
Enes Kanter, C, Oklahoma City Thunder (79.9% owned)
Why Enes Kanter is owned in about 80 percent of ESPN.com leagues is completely beyond me. After averaging 18.7 points and 11.0 rebounds in 26 starts with the Oklahoma City Thunder last year, he signed a four-year max deal over the summer, but his per-game averages have all taken a drastic nosedive from his 2014-15 production. OKC has opted to bring him off the bench this season as a super-sub, which has limited him to 11.4 points on 56.7 percent shooting, 7.6 rebounds and 0.5 blocks in just 20.1 minutes per game.
Though Kanter is setting career highs in his per-36-minute averages for points (20.4) and rebounds (13.6), he’s simply not seeing enough floor time on a nightly basis to merit 80-plus-percent ownership. With guys like Boston’s Amir Johnson (12.3 points, 9.3 rebounds and 1.3 blocks over his past seven games) and Charlotte’s Cody Zeller (11.9 points, 8.5 boards and 1.3 blocks over his past 10) available in more than 50 percent of ESPN.com leagues, you’d be better off dumping Kanter and streaming a rising big man, barring an injury to Steven Adams or Serge Ibaka.
Julius Randle, PF, Los Angeles Lakers (75.2% owned)
Until Julius Randle works his way back into the Lakers’ starting lineup, he’s not a must-own player in leagues of any size. Since moving to the bench on Dec. 7, Randle has averaged 9.4 points on 36.6 percent shooting, 9.8 rebounds, 1.3 assists, 0.6 steals and 0.3 triples in just 24.2 minutes a night over those 19 contests. His rebounding totals certainly aren’t anything to scoff at, but aside from that, he’s not providing enough help in any other category to mitigate his damage in FG%.
As the Lakers’ season goes further into the tank — particularly if Bryant must begin shaving his minutes considerably — Randle could conceivably carve out a larger role in the team’s rotation, making him perhaps a sneaky buy-low after the All-Star break. In the meantime, though, Scott has shown zero indication of being willing to demote Larry Nance Jr. from the starting lineup, severely capping Randle’s fantasy upside for the time being.
Honorable Mention: Eric Gordon, SG, New Orleans Pelicans (76.0% owned)
In the spirit of full disclosure, I have a confession to make: Prior to his eruption Wednesday night against the Sacramento Kings, Eric Gordon was a near-lock to make this list. Since Tyreke Evans’s return in early December, Gordon has averaged just 12.7 points on 42.6 percent shooting, 2.3 assists, 2.1 treys, 1.9 rebounds and 0.8 steals in 31.5 minutes per game, and his numbers had dipped even more considerably in the seven contests prior to Wednesday.
Against the Kings, though, Evans played only seven minutes before his balky right knee flared up again, opening the door for Gordon to erupt to the tune of 24 points, six triples, six assists, five boards, three steals and a block in 43 minutes. Though Evans doesn’t expect to miss any time due to his knee, per Marc J. Spears of Yahoo Sports, Gordon’s owners would be wise to hang onto him for the time being just in case, as his value would once again skyrocket if Evans is shelved temporarily.
All Player Rater data and ownership percentages via ESPN.com and are current through Wednesday, Jan. 13.
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