Fantasy Review For 2018/19 Season:
NBA Champions, a team that made few win now moves with trades for Kawhi Leonard and Danny Green before last season and another one for Marc Gasol at the trade deadline. It all worked out pretty well, also because veterans got a lot of unexpected help from the breakout season of Pascal Siakam.
Changes in the offseason
Lost = Kawhi Leonard, Danny Green
Added = Stanley Johnson, Rondae Hollis-Jefferson, Cameron Payne
They lost their MVP and the best 3&D player, but on the bright side it frees a lot of minutes for young guys, as a team enters a rebuild on a run phase of its life.
Projected Depth Chart:
| PG | SG | SF | PF | C |
| Kyle Lowry | Norman Powell | OG Anunoby | Pascal Siakam | Marc Gasol |
| Fred VanVleet | Terence Davis | Patrick McCaw | Chris Boucher | Serge Ibaka |
| Matt Thomas | Cameron Payne | Stanley Johnson | Rondae Hollis Jefferson | Dewan Hernandez |
Positional Battles: C
Its only a teoretical battle as both Marc Gasol and Serge Ibaka have their limitations due to their age and medical record. Also, they can play together with a thin depth at PF position. So we have two deserving minutes players at the position, that will get those minutes. Nothing to worry here, other than Marc Gasol probably being drunk till the end of December.
Fantasy Relevant in standard leagues
With Kawhi Leonard on board he took a back seat in Toronto’s offense, taking a role of facilitator and three point specialist. It obviously caused some decline in his fantasy value, but we should expect a little bit of bounce back year, where he should record stat lines in the mold of those from the start of last season – 9 assists and 3 threes per game with positive point, steals and free throw influence.
While his officially listed birthday suggests he’s in prime of his career his stats say something different.
His blocks amazingly declined 6 years in a row[!] before last season, when he put together a little bit of a bounce back year. Unfortunately, this year we should expect a further decline. His profile in fantasy has become more of a jump-shooting small-forward than a big guy and he owes the surprising bounce back from last season mostly to the amazing and irreplicable jump shooting efficiency – almost 80% on mid range jumpers for the first three months of last season. It must have been an all time fluke, unfortunately.
He made a huge leap last year and it looks like he might take another given a chance to be a full time leader of this team. The hype is huge for him, but he should stand up to it, being a positive in virtually every fantasy category other than TOs, with a great impact on FG%. Just dont expect him to shoot 55% from the floor again, because as a team’s first option he will find defenses prepared and to progress as a player, he will have to shoot more off the bounce jumpers, what usually means a drop in efficiency.
He is a solid threes, steals and assists option with a bit of upside in case of Kyle Lowry injury and a bit of downside, as he can struggle with the shot for a month long stretches. Consider him as a safe late round point guard, one of the rare sources of assists.
He is a potential top100 player while playing as a starter and a potential fantasy bust while playing as a reserve… in the same minutes. Somehow he is the kind of player that only thrives while playing with the better than him partners. So, lets hope he will be a starter.
OG Anunoby
The opportunity is there for him, we just don’t know if he is anything better fantasy-wise than a younger version of legendary non-contributor, Tony Snell. He might be and areas of production should be threes, rebounds and steals with decent percentages. Until we confirm that, consider him a late round flier.
Could be useful with trades/injuries [or in deeper leagues than 15 teams]:
Chris Boucher, Terence Davis
Just don’t bother with:
Cameron Payne, Patrick McCaw, Stanley Johnson, Rondae Hollis Jefferson
Don’t forget to check the rest of the Toronto Raptors fantasy basketball projections..
Posted in Teams preview