Fantasy Review For 2018/19 Season:
After strong statistical season that didn’t get them into the playoffs, Denver Nuggets went for an amazing on court season, but in fantasy world their players were a bit of a disappointment as a group. Almost every single one of their core players not named Jokic underperformed in the matter of statistical value.
Changes in the offseason
Lost = Trey Lyles
Added = Jerami Grant, Bol Bol
Projected Depth Chart:
| PG | SG | SF | PF | C |
| Jamal Murray | Gary Harris | Torrey Craig | Paul Millsap | Nikola Jokic |
| Monte Morris | Malik Beasley | Will Barton | Jerami Grant | Mason Plumlee |
| PJ Dozier | Jarred Vanderbilt | Michael Porter Jr | Juancho Hernangomez | Bol Bol |
Positional Battles: Everywhere
Although there are three locked starters on the team, the biggest problem with Denver from the fantasy point of view is a fact that they have far too much talent and far too much depth. Their SF rotation is a perfect example of that, with five to six players eligible to play the position, and none of them projects to be playing more than 26-28 min. If they like to play all of their promising young players, they would have to use 13 player rotation. The most important time split for fantasy GMs is the one between Paul Millsap and Jerami Grant. Both capable of huge performances, they cap each others potential this year only by their presence.
Fantasy Relevant in standard leagues:
49,4 FG%, 83,9 FT%, 1,42 3PM, 18,16 PTS, 10,68 REB, 5,96 AST, 1,18 STL, 0,82 BL, 2,77 TO
He is making a steady progress as a fantasy contributor and season 19/20 should be no different. Last year he was again a top8 roto 9 cat player on a total basis, despite taking a noticeable dip in threes (he went from 1,5 3PTM on 39,6% shooting to 1,0 3PTM on just 30,6% shooting). If he gets back to the 37-40% level of three point shooting this alone brings him up a level. The other interesting tidbit here is a fact that he had 2.4 deflections per game but only 1.4 steals per game. That suggests that there is still more in him in terms of defensive stats.
He has suffered a drastic decline to his statistical production last season, that pushed him out of to100 in fantasy basketball. His field goal was almost 5% lower than in any season other than his rookie campaign. It looks like a fluke. As he is healthy… for now, we should consider him as an obvious bounce back candidate.
The most important part of his breakout two years ago was that he got a chance for it. Based on his per-minute numbers he didn’t do anything extraordinary, he just played more minutes than expected and put together skills flashed in the previous season. But, even if we consider, that last year he wasn’t himself due to injuries, it is easy to say, that he is never coming back to the level he was on two years ago. Right now he is just a late round flier and a stash in case of injuries of some better players.
He is a CJ McCollum type of player in fantasy basketball – points, threes, free throws and nothing more. After a mini breakout two years ago and finishing in top60, last year he lost some of his great for a guard efficiency and fell all the way down to the top80 kind of range. Right now it is hard to project him as anything else than later round scoring specialist.
He is currently in a standby waiting for playoffs to begin. Nothing to see here.
Could be useful with trades/injuries:
Paul Millsap, Monte Morris, Malik Beasley, Will Barton
If another injury hits Paul Millsap Jerami Grant emerges as an obvious pickup candidate
Just don’t bother with:
Torrey Craig, Mason Plumlee, Juancho
Don’t forget to check the rest of the Denver Nuggets fantasy basketball projections..
Posted in Teams preview