Every Wednesday this season, I will publish my top-130 fantasy basketball rankings for the remainder of the season.
These rankings are based on season-long rotisserie formats. That means that players who excel in one or two categories will be ranked higher and those who fail miserably in percentages will be ranked lower than they would be in a points system.
So, a 3-point specialist like J.R. Smith gets a bump, while a young star like Andre Drummond, who misses a ton of free throws, sinks. You will want to adjust accordingly based on your league's scoring system.
These rankings are forward-looking. If you want to know where players stand based on what they have done thus far this season, check out the ESPN Player Rater.
My goal here is to give you an idea of how much I value each player for the rest of the 2015-16 campaign. In its most basic sense, I am asking myself if I would rather have Player X over Player Y through April. If so, I rank him higher.
As always, I value your feedback, so feel free to hit me up @AtomicHarpua.
Because we are well past the actual halfway point of the 2015-16 campaign, the All-Star break really marks our entry into the final stretch run of the fantasy hoops season. The absence of game action also presented me with the perfect chance to completely rework my rest-of-season rankings with the final eight weeks in mind.
In particular, the top 15 or so have been shuffled around quite a bit. That includes Anthony Davis finally slipping out of the No. 3 spot and James Harden leaping over both Davis and Russell Westbrook to replace the Brow at No. 3.
I still believe in Davis and think he has a very realistic chance to be one of the top three players the rest of the way, but I think Harden is more likely to be the best player in fantasy down the stretch, and I simply can't ignore Davis' never-ending health issues.
I also moved LeBron James and Kyrie Irving up in the ranks. James went up a couple of spots to No. 8, while Irving leapt from No. 18 to No. 13. I expect it to be the "LeBron-Kyrie Show" in Cleveland for the rest of the regular season -- as we've seen already under the direction of coach Tyronn Lue -- so there should be stats-a-plenty from this pair. In fact, I would have Irving even higher if we could trust his body to hold up.
Other upwardly mobile players this week include the likes of C.J. McCollum and Nerlens Noel. This is the time of the season when young players often get turned loose and end up with a nice spike in statistical production. We saw a downward tick in production from McCollum last month, but I expect him to return to the bigger production in scoring, 3s, dimes and steals that we saw from him in December. Noel remains a regular double-double threat, but he has the chance to be prolific in steals and blocks. Durability and a lack of scoring punch remain issues, but don't forget he averaged 2.1 SPG and 2.3 BPG after last season's All-Star break.
Two big men who I moved in opposite directions are Andre Drummond and Al Horford. Drummond dropped from No. 24 to No. 36. I had him ranked that high because his scoring and volume FG% was strong enough earlier this season to overcome some of the drag caused by his pathetic free throw shooting. However, he has settled in at about 12 FGA and 15 PPG, which isn't impactful enough for my tastes, especially since I don't expect to see a significant spike in scoring from him down the stretch.
Horford has his own issues; primarily, weak rebounding and a general lack of volume, but I felt I need to correct his ranking (No. 46 to No. 35), because any player who can average at least 1 3-PPG, 1 BPG, 1 SPG and nice percentages is a player I want rostered -- especially if he is a big man who can chip in 3-plus assists per game like Horford does.
In similar fashion, DeAndre Jordan took a sizeable leap to No. 44. If you can construct a roster to overcome his hideous free throw shooting, Jordan is a beast in big-man stats. Beastly enough that he should be mentioned as a top-50 option.
Bradley Beal has climbed back into the top 40. There aren't any secrets here; Beal has top-25 upside if he rolling at peak efficiency, but we need to remain paranoid about his troublesome leg issues until he proves over time to be past them.
Along the same lines is Chris Bosh, who I dropped from No. 28 to No. 57, as he appears to be dealing with blot clot issues again. My assumption at this point is that he will drop much further next week and perhaps slip out of my rankings, but he will remain worth keeping until we learn a more specific diagnosis and timeline from the Heat.
Other players whose ranking received a substantial adjustment are Trevor Ariza (No. 91 to No. 66) and Marcin Gortat (No. 98 to No. 76). Neither player has amazing upside, but they are terrific fantasy glue guys -- with Ariza chipping in plenty of 3s and steals and Gortat a double-double machine -- making both underrated options to fill out your starting lineups.
Depending on which trades are (or are not) made by Thursday's deadline, we should see some significant movement in next week's rankings regarding players who have been on the trade block. Tuesday's deal between the Pistons and Magic didn't play much of a role in today's rankings. I gave Brandon Jennings a slight bump (and dropped Elfrid Payton) because he should have a better chance at minutes with the Magic. I don't expect him to bust loose, but he is worth owning in all leagues just to see what happens.