Which Raptors Should You Grab on Your Fantasy Team?

For those of you who love fantasy hoops, and also the Raptors, here’s some help on who from our team you should add to yours.

If you live in most parts of Canada, Labour Day weekend may not be the most exciting thing as a kid. Labour Day weekend signals that summer break is officially over and school is back.

Summer coming to an end does not have to be all that bad. It also means that the fantasy basketball season is right around the corner.

Which Raptors should you grab if you want to win your fantasy league this year?

A couple of caveats before we begin. I will be talking standard 12 team, head to head leagues. In this way, I will take into account points, rebounds, assists, steals, blocks, turnovers, three-pointers made, free-throw percentage and field-goal percentage.

All stats will be per BasketballMonster player rankings and will consider a player’s stats in the last 30 games. This is because often trades, coaching changes, role changes and rotation changes impact a player’s value throughout the year which leads them to either improve or regress over the course of the year.

Early-Rounders

It should not come as to much of a surprise that the two players that you should target in fantasy are also the best players in reality.

Kyle Lowry

Kyle Lowry is a fantasy stud and one of the premier fantasy point guards. He delivers across the board production with averages of 22.4 ppg, 4.9 rpg, 6.7 apg, 1.5 spg and 3.1 3PG. Lowry also shot right around 80% from the line post All-Star break. K-Low is arguably a top 5 point guard in fantasy.

Kyle Lowry’s value is significant because he is able to give you all around production at the point guard spot, as few point guards can rebound the ball at the rate K-Low does. He is elite at stealing the ball and shooting from beyond the arc.

He is also valuable because in fantasy, there is a significant drop-off in point guards after the early rounds. When you forget about Russell Westbrook, John Wall, Chris Paul, Damian Lillard, Kemba Walker, Isaiah Thomas and K-low, the next tier of point guards is not as effective in fantasy. So make sure to grab an early round point guard on fantasy draft day.

I would probably target K-Low in the late 2nd or early 3rd round range. The only thing turning me off from getting K-Low is the injury risk. K-Low has dealt with wrist and knee injuries and could see a cut in minutes as Dwane Casey makes a concerted effort to keep him healthy. He is also on the back-half of his career which is definitely an additional concern.

Although he has been pretty healthy in his last four campaigns, Lowry tends to get hurt a lot because of his play style. This is especially true right around the fantasy play-offs in March. Due to this, Lowry might not be as alluring as a Dame Lillard or J-Wall.

MILWAUKEE, WI – APRIL 27: Kyle Lowry /

DeMar DeRozan

If you’ve been reading my other articles, you know how much I praise DeRozan in reality. However, in fantasy, I would say that my love for DeRozan is not parallel.

Yet, I believe that DeRozan is a quality fantasy player. Some critics do not like DeRozan because he does not give good three-point production at an essential spot. In response, I would argue that there are a plethora of three point shooters in the later rounds of fantasy and perhaps even sitting on the waiver wire. So DeRozan’s lack of three point shooting does not bother me all that much.

DeRozan averaged right around 26 points, 5 boards and 4 dimes while getting little under a steal and a three. He also shot 83% from the line and got there almost 9 times a game.

Thus, DeRozan is an elite scorer something of huge value in fantasy as few players score over 25 a game. He also gets to the line 9 times a game and shoots an awesome percentage. Free throw volume with good percentages is of utmost value and is a recipe for stealing that category.

With all that being said, Yahoo! mock drafts have been over-ranking DeRozan in my opinion. He tends to go in the 3rd round of drafts which is a little too high for a guy who gives you solid production in four categories.

I would much rather take Marc Gasol or Mike Conley at this spot. I would only be comfortable taking DeRozan in the fourth or fifth round. If he happens to slip to you in these spots, you should grab him as well.

TORONTO, CANADA – MAY 7: DeMar DeRozan /

Conclusion

Where would you grab Lowry and DeRozan? Are you higher on them than me or do you like to avoid drafting the in fantasy?

Stay tuned for my next post where I talk mid-rounders and late rounders/sleepers.

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Which Raptors Should You Grab on Your Fantasy Team? (Early-Rounders)

By Jayzer Flores | Sep 4, 2017