Deep League Options: Part One
These are players who should be selected in leagues larger than twelve teams. These are leagues for experienced players who are familiar with just about every player on each NBA roster. The deep league options on the Sacramento Kings roster are:
Omri Casspi
Omri Casspi is a player who can hit you a fantasy home run from time to time. He had a 36 point game last season, had three games where he hit 4 or more three points, and had seven games where he grabbed double-digit rebounds. That makes him a streaming option in any league for late in the week and you need a big game from an unowned player.
Casspi should provide you with a good source of threes and field goal percentage. His 5 rebounds and 0.8 steals a game won’t hurt either in a deep league. His points could drop below 10 a game, the 0.2 blocks won’t help and the 67.7% from the free throw line is not a positive value. Select Casspi in a deep league if you believe he will beat out Barnes and Tolliver for minutes and you need value in the categories he produces.
Arron Afflalo
Arron Afflalo is a trick for the fantasy novice player. People know that he scores and hits threes, so they value him in fantasy, but he produces almost no defensive stats whatsoever. If you are in need of points or threes late in your draft then, by all means, select Afflalo, but he is not a great fantasy option.
This stat line is a bit hard for me to project as well. I think he plays around 30 minutes a night, but his shooting percentages from the field have been all over the map the last few years. I am betting he settles in around 43-44% from the field and 84% from the line. The counting numbers should read similar to this 1.3 threes, 3.7 rebounds, 2.0 assists, 0.4 steals, 0.1 blocks, and 13 points per game. If that is the statistical profile you need then take a stab at Afflalo.
Kosta Koufos
Kosta Koufos likely would not have made this category, but he has started each preseason game. I still do not believe it turns into more than 20 minutes a game on the court, but the potential is there. If you view his per minute production, he would be a positive contributor in field goal percentage, rebounds, and blocks. The minutes are very much up in the air, but in a deep league where you need big man stats late in the draft, there are worse picks than Kosta Koufos.