2023-24 Fantasy Basketball Rookie Rankings

The following Fantasy Basketball Rookie Rankings are based on one-year categories and head-to-head formats which are pretty standard. Relative to dynasty basketball, every year only five to six rookies give viable fantasy production in one-year redraft fantasy basketball leagues. Conversely, in deeper leagues, that number can get up to 10, but not any more than 15.

Take 2022 for example. In shorter leagues, players like Paolo Banchero, Jaden Ivey, Benedict Mathurin, and Keegan Murray saw substantial success in their minutes. Although Jabari Smith had lackluster shooting percentages for his entire season, he still finished well enough to hold bench spots. Having Benedict Mathurin as a consistent starter though would have seen a lot of minutes between the bench and starter roster, ultimately shifting his value weekly. Jaden Ivey saw more touches when Cade Cunningham was out for the season. Betting on a lot of rookie production in your fantasy basketball league can lead to a lack of success in head-to-head or category leagues.

Picking the right rookies can lead to league championships. Just have to know when to hold them, and when to fold them.

Fantasy Basketball Rookie Rankings

Rookie Ability

Ability and statistical accumulation are two lines on the same graph that can intersect. Initially, looking at a player like Brandon Miller is enticing because of his playability and opportunity. He may not have the same ability as Scoot Henderson. Scoots’ single-year fantasy viability may hold the edge before any news of Damian Lillard leaving the Trailblazers surfaces. There are a few players that have both the ability and minutes potential to accumulate enough categories to help win the league. Making sure you have the right player is important!

Let’s take a look at a few instances for this year and last year. Victor Wembanyama may be one of the greatest players of all time as far as potential goes, but for this year he may only be a relatively inefficient big who is a rebounder and shot blocker. Jabari Smith Jr. was heralded as one of the best pure forward shooters to come out of the draft. Sadly, he only shot 30% from three and 40% overall. Not exactly the best display of shooting talent throughout the season that was demonstrated in college. As mentioned before, other players like Jaden Ivey get the kind of run that your team may need if an injury like Cade Cunningham’s presents itself. Those are impossible to predict, but using depth charts can be an important source in deeper leagues to analyze a potential selection, especially later in the rounds.

Depth Charts

Preseason depth charts can be misleading or uninformative. You can find eight depth charts with eight different lineups, none of which tell you exactly what to expect for this season. What we can expect is predicting some semblance of injury possibility for those ahead of our rookies on the chart. Also, it does not hurt to get some NBA trade machine thought processing into the mix either. Portland is the best example of this, while the Suns and Clippers can be informative as well for injury risk. A rookie can find himself in the mix simply because Kawhi Leonard has a cold. Non-generational rookies will have playing time issues on deep teams.

Consider Herb Jones. That Pelicans team was lacking significant defensive wings and riddled with injuries. He may not have been incredibly ready, but Jones put together a season worthwhile in deeper leagues, and competent in shallower ones. His defensive metric prowess was advantageous to fantasy owners. Andrew Nembhard was another one of those examples, albeit for a worse team.

Noah Clowney, Kobe Bufkin, and Dariq Whitehead are examples of this in today’s NBA.  The Brooklyn Nets have six players in the last year of their contract. Alternatively, it would make sense to extend players like Nic Claxton, but it seems as though they are in a wait-and-see position where they could trade a few of their contracts away for positional improvement.

There will always be value. As long as you consider the possibilities and the potential, it will not steer you wrong.

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