It’s another exciting week for NBA fantasy players around the world. Some teams are surprising the league with great performances out of the gate while others, that were expected to be great, have faltered. The same goes for NBA players. These few players are especially primed to be dropped from your fantasy basketball team.
Lou Williams
If you haven’t dropped him yet, the trend continues. Williams is nowhere near being the NBA Sixth Man player he was a year ago. Williams is shooting 44 percent from the field and 33 percent from beyond the three point line. He’s scoring 16.7 points per game but is down to 24 minutes a game and dropping. Williams’ assist totals are rising slowly but not close to the 5.3 from last year. His production has been up slightly but it’s clear he is slowing down. He doesn’t do much on the glass and is even averaging nearly 2 less free throws a game. The Clippers need to figure out where he’s going to fit in with Beverley, Bradley and others filling up the back court.
Reggie Jackson
The Detroit Pistons’ point guard needs to go from your roster. He’s been a popular pick this year and the Pistons are having a surprising amount of success being 4-1. The Pistons will head to Boston to take on the number 1 ranked defense in the Celtics for the second game in a row. On Saturday, Jackson was only able to score 8 points and 4 assists in a 20 point loss. On the year, he is shooting 37.9 percent from the field and averaging 16.8 points. His minutes are up around 30 but assists and rebounds are down from a year ago. Interestingly, the number for personal fouls for Jackson have nearly doubled, up to 3.2 per game. He is taking double the number of three point shots a game, over 7 and hitting 36%. You don’t want him on your team while he attempts his best streaky shooter impression.
Carmelo Anthony
After being a half away from the finals last year, the Rockets have taken a step backwards. They’ve replaced hard-nosed defense and corner three specialists with Carmelo Anthony… Carmelo is not the Carmelo of old, even though he is taking up minutes on the Rockets’ roster. He’s playing for over 31 minutes but only making 5.2 shots a game and scoring 14.7 points. He is averaging 0.8 assists (Melo does not like to pass), 63.6 percent from the charity stripe. and 41% overall. Melo doesn’t do much, if anything, on defense. The name recognition makes him hard to drop, but this Carmelo is a shell of his former self. At 16 years in the league and at the age of 34 it is understandable. Don’t let the years of nearly 25 points per game fool you, he’s got to go.
Sit, Don’t Drop
Gordon Hayward
Hayward was a very popular fantasy pick for good reason but it’s too early. There is no guarantee that Hayward will ever return to his pre-injury form. This year, his minutes are way down to 24.2. The small-forward is only getting 11 points per game and 1.4 assists. The almost 6 rebounds is a nice little stat but only 50 percent from the free-throw line and less than 10 attempts. His attempts are down to 9.8 from 15.8 with the Jazz and field goals are down to 4.2 from 7.5. This could be how the Celtics decide to play Hayward for the majority of the season. If that trend continues, consider dropping him. However, know that it may never be time to drop Hayward, just put him on the bench for this 3-game week.
