Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, the 2022-23 NBA regular season is less than two weeks away. And as the balls are bouncing throughout the preseason, people like you and me are scrambling in preparation for fantasy drafts.
The top few rounds are fairly easy to make good picks — a superstar here and a quality starting player there — but the real league winners figure out how to nail the back half for the draft.
There are plenty of players who get glossed over because of injury history, they play on bad teams, or because they simply haven’t broken out yet. We call those guys the fantasy basketball sleepers, and we’ve got a list of them for you to keep an eye on to fill out your rosters.
1
F Herbert Jones - New Orleans Pelicans
You know Herb Jones, the lockdown guard-the-other-team’s-best-player rookie from a season ago. Well, he’s entering Year 2 and it’s only right to project that he’ll be better with a full season of experience, game reps and weight training under his belt.
He’ll step into the exact same role as a season ago and should be a shoo-in for steals, blocks and 3-pointers throughout his sophomore campaign.
2
G Alex Caruso - Chicago Bulls
Every NBA team needs an Alex Caruso, and so does every fantasy basketball team. Caruso is well-known for his defense and rightfully so. He’ll make life miserable for most perimeter players while sliding into a couple of steals and deflections to add insult to injury.
But A.C. is a very underrated offensive player. He quietly averaged more points and assists, last season, than at any other point of his NBA career, which is nice to add to his career-best 1.7 steals per game in 2021-22.
He’ll likely get a bump in minutes and opportunity as Lonzo Ball is dealing with uncertainty in his recovery from knee procedure(s). So, go ahead and grab Caruso later in the draft.
3
F Robert Covington - LA Clippers
There was one player in the entire NBA who totaled at least 90 blocks and 90 steals last regular season. That player was Robert Covington.
RoCo is the stereotypical 3-and-D wing — long, athletic and able to guard multiple positions on the basketball court. He probably won’t remain at the 45.0 percent 3-point clip he shot with the Clippers on 4.7 attempts per game, but he’ll play the same role.
Expect Covington to play 20-plus minutes per night — sometimes as a small-ball center, sometimes backing up Marcus Morris Sr, or even filling in as a starter on load management games for Kawhi Leonard and/or others. Ty Lue is going to get creative and RoCo will benefit from it.
4
F Jaden McDaniels - Minnesota Timberwolves
Hello, opportunity. J-Mac is going to step into the starting small forward position in the Timberwolves lineup and the general assumption is that he’s going to take off this season. He’s nearly a 7-footer with the length and the agility to effectively defend multiple positions. And when (if) the Wolves allow him to break out of his 3-and-D role, he’ll show the offensive package he has that made him one of the top high school recruits in the nation.
Expect a big jump in his numbers across the board.
5
C Christian Wood - Dallas Mavericks
Is Christian Wood starting or is he not? Not many actually know. But what we do know is that he’s consistently been a good fantasy basketball player, especially during his time in Houston.
As a Rocket, Wood averaged 19.1 points, 9.9 rebounds,1.0 blocks and 1.9 threes on 50.7 percent from the floor and 38.4 percent from deep. Seems like the perfect fantasy basketball big man, if you ask me.
Don’t get caught up in the starter vs. bench player thing. He’s going to play a lot, regardless.
6
G Kyle Lowry - Miami Heat
Kyle Lowry? Yup, Kyle Lowry. He dealt with injuries last season and it somewhat overshadowed his first year in Miami, where he was the starting point guard for a team who finished with the East’s best record and was one win away from making it to the NBA Finals.
The bad news is that Lowry’s points were down but his efficiency and productivity in other areas remained the same. With better health, he should be a fine fantasy player, especially for those managers in need of assists, steals, 3-pointers and rebounds from the guard position.
Grab him while he’s at his lowest.
7
F Kelly Oubre Jr. - Charlotte Hornets
As Miles Bridges’ future in the NBA remains unclear, expect to see a lot more of Kelly Oubre Jr. on the Hornets’ perimeter. And the more you see, the more he’ll take advantage of his opportunities. He’s been around 15.0 points per game and a steal over the past two seasons. Last year he made a career-best 2.5 threes per game and maybe this year he’ll make a jump in another area.
8
G John Wall - LA Clippers
Here’s a risky one. If John Wall is just another dude, at this point of his career as he’s battled injuries, he probably won’t last long on fantasy rosters. But if he’s even 80 percent of who he was when in his prime, the upside for his Clippers tenure, alongside all of that talent, is tremendous.
Many will take the wait-and-see approach but you might run the risk of missing out on him in that scenario. Ty Lue is going to tinker for awhile and then we’ll really know if John Wall is back or not.
9
C Robert Williams - Boston Celtics
Here’s a steal of a pick, if you have patience. The Time Lord is going to be out for a little bit as he recovers from another knee surgery, which is a scary thing to be saying about a player so young. But that’s also the thing — he’s still young. Perhaps his body heals well enough to the point that he can still be a next-level athlete. If so, the blocks, high-field-goal-percentage finishes at the rim and rebounding will all be there.
This could be a draft-and-stash for later on in the season. His production might seriously be needed if Al Horford begins to show his age as the season rolls on.
