Bold fantasy basketball predictions for 2022-23
Yahoo Fantasy analyst Dan Titus offers some preseason predictions ahead 2022-23 NBA season.
Video Transcript
[MUSIC PLAYING]
DAN TITUS: What's happening, y'all? Dan Titus with "Yahoo Fantasy Sports." And I'm going to give you three bold predictions ahead of this fantasy basketball season.
The first one, Dejounte Murray will outperform Trae Young. Both players finished top 12 in per game value last season. But now that they're on the same team, I feel like something's got to give. And I think Trae Young is going to have his assists go down as a result of Dejounte Murray being in town.
He's going to be playing more off ball, something that he's not comfortable with, and hasn't done much in Atlanta thus far. And if his assists go down, that's really what propped up Trae Young and a lot of his fantasy value. So with Dejounte Murray, I don't have those same concerns. He's a stat stuffer and he can lead the league in steals.
So right now, I have Dejounte Murray 15th in my rankings, I have Trae Young 18th. I'm probably going rogue here, but I think Dejounte Murray outperforms Trae Young. The second bold prediction that I have going into this fantasy season is Tyrese Maxey and De'Aaron Fox will eclipse top 40 value while also becoming all stars for the first time in their careers.
Tyrese Maxey finished 57th overall in per game value last year, but I'm projecting him to have 22 points, 4 and 1/2 rebounds, and four dimes this season with really strong shooting peripherals. So he shouldn't have that much difficulty getting into the top 40.
De'Aaron Fox, on the other hand, finished 98th in per game value. So it's going to take a little bit of a climb for him to get there, but I'm very encouraged by what he did with Domantas Sabonis in the lineup last year in 13 games. 27.8 points, 6.2 dimes, and 4.2 rebounds,
I think he's going to improve his 3-point shooting and his free throw shooting as he's made a concerted effort to do that over the course of this off season. I think we're looking at a top 40 guy and two first time all stars. And my final bold prediction for the fantasy basketball season is Franz Wagner to outperform Brandon Ingram and OG Anunoby.
Wagner finished 103rd in per game value last year compared to OG Anunoby, who finished 52nd and Brandon Ingram who finished 70th. I think it's going to be a struggle for OG Anunoby and Brandon Ingram to get the usage that they had last year.
In Brandon Ingram's case, Zion Williamson's back and CJ McCollum is that going to be there. So I don't know that he's going to have that production that he had last year where he averaged a career high in assists. And if you look at OG Anunoby, he benefited from Pascal Siakam missing several games to start the season.
So in Franz Wagner's case, he's going into the seventh round compared to OG Anunoby and Brandon Ingram going into the fifth. I think he's going to outperform both of them this year. And as I've touted for much of this off season, this is going to be a breakout campaign for Franz Wagner.
[MUSIC PLAYING]