The Fantasy Basketball Vibe Check: Is Jalen Williams playing his way to four-position eligibility?

Welcome to Fantasy Vibe Check, your place to vent about the ups, downs, and surprises of the NBA and fantasy basketball. We don’t have a lot of data to reference when addressing wins or voicing complaints, but it’s been three weeks and that’s enough to talk about some players and their performances.

See who I’m vibing with and let me know in the comments or @dantitus about what makes you excited, angry, and curious when it comes to fantasy basketball.

I’m excited about the Emirates NBA Cup

Emirates NBA Cup group play, previously the seasonal tournament, begins tonight and will take place every Tuesday and Friday until December 3. While it may seem like a series of gimmicky events, last year’s experience was an easy win for the league and fans. According to Evan Wasch, NBA executive vice president of basketball strategy and analytics, pool game scores were tighter than the average NBA game, television ratings were 18% higher than season games regularly, attendance was higher, as evidenced by the breakup last November. League records and social media engagement were “off the charts.” The schedule avoids the NFL’s biggest nights and, with redesigned fields and new rivalries between the groups, will create a more competitive and exciting on-field product.

So how does this translate into fantasy? Well, the stars showed up last year and, in most cases, they were more productive during NBA Cup group play than the rest of the season.

NBA regular season players 23-24 who:

• Averaged at least 30 ppg:4

• Averaged at least 25 ppg: 18

• Average of at least 50 fp/g: 7

• Average of at least 40 fp/g: 32

• Average of at least 30 fp/g: 88

Players in the 23-24 NBA season tournament wheither:

• He averaged at least 30 ppg:9 (+5)

• Averaged at least 25 ppg:22 (+4)

• Average of at least 50 fp/g: 12 (+5)

• Average of at least 40 fp/g: 33 (+1)

• Average of at least 30 fp/g: 89 (+1)

Whether it’s for the monetary incentive or bragging rights, if 39-year-old LeBron James wants to compete at a high enough level to capture the season’s inaugural tournament MVP, then we can expect the bar to remain high for its second iteration. The Emirates Cup will be fantastic to watch and Fantasy managers will benefit too.

It makes me angry that Mikal Bridges doesn’t make it to the line.

I got some action on Bridges this season and noticed that his free throw attempts are hitting a career low of 0.9 per game. It’s been nine games, so it seems too early to proclaim that he can’t bulk up from the line. But that, of course, requires him to receive more fouls.

According to Pivot Fade, Bridges’ game has thrived primarily as a jump shooter. It is usually located between 80th and 90th percentiles in the mid-range, corner three-pointers, catch-and-shoot opportunities and pull-ups.

Going further, he has been able to commit shooting fouls in several ways throughout his career and, on average, he has been able to do so at a rate of 8.5 to 13%. However, that figure has dropped to 3% in nine games so far. he is shooting 0.066 free throws per shot attemptwhich is well below his previous career low of .183 in his fourth NBA season.

Fantasy coaches with Bridges in 9-cat leagues were probably banking on his career 84% free throw shooting as a player in that category. Still, the lack of volume neutralizes any perceived gains. Unsurprisingly, his scoring has dropped to 15 points per game. Although, when evaluating Bridges’ outstanding shooting numbers, he’s not far off from his 2022-23 campaign with the Phoenix Suns. The missing piece is the free throw component. If he can hit three per game and hit his career average, he’ll be closer to a top-40 player than his current 91st ranking in 9-cat leagues. Increasing that percentage by 3 points would also help.

I’m curious to see if Jalen Williams will develop into a four-position player.

Thanks to @Jalves_82 in X for pushing me to think about this topic. I don’t remember a player who has qualified and gained eligibility for four positions in fantasy basketball. Unfortunately, in the wake of Chet Holmgren’s injury, Jalen Williams started at center on Monday, and Cleaning the Glass has him on record 87 possessions in the center and 12% of their minutes downtown as of Tuesday. Remember, Yahoo doesn’t eliminate any position once awarded, so there’s a legitimate chance Jalen Williams gets SG, SF, PF, and C at Yahoo. Let’s look for a second at the criteria for granting a new position.

Without going into too much detail, it’s basically the recipe for Coca-Cola (thanks Dr. A, lol). Yahoo’s product and customer support teams use various software tools and data sources to verify and assign new positions to players.

The Williams situation is interesting because if Isaiah Hartenstein isn’t ready to return next month and the Thunder continue to start Williams at center like they did Monday, the case could be made if he gets to 10 games at center. That would make J-Dub the new cheat code: a player who can potentially start four of five spots in your fantasy basketball lineup.