Fantasy MVPs can come in all shapes and sizes. The high draft picks could be delivering as expected, or maybe you scooped up some value in the mid-to-late rounds of your drafts and it’s paying dividends. There’s also the possibility you found some gems on the waiver wire, and they’re far exceeding expectations. However it happened, there’s data behind which players are on the most successful teams in fantasy basketball.
Today, I will highlight some names that stand out 13 weeks into the season. Let’s dive into the midseason MVPs.
The data I’ll be referencing can be found here, and I’ve always found it helpful to figure out which players are making the greatest impact on winning each season.
The table below shows the list of the top 15 players who appear most often on the top 500 H2H (head-to-head) Public League teams.
Rank
Player Name
Team
Position
Percent (%)
1
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander
OKC
PG/SG
21.2
2
Kawhi Leonard
LAC
SG/SF/PF
19.0
3
Isaiah Hartenstein
NYK
C
18.6
4
Lauri Markkanen
UTA
SF/PF
17.8
5
Collin Sexton
UTA
PG/SG
16.8
6
Brook Lopez
MIL
C
16.6
7
Terry Rozier
CHA
PG/SG
15.6
8
Paul George
LAC
SG/SF/PF
15.2
9
Jalen Williams
OKC
SG/SF/PF
15.0
10
Derrick White
BOS
PG/SG
14.2
11
Daniel Gafford
WAS
C
14.2
12
Grayson Allen
PHX
SG/SF
13.2
13
Mike Conley
MIN
PG
13.2
14
Jonas Valančiūnas
NOP
C
13.0
15
Donte DiVincenzo
NYK
SG/SF
12.8
Observations
I did some digging to understand where each of these players were drafted in the preseason and it’s interesting to see the distribution of when these players were selected.
Of the top 15 players:
1st round – 1
3rd round – 3
5th round – 2
6th round – 1
7th round – 1
8th round – 2
10th round – 2
11th round – 1
Undrafted – 2
Early round hits
The only first-round pick on the list is Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. And it begs the question, should SGA be the top pick next season if he continues to be this good in fantasy hoops? He was also the most-rostered player of top teams by the end of the regular season last year.
Kawhi Leonard and Paul George cracking the top 15 as third-round picks isn’t surprising, considering that both fell in drafts because of their propensity to miss games due to either injury or load management.
One of Leonard or George missed 33 of the Clippers’…
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