We are three days away from the kickoff of the NBA preseason, and boy, has it come fast. It feels like just yesterday, the Denver Nuggets were hoisting their first trophy in franchise history, but this week, they will begin preparing to be the first team to hold up two in a row since the Warriors dynasty back in 2019.
With the rapid approach of the new campaign, fantasy basketball drafts are beginning to kick off worldwide. The landscape of players has changed – as it does every offseason, and 2023 presents new opportunities to find some hidden gems in your drafts.
This article will cover some sleeper picks to be had throughout the NBA player pool; ideally, ones that can prove to be league-winners or at least provide higher value than their average draft positions suggest. Let’s get to it.
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2023 Fantasy Basketball Sleepers
Malcolm Brogdon (PG/SG – POR)
Had I written this article even two days ago, Malcolm Brogdon would be virtually nowhere near this list, and if anything, he would have likely ended up on a number of “do not draft” articles. The volatility of the NBA trade landscape, however, changes everything here. Suddenly, Brogdon arguably finds himself as a focal piece of the Blazers’ depth-ridden roster.
The former Rookie of the Year and Sixth Man of the Year should be a key piece in the Portland backcourt following the departure of Damian Lillard and (more recently) Jrue Holiday. It should essentially be a three-headed dog, in most instances, between Brogdon, Anfernee Simons and rookie guard Scoot Henderson. Brogdon has proven more than capable of accumulating stats at an efficiently high clip when provided enough floor time. He averaged 15 points per game across just 26 minutes played with the Celtics last season, and that playing time number looks bound to increase here. Currently settled in around the 100th overall player in fantasy drafts, Brogdon has fifth or sixth-round upside in his current role on his new team.
Russell Westbrook (PG – LAC)
Putting Russell Westbrook on a “sleepers” list feels like a crime given his career-long pedigree, but here we are. Ranked in the 11th round near the likes of Al Horford and Kevin Huerter, no player in this range has sustained production like Westbrook.
Though expectations were tempered on the 34-year-old as he embarked on his stint with the Clippers, Westbrook outperformed them admirably in 2022 en route to his 11th straight campaign of averaging at least 15 points and seven assists per game. Nothing looks set to change here in the 2023-24 season, as the Clippers backcourt remains unchanged heading into the season. Working alongside Paul George and Kawhi Leonard once again, Westbrook will continue providing ample statistical outputs in multiple categories, even as he approaches his late 30s.
Jalen Duren (C – DET)
Last season, Jalen Duren showed glimpses of why the Pistons selected him with the 13th overall pick in the 2022 NBA Draft. The big man averaged 9.1 points, 8.9 rebounds and nearly one block per game across 67 appearances as a rookie. Duren, standing in at 6-foot-10, 250 pounds and still just 19 years old, should have the starting center position locked down in Detroit for the upcoming year.
Duren played just under 25 minutes per game as a rookie, but his per-36 averages would have seen him average north of 13 points and 12 rebounds per game last season. At this point in their careers, backups James Wiseman and Marvin Bagley do not seem to pose any real threat to Duren’s playing time. The Detroit Pistons are once again not expected to be good this season, which should allow Duren to develop while playing excess minutes across the full season. His upside alone makes him more valuable, given where he currently lands in fantasy basketball drafts.
Scoot Henderson (PG – POR)
Scoot Henderson’s fantasy value needs to be expected to rise substantially over the next couple of weeks, given the fallout of the Lillard trade. For many of the same reasons highlighted for Malcolm Brogdon earlier, there is arguably even more merit in drafting the rookie Henderson now.
Henderson’s role became more clearly defined with Lillard out of town, and he may now even be in the driver’s seat to start at point guard on day one. You must assume that Portland knew what they were doing when they drafted him third overall back in July. An impressive guard for the G-League Ignite in 2022, Henderson averaged 16.5 points, 6.5 assists and 5.4 rebounds per game while playing an average of 30.7 minutes. He should be able to duplicate those numbers or best them in his first NBA season, yet he currently slots into the 12th-13th round turn of fantasy leagues. Now is the time to acquire him where applicable before he skyrockets upward.
Deni Avdija (SF/PF – WAS)
The Washington Wizards are in a seemingly continuous rebuild, and that will not be changing for the 2023-24 season. That is good news for fourth-year pro Deni Avdija, whose path to playing time has never been higher than it will be this year.
Avdija projects as the starting power forward for Washington, and he should be able to hold that role down, assuming he produces early on. He will certainly be looking to eclipse his numbers from last season, in which he averaged just short of 10 points per game across an average of 26.6 minutes played. We did see glimpses of what the Israeli-born player is capable of, as he collected 11 double-doubles last season. He just missed a handful more and was even close to a handful of triple-doubles. Avdija can be had for chips near the end of fantasy drafts and looks like an easy sleeper selection given his raw potential.
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