Fantasy Basketball Undervalued Players: Reed Sheppard, Andrew Wiggins, Zach Edey, Alexandre Sarr and Harrison Barnes

Fantasy drafts are all about value. Anyone can draft Nikola Jokic or Luka Doncic at the top, but the best fantasy basketball drafters are the ones who can find production from players in the later rounds who exceed expectations based on their draft status.

Guys who go under-drafted usually come from one of several categories: rookies who excel right away, veterans who move to a better situation, players with expanded roles on their current teams, and good ol’ fashioned out-of-nowhere breakouts.

You could work it to a finer grain, but that vaguely covers why we underestimate players coming into the season. Knowing that guys who excel are going to be drafted in the later rounds or not at all in fantasy drafts, it drives us to put in work to try to find early-round fantasy production from a late-round pick.

Let’s look at one fantasy player at each position that I see as undervalued due to one of the above situations. I used our FantasySP ADP numbers to determine draft value among a player’s position. Some of these guys are available at multiple positions, but I listed them as the position at which we have them rated and with their ranking among that group (with one exception).

Point Guard

Reed Sheppard, Houston Rockets – 36th PG

Sheppard was the third overall pick, a player touted as an analytics darling among the draft community. Analytics are very helpful in evaluating players, but they aren’t the whole story when determining basketball value. Guys must step onto the court and deliver at a high level with a high usage rate to end up among the stars.

Houston obviously saw something they liked in Sheppard by drafting him so high. There was no can’t-miss No. 1 pick this year, like Victor Wembanyama last year, so teams drafted for need and preference more than anything. Sheppard should be able to secure a role in his rookie season.

Sheppard’s 3-point shooting is his biggest asset right now; his pre-draft profile pegged him as a guy who could be a defensive pest, getting steals and deflections even as he gets overpowered by veterans at times. He is also a decent playmaker, allowing him to pick up assists when he drives past defenders who run him off the 3-point line.

Stats will add up for the rookie, making him a valuable fantasy player. Sheppard won’t be a star right away, but he is worth grabbing later in fantasy drafts because he has at least one NBA-ready skill.

Shooting Guard

Andrew Wiggins, Golden State Warriors – N/A

I’m cheating a little bit here because the first two shooting guards I chose ended up not fitting what I was looking for. We have Wiggins listed as a small forward, but he is also available at shooting guard in many leagues.

This is about an expanded role Wiggins might take by default due to the departure of Klay Thompson to Dallas. There are young guys who will inevitably soak up possessions: Brandin Podziemski and Jonathan Kuminga are both first-round picks who are 22 or younger.

If this team is going to compete for the playoffs, though, the veteran Wiggins will have to take on a bigger role, more in line with his status as a former No. 1 overall pick. Wiggins was fourth on the team in usage last season, one spot behind Thompson.

With a bigger role, Wiggins can become a more impactful player in all areas, especially scoring. He can be grabbed late in fantasy drafts and might have the second highest usage rate on the team.

Small Forward

Harrison Barnes, San Antonio Spurs – 33rd SF

Barnes was one of the most hyped players to enter college during my lifetime. He was a Preseason All-American before his first season at UNC, the first freshman to ever receive that honor. After two years in college, he was drafted seventh overall by the Warriors in 2012.

That’s still a great draft position, but it’s not to the heights of the best high school prospect of his generation. You could say the same thing about his whole career: Barnes was always worthy of his spot, but he never quite excelled to that next level.

His best seasons were on losing teams, and he was a complementary player on the championship team he played on in Golden State. There’s nothing wrong with that. About 98% of players would probably switch places with Barnes given the money he’s made and success he has found. He never became THE guy, though.

He doesn’t have to play that role in San Antonio, where the team signed Chris Paul to take over the starting point guard duties and already has Wembanyama as the top dog, ready to blossom into a superstar at any moment (if he hasn’t already). Barnes will get to stand and shoot 3s and focus on defense.

Availability is also a calling card for Barnes: He has played 77, 82, and 82 games over the past three seasons. Barnes is a guy you can get late in drafts and count on to be available to fill in at both forward spots.

Power Forward

Alexandre Sarr, Washington Wizards – 28th PF

The second pick in this year’s draft, the 19-year-old Sarr needs a lot of seasoning before he becomes an impact player in the NBA. The good news for him is that he’s on one of the most desolate teams in the league without many guys to block his path to minutes and shots.

Every rookie needs time to adapt, let alone a teenager from another country. Sarr is a seven-foot athlete projected to be a defensive presence and dunker around the rim on pick-and-rolls as a rookie with hope he can extend out to 3-point range eventually.

That means rebounds and blocks are likely to add up, and Sarr will get easy buckets around the rim, throwing down alley-oops and scoring off offensive rebounds. If he finds long-range success right away, that’s just a bonus. Sarr can be played at center also, adding value at the hardest fantasy position to fill.

This is about a guy who will likely get a long leash on a Washington team without much hope. He’ll be able to accumulate stats, even if he struggles, and is a valuable fantasy player to add late in drafts.

Center

Zach Edey, Memphis Grizzlies – 28th C

Big guys get stats; that’s just the way it works. A 7’4, 300-pound beast is going to run into rebounds, blocks, and dunks just by taking up so much space. Edey is the betting favorite for Rookie of the Year, something that happens when a player racks up a lot of statistics.

Injury and conditioning are concerns with anyone that big, but Edey should be productive when on the court. At the toughest fantasy basketball position at which to find production, a guy like Edey is a high-ceiling player later in fantasy drafts.

Memphis’ ability to win right away might bring times that Edey is put on the bench while he gets better with defensive schemes, especially on pick-and-rolls. This isn’t a guy likely to finish as a top-five fantasy center.

The Grizzlies drafted him ninth overall, though, and they’re surely going to throw him into the fire to get him ready for playoff minutes. Over a long season, Edey will get a lot of run against opponents that he simply outsizes to the point that he gets easy stats in short spurts.