NBA fantasy basketball--All-Star forwards for 2009

April 21, 10:37 AMFantasy Basketball ExaminerBruce Allen

Previous Next

Comment Print Email RSS Subscribe

Subscribe

Get alerts when there is a new article from the Fantasy Basketball Examiner. Read Examiner.com's terms of use.

Email Address   Include other special offers from Examiner.com Terms of Use

In salary cap leagues, these guys were your Top Ten.

Now that the NBA regular season is over, most fantasy leagues are also done.  Mine is, and I'm pleased to report that I cracked the Top 100 players in the nation on the last day.  This report will look at the best forwards for the season in salary cap leagues.  We will follow up with guards and centers in the next few days.

This chart was derived from data collected at fanball.com's Free Fantasy Basketball Challenge.

Ranked by Fantasy Power Index, my arcane formula incorporating fantasy point production and salary, the top fantasy forward in the NBA this past season was Wilson Chandler of the Knickleheads.  A 6'8" sophomore from DePaul, he played in all 82 games, averaged 25 fantasy points per game for the season, became a started midway through, and took up virtually no room under the cap.  Chandler and David Lee (#4 on this list) give the Knicks a solid nucleus upon which to build going forward.

The rest of the list includes young starters from 8 other teams.  Paul Millsap will become a starter once Utah jettisons Carlos Boozer, which should occur this summer.  Scola, at 29, is not young, but is in only his second year in the league.  He became a full-time starter when T-Mac had his surgery in February and Artest moved to the 2-guard spot.  Hawes became the starting center in Sacramento when Brad Miller left for Chicago.  LeBron James, soon-to-be-MVP, stands out on this list due to his high salary and ridiculously high point production.  The formula for calculating FPI makes it very difficult for highly-paid players to make the list.  As with most everything he does, LeBron makes "very difficult" look very easy.