It’s going to be really interesting to see how James Harden fits with Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving. They are all elite scorers who are averaging over 24 points per game so far this season, but how could they all maintain those scoring levels? These are all things that will impact the NBA fantasy landscape.
Since 1990, only four teams had three players average 20 or more points per game (1990-1991 Golden State Warriors, 2007-2008 Golden State Warriors, 2016-2017 Golden State Warriors, 2017-2018 Golden State Warriors). The Nets should become the next team to do that but, what does that mean for their individual numbers and the rest of the players on the team?
On the daily Locked On Fantasy Basketball Podcast, host Josh Lloyd breaks down the James Harden trade and explains how adding him will impact the NBA fantasy value of the other players on the Nets.
Josh Lloyd: Let’s talk about how I see this on the Brooklyn side of things. This trade is going to have an impact on James Harden, it’s going to have an impact on Kyrie Irving, it’s going to have an impact on Kevin Durant somewhat. The guys who take the biggest hits in terms of usage are guys like Joe Harris, Bruce Brown, Jeff Green, and Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot. Guys that you probably weren’t rostering in 12-team leagues anyway, although Brown was moving in that direction.
There’s going to be a hit in both Irving, Harden, and Durant’s assist numbers, they can’t all generate the sort of assist numbers that they are at the moment. So that has to come down to some degree, I just don’t think it’s going to be sticking at the current level that it’s at. So there is going to be a reduction in the assist numbers. I still think James Harden is in that top 3-5 zone. It really does depend a little bit on how the usage works out between them. I imagine that he can still be a 30% usage guy and Irving and Durant in that 27% usage spot. That is really, really up in the air at this point… in terms of being able to mitigate who has the ball in their hands, but those guys are all going to have high usage.
The guys that are playing next to them, which is going to be Joe Harris and DeAndre Jordan, are going to see really really small usage numbers. I’m not sure it leaves Joe Harris as a must-roster player. Now as for DeAndre Jordan, he goes from out of the rotation to probably starting. There’s no other center here. Nic Claxton is the other guy and he’s injured. I think eventually Claxton could start, but with Jordan, we know what he’s going to do. He’s going to get some rebounds and he’s going to help your field goal percentage if you need that. He is worth an add at this point, but he’s not very good and he’s not going to be scoring really at all. The Nets do need another center there unless they’re going to run a lot of Jeff Green or Kevin Durant at the center spot.
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