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Victor Wembanyama goes No. 1 in Rotoworld\u2019s 12-team expert fantasy basketball mock draft. See how the rest of the draft unfolded. <\/p>\n
Matas Buzelis (SF\/PF, CHI) – ADP: 101<\/p>\n
Buzelis is everybody\u2019s breakout pick, and his ADP on Yahoo sites alone is now inside the top 80 picks. A lot of that is because of what he has done this preseason, but also because he showed what he can do in a high-usage role last season when he averaged 13.3 points, 4.4 rebounds, and 1.1 blocks in 27 minutes per game over his final 33 games. There will be some inconsistencies because he\u2019s still a young player who just turned 21 years old this week (CHEERS!). Still, Buzelis will assuredly find himself in a high-usage role for a rebuilding Bulls team that lacks many playmakers apart from Josh Giddey and, sometimes, Coby White. Buzelis can do a little bit of everything, and I think he should be able to improve on those numbers we saw in the final 33 games, but do it for an entire season. <\/p>\n
Toumani Camara (SF\/PF, POR) – ADP: 110<\/p>\n
Can I call somebody a breakout just because I like their vibe? I enjoy the way Camara plays basketball, and his nickname is \u201cThe Shadow,\u201d which is almost enough of a case for him to appear in this article, but there are legitimate on-court reasons as well. Camara is an excellent defender, which will help you with STOCKS, but also will keep him on the court for major minutes. Last season, he also took a big step forward offensively, improving his usage rate and becoming more efficient as a scorer. However, he scored only 11.3 points per game, so I think another step is coming. With Anfernee Simons and Deandre Ayton out of town, there is more opportunity to go around, so I think Camara will see his usage rate increase again this year. He\u2019s not likely to be an elite scorer off the dribble, but he continues to improve as a shooter, so if we think of him as a 3-and-D wing with the tools to add a little value as a slasher and finisher in transition, there\u2019s a chance he pushes for top-50 value. <\/p>\n
Reed Sheppard (PG\/SG, HOU) – ADP: 111<\/p>\n
Yes, Sheppard didn\u2019t do much last year and played only 12.6 minutes per game, and is on a team that just traded for Kevin Durant, so he\u2019s clearly not going to emerge as a major offensive force in his second season. Still, Sheppard was the 3rd pick in last year\u2019s draft and was a \u201chigh floor\u201d prospect who could shoot, play defense, and see the floor well. Even as a rookie, he posted elite deflection rates that backed up his strong block and steal numbers from college. He\u2019s a strong shooter and should push for the starting PG job with Fred VanVleet out. Even if he settles in somewhere around 10-14 points per game, he\u2019s going to make some threes every game and initiate offense for a Durant-led team that should give him solid assist numbers to go along with STOCK upside. I think he can help across all nine categories. <\/p>\n
Mitchell Robinson (C, NYK) – ADP: 182<\/p>\n
Robinson has already \u201cbroken out\u201d if you\u2019re a New Yorker who has been waiting for him to start and be healthy forever. When he\u2019s on the court, his rebound numbers are insane, and he\u2019s an efficient scorer around the rim. However, things could be much better for Robinson this season. With Mike Brown now coaching the team, Robinson looks likely to start in New York with Karl Anthony Towns at power forward. That alone will allow Robinson to post tremendous rebound numbers with solid points\/blocks. Yet, another level of breakout could happen because Mike Brown wants the Knicks to play fast and get out and run. Even though Robinson isn\u2019t the athlete he was as a rookie before all of his lower-body injuries, he\u2019s a great athlete for his size and could thrive in a transition-based offense. This could be a big year for Mitch. <\/p>\n
Isaiah Jackson (C, IND) – ADP: 185<\/p>\n
The breakout case for Jackson is simple since he will likely start at center with Myles Turner gone on a Pacers team that also needs to replace the scoring and usage of Tyrese Haliburton. Fantasy baseball drafters are aware of this, and Jackson is zooming up boards; however, there is plenty of breakout potential here. He has been great per minute as a reserve, and should have plenty of value for a team that is desperate for people to step up. Even if his offensive game doesn\u2019t take a huge step forward, he will have plenty of value in rebounds, blocks, and steals. We also need to note that he is coming off a torn Achilles, so the only question will be how quickly he actually does get back to 100%. <\/p>\n
Adem Bona (C, PHI) – ADP: 226<\/p>\n
Bona was basically a defense-first, high-efficiency big man off the bench for the vast majority of last season. However, he started 11 games at the end of the season with Joel Embiid hurt and posted 14.9 points, 8.4 rebounds, 2.4 blocks, and 1.2 steals in those games. That\u2019s the kind of upside you\u2019re dreaming on here, and we know his breakout potential is fully tied to Embiid\u2019s health. However, Embiid is never healthy and is coming off yet another knee injury. Bona was solid for Turkey in EuroBasket, and I think he\u2019s ready for a bigger role this season. He won\u2019t be a huge scorer, but is a good athlete, with plenty of block\/rebound value.<\/p>\n
Moussa Diabate (C, CHA) – ADP: 228<\/p>\n
The breakout case for Diabate is a little bit less for him to emerge as a star and more for him to emerge as a solid NBA starter. I think he can take over the starting center role in Charlotte, but he will have to beat out Ryan Kalkbrenner. When he was given the chance to start last year, he showed elite rebounding value and also solid STOCK value as well. He has always been a great rebounder and high-motor player, but he\u2019s also evolving as a scorer, and we\u2019ve seen some nice post moves from him in the pre-season. I think he can get more involved in the offense this season, and his defense will keep him on the floor, which means he could be a legitimate double-double threat every night this season. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"We are now one week away from the start of the NBA season, which means many of our…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":215807,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-215806","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-basketball","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-basketball","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215806","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=215806"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215806\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/215807"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=215806"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=215806"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=215806"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}