Fantasy Basketball Mailbag: Who has been the biggest bust of the season?

Fantasy basketball is still continuing, so I did take questions from Twitter and Instagram to try and help you make the most of your fantasy team. Let’s get to it.

@Jaeee_Young What kind of role do you see Willie Cauley-Stein having in Dallas? Consistent minutes in the upper 20s?

It’s a tough one. Cauley-Stein in Golden State couldn’t get those sort of minutes, despite his competition being Omari Spellman and Marquese Chriss.

In a standard points leagues, Cauley-Stein is a lot more valuable than in category leagues and he has been a top 80 player the last two years.

The Mavs have been going small lately though, starting Seth Curry in place of Dwight Powell and they also have been giving more minutes to Delon Wright.

They may start Willie, but there is also Maxi Kleber around, so I think him getting similar minutes with lower usage than we saw in Golden State is probably a more realistic expectation.

@gaftra Biggest bust of the season so far?

There are a few candidates here, but I think the answer has to be Mike Conley.

He was a fifth-round player last year in Memphis and was thought to just slot into Ricky Rubio’s role in Utah, while expanding that role as well.

Fitting with Donovan Mitchell and how the usage would go were queries, but no-one could’ve expected what we’ve seen.

He is currently outside the top 130 on the season and since he returned from his second hamstring injury, Conley is outside the top 200.

He is playing off the bench at the moment, and with the Jazz looking like on of the best teams in the NBA with Royce O’Neale and Joe Ingles starting, I’m not Conley is even going to make it back into the starting lineup.

For a guy you may have used a top-four pick on, that is a disastrous return on that investment and it’s not all due to injury.

@taigrrr Is Lauri Markkanen a drop?

Lauri Markkanen has been bad this season. To rub salt into our wounds, Markkanen will miss the next 4-6 weeks with a pelvis issue and the messaging from Chicago is weird.

The reports are that if this was the playoffs, he would be able to play, but the only way to fix it is to rest, so he will be out until March, most likely.

He is barely a top 100 player this season and with potentially six weeks out, I can’t see a reason to hold onto Lauri, unless you have an IL spot to put him into.

@GooseFace84 Do you think coaches/GMs limit statistics of players based on finances?

This is a common thought among the general public, that coaches reduce the playing time of upcoming free agents, especially restricted free agents, to suppress their value and enabling them to resign on a friendlier contract.

I would be floored if this happened.

We all love to dig deep as to why our favourite player, or our fantasy players, are playing less than we want, so excuses get constructed and conspiracies developed.

But imagine if this was the case. The NBPA (player’s association) would be up in arms at artificial cost control, players would know about and it would damage that team in free agency, as well as in their current locker room, it would damage the reputation of the head coach and associate coaches, as well as the GM and the other front office people.

The negative PR and repercussions that come from it would far outweigh saving a couple of million dollars, plus it also makes your team worse and win fewer games.

Don’t forget to follow me on Twitter and keep an eye out for the next mailbag tweet to gather your questions.