Fantasy Basketball: The Effect of the Rajon Rondo Injury

By Corey March
Kevin Liles-USA TODAY Sports

Losing Rajon Rondo to a torn ACL turned the world upside-down for the Boston Celtics and his fantasy basketball owners. Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett may still be the heart and soul of the Celtics but Rondo had been the focal point of their offense in 2012-2013. After a brilliant post-season, Rondo took on a larger scoring role, averaging a career high in field goal attempts per game. His scoring didn’t come at the expense of his tremendous rebounding and facilitating ability either. The triple-double machine will be missed but Celtics fans and his fantasy owners have to set their sights on replacing him now.

Boston was on the fringe of the playoffs, primarily thanks to Rondo so you have to wonder where things will go from here. It’s reasonable to expect Pierce, Garnett and Jason Terry to see a slight increase in attempts to compensate for the loss of Rondo.

The point guard position will be shared by the young Avery Bradley and the veteran Leandro Barbosa with the latter being endorsed as the starter. Doc Rivers said today that Barbosa’s minutes will increase because he is superior to Bradley in terms of his scoring ability. Bradley already plays 25 minutes per game so his time on the court should remain relatively consistent. Bradley is known more for his skill on the defensive end, making him a low-end fantasy player.

Barbosa is the fantasy player to own here and should be added as a low-end starter, especially if you just lost Rondo. Barbosa has always been more of a scorer than a true point guard, averaging approximately a 1:1 assist-to-turnover ratio during the tail end of his career, an appalling number for a point guard. He won’t contribute much other than scoring but he should get up over 10 points per game with Boston’s lack of scoring options.

Share On FacebookShare StumbleUpon

You May Also Like