Fantasy Preview: Andre Iguodala

With the Sixers and NBA teams opening up training camp in less than four weeks, we’re going to take a player-by-player look at the Sixers’ roster — and their fantasy impact for the upcoming season.  Today, I’m going to begin with swingman Andre Iguodala.

Maybe it’s that he plays in front of half-filled arenas for a team at the epicenter of mediocrity.  A 41-41 season (+/- 2 wins or losses) for the Sixers seems as predictable as a sunny San Diego day.

Maybe it’s that he’s not throwing up 25 shots per night. In fact, Iguodala didn’t have his first 20-FG attempt night until February 28th against Orlando last year.

Regardless of the reason, AI2 seems to always fly under the radar on draft day.

Last year, he averaged over 18 points, five rebounds and five assists per game.  That puts Iguodala in elite company.

The only other players to average at least 18-5-5 were LeBron James, Dwayne Wade and Chris Paul, all of whom will likely be drafted within the first five picks of your fantasy draft.  And they could very well be the first three picks.

But what about Iguodala?

Looking at Yahoo’s Big Board, Brandon Funston of Yahoo! ranks Iguodala 21st.  I consider Iguodala a steal at 21 and I would definitely consider drafting AI2 in the first-half of the second round (picks 13-18) of a 12-team league.

If you look at his numbers over the past three seasons, they’ve been remarkably consistent.

• Scoring: 18.2 ppg (2006-07), 19.9 ppg (2007-08), 18.8 ppg (2008-09)
• Rebounding: 5.7 rpg (2006-07), 5.4 rpg (2007-08), 5.7 rpg (2008-09)
• Assists: 5.7 apg (2006-07), 4.8 apg (2007-08), 5.3 apg (2008-09)

With the exception of assists (4.8 per game in 07-08), Iguodala has averaged 18-5-5 in each of the past three seasons.

Considering Andre Miller’s departure to Portland and new coach Eddie Jordan installing his Princeton-style offense, I don’t expect Iguodala to fall short of five assists per game.  In fact, I expect him to set a career high in assists as the offense will originate with  — and flow through — Iguodala more than ever.

When it comes to fantasy basketball (or any fantasy sport, for that matter), numbers are all that matter and Iguodala’s numbers speak for themselves.

(FYI: If you’re doing a fantasy football draft this weekend, we’ve prepared a top 150 cheatsheet that averages the rankings from five different sources.)

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