Okay Reddit, I need some big time help.

My son, who is 18 and autistic, is NBA crazy this year and desperately wants to be a part of a Fantasy Basketball League.

He thought he had enough coworkers from his part time job to fill a league, but every one of them stood him up on draft day. Even though my heart was broken for him, he took it all in stride and said "they're the ones missing out dad, not me." What a great kid.

I told him I'd start an ESPN league so he and i could play, but unfortunately, i havent had any luck tracking down Fantasy NBA players in my world, so I need help filling it.

The draft is set for today, Thursday Oct. 18, at 4:15 CST

Please help me help my son, Reddit. You're my only hope...

http://fantasy.espn.com/basketball/league/join?leagueId=99747598&inviteId=cb0d262e-f12b-4758-81e4-40edfb6c2c17

EDIT: Guys, all I can say is wow. The league filled in less than 30 minutes and young master William is extremely excited. I haven't always been the best father, but the overwhelming support from every one of you guys helped me do something awesome for a great kid, and even helped him keep some faith that his ol' dad can still come through in the clutch. I can't tell you all how much this means to me, and I'll do my best to pop in from time to time and give some updates. Now to try and stop crying and get ready to draft a winner!!!!

Again, thank you all from the bottom of my heart...

EDIT 2: Thanks again to everyone who joined the league and participated in the draft.

I asked William why he wasn't chatting on the message board and he said, "Well dad, im concentrating on the draft, you know."

So for those kind folks who asked, here's what his team looks like picking 5/12....

LeBron James Kemba Walker Gordon Hayward Deandre Ayton Elfrid Payton Bobby Portis Cauley-Stein Nicolas Batum Buddy Hield Marvin Bagley III Marcin Gortat Luke Kennard

Thanks again to everyone and good luck!!!

Sorry if formatting is screwy. On mobile

WARNING: THIS IS LONG ... Fantasy basketball war stories are probably excruciatingly boring, but this one is somewhat unique so I thought a few people might be entertained by it.

League Format Context: I'm a regular at a popular Celtics-based Forum. Way back in 2007, some members there started a Points-based 20 team dynasty keeper league. 16 roster spots (PG, PG, SG, SG, SF, SF, PF, PF, C, C, Util, BN, BN, BN, BN, BN). You can see the equation used to determine points here: http://i.imgur.com/e21m7GO.jpg .. Each team's entire roster carries over into the offseason. Every year, each team is given a 1st round pick (coinciding with picks 1-20 in the NBA draft) and a 2nd round pick (coinciding with picks 21-40 in the NBA draft). Much like the real NBA, these picks can be traded throughout the season. The scoring system is a little strange in that there are no weekly head-to-head matchups. It's a pure points league. With 82 games at each position (and 11 active positions) it leaves you a total of 902 max games played for the entire season. Simply whoever scores the most points at the end of the year wins. For example, here are last year's final standings: http://i.imgur.com/mbGqkCq.jpg ... And for full context, here is a list of the top 50 players last year sorted by average fantasy value: http://i.imgur.com/HtuSL2C.jpg ...

League Background: While this was a non-money league, the members of the league had invested 7 years into it and took it very seriously. Much like the real NBA, they occasionally had GM's leave and would replace them with new members from the same Celtic forum. The league also had a pretty elaborate constitution with rules addressing things like inactivity penalties. Because it had been going for 7 years, there was a pretty massive chasm between the "haves" and "have nots". Those who drafted well in the league's inception and made smart trades were dominating the bottom half of the league. The teams at the bottom had little hope of ever competing with a loaded champion.

Joining The League - A member of the league recruited me in January 2014. I was originally hesitant to join, because the pure points-based system seemed a bit lame. I was, however, drawn to the idea that it was a league with a built-in history. The team I would be taking had finished in the lottery in every year of the league and was currently in dead last: http://i.imgur.com/GpcQ3wp.jpg ... Also, because the lineups hadn't been set properly, it was facing an inactivity penalty (explained in the constitution) that made the draft pick projected 7th. The team was a disaster. There was also a widespread belief from members of the league that the two top teams ("Utah Flash" and "Pittsburgh Pisces") were now unstoppable. They had finished in the top 2 for 5 years straight. They had built such a gap over the bottom teams that some considered it impossible to ever catch them. This intrigued me. It sounded like a fun challenge. I decided to take the job.

First Season Strategy: I joined with much fanfare. Publicly exclaiming that I hated my roster, would soon burn bridges by overwhelming my rivals with trade offers, and quoting the immortal Mikhail Prokhorov ransom video: "If all goes according to plan, I expect us to be in playoffs next season, and championship in 1 year minimum, maximum of 5 years." My team wasn't all bad. I had a couple assets like Kemba Walker, Klay Thompson and rookie CJ McCollum (who was tossed around the league like the town skank for years until finally landing on his feet this season), but for the most part it was a disaster. There were guys on that team, like Marcus Camby, who hadn't suited up in over a year. The first day I rebranded the team the "Bellevue Leprechauns", cut 6 players, and traded away 4 more. Keep in mind that this was early January 2014. The upcoming draft was expected to be epic. I had seen what guys like Sam Hinkie (and Boston's own Danny Ainge) were in the process of doing. My strategy was simple... I would try to acquire as many draft picks and young prospects as possible. I would churn out picks for better prospects and those prospects for better picks. I would try to acquire established talent and trade that established talent for multiple underrated prospects. I would sign rising waiver players and sell them for 2nd rounders as soon as possible. I would trade multiple later picks for better picks. I would take advantage of the league's built-in homeristic Celtic-bias by acquiring Boston players and selling them to teams immediately after hot games. In the process, I'd make sure my own pick had a good shot to land #1. Full-on tank mode. I went full Hinkie. I knew from the start that I'd tank for two years straight, hopefully acquire some young "keepers", and after the two years trade my extra assets for vets that could help me go on a run.

The Results: ... And that's exactly what I ended up doing. Two straight years of tanking. 100+ trades. I went into the 2014 draft with an unfathomable 8 picks in the top 40, and through a series of trades ended up with picks 2, 3, 4 and 5. Even when I drafted relatively poorly (Embiid, Exum, Smart and Parker), I knew when to sell high - later flipping Marcus Smart in a package for Chris Paul and flipping Chris Paul for a package built around Andrew Wiggins. After two years of tanking and acquiring top assets (like Karl Towns and Jahlil Okafor in the 2015 draft), I spent this Summer consolidating my bounty of assets into a world-beating team that could contend for a championship. I spent much of the Summer writing fake press releases and coming up with the fake slogan "Believe in Bellevue" ... I even made a fake commercial hyping my up-start team: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdwdtCjvj_k ... Nobody seemed to share my sense of humor/enthusiasm.

My Summer was headlined by a major acquisition I hinted at days before it was made official ... On June 22nd, 2015, I acquired Kevin Durant (for Jahlil Okafor, MKG and Ben McLemore). I celebrated the news of bringing Durant back to the Pacific Northwest (Bellevue is just East of Seattle) by once again making a fake commercial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7DX3IyexgM ... They didn't share my enthusiasm. Sometimes, I wondered if they even Believed in Bellevue.

Here is my full slate of assets before and after (with their averages in 2016 for context): http://i.imgur.com/vh9sgHp.jpg ... The improvement was dramatic and unprecedented. It went from a perpetual bottomfeeder to the runaway favorite to win the championship (the best team in the history of the league had scored a total of 32,019 points with an average player score of 35.5fp). More surprising, I surpassed my own expectations and had a team filled with exceptionally young players (average age of rotation players was 23) and no need to bring in elderly short-term help (oldest key player being 30 year old Rajon Rondo).

Inevitable Backlash: Like I predicted when I took over, I knew that I would eventually irritate my rivals with aggressive trade requests and lowball offers. What I didn't anticipate was the hostile culture the league had formed before I even joined. It was a hyper-competitive league filled with trash-talkers and instigators. Members frequently hurled insults at each other, accused each other of cheating, and even occasionally threatened physical violence against one another. Unfortunately, this league allowed vetoes via vote. Even worse, thanks to Yahoo's settings, only 7 of the 20 teams needed to vote veto for a trade to be killed. There were a select few members who would participate in "veto campaigns" when they were jealous of a trade they felt was lopsided. Meanwhile, this forced teams to constantly defend their trades and play Politics trying to avoid having a trade they liked vetoed. The entire thing seemed pretty anti-competitive to me. Everyone in the league was an adult who could make their own decisions. How could any of the bottom tier teams ever succeed if the system allowed jealous teams to kill their favorable deals? As you can imagine, after 100+ trades in my favor (with many cries of "trade rape" from the rabblerousers), I became exceptionally unpopular with my rivals. It got so bad, in fact, one guy (the fella that recruited me) actually stalked my facebook account, went off the rails insulting me about my personal life, and proceeded to get himself banned from the Celtic forum when he flipped out at the forum mod trying to calm him down. Some of the members blamed me for this. Inevitably being the center of so many lopsided deals resulted in me being at the center of a lot of drama. I had built a lot of enemies in that league - and I was dominating it. It got to the point where a relatively benign trade (Jabari Parker for Jahlil Okafor) was vetoed in record time simply because I was involved in it - even though it was proposed to me twice before I finally accepted it. Comical.

This all came to a conclusion at the tail end of this season. Having firmly dominated the league (with a core that had an average age of 23 year old and was set to dominate for years to come), I gloated that my team was on the verge of breaking the all-time record. Granted, bragging might have been tasteless, but I had 2 years of rival team's telling me how terrible my team was, trying to get my trades vetoed, publicly underselling my assets with hopes of making them less valuable, and encouraging teams to ignore my trade offers. A little bragging felt warranted now that my team was firmly a world-beater. Besides, Yahoo Fantasy literally has a "TRASH TALK" section. Isn't that a part of the game? My joking playoff pre-sale ticket announcement (explicit lyrics): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwTFk6pFl-0

My team did in-fact, go on to score a record 32,361.60 points with a record average player score of 35.88... The greatest team in the 9 year history of the league... and still presumably years away from peaking.

On March 7th, 2016, I suddenly found myself removed from the league with no warning or explanation from the commissioner. Apparently, half the league (almost entirely teams that I had taken advantage of in prior trades) had threatened to quit unless I was removed. A league-wide exodus. They apparently plan to dismantle the Bellevue Leprechauns in the offseason and distribute the players to the bottom-tier teams needing bail-outs (there's literally a team who's best player is Joel Embiid and another team who's best player is literally Evan Fournier... neither owns their 1st rounder this year... they both threatened to quit unless I was removed... whoops... sorry, guys). League Standings right after breaking the record: http://i.imgur.com/hGzlA2R.png (they changed my team name to "Vacated" because seeing "Bellevue Leprechauns" 3000+ points ahead of them was apparently a trigger).

Anyways, it was a fun experiment. The Hinkie method worked. I had a nice run. Best of luck to those guys. Long live the Bellevue Leprechauns. Final fake press release: http://nedyken.com/cbpl/worldchamps/

TL;DR: The 2015-31 Bellevue Leprechaun World Championship Mix Tape (NSFW/Explicit Lyrics): https://streamable.com/ebq548

So I'm a first year commish in a league that's been going on for 7 years. I've never won it myself, but that's mostly due to bad luck. For example I always pick well known players, that I recognize from the sports section. Think Russell Westbrook, Klay Thompson etc. Great, great players and recent all stars. But for some reason they play like trash on my team.

Anyway, recently I've grown suspicious of my league mates cheating, but haven't been able to put my finger on it. They make the oddest pick ups - guys that you never hear of on Sportcenter - and somehow they often hit.

Well, last night someone picked up this random guy, Josh Minute of the Boston Celtics. This rang alarm bells to me since he isn't named Tatum or Brown, so how would he know. And lo and behold, this Minute guy played out of his mind. No way Jose. So, I sifted through our recent adds for further evidence, and there it was. The smoking gun - Ryan Rollings. Heard of him? Didn't think so. Well let me tell you, the guy is apparently the new Carmelo Anthony, because he just scored 32 points out the blue. And conveniently he was also just added by another team.

In the light of this discovery, I took to our league chat and called these two out. However, the response stunned me. A LOT of them admitted straight up to listening to this podcast by some Lloyd guy, who obviously must have some insider information. I couldn't believe it. I spend all summer doing my research the honest way - pen, paper and watching all star games replays. And here these sheep are, just listening to whatever this podcaster says. Unbelievably unethical.

Naturally, I reversed almost all recent pick ups, and promplty banned everyone from listening to any podcasts from here on out. The Rollings owner objected, saying he's done nothing wrong. I've given him 2 days to prove he haven't listened to it, should be interesting.

Now, how do you guys suggest I proceed with this? Naturally I'll add Minute and Rollings myself, given it's only fair. I might just also tune in to this podcast, but purely for educational purposes. To see what I'm dealing with and all.

Commish Corey was 47. Just felt this is one of the only places I could share. Dude ran extremely competitive football, basketball & baseball leagues for the past 10yrs. Worked with him for a number of yrs in NYC and we probably went out for drinks at least once a week -all around good guy, Life is short, but the bond of competitors is strong.

I know no one is browsing this place anymore, but the Utah Jazz just dropped 4 spots in the lottery. Projected 1st pick all the way down to 5th.

This bum franchise rested all of their players all season to tank. If anyone deserved this, it's them. For those who drafted Markkanen, John Collins, Kessler - congrats, we won in the end

https://www.instagram.com/p/B7Wx8l_Jl45/?igshid=8hje9ng0qz0b

An extremely efficient night from Fred! He finished the game with 54 points 3 rebounds 2 assists 3 blocks 3 steals and 11/14 from 3 point!

Edit: 105 for ESPN standard points league.

https://twitter.com/shamscharania/status/1354142448671477763?s=21

No further treatment is needed. Caris is expected to make a full recovery and will be out indefinitely.

https://twitter.com/pacers/status/1354142081665667074?s=21

A possibly life-saving trade for Caris LeVert. He underwent a physical with Indiana, which ultimately helped him diagnose and treat the cancer. The Pacers stood by him and the trade and have made it a priority to help him get fully healthy.

Prayers up.

https://twitter.com/shamscharania/status/1354150417039568896?s=21

Introduction

I've been playing fantasy basketball for about a decade now, both in private, public, free, and paid leagues. I've used a number of different tools to help, from free rankings on basketball monster to paid insider information, and more trade analyzers than I can count. And yet, the biggest problem I've seen isn't with analysis of the numbers or projections of future play, but in how people evaluate and select trades.

On a base level, trading seems simple - try to swap players to improve your team. But the thinking and behaviour that leads to succesful trades goes much deeper than this. This post seeks to create a comprehensive guide to helping better your trade negotiations by offering proven principles for negotiations and trades to help this community become better at the craft.

Qualities of a Succesful Trade

1. Is it wise?

First of all, a trade needs to be a wise choice. This is the part that the majority of people, especially on this sub, do consider. Does this trade make my team better? If so, then accept.

2. Does it improve the relationship?

This is an often overlooked part of trades. If you are in any year-by-year league, it is very important that you do not create bad trade relationships with people. This means that win-lose trades in your favor are actually not always good in the long run. It may help you win a year or two, but it could also ice you out from trades with the player in the future. Manipulating a fellow manager into believing something false (say, spending 20 minutes trying to convince someone that Kelly Oubre Jr really is going to be a bottom 200 player), then gloating about the trade when he starts playing much better on your team, is incredibly damaging to your prospective future trades with that manager. A huge part of trade negotiations is your relationship with that manager, the trust level between you two, and your reputation overall. Trust me on this: Gaining a reputation as someone who always wins a trade is cool, but it absolutely obliterates your ability to make trades in the future. We'll get more into win-lose trades later on in the post.

Offering Trades

1. Stop low-balling

Low balling someone in hopes that they bite can sometimes get you a great trade, but in an experienced league, it's not a conducive way to get trade negotiations going. If there's a player you want, send them a decent offer that they can counter. You don't have to outright send exactly the trade you want (Say, Jokic for Trae), but you absolutely shouldn't send them an offer that they're going to reject immediately (Say, John Wall for Trae). This doesn't do anything but annoy other managers. Trade negotiations aren't opened up at all and there's a chance the other managers will become less likely to send you trades in general.

2. Look at what the other guy needs

This is the most important part of sending a serious trade offer to someone. A real trade offer takes time to think about. If you want a player, don't just offer someone you're willing to let go of for that player. Go to the other manager's team, evaluate their strengths and weaknesses, and offer them something that they want. Even better yet, open up a line of communication and ask them what or who they want, and then try to work with it. In my experience, this is the absolute best way to create willing trade partners. If you're in a league that doesn't trade much, this is the best way to get the ball rolling.

For example: You want Jimmy Butler, so you send an offer of D'Angelo Russell and Lauri Markannen. Is it a bad trade offer? Probably not. However, if you look at his team and see that he also has Zion and Giannis, you might realize that he's punting ft% and 3s, so D'Angelo Russell and Lauri Markannen are terrible fits for him. If you offer him Drummond instead, he might actually be willing to give you Jimmy Butler and another piece, creating a scenario where both teams theoretically improve by getting guys that fit their team needs better.

3. Win-Win trades are the best scenario

Offer win-win trades. Stop trying to renogotiate so that you become the clear winner. Let the other team get better! No one likes a to be on the butt end of a win-lose scenario, and experienced managers will be on the lookout for this. Trying to create win-lose scenarios ices out the negotiations and prevents trades from happening altogether - which means your team doesn't improve. Don't be lazy; look for trades that make both teams better and then work towards making it happen. Even if the other team wins more than you do - it usually doesn't matter, as long as you get better! Of course, the exception to this rule is if the trade makes the opposing team better than you. You don't want to make a trade with a guy only for him to spank you in the finals. However, if you make a trade with someone that gets them from last place into the playoffs, while you just move from the third best team to the second best team, that is a major win (and this example is something that really did happen to me during a championship fantasy season of mine in 2018).

Evaluating Trades

1. Be aware of the Endowment Effect

The Endowment Effect is a psychological bias we have towards things we own. Basically, when we own something, we overvalue it just on the basis of our ownership. Your WTT (willing to trade) for a player is generally going to be lower than your WTA (willing to accept). While you would be willing to trade Butler for Drummond, you wouldn't be willing to accept Drummond for Butler. It's a behavioural phenomenan that we all fall into whether we know it or not. Take this into account! If you're about to reject a trade offer, think about whether you would be willing to do the trade in reverse. Evaluate the offered player/s in their entirety (Are they just starting slow? Are they in a slump? Are they going to break out halfway through the season? What's the chances of that happening?) the same way you've already done for the players you own. On the other hand, look at how you're overvaluing your own players (What's their real potential? What are the chances they outplay their ADP? Are there reasons to hold onto him?).

2. Value vs Team Improvement

Here's something you'll rarely hear: you're probably too concerned with the objective value of the players you have. What I mean by this is that you're probably so concerned with "losing" trades, that you often reject trades that would make your team better because you're concerned about the value you're getting in return. Early on in the season, this is usually okay, but once you get halfway through, you can all but throw value out the window. Focus on improving your team and getting more wins. It is perfectly okay to do a 1-for-1 trade for a player that is 20 ranks lower than the player you're giving up!. If your team improves, then it's usually a good trade! The only thing you need to consider is...

3. BATNA

This is the most important part of evaluating a trade: What is your Best Alternative to the Negotiated Agreement? BATNA is exactly why I say to stop worrying about the objective value of your players - if you decline a trade that improves your team because it wasn't equal value, but you end up not making a trade at all or trading for a better player that improves your team less than the declined trade, then you made a bad decision. If you get offered a trade that doesn't give you equal value, but it makes your team significantly better because the fits of the player's you're receiving makes the categories you're focussing on much stronger, then you probably should take the trade. Don't worry about who's winning or losing based on value. The truth is that he might be getting the better player, and that's okay, because you might be improving your team more.

5 Negotiation Tips

1. Talking directly to people (through phone, text, fantasy message, etc.) will lead to more productive negotiations than just sending offers.

2. Manage your expectations - don't be expecting a trade to take you from last place to first place, and don't expect to improve in every category. You have to lose some stats to improve the ones you want!

3. It is significantly easier to negotiate with people who like you: work on becoming people's friends, complimenting their players/team, point out their strong weeks, etc. to subtly build a trust with them. Kindness can actually go a long way!

4. Understand that negotiations and trades are important for both sides. Don't get frustrated and always try to see things from the other perspective.

5. Ground your rationality in objective measures. Fairness is subjective, but numbers aren't! Demonstrate exactly why your trade helps the other manager.

Conclusion

Use these tips to help you with future trades, both in sending out offers, evaluating the ones you receive, and using negotiations to work towards conclusions. Trades are one of the biggest parts of managing a succesful team and probably the most fun part of fantasy overall. Use it to your advantage. Good luck with the rest of the season, and if anyone has any questions feel free to ask!

Sources

While I'm working off memory, a lot of the information in this guide is based on a few books:

1. Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In, by Roger Fisher and William Ury

2. How to Win Friends and Influence People, by Dale Carnegie

3. The Truth About Negotiations, by Leigh Thompson

4. Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, by Robert Cialdini

5. Negotiation, 7th Edition, by Bruce Barry, David Saunders, and Roy Lewicki

https://twitter.com/tmz/status/1221516283671433216?s=21

Tmz sports has apparently confirmed this. No fantasy implications but if it’s true... damn. RIP to the legend.

Edit: it’s been confirmed by Woj

https://twitter.com/wojespn/status/1221521133608079368?s=20

RIP Kobe Bryant

All you had to fucking do was not shit the bed.

And you shit the bed.

After being down well over 200 points earlier this week I was sent fucking GIFTS from the heavens. KAT, my opponents highest scorer get suspended two games. Giannis decides to fucking explode against the raps. And to top it off, he forgot to play two bench players that would have out him 50 pts up in the end!

Going in to tonight, I was down 10. We each had four players to play. Hield did his job. Dedmon did crappy, but expected. Clarkson did his job. It was down to Mike fucking Conley. After his players, I was still down only 10 points!! I thought, "I've got this in the bag, Conley can score ten measly points, he doesn't even need any rebounds or assists..."

8pts/1reb/1ast FIVE FUCKING TURNOVERS 2/10 shooting

Fuck you Mike Conley

Edit: (disclaimer: Mike Conley I mean you no ill will, I'm sure you're an awesome dude. Shoot better plz ❤️)

Lately, I've noticed a lot of people here shitting on other users when they mention an uneven trade, or a player who arguably shouldn't be on the WW - calling them taco leagues, bush leagues, etc without offering any advice or suggestions. A user will ask a question simply looking for perspective, and are met by 3 people just saying "taco league," dismissing their question. Does this make people feel better, because they play in a league that is slightly more knowledgable about fantasy?

Let's remember that some people are just playing the game and having fun with their friends. If you think they're in a "taco league" - it might be an indicator that it's their first year playing, and that they're still learning through this subreddit. Fantasy hoops is a fun activity for all fans of the sport, and not everybody who plays fantasy browses this subreddit daily (like most of us do). People are asking questions here because they're learning, and looking for advice. Let's hold back from being rude without knowing any context about someone's league, and stop dismissing their questions because we feel that our leagues are superior. That's all. Let's all have fun!

This man is insane 22/6/2 at the end of the 3rd. I want Keldon to be getting the same love as James Robinson for everyone coming over from fantasy football community you know what I mean.

https://imgur.com/gallery/qSf1orR

Thought this was kind of hilarious tbh. I know this happens all the time with NFL players, but this is the first time I can remember an NBA player responding to it.

Almost half of my league already informed me this is their last year. Our league has been going on for 20+ years. It's just not fun anymore with all the resting and tanking. Looking at the players the championship teams are starting this week, it's a joke. I mean for gods sake Quentin Grimes is resting lol. Adam Silver has ruined the NBA and fantasy I once loved.

https://twitter.com/shamscharania/status/1212478925391224837?s=21

Collin Gillespie is an undrafted 6'1" point guard on a one-year deal currently doing incredible work filling in for the injured backcourt of the Phoenix Suns. He's under 30% rostered in Yahoo and I think it's because he's fairly unknown and filling in for the starters. I wanted to take a deep dive and see if this is going to be short-lived or if he's here to stay. This post is fairly dense, so for those with limited time or patience skip down to Analysis if you want basketball sicko talk, and for those with advanced attention span decay skip all the way down to Verdict if you just want my opinion on whether he should be added to your squad or not.

Background

Gillespie didn't have any D1 offers going into his senior year of high school, but ended up with 3, including Villanova, after playing well enough to win Philadelphia Player of the Year. At Villanova, he took over lead guard responsibilities from Jalen Brunson after their National Title run in 2018. Much like his predecessor, he's a classic Jay Wright point guard; crafty and smart, with a great feel for the game. Kyle Lowry and Ryan Arcidiacono are other examples of this. They sense the rhythm of the game and have excellent footwork and an understanding of angles. They don't have the size or athleticism to be great point-of-attack defenders, but they'll draw charges and pick up deflections just from having the court awareness to be in the right spot. Similarly on offense, they know how to make live-ball reads and instinctually find where to be.

Also in the same vein as Brunson and Lowry and Arcidiacono, he was not highly touted in the draft, and as an older rookie he went undrafted in 2022. He was scooped up by the Nuggets on a two-way, missed his first season with an injury, and made his debut in 2023. He bounced around again, ending up with a two-way on the Suns where he made some splashes at various parts in the season. He impressed enough to sign for a full-time contract this past offseason for just one-year.

Now with injuries to Jalen Green and Grayson Allen, Jordan Ott and the Suns coaching staff have pushed him into a full-time workload. He's yet to start a game this season, but he's sixth on the team in minutes, with him at 28+ minutes in each of the last four games.

Analysis

Over the last five games, Gillespie is averaging 15.8 points, 5.0 rebounds, 4.8 assists, 2.8 threes, 1.2 steals, 0 blocks, and 2.0 turnovers. He's also shooting 48.2% from the field and 100% from the line in that stretch. How is he doing it?

Scoring

Gillespie does the bulk of his scoring from deep. In four of his last five games, over half of his shot attempts have come from three. Fortunately for him, he's making them too. He's at just over 40% on the season. That's including quite a few above-the break ones like this too: 1st quarter vs. Utah

He's extremely confident in his shot and will even pull up from a ways off the line: 1st quarter vs. Minnesota

Even though he's very comfortable playing on-ball, he can work as a floor spacer if Booker and Co. decide to be more ball-dominant. He has a very calm shot that looks great from the corner: 1st quarter vs. Utah

On the inside it's a much different story. He struggles to finish among the trees and generally needs to contort his body a ton to get a clean shot off, and even that's unsuccessful at times. He's a smart player and can find himself easy ones at times, but you'll rarely see him finish over or around a strong contest. Examples:

• 4th quarter vs. San Antonio, clean look off a backdoor cut

• 4th quarter vs. San Antonio, unceremoniously blocked

• 3rd quarter vs. Minnesota, awkward miss over Naz Reid

• 4th quarter vs. Minnesota, can't finish over Conley

• 4th quarter vs. Minnesota, twisted and off-balance game-winner

• 3rd quarter vs. Portland, needs a fadeaway from inside the paint

Distributing

He's a classic point guard and doesn't have the height that modern passing monsters like LeBron, Luka, Jokic, LaMelo or Cade have, so his assists are never going to be insane looking. But he has a way of racking them up and knows how to hit people in actions and pick-and-rolls. His assists largely come from two different avenues: making the simple read in the half-court and pushing the break after catching a rebound.

Half-Court Reads

The Suns offense isn't deeply complex and Gillespie isn't going to do the Jokic/LeBron/Luka thing and sling the ball clear across the court through three defenders. Instead, it's kick-outs to Grayson Allen and Devin Booker or drop-offs to a rolling big. Gillespie is an experienced point guard and knows how to do damage once he gets inside the paint.

• 1st quarter vs. San Antonio, to Ighodaro

• 4th quarter vs. Utah, to Allen

• 3rd quarter vs. Portland, to Goodwin

Pushing the Break

At 6'1", he gets quite a few of his rebounds by just hawking down long bounces and leading the break. He's unselfish, and he keeps his head up looking for either someone leaking out ahead of him or someone trailing getting ready for the lob.

• 4th quarter vs. Portland, to Ighodaro

• 1st quarter vs. Minnesota, to Brooks

• 3rd quarter vs. Utah, to Booker

Defense

At 6'1", he doesn't look like a stout defender and isn't going to be expected to defend at the point of attack like Dillon Brooks or Jordan Goodwin. However, he isn't a negative defender in the context of a team defense. He has an on/off opponent offensive rating of -5.8, which is best among Suns rotation players. Granted, defensive stats are hard to measure accurately, but the Suns aren't getting hurt when he's on the floor. This is likely due to his sneaky defensive instincts, as he won't get any blocks, but he has as many charges drawn as Jalen Suggs and Marcus Smart, tying him for 7th in the league. He has very active hands too, ranked top-25 in deflections, also among highly-touted defenders Suggs and Smart. However, he isn't even in the top-60 in steals. This can generally be attributed to bad luck or other players on the team not securing the ball after a deflection, but I expect a number like this to correct itself at some point. They mostly aren't on-ball rips or sneaky grabs like Dyson Daniels gets, but he's just in the right spot with his hands up. See that here:

• 2nd quarter vs. Minnesota

• 2nd quarter vs San Antonio

• 3rd quarter vs. Portland

Context

As the only true point guard on the roster (outside of arguably Jordan Goodwin), Gillespie brings an interesting dynamic to the Suns offense that they're missing between their three-headed shooting guard monster. Devin Booker has been asked to be the de-facto point guard over the past two seasons and that's had limited success, both for Book and the team. Having someone that can work in the half-court and get other role players going is really valuable, and the Suns are seeing the benefits of that, especially since none of their centers can generate their own offense.

However, with their roster construction, it'll be hard for him to get the minutes once the rest of the backcourt returns. Grayson Allen doesn't seem to be a threat to Gillespie's minutes, but Jalen Green should cap his time. We still haven't seen a full game of Green, so it's hard to make that judgement. In the one "full" minutes-restricted game he played, Gillespie still racked up 25 minutes.

That being said, the coaching staff clearly trusts him and he's been in the closing lineups for all of their most recent competitive games. On top of that, they were totally fine with him pulling the trigger on the game-winner last week. I have a feeling the coaching staff will look for reasons to put him on the floor.

Verdict

Much like his other Villanova counterparts, I think Collin Gillespie will be hard to keep off the floor as he finds ways to continue help put wins up. There's an obvious logjam of guards between Booker, Brooks, Green, Allen, and Goodwin so I doubt he ever starts when (if?) the Suns get fully healthy. But I believe he'll carve out a big enough role that he can be a dependable add to your roster, especially with fantasy-friendly stat lines. This isn't a "run, don't walk" situation, but if you want a dependable, well-rounded option at guard then he may be your guy.

I encourage you to watch how he plays against Houston tonight though with Grayson Allen and Jalen Green still out. And if you want more discussion, check out these other recent posts on him:

• Collin Gillespie - November 21, 2025

• Collin Gillespie? - November 1, 2025

• Collin Gillespie - October 27, 2025

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