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Who will take the biggest fantasy leap in 2024-25 season?

Dan Titus
Fantasy analyst

Yahoo Fantasy basketball analyst Dan Titus and contributor Justin Henry pick players that will pop for fantasy managers next season.

Video Transcript

DAN TITUS: All right. So let's look ahead to next year. Great season. Congratulations to everybody in fantasy basketball, if you took home your title. But we got to get prepared for next season.

I know that the draft has to happen. Free agency has to happen. Summer League. But we're going to throw out some early predictions and just thoughts on how we feel about the landscape in general.

So we got to start it off elephant in the room, or alien in the room, Victor Wembanyama. Where are you taking him next year? Who's the number one overall pick, and is it him?

JUSTIN HENRY: The segue. We already know. I mean, I'm not passing on the alien at number one. Wemby has to be the number one pick because his performance as a rookie was impressive.

Who knows what this is going to look like a year from now? And guess what? He was also taking time to nurse his ankle all season. He didn't even play an entire year.

Imagine. Imagine, Titus. When he gets a full slate of games and is playing-- and he's put on some offseason weight. He knows the game. Knows pop system even more.

Wemby is going to be crazy next year. And I can't pass on potential three to four blocks. You know, five-plus stocks averaging over the year. I can't pass on that, man. Wemby, number one.

DAN TITUS: He had arguably the second best-- maybe even the conversation for the best rookie season ever, or at least the last 50 years. I mean, I don't see how you can pass on this upside, right? You know what I'm saying? Defensively alone, he's going to win you categories. He also has the potential to put up quadruple-doubles.

And by the way, he can get you five dimes. Imagine when this dude plays, like, 33 minutes. 34 minutes. What-- bro. Like, we're not-- these are going to be those, like, NBA 2K numbers that-- you know what I'm saying?

These are the creative player type numbers that we're going to be seeing. So as good as Jokic is, like, his floor-- his ceiling is so secure as, like, a consistent triple-double threat. But the defense that Wemby gives you, plus the 3's, is, like, Jokic can't do certain things that this guy can do.

JUSTIN HENRY: Now we have to talk about what player is probably not going to be in the Top 12 or 10 picks of next year's first round? So Dan, what player do you have in mind that's going to be out of the first round conversation next season?

DAN TITUS: Well, there's definitely going to be some people that are going to be in. Wemby is going to be in. I think Chet's in the conversation.

I'm bumping Damian Lillard out. From what I saw with the Milwaukee Bucks here was a guy that's going to be seeding touches. And he just really wasn't that effective in his first stint in Milwaukee. Yeah, there was a lot of injuries. But this team has deeper questions to be answered.

They don't have a lot of depth. So they can't afford a lot of injuries. I think Dame's in pretty much the same situation he was in Portland, just a little bit worse because he's got an All-NBA player standing there right next to him to take away some of that usage and production. So we saw the numbers go down for Dame in the scoring area. I think it's going to continue to trend that way, especially with Doc Rivers as your head coach.

Like, I just don't have much promise. Like, he's a good second round pick. And that could be value. But I'm not picking him in the first round, based off what I saw in the first campaign.

JUSTIN HENRY: It's tough. Tough to say Dame time. The clock is ticking.

My guy has not been able to stay on the field. LaMelo Ball. He's not been able to stay on the court. We got to keep him there, man.

DAN TITUS: Court, field, it don't matter. He ain't playing.

JUSTIN HENRY: He's not playing. He's on the bench, like you talked about earlier. Your best ability is your availability. And LaMelo Ball hasn't been able to finish out a season here.

Brandon Miller played really well. I'm sure they're going to have, you know, pretty good draft pick this coming year. So there's going to be new pieces on this team.

And this team might not ask LaMelo Ball to do the same things. And we also can't depend on him. So LaMelo Ball, got to kick him out the first round conversation next year.