Raymond Felton moves from the methodical, half-court offense in Charlotte to the up-tempo, aggressive New York Knicks. This is a clear bump up the draft board. Under Coach Mike D’Antoni’s system, Felton should see an increase in assists, points, and 3-pointers this year. A run-and-gun offense equals gold in the fantasy world as high volume stats are accumulated, especially when the point guard has the talent and is surrounded by the right tools.
Felton is joining a team that was second in 3-point attempts with over 26 per game last year. He gets a production boost by playing alongside the 3-point specialist Danilo Gallinari and with one of the top finishers in Amare Stoudemire. Amare’s ability attract the attention of the defense (Felton has never played with a dominating Power Forward), will open up some shots for the South Carolina native. Ray Felton is no Steve Nash, but Coach D’Antoni will still be calling Ray-Amare pick and roll plays, resulting in some easy assists for the 5th year pro.
Last year Fetlon was generally drafted after the likes of Bibby, Barbosa, TJ Ford, and Duhon, but easily outperformed performed all of them. This was accomplished despite the fact that he had a career-low in assist (5.6) and a mediocre 12.1 points per game. As part of the half-court, set-play Larry Brown offense in Charlotte, Felton had to play out of his comfort zone.
During his stellar collegiate career at North Carolina and during his pre-Larry Brown era career in Charlotte, the former 5th overall pick thrived in a fast-paced offense. Felton improved in each of his first three NBA seasons, averaging 14.4 points and 7.4 assists per game in 2007-08. His production decreased in the subsequent years once Brown became the coach in 2008. It is worth noting, that even though this was not his preference, Felton still conformed to Larry Brown’s mistake-free strategy, shooting a career-high 46% and averaging a career low 2.1 turnovers per game last season.
Field goal percentage may be the only stat to decrease, considering he is now playing for the trigger-happy Knicks. However, playing in the Golden State of the Eastern Conference (too much credit would be given to compare the Knicks to the Suns), means the volume stats will more than negate any drop in percentages.
Raymond Felton’s lack of flashiness, and the emergence of the new breed of point guards (Stephen Curry, Russell Westbrook, Tyreke Evans Derrick Rose, Rajon Rondo), have kept Felton far down draft boards. His durability (played at least 78 games in each one of his 5 years), and situation (running the offense for the aggressive-shooting Knicks), make him a low risk selection.
Felton is actually the only listed Point Guard on the New York roster (Toney Douglas, Eddie House, and Bill Walker are all backup swingmen), so he should get heavy minutes. This year, on average, Felton is the 61st pick and 20th among points guards in Yahoo! Standard Head-to-Head league drafts. Basically you can get a solid PG2 for the price of a PG3. Look for a career year for the new court general of the Knickerbockers.
Written by Justin Hasan exclusively for WinMyFantasyLeague.com
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2 Comments
Justin, Eddie House signed with the Miami heat as a free agent, so he is no longer in the equation for the Knicks. Other than that, I think that you made many good points here. I expect Felton to put up much better stats under Dantoni than he did under Brown. Andy Rautins should be on hand to take House’s spot on the roster, and seems to have similar skills. He would probably play some point, in the event of injury to Felton or Douglas. In any case, Felton is a huge upgrade over Duhon.
Markstripes,
Good point about Eddie House signing with the Heat. I agree that Andy Rautins will replace House’s role as the shooting spark off the Knicks bench. Thank you for your comments.
-Jhas