Veterans aren't the most exciting players to draft in fantasy basketball, but sometimes the boring and safe picks hit more often than chasing upside too early. And some veterans are aging like fine wine and often find themselves cheaply priced in drafts, making them solid values overall.
Here are several NBA senior citizens who are still getting the job done at a high level.
DeMar DeRozan
Chicago’s roster looks almost identical to last season, making DeRozan a very easy player to project for fantasy. He's still very much in his prime at age 34, with his last two seasons being the most impressive stretch of his career. Chicago’s point guard rotation is a mess, so that means we can expect to see plenty of DeRozan with the ball in his hands.
Chicago is in good hands, however. DeRozan ranked in the 89th percentile in pick-and-rolls last season. And unlike other players at his age, DeRozan doesn’t take many nights off and averaged 75 games over the past couple seasons. That’s unlikely to change with the Bulls looking to get back into the playoffs in 2023-24. You cannot go wrong with taking DeRozan in the fifth round, and if you’re already punting 3s, he’ll be even more valuable.
LeBron James
You’d think LeBron would be declining rapidly after 20 seasons, but he operates under a different set of rules when it comes to Father Time. LeBron has been held back by a very serious foot injury for the past couple years, but now he claims to be fully healthy again and he looked very spry to open training camp, moving around like someone a decade younger.
He has publicly said he’s ready to turn the spotlight over to Anthony Davis, but at the end of the day, he’s still LeBron James and he’s still going to eat. Despite playing on one leg last year, he managed a second-round finish in 9-cat. His 3-point shot is trending down as he settles for more bad looks and his defensive output isn’t what it used to be, but LeBron can still go out there and get 25 points, eight assists and eight rebounds in his sleep.
Chris Paul
Chris Paul has lost a step, and then another. He'll be 39 years old when the playoffs roll around. But it sounds like the Warriors are going to start him next to Steph Curry, and if that happens it means his minutes should stay north of 28.
Paul’s ADP of 72 in Yahoo is actually a couple spots cheaper than it was a few weeks ago, so he’s relatively affordable in fantasy drafts.
Assists are one of the most valuable categories in fantasy basketball because it’s not a category you can make up ground in during the middle and late rounds, so that really helps Paul’s case.
Curry said the addition of Paul has been a “seamless” fit so far, and those two were getting in a ton of reps together well before training camp started. Plus, the Warriors will have a focused Andrew Wiggins back in the mix this season, and hopefully a motivated Jonathan Kuminga to give Paul two really nice cutters and lob threats.
Klay Thompson
After a few years of horrendous injury luck, Klay surprised a ton of people when he played 69 games in 2022-23. He averaged 21.9 points, 4.1 rebounds, 2.4 assists and a career-high 4.4 triples on a 41% clip.
The addition of Chris Paul can only help Klay, as he now has another elite playmaker creating easy looks for him on the perimeter. It’s no secret the Warriors don’t have as much frontcourt depth, so there’s been a lot of talk of Klay possibly playing the 4 for stretches. A bump in rebounding and defensive stats is suddenly on the table with this news, making him a reasonable selection with an ADP of 78.
Brook Lopez
Let’s not kid ourselves. Brook Lopez probably isn’t going to have another second-round campaign in 9-cat like he did in 2022-23, as that was pretty much the perfect storm with so many injuries in Milwaukee.
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The Bucks enter the season at full strength, with the exception of Khris Middleton, who is still on the mend. Giannis Antetokounmpo will likely find more minutes at center after playing a career-high 41% of his minutes there last season. Lopez is also going to see his block rate come back to earth after registering a 6.7% compared to his career average of 4.9%. His ADP of 65 on Yahoo is not cheap, but often times you will see him fall to the end of the middle round with so many managers chasing youth and upside over safe and “boring” veterans.
Draymond Green
Dray is coming off his worst fantasy season since 2013-14, and although the Warriors paid him the big bucks, he’s clearly at the tail end of his career. The addition of Chris Paul also complicates things, as Paul taking the ball out of Green’s hands even more neutralizes one of his last few remaining strengths.
There’s another way to look at this though. With less offensive responsibility, maybe we can see Green put together one or two more elite defensive seasons in which we see his steal/block rates climb to the levels we were once spoiled with.
The Warriors have very little frontcourt depth and won’t be able to load manage Green as much as Steve Kerr was probably hoping to, so that should help keep Green’s games played up. With an ADP just shy of 100, Green is very cheap and can still be useful in the right punt builds.
Mike Conley
After looking “washed” with the Jazz early on in 2022-23, a trade to Minnesota rejuvenated the veteran in a big way. He averaged14.0 points, 5.0 assists, 3.1 rebounds, 1.2 steals and 2.4 triples on a 46/42/86 shooting line while playing 31 minutes per night.
Conley ranked in the 98th percentile on pick-and-rolls, making him a tremendous fit alongside Minnesota’s two stud centers in Rudy Gobert and Karl-Anthony Towns. He was also the second-best corner 3-point shooter, and that will be something that Anthony Edwards will be constantly looking for on his frequent drives. With a dirt-cheap ADP on most sites, Conley is a no-brainer pick and clearly has a lot left in the tank.
Al Horford
I wasn’t initially on board with Horford in what will be his age-37 season, but the Celtics are extremely thin up front and had to trade away Robert Williams in order to acquire Jrue Holiday. Sure, the Celtics have Kristaps Porzingis, but he’s not exactly Mr. Durable.
After that, we’re look at a group that consists of Luke Kornet and Wenyen Gabriel. Not ideal.
Horford will almost certainly have some maintenance days this season, but how many of those can the Celtics afford with this shallow of a roster? Horford was a 6th-round fantasy value in 9-cat last season and finds himself in an ideal situation to repeat his success.
Gordon Hayward
This might be a reach, but hey, Hayward has to have some good injury luck at least one time in five years, right? Charlotte’s roster is underwhelming yet again, and Hayward is an odd fit on a roster that’s destined to find themselves at the front of the tank race of 2024.
There’s been some talk of Hayward possibly coming off the bench in a sixth man role which honestly might suit him the best, and the Hornets have every incentive to play him in order to get his market value back up for the trade deadline. Hayward is still a very good player on the few occasions he’s healthy enough to play, most recently averaging 14.7 points, 4.3 rebounds, 4.1 assists and 1.0 triples.
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