Who are the key players that will increase their assists in the upcoming season you ask? The Fantrax crew has handpicked three assist sleepers who will see more of the ball in the 2019/20 NBA season and should provide fantasy basketball managers with extra assists when drafting in middle to late rounds.
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Fantasy Basketball Assist Sleepers
Tomas Satoransky – Chicago Bulls
‘Sato’ runs with the Bulls in the 2019/20 season and should be their starting point guard. He has a solid all-around game that coach Boylan will like as he looks after the ball well, with a 3.3 assist to turnover ratio. This was good for 18th best in the league last year. Satoransky’s assist to turnover statistic will not be lost on Boylan as he attempts to rebuild the struggling Bulls franchise after a tumultuous first year as head coach. The Bulls gave every chance they could to Kris Dunn to run the team last year, but he doesn’t have the scoring ability to be the starting point guard in the NBA.
Satoransky is a good shooter from both the field (48.5%) and three-point range (39.5%). If he can keep these numbers up, his minutes should shoot up over 30 per game and his usage should jump well over 25 as well. I am expecting 7.1 assists per game for Satoransky. He should be available later in drafts as well, so if you are looking for a solid roto league player or assists help in H2H, Satoransky will be a solid pick.
Tyus Jones – Memphis Grizzlies
Jones is slated to back up Ja Morant this year. However, the Grizzlies are weak at the shooting guard position (Dillon Brooks, Grayson Allen and John Konchar), so I can see a rotation with Jones on the ball and Morant playing off the ball. Either way, Jones should see more court time than his stint in Minnesota where he averaged 4.8 assists per game with 22 minutes of court time. Jones’ per 36-minute assist rate was the 15th best in the league last year and like Satoransky he is safe ball-handler with only 1.1 turnovers per 36 minutes.
The Grizzlies have a very young core of players that will be prone to mistakes. Jones should be the steady backcourt player to guide the group through what will no doubt a lot of losses. Jones is in his 5th season after coming out of college after only one year, so he still has developing to do of his own. If Jones’ improves his shooting this offseason, expect a decent minutes jump and the assists will naturally follow. You should expect 6.1 assists per game from Jones, a solid late-round assists sleeper.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (SGA) – Oklahoma City Thunder
SGA was part of one of the most active off-season trading periods in recent memory and he will now be starting alongside Chris Paul in Oklahoma City. However, there is still a good chance Paul gets dealt before the season kicks off. Gilgeous–Alexander is one of the obvious break-out candidates this upcoming season. He moves to the Thunder with high praise after being lauded by his college coach at Kentucky, John Calipari, and the Clippers organization also had high praise for the young guard.
Post-All-Star period last season, SGA averaged 4.0 assists per game as he started to handle more of the point guard duties. With the expectation that Paul doesn’t hang around long, if at all, SGA will have the bulk of the point guard duties and will be the backbone of the OKC rebuild plan. By seasons end, SGA should have an average of 6.2 assists per game.
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