The Rob Babcock era was a very painful time for Raptor fans. His drafting woes were highlighted by fellow writer Alvin, with the team taking a pass on Danny Granger twice in the 2005 NBA draft. What about the gaffe from the previous draft in which Babcock drafted Rafael Araujo before Andre Iguodala! Rafael Araujo is now manning the middle for Spartak St. Petersburg of the Russian Basketball Super League. Aggghhhh! 

This season there is a lot of hype in Philadelphia around the 76ers, as they signed the much-conveted free agent Elton Brand. Let’s see what effect Elton Brand will have on Iggy’s numbers. 

Round 3, Pick 10 – Andre Iguodala, SG/SF, Philadelphia 76ers

One of the big questions heading into training camp in 76er-land is, what position will Andre Iguodala play, the two or three spot? There was speculation in the summer that Iguodala would play shooting guard and Thaddeus Young will man the three in his sophomore year. Early reports from early training camp suggest that Kareem Rush is running with the first team at shooting guard and Iguodala is playing small forward. What position Iggy will play will have an impact on his numbers, if he is playing the two it could lead to more threes taken which will slightly lower his FG%. If he is playing small forward then he will not have to take as many threes and this would help his FG%. Iggy averaged 1.2 treys a game last year which makes him serviceable as a fantasy shooter, but classify him as a scorer rather than a pure shooter.

The addtion of Elton Brand will simplify many things for Iguodala. First, Iggy no longer has to shoulder the brunt of the team’s scoring. Iguodala will face less double teams from the opposition; in fact he should get more open looks with Brand manning the post. Another added benefit with less attention from opposing defenses will result in a drop in his turnovers. Brand will lead the team in rebounds; however Iguodala will still get his five boards per game and he will lead the team in steals with about two per game.  Iggy and his long-range game will evolve this year with continued improvements in his three-point shot. He may not hit as many threes this year (101 3pt made last year) but look for the percentage to rise above 35% for the first time in his career as a direct result of him being able to be more selective with his shot from beyond the arc. Andre Iguodala is the anti-Tracy McGrady when it comes to games missed. He has only missed six games in four seasons and the six games missed were all in the ’06-’07 season.

Bottom line Andre Iguodala will rock the stats with projections of

82 GP, 19.8 ppg, 5.1 rpg, 4.9 apg, 2.0 spg, 0.7 bpg, 1.0 threes, 2.1 topg, 46.4 FG%, 35.9 3pt%, 76.0 FT%

Numbers that fantasy owners can get Jiggy with!

The last time that Andre Iguodala and Allen Iverson were playing together on the same team was back in the ‘06-’07 season with Philly before Iverson was traded to the Denver Nuggets. Now they are teamed up in this year’s mock draft along with second round pick Carlos Boozer to form a solid nucleus to a fantasy team. This team is strong in points, steals, FG%, FT% and decent in rebounds and assists. The team will need to decide on how to either address blocks or go the other way and solidify categories that already are a strength, thereby punting the block category.