With the regular season in the rearview and Play-In battles underway, fantasy basketball managers can finally exhale after a rollercoaster 2024-25 campaign. While shrewd waiver wire additions and late-round selections may have saved some seasons, draft busts and underperforming stars likely sank others.
As we reflect on a season filled with unexpected setbacks, let's examine eight disappointing fantasy basketball players who fell short of expectations. (Joel Embiid would be included here, but I didn’t feel he played enough games to qualify.) (Statistics as of April 15, 2025)
1. Paul George
(PF, Philadelphia 76ers)
2024-25 stats: 16.2 PPG, 5.3 RPG
4.3 APG, 1.8 SPG, 0.5 BPG
43.0 FG%, 35.8 3P%, 81.4 FT%
Paul George had an injury-plagued 2024-25, featuring in just 42 games for the 76ers, but he was also far from the player we expect him to be in the games he did play. George posted his lowest PPG rate since 2011-12 (excluding his lost season in 2014-15) and shot his worst percentage from beyond the arc since his rookie season.
Hopes were high when George was paired with Tyrese Maxey and Joel Embiid last offseason, but things quickly unraveled with injuries to and poor play from George and Embiid. At nearly 35 years old and without an All-NBA team selection since 2019, George appears to be in the twilight years of his career and it’s becoming unclear if we’ll ever see a return to the player we saw in Indiana, Oklahoma City, and Los Angeles.
2. Lauri Markkanen
(PF, Utah Jazz)
2024-25 stats: 19.0 PPG, 5.9 RPG
1.5 APG, 0.7 SPG, 0.4 BPG
42.3 FG%, 34.6 3P%, 87.6 FT%
Lauri Markkanen’s first two seasons in Utah were easily the best of his career, averaging 24.5 PPG on 49.0 FG% and 8.4 RPG, while converting 3.1 three-pointers per game, leading to many early-round selections in fantasy drafts. Year three was a different story as Markkanen struggled from the field and regressed to his pre-Jazz rebounding numbers (largely attributable to the presence of center Walker Kessler).
Markkanen scored 4.2 fewer points per game and his field goal percentage dropped 5.7 percentage points compared to 2023-24. His other stat categories took a dive too, with the most noticeable drop in RPG from 8.2 to just 5.9. While some of this regression can be attributed to Kessler’s presence, it was certainly worrisome and a key factor in Utah’s league-worst record.
3. Scottie Barnes
(PF, Toronto Raptors)
2024-25 stats: 19.3 PPG, 7.7 RPG
5.8 APG, 1.4 SPG, 1.0 BPG
44.6 FG%, 27.1 3P%, 75.5 FT%
After making his first All-Star team last season, Scottie Barnes was a popular breakout pick this preseason and a projected round 2-3 selection in fantasy drafts. Barnes’ season was by no means awful and he carried one of the largest offensive loads in the league for the Raptors, but his poor three-point shooting was costly and a pivotal reason why Toronto missed the playoffs for the third straight year.
In 2023-24, Barnes doubled his three-point production from the prior season and improved his efficiency from 28.1% to 34.1%. This season was a disappointing step backward as he still attempted 280 shots from deep, but shot an even worse percentage than in 2022-23 at a 27.1% clip. Barnes will likely be picked later in 2025 fantasy drafts, but he is still young enough to find consistency in the three-point department as he enters his prime years.
4. Nic Claxton
(C, Brooklyn Nets)
2024-25 stats: 10.3 PPG, 7.4 RPG
2.2 APG, 0.9 SPG, 1.4 BPG
56.3 FG%, 23.8 3P%, 51.3 FT%
Nic Claxton signed a four-year, $100 million extension prior to the season and expectations were high for the Nets’ 25-year-old big man entering his sixth professional season. Claxton was just two seasons removed from leading the league in field goal percentage at 70.5% and ranking top-ten in Defensive Player of the Year voting in 2022-23.
Despite a bit of a dropoff in efficiency in 2023-24, Claxton, entering the theoretical prime of his career with a unique offensive skill set, appeared like a great candidate for a major jump in production. Unfortunately, his season went in the opposite direction.
Claxton’s PPG, RPG, and BPG all fell significantly, and perhaps most concerning was the continued decline of his field goal percentage. After dropping to 62.9% in 2023-24, it fell even further to 56.3% this season for a player who rarely takes outside shots. Ceding considerable minutes to Day’Ron Sharpe as the season progressed, Claxton’s Nets future appears uncertain.
5. Bradley Beal
(SG, Phoenix Suns)
2024-25 stats: 17.0 PPG, 3.3 RPG
3.7 APG, 1.1 SPG, 0.5 BPG
49.7 FG%, 38.6 3P%, 80.3 FT%
The Suns’ season was disastrous from start to finish and Bradley Beal did little to help his team while earning the fifth-highest annual salary in the league. In his second season in Phoenix, Beal posted his lowest PPG output since 2014-15 to go along with a slight drop in efficiency from last season.
Perhaps most disappointing was Beal’s playmaking decline. The veteran was expected to shoulder much of that load without an established point guard on Phoenix’s roster, but his APG fell to just 3.7 as the Suns’ offense consistently looked uncreative and lifeless. It’s unclear where the Suns go from here with so much salary cap tied up in Beal, Devin Booker, and Kevin Durant, but whatever the case may be, Beal is unlikely to be a popular fantasy option in 2025-26.
6. D’Angelo Russell
(PG, Brooklyn Nets)
2024-25 stats: 12.6 PPG, 2.8 RPG
5.1 APG, 1.0 SPG, 0.4 BPG
39.0 FG%, 31.4 3P%, 83.4 FT%
After the Nets acquired D’Angelo Russell’s expiring contract in a late December deal with the Lakers for Dorian Finney-Smith, some Brooklyn fans were hopeful that the veteran point guard could rediscover his 2018-19 season magic while getting his season back on track. Russell was performing below expectations in Los Angeles at 12.4 PPG on 41.5 FG%, but things only got worse for him in a Nets uniform.
Russell shot a miserable 36.7 FG% and 29.7 3P% in 29 games for Brooklyn and finished the season with easily the lowest PPG of his career despite the expanded opportunity on a young Nets roster. His playmaking actually improved in Brooklyn despite worse offensive teammates, but he still posted his lowest APG rate since his second NBA season in 2016-17.
7. Jonathan Kuminga
(PF, Golden State Warriors)
2024-25 stats: 15.3 PPG, 4.6 RPG
2.2 APG, 0.8 SPG, 0.4 BPG
45.4 FG%, 30.5 3P%, 66.8 FT%
We alluded to Jonathan Kuminga’s stalled development back in early February and circumstances have yet to improve much for the 22-year-old forward. Kuminga was most recently benched in the Warriors’ critical regular season finale and questions abound concerning his fit on the team in the Jimmy Butler era.
Kuminga played only 47 games this season, missing 22 games with an ankle injury, during which time the Warriors went 16-6 with Butler in the lineup. In those 47 games, Kuminga’s efficiency fell off significantly after taking a huge leap forward last season. While his averages remained somewhat steady from 2023-24, his field goal percentage dropped from 52.9% to 45.4% and his free throw percentage came down from 74.6% to 66.8%.
8. Terry Rozier
(PG, Miami Heat)
2024-25 stats: 10.6 PPG, 3.7 RPG
2.6 APG, 0.6 SPG, 0.2 BPG
39.1 FG%, 29.5 3P%, 85.2 FT%
Terry Rozier featured among our “Category Sinkers” for three-pointers back in January and he was unable to make any considerable strides by the season’s end, bringing up the rear among our eight disappointing fantasy basketball players. He finished with his worst three-point percentage since his rookie year and his worst overall field goal percentage since his second season in 2016-17. Rozier has always been a low-efficiency scorer, but this year was particularly bad and he was unable to make up for it in other areas.
Rozier also posted the lowest SPG and APG since his second season when he played just 17.1 MPG compared to 25.9 this year. The APG dropoff from 5.6 to 2.6 this season was especially staggering. After losing the Heat’s starting point guard role to Davion Mitchell and now in his early 30s, Rozier’s NBA future is in a tough spot.