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Fantasy Basketball: Pau Gasol Is A MVP Candidate

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By @bradberreman24

Pau Gasol, Chicago Bulls, Fantasy Basketball

Tim Fuller-USA TODAY Sports

Before missing Friday night’s game against the Minnesota Timberwolves with an illness, Chicago Bulls forward Pau Gasol had a great run in the month of February. In nine games this month, he averaged 19.9 points, 12.6 rebounds, 2.9 assists and 1.9 blocked shots per game with eight double-doubles and 20 or more points five times.

Gasol is expected to be ready to go for Sunday’s game against the Los Angeles Clippers, and a strong start to March can help his fantasy owners even more.

After playing just 60 games last season with the Los Angeles Lakers, Gasol has now missed just four games so far in his first season with the Bulls while playing close to 35 minutes per game. His age (34) creates some risk that he will wear down as the regular season nears an end, but as long as he avoids a significant injury Gasol should continue to produce a very high level. It’s not realistic to expect him to tear through March and April the way he did February, but top-notch fantasy production in two categories (points and rebounds) and solid contribution in a few other categories is possible and even likely.

Going back to just after Christmas, Gasol is averaging 19.0 points, 12.7 rebounds, 3.2 assists and 2.2 blocks per game over his last 28 games, while making over 51 percent of his shots from the floor and over 81 percent of his free throws over that span. That type of blocked shot production (2.1 per game over the season as a whole) has been a nice bonus for his fantasy owners, particularly since Gasol had not averaged more than 1.7 blocks per game in a season since 2006-2007.

If injuries continue to be a lingering factor for other top candidates (Anthony Davis, Russell Westbrook, LeBron James), Gasol may get a lot of hypothetical votes for fantasy basketball MVP this year. If nothing else, based on what is sure to already be a great return on draft day investment, Gasol’s owners will probably lean towards him as their personal fantasy MVP.

Brad Berreman is a Columnist/Senior Writer at Rant Sports.com. Follow him on Twitter.

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