{"id":159890,"date":"2025-09-22T22:10:31","date_gmt":"2025-09-23T02:10:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=159890"},"modified":"2025-09-22T22:10:31","modified_gmt":"2025-09-23T02:10:31","slug":"fantasy-basketball-injury-impacts-fred-vanvleets-acl-tear","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/09\/22\/fantasy-basketball-injury-impacts-fred-vanvleets-acl-tear\/","title":{"rendered":"Fantasy Basketball Injury Report: Impacts of VanVleet’s ACL Tear"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Houston Rockets announced on Monday that Fred VanVleet<\/a> will potentially miss all of the 2025-26 season with a torn ACL<\/a>. The injury has significant fantasy basketball implications. With the guard now being undraftable, there are new opportunities for other Rockets to have tremendous value.<\/p>\n

Fantasy Basketball Injury Report: Impacts of VanVleet’s ACL Tear<\/h2>\n

Amen Thompson Will Step Up In VanVleet\u2019s Place<\/h3>\n

The biggest beneficiary of VanVleet\u2019s absence is Amen Thompson<\/a>. He\u2019ll likely shift to point guard and be tasked with more playmaking responsibilities. Even if he stays at the two, he\u2019ll still carry a large workload as a starter. The 22-year-old has repeatedly proved his ability to step up in the past, and he\u2019s provided excellent value in that role.<\/p>\n

Across 42 games with the first unit last season, Thompson averaged 16.0 PPG, 9.2 RPG, 4.9 APG, 1.7 SPG, 1.6 BPG and 56.0 FG%. He\u2019s an excellent two-way player who thrives most on the defensive end. The third year\u2019s offensive abilities are still developing, but VanVleet\u2019s injury forces him to get more involved.<\/p>\n

Thompson was already projected to be a high pick, but his stock just skyrocketed. Managers should feel comfortable drafting him as high as the second round.<\/p>\n

\"Houston
Mar 23, 2025; Houston, Texas, USA; Houston Rockets forward Amen Thompson (1) brings the ball up the court during the game against the Denver Nuggets at Toyota Center. Mandatory Credit: Troy Taormina-Imagn Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Reed Sheppard Gets His Chance<\/h3>\n

Reed Sheppard<\/a> is an enticing young player who dazzled in Summer League. Although, he spent his rookie year buried in Houston\u2019s depth chart, preventing him from having fantasy relevance. Now, he’ll get his chance to prove himself.<\/p>\n

The team has a few options to explore with their starting lineup. One is to keep Thompson at shooting guard and have Sheppard start at point. That would be the best case for the sophomore, who would be a must-draft guy. In two games in Vegas this offseason, he compiled 23.0 PPG, 5.5 RPG, 2.5 APG, 4.0 SPG, 1.5 BPG. That\u2019s not a large sample, but it still illustrates he\u2019s a great three-level scorer and playmaker with some defensive chops. While he does lack size and is turnover-prone, a chance of starting raises his ceiling.<\/p>\n

Another possibility is that Sheppard remains a backup point guard. Still, the absence of a high usage player opens up plenty of opportunities for him. His minutes will undoubtedly increase as the team looks to develop him. That makes Sheppard worthy of a draft pick.<\/p>\n

Kevin Durant Commands The Offence<\/h3>\n

Managers knew when he was traded there that Kevin Durant<\/a> would be the leading scorer for the Rockets. Not much changes for the 15-time All-Star with VanVleet’s absence, except he could return to averaging 30 PPG.<\/p>\n

VanVleet\u2019s never been a flashy scorer. His 14.1 PPG last season was his lowest average since 2018-19, and his 37.8 FG% was his second-lowest mark. Considering his high ADP and low finish in 2024-25, he was a bust. Still, he was an excellent playmaker, and Thompson and Sheppard will need to help Durant fill that hole.<\/p>\n

The Last Word<\/h3>\n

Thompson is in for a huge year and should be on every manager’s draft target list. Sheppard also stands to benefit a lot in his absence, regardless of whether he starts or comes off the bench. Aaron Holiday<\/a> is another name to watch as he could be in line for more usage.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Featured image: Erik Williams-Imagn Images<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Houston Rockets announced on Monday that Fred VanVleet will potentially miss all of the 2025-26 season with a torn ACL. The injury has significant fantasy basketball implications. With the guard now being undraftable, there are new opportunities for other Rockets to have tremendous value. Fantasy Basketball Injury Report: Impacts of VanVleet’s ACL Tear Amen […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4433,"featured_media":159923,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,2285,2,31,62],"tags":[1614,4703,1244,69,49134],"class_list":["post-159890","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-fantasy","category-featured","category-rockets","category-nba","tag-aaron-holiday","tag-amen-thompson","tag-fred-vanvleet","tag-kevin-durant","tag-reed-sheppard"],"modified_by":"Kayla Fonte","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159890","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4433"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=159890"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159890\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":159927,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159890\/revisions\/159927"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/159923"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=159890"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=159890"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=159890"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}