In my continue lists of statistical leaders for Fantasy NBA Basketball, I bring you assists.

With the list of leaders in points scored, you saw a lot of the common names that you hear about every day, including Kobe Bryant, Lebron James, Ray Allen, Allen Iverson, Carmelo, Dwyane Wade, Garnett, Nowitzki, and Marion.

In rebounders, we saw a few new people pop into the list like Dwight Howard leading the list. Some of them like Marion, Garnett, and Elton Brand were back again for another go.

With assists, we start getting into some of the lesser known players on teams. Most of them are true point guards, or at least play point guard much of the time. If you are in a league that requires a point guard, it is often good to pick up a true point guard to satisfy this attribute rather than trying to make it up with a bunch of guys at other positions who together get you a decent amount of assists.

You can often pick up top assist guys in later rounds in the draft only because they only get you this one category.

Often it is good to check out the free throw percentage, three pointers, and steals of these players so that you can try to get some stats in some of your other categories.

Also pay attention to the number of turnovers they players get. Because they handle the ball so much, they are often credited with turnovers. You’ll have to live with some from these guys, but there are a few that are a cut above.

I’ll talk a little bit more about some of these players later, but for now, I bring you the assist men…

Assists:

1. Steve Nash – 826
2. Chauncey Billups – 699
3. Andre Miller – 674
4. Jason Kidd – 672
5. Chris Paul – 611
6. Brevin Knight – 610

You’ll notice that the first tier of guys is pretty small. It should really be one smaller too, because Brevin Knight’s spot is likely to be taken over fully by second year guard Raymond Felton. Among the first tier, it should be noted that Steve Nash and Chauncey Billups also appeared in the points scored list. They will also continue to show up quite a bit in the future. If you can get Billups in the 3rd round, snatch him up. He might even be worth a look in the second round. Nash won’t last beyond the first round. Andre Miller should last until the 5th or 6th round most likely, depending on the depth of your draft, so if you still haven’t drafted any of the assist guys, you may be forced to take him.

Second Tier Assisters: Luke Ridnour, Joe Johnson, Allen Iverson, Lebron James, Kirk Hinrich, Dwyane Wade, Boris Diaw, Sam Cassell, Gilbert Arenas, Baron Davis, T.J. Ford, Tony Parker, Mike James, Raymond Felton, Mike Bibby, Lamar Odom, and Rafer Alston – 400

Watch for switches from point guard to shooting guard in this group. That could affect the assists. Also watch for any team changes or acquisitions which could reduce these second-tier guys even further.

You can’t afford to wait too long on assists, so make sure you address this need early enough that you can get some of the top guys. If you haven’t picked your assist guy (most likely a point guard) by the 8th round, you’ll probably be forced to pick up a few starting point guards that only get you 4 or 5 assists a game and not much else. That’ll really hurt your other stats. If you pick up a top notch guy early, you may be able to get enough assists from the rest of your crew to get you into the top group in assists.