The blocks list is going to be really tough this year.

A lot of the higher guys on blocks are only good to pick up because they get you blocks (and maybe a small smattering of rebounds and a high field goal percentage without many shots to actually benefit that category).

To any of us that play a lot of Fantasy Basketball, this is our worst nightmare.

I remember a few years back when I picked up Theo Ratliff in the fifth round ONLY because he got great blocks. He didn’t have any other redeeming qualities, statistics-wise.

You don’t really want to throw away this category, though, as tempted as you might be to do just that. If you want to compete, you really have to pick up one of the guys on the list below, but you are going to hate yourself if you pick them up way too high.

The other real problem that I have with the following list is the fact that many of these guys had injury problems this past season, or, at the very least, have been prone to injuries over the past several seasons. Heck, the 6th best blocker in the league came back from a kidney transplant.

I told you before that you don’t draft a center just to draft a center. The positions of the players don’t matter so much. You need to draft the best player available.

Well, that doesn’t apply to the statistical categories. Just like you might have had to do so with your steals category, you will probably have to draft one of these guys purely for their blocking prowess. You won’t like it, but if you want to win, you’ll do it.

Now you have a variety of different things that you can do here. You can nab one of the best ones in the first couple of rounds (i.e. Kirilenko, Brand, Wallace, Duncan, or Marion), or you can opt to try and sneak one out in one of the later rounds (i.e. Josh Smith, Marcus Camby, Rasheed Wallace, or Joel Przybilla).

Don’t forget about this category, or it will come back to bite you. There really aren’t enough people on this list to wait around forever.

Alright, I’ve probably given away too much of this list in my intro paragraphs, but here it is anyway.

Blocks:

1. Andrei Kirilenko – 220
2. Josh Smith – 208
3. Elton Brand – 201
4. Marcus Camby – 184
5. Ben Wallace – 181
6. Mourning, Duncan, Dalembert – 160+
7. Gasol, E. Griffin, Diop, Marion, Ilgauskis, Rasheed Wallace, Przybilla – 130+

Remember that some of these guys have serious free throw shooting problems. Because Ben Wallace doesn’t shoot many free throws, he won’t hurt you too much, but Tim Duncan’s free throw shooting, though much better than Wallace’s, can kill you.