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Welcome to the fantasy basketball risers and fallers column, a weekly look at a few players whose stock is rising and a few who've been struggling with some analysis of why that's been the case. As always, this doesn't mean you need to drop these players who are struggling, but this could be a useful piece for making some trade decisions or for making some tough lineup choices.
Things have gotten weird in the NBA. James Harden is a Net! Victor Oladipo is a Rocket! And the COVID-19 situation keeps seeing games postponed.
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Fantasy Basketball Risers
Tyrese Maxey - G - Philadelphia 76ers
I think we can officially proclaim that Maxey is in the Sixers rotation, even after they get everyone back off the COVID list.
Maxey has started the last four games for Philly and has had to shoulder a lot of the scoring load. And well...he's averaged 21.3 points per game across those starts, as well as 4.3 rebounds, 4.8 assists. 1.3 threes, and 1.0 steals.
Ideally, you want a combo guard like Maxey to get to the free-throw line, which is a thing he just doesn't do. He took 33 field goal attempts in his first start and took a total of zero free throws in that game. But hey, he's a rookie!
His role will maybe decrease at some point. But only two rotation players -- Seth Curry and Furkan Korkmaz -- are still out for Philly, so maybe Maxey just slides down to the bench and takes over Shake Milton's role, or maybe he pushes both Isaiah Joe and Matisse Thybulle back out of the rotation. Whatever happens, I expect to still see plenty of Maxey.
Jae'sean Tate - F - Houston Rockets
The Rockets have a lot of changes at guard, but I'm more interested in a change at forward: moving Jae'Sean Tate into the starting five. The reason for that is that Danuel House Jr. is out, but Tate started against the Spurs over who I assumed would start there, David Nwaba.
In that game, Tate took a season-high 12 shot attempts, scoring 13 points to go with five rebounds, two blocks, and 10 assists.
Wait, 10 assists? Yep, with John Wall out, the Rockets got some needed playmaking from Tate, who seems to have secured a spot in this rotation. He can he had for basically nothing right now in fantasy, too!
Bradley Beal - G - Washington Wizards
Sure, he's rostered in every league and will be impossible to trade for, but sometimes we need to recognize how good someone is.
Russell Westbrook suffered a setback with his quad injury and now could miss the next month. Barring Washington trading Beal for some huge package, he's going to have a month to just run rampant over the NBA. I'd say he'd be the betting favorite to lead the NBA in scoring over the next month, if that's a thing you can bet on. (Can you? I live in Texas, so I don't know anything about sports betting.)
Over the past three games, Beal is attempting 28.7 shots per night. He's averaging 45 points, and then just for good measure is adding six rebounds and 5.7 assists per game.
Maybe there's someone in your league who has Beal on their roster but isn't really paying attention to just how good he is and you can bowl that person over with a big offer? Because Beal is worth basically anything right now. He'll help you in every single category except turnovers, and even then he won't kill you considering he's a high-usage guard and all of those guys turn the ball over.
Tim Hardaway Jr. - G/F - Dallas Mavericks
Over the past four games, Hardaway is tied for fifth in the NBA in made threes per game. Here were his numbers over the first six games, per Basketball Reference:
and here's his log in the five games since:
Some clear improvement across the board in virtually everything. He's shooting more threes. Making more shots. There are slight improvements in rebounds and assists, plus a more massive improvement in scoring.
Hardaway as arguably the third-best Mav last season. This year, he's rounding into form and showing that it wasn't a fluke.
Fantasy Basketball Fallers
Darius Bazley - F - Oklahoma City Thunder
Over the last four games, Bazley is shooting 27 percent from the floor, the fifth-worst mark among players who averaged 20 minutes per game. His 23.5 percent mark from three isn't helping things, and he's averaging 7.3 points per game after averaging 12 per game over the season's first eight contests.
This is a young, inexperienced Thunder team. There are going to be growing pains like this across the roster as guys are forced to play roles they might not be ready for. That seems like it could be the case with Bazley. He still has value, but I expect things to remain fairly up-and-down over the course of the season.
Jarrett Allen - C - Cleveland Cavaliers
The trade that sent Harden to Brooklyn also sent Jarrett Allen to Cleveland, where he goes from the starting center for the Nets to very likely playing behind Andre Drummond. And, well...let's just say finding minutes when your other center is Andre Drummond is not as easy as finding minutes when your other center is DeAndre Jordan.
The Cavs seem almost certain to make another trade that clears up room in a frontcourt that also features Kevin Love and Larry Nance Jr., but for now, I'd expect Allen to see his minutes per game slide down below the 26.7 he was averaging in Brooklyn, and for him to no longer average a double-double. Maybe I'm wrong and the Cavs will view him as their center of the future and will get him into the starting unit over Drummond, but there's too much uncertainty here for me right now.
(Drummond is also a slight faller. Allen might take some of Drummond's minutes, pushing him a little lower than the 32.3 he's averaging so far. Maybe Drummond won't lead the NBA in rebounding again?)
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