The form of our fantasy players determines the outcome of our season. There's no doubt about that. But how to minimize the possibility of your players dropping in form and maximize the potential they show during the season? By wheeling and dealing of course! When a guy you own is riding a hot streak, and you have doubts he will be able to keep it up, that is the prime time to sell him for a player who has more value, higher upside, or at least is a safer choice for production the rest of the way.

On the other hand, when your league mate is feeling let down by his high/mid-round pick because he's been slumping, that's the perfect time to float him an offer. If you can get more value in exchange for current form, when it all calms down, you should be left with a quality team who is set to produce when it matters the most...during the fantasy playoffs.

Welcome to our Week 15 fantasy basketball buy low and sell high column right here at RotoBaller.

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Buy Low, Sell High Advice for Week 15

Are You for Real, Dwight Howard?

Dwight Howard has been a beast lately, sporting top-15 value in the past 14 days in my Head-to-head, 10-cat (counting double-doubles) league with averages of 14.4 PTS on 57.8 FG% and 45.8 FT%, 15.0 REB, 1.0 AST, 1.1 STL, 3.3 BLK and 2.0 TO in 33 minutes per game. He is even better in his last three games and is ranked in the top-10. He double-doubled in five games straight. That's an elite contribution in field goals, rebounds, and blocks and quite a nice production in points and steals. He will still tank your free throws though and owners who picked him up for a punting strategy didn't count on those turnovers.

But nevertheless, Dwight has been a beast and if you're looking to sell him, the time is now! This is just not something that a veteran like him can keep up. He is Superman, but at 32 years of age, it's just not realistic for him to play 33 minutes per game and get 5.0 combined steals+blocks (that's his production over the last week).

And his age is not the only threat. His injury history isn't the greatest and the Hornets are on the verge of giving up on this season. All that could mean he will be occasionally rested, maybe even traded or shut down at some time this season. Furthermore, his primary backup Cody Zeller is expected to return from his knee injury in a few weeks which could take a few minutes away from Howard.

All these things point to the fact that Howard is more likely to drop in value from his current sky-high form. If you can swap him for a top-50 player or better, I wouldn't hesitate too much, unless, of course, he fits your team build too well. Guys like Klay Thompson, DeMar DeRozan or Dennis Schroder should all have safer value than Dwight going forward, so if your team tactics aren't tied to him you could shop him around and try to get some of these guys.

Baller Move: Sell high

 

Time to Panic on Serge Ibaka?

Serge Ibaka is slumping pretty hard lately. He scored more than 20 points in just one of his last 14 and went four games in a row without blocking a shot, before ending that streak in his last game with one block against Minnesota on Jan 20. He also didn't have a single steal in six games straight, a streak which is, unfortunately, still active. Furthermore, he shot abysmally in his two before the Minnesota game, scoring a total of 6 points on 3-of-12 from the field. All this has him ranked outside of the top-250 for the last 14 days. Surely that's not the Ibaka we know!

Even though he is seeing the least playing time since his 2011-12 season, he is still near the top-60 on the year and we should expect him to bounce back to that level shortly. His season averages of 13.2 points with 1.4 threes on 48.3% from the field, 76.2% from the charity stripe, 6.1 boards, 0.7 dimes, 0.4 steals, 1.5 blocks and 1.2 turnovers per game are something that we can expect from him going forward. Most of those stats are on par, or even below his averages from previous seasons and are realistically obtainable by Serge.

If his owner is bummed out by Ibaka's poor form of late, you might be able to get him for pennies on the dollar. If you can get him in exchange for anyone at the top-75 to top-100, I would consider that a good deal. If you can get Ibaka for a player like Darren Collison, Dirk Nowitzki or Dario Saric I believe that could be a move that can benefit your team for the rest of the season. Especially if Ibaka gets his shooting back to his normal level and starts getting those valuable blocks again.

Baller Move: Hold or buy low

 

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