Buy, Sell or Hold: Nikola Vucevic and Victor Oladipo?

7 years ago by Milos Zvekic

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Hello our dear readers and welcome to our Week 9 fantasy basketball buy low and sell high column right here at RotoBaller.

Today, we will be changing it up a bit. Although there are several buy low players playing below their realistic levels like Paul George and Rudy Gobert, two guys have really lit the NBA on fire with their recent performances and they warrant our attention. So instead of having one buy low and one sell high options, we will advise you to capitalize on two investments while their stock is at an all time high.

Victor Oladipo and Nikola Vucevic have been cruising lately and while they will probably stick around in the top-30, it is possible that their superstar-like run could net you a player more likely to help you win your league. Here we go!

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Sell High, Sell Higher Advice for Week 9

Are You for Real, Victor Oladipo?

Victor Oladipo is on fire! The young stud has finally come into his own since arriving in Indiana and he is relishing the opportunity put in front of him. The proof of that is easy to find in his season averages of 24.5 PTS with 2.7 3PM on 48.5 FG% and 77.3 FT%, 5.3 REB, 4.0 AST, 1.8 STL, 1.1 BLK and 3.3 TO in 34 mintes per outing. That is flirting with top-20 value on the year.

But what's more, Dipo has been smashing these "puny" averages and returning a mid top-10 value in the last two weeks by hitting an insane 54.3% of his field goals including 3.9 three-pointers for 29.1 points along with grabbing 6.3 boards, dishing out 4.7 assists and a league leading combination of defensive stats - with 2.4 steals and 1.7 blocks in just under 37 minutes a game. If he managed to hold his turnovers in check (3.7) and hit his free throws (71.1%), his fantasy game would have been near perfect.

Oladipo is a great talent, and he is starting to reach his full potential as an NBA player and a fantasy asset, but it's just not realistic for him to keep THIS up. For one, Darren Collison, Indiana's primary ball handler has missed their last game and was limited to a maximum of 26 minutes over the previous three. That directly led to more touches for Oladipo. Furthermore, Myles Turner who is expected to be Indiana's leader in the future and the face of the franchise has been struggling offensively this season. So when Collison is back and Turner gets his confidence up, it might lead to Vic taking a slight dip.

But that's not the real reason we should expect him to stop being incredible. He can co-exist with Collison, who is sort of a pass-first PG. And he is a bigger offensive threat now than Myles can hope to be in the next year or two. The real reason we can expect his value to drop is pure statistics.

Over the past 14 days he is shooting better than Stephen Curry. He has neither averaged over two three-pointers a game, nor more than 44.2% from the field in his career before. Over that same period he is getting more combined steals and blocks than Giannis Antetokounmpo or Draymond Green. His season best is under two steals and under one block.

Don't get me wrong, Dipo has impressed and you should by no means sell him at a discount. The point I'm making here is that this kind of performance is golden for a good negotiator to profit on a player's hot streak. If a mate of yours is holding a top-10 or 15 asset and is looking to get burned by Dipo's hot streak who are you to deny him? A Russell Westbrook owner fed up with his disastrous shooting or a Karl-Anthony Towns owner who doesn't think much of his new role in a star filled team are hard to come by. But if you find a rare butterfly, at least try and take a picture.

Baller Move: Sell high

How High Can You Go, Nikola Vucevic?

Remember when Orlando traded Oladipo and some other assets (including the draft rights to Domantas Sabonis) to acquire Serge Ibaka from Oklahoma City? And then they signed Bismack Biyombo to a four-year, $72 million contract just a few weeks later? It seemed that the Magic were giving up on Nikola Vucevic and looking to change direction. Boy would that have been a mistake!

Luckily for Orlando, they ended up letting Ibaka go instead and Vooch is making them smile about that decision. Let's stick to the same time frame we were using for estimating Oladipo's performances and look at Nik's last 14 days stats. With 19.4 PTS with 1.3 3PM on 54.0 FG% and 91.7 FT%, 11.5 REB, 4.5 AST, 0.8 STL, 2.0 BLK and 1.8 TO he is worthy of the #3 spot in my head-to-head 10-cat (counting all the standard categories plus double-doubles) Yahoo league. Yup! Vooch has more value in my league lately than The Greek Freak, Russ or Kevin Durant.

And he topped it all off with his first career triple-double on Dec 9 against the Hawks, dropping 31 points, vacuuming in 13 rebounds and handing out 10 dimes in that one. He topped it all off with a steal, a block, four three pointers on 72.2% from the field, a lone make from the line and just two turnovers in 37 and a half minutes. Now that's one of the stat lines of the year so far and it has catapulted Nikola into a fantasy value furnace.

But it came with both Aaron Gordon and Evan Fournier, Orlando's best offensive options next to Vucevic, sidelined. Meanwhile, their primary ball handler Elfrid Payton is in a bit of a slump. Once they're all back to their best, it's difficult to imagine Nikola having such a big usage and impact on the offense.

If you are able to cash in your hot'n'spicy chips with Nikola Vucevic for a top-20 fantasy asset, I wouldn't wait around too much. Jimmy Butler, Kyle Lowry or Damian Lillard are all guys who should be worth more than the Montenegrin center the rest of the way. Unless your league is counting double-doubles too. Than I would double-double check the math just in case.

Baller Move: Sell them while they're hot