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There's no better way to wheel and deal your way to a better team, and step by step, to a championship than using hot and cold streaks to swap lesser players who are on fire for better guys in a current slump. However, many fantasy managers know about this and are on the lookout so you have to be sneaky about it.
You can't just offer Myles Turner for Devin Booker and hope it will stick, no matter how good Turner has been with those 5.7 combined blocks and steals so far this season! You need something more than insane production for a couple of games to persuade your rival to a trade that will benefit you in the long run.
Here are our Sell High and Buy Low candidates for Week 4 of the NBA season, right here at RotoBaller.
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Are You for Real, CJ McCollum?
CJ has been a top 50 fantasy asset ever since his breakout 2015-16 season. This season, people were sleeping a bit on him and he was being picked at around the #50. I was even able to grab him at the 65th pick in one of my head-2-head 9-cat leagues. All of us fantasy GMs that had the luck to draft him in the 5th or even 6th round can't keep the smile off our faces (unless we drafted guys like Ja Morant or Russell Westbrook as well).
CJ is cruising with 27.6 PTS with 4.9 3PM on 47.0 FG% and 84.4 FT%, 4.3 REB, 5.3 AST, 1.4 STL, 0.3 BLK and 1.1 TO in 35 minutes of action a night. This has him at #6 in Yahoo rankings. And deservedly so!
Five threes a game on 47% from the field!? Five assists with just one turnover!? All these points, free throws and steals, with some solid board as well!? Duuuudeeee!
McCollum is besting his career averages in all of the categories apart from blocks (where he is 0.1 off). This is some insane contribution across the board. A rotisserie dream if you will!
Now, we all know that it isn't quite realistic that he can keep it up for the whole season. Even with Jusuf Nurkic getting hurt which could mean a few extra shots to go around on offense. Quite the opposite, Nurk's absence might be a negative factor as well, as they cooperate quite well together on the floor, and Nurk is quite a threat himself so he inevitably draws attention to himself as well. But alas, no Bosnian Beast for at least 2 months.
So who should you try to trade CJ for, and how?
First of all, if you need threes, points, decent percentages with low turnovers - don't. He is very good at these categories, while also contributing in other areas, so it will be quite difficult for you to find a higher value for your team by trading CJ.
If however, you aren't this high on CJ or his fantasy output, you could use the fact that he has been consistently contributing for years to persuade a rival to take him on. He has averaged over two threes and 20 points per game on over 44% from the field in all of his previous 5 seasons. He shot over 82% from the charity stripe for four straight years before falling to 75.7% last season, which you could blame on the bubble and claim that he adjusted and is back to crazy efficiency.
He has also been quite durable, which is very important in fantasy, especially in this crazy season. He played 70+ games in all of his seasons since he became a first-team regular back in 2015-16. Actually, he played 80+ games three times, and 70 games in the previous two seasons, one of which was shortened one due to the virus.
Damn, I almost convinced myself not to trade him (or to trade for him)!
But, if you can get a first-round guy like Devin Booker, Trae Young or Donovan Mitchell I don't think I could say no to that deal. Even with CJ blazing (pun intended)!
Baller Move: Sell high
Time to Panic on Rudy Gobert?
The first fantasy league I ever played in (and still do) counts double-doubles as the 10th category. You can imagine how valuable Gobert is there! You can, therefore, also imagine how high I was on him when I picked him and Ben Simmons up with picks 20 and 21!
Form-wise it hasn't worked out so well (although I am still fourth of 20 somehow - thank you Keldon Johnson and LaMelo Ball). Although Simmons isn't shining either, we're here to talk about Gobert at the moment.
He has averaged 11.6 points with no three-pointers (of course) on 55.3% from the field and 48.0% from the line, 13.5 boards, 1.5 assists, 0.5 steals, 2.6 blocks and 1.9 turnovers in 30 minutes per game. This has him just barely inside the top 60.
Moreover, Gobert has scored in single digits three games in a row and had his previous game postponed. He also shot a combined 7-of-21 from the field and 3-of-12 from the line in this period. His fantasy GMs must be fuming. I know I am!
Now I found that one of the common mistakes fantasy managers make when assessing a player's form and value is that they get too caught up on points. Granted - two four-point games in a row do look quite ugly on the stat sheet, but points is not why you want Gobert on your team.
The most important thing that secured Rudy a supermax contract a month ago is his contribution on defense, and with 13.7 rebounds and 4.2 blocks a game in his previous six, he is doing just what he does best! The shot will get back to what it was. I mean, how often can he miss when most of his shots are dunks?
If you don't care about FT%, Gobert is surely on your wishlist, and if his current GM isn't set on a punt FT% strategy, you might just pry Gobert away by dangling a shiny guy like Jonas Valanciunas, Tobias Harris or perhaps even Jerami Grant in front of him and see if he bites.
Baller Move: Hold or buy low
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