RADIO
Welcome to the fantasy basketball risers and fallers column, a weekly look at some players who are playing well and some players who aren't. What do these things mean in the larger scale of the NBA season? That's what we're trying to find out here.
Who's exceeding expectations? Who's falling short of expectations? Let's take a look at some trends after Week 3 of the 2022-23 NBA season.
Follow me on Twitter @juscarts if you'd like to have your fantasy basketball questions answered.
Fantasy Basketball Risers
Keldon Johnson - F, San Antonio Spurs
Johnson missed Wednesday's game with a calf injury, but even factoring that in, he's been on a hot streak lately. Over his previous four games, he's taking 18.5 field goal attempts per contest while shooting 44.6% from the floor, with averages of 25.8 points. 4.0 rebounds, 4.8 assists and 1.3 steals per game.
And to highlight the importance of Johnson, the game he missed saw the team lose by 43.
The Spurs just don't really have a lot of option wing options aside from Johnson. In the loss to the Raptors, the team had to play players like Malaki Branham and Jordan Hall for 20-plus minutes. It's clear that Johnson's one of the team's only good players, and when he's on the floor, he'll get the usage to prove it.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander - G, Oklahoma City Thunder
The Thunder might be bad, but Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has been filling up the stat sheet for them.
Since siting out against the Timberwolves, SGA has played five games for OKC, averaging 36.0 minutes per contest. He's averaging 33.2 points per game over that span, plus 6.4 assists, 4.8 rebounds, 2.6 steals and 1.2 blocks per game. He's basically Keldon Johnson on metaphorical steroids, in the sense that he's one of the only "good" players on a rebuilding team, though Gilgeous-Alexander is another level above Johnson when it comes to talent and usage.
Kristaps Porzingis - F/C, Washington Wizards
Porzingis has yet to miss a game this season. Take that however you want to—if you think he's an injury prone player who just happens to be healthy, maybe you try to trade him away at his peak value, or if you think rostering him when you factor in how cheap you got him in drafts is worth it, then you hold onto to him and enjoy the production and just hope he remains healthy.
And that production...woo, it's some good stuff. Over the last three games, Porzingis is averaging 26.3 points per game on 58.7% shooting, with 10.3 rebounds, 2.3 assists, 1.0 steals and 1.7 blocks per game. The Wizards don't really have much going on at center behind Porzingis, with Daniel Gafford not getting many minutes right now, so a healthy Porzingis should keep this up.
OG Anunoby - F/G, Toronto Raptors
Anunoby's scoring—he's at 16.5 points per game over the last four games—won't blow anyone away, but he's a riser because of the all the other things he's adding, especially steals, as he has 4.0 per game over this four game span. He's also shooting 52.1% since then, as well as contributing 5.5 rebounds, 2.3 assists and 1.0 blocks per game.
Lot of good things there. He won't kill you in points per game because it's not like he's scoring in single-digits or anything, and he'll help you with efficiency and steals.
Fantasy Basketball Fallers
James Wiseman - C, Golden State Warriors
As a 19-year-old rookie, Wiseman shot 51.9% from the floor and averaged 11.5 points and 5.8 rebounds per game for the Warriors. But he missed last season with a knee injury and now that he's back, he's just not really touching the floor.
Wiseman has played in every Warriors game, but he's averaged just 13.4 minutes per contest, and he's played under 10 minutes in three of the last four games. He's averaging 7.6 points and 3.8 rebounds per game, numbers that are pretty clearly not fantasy relevant.
Currently, the Warriors are rolling with Kevon Looney and Draymond Green in the frontcourt, and JaMychal Green is serving as the third big. Wiseman could be better than Green, but the defending NBA champions are going to let a veteran like Green play over Wiseman until they can trust that Wiseman will provide serious minutes.
There's still a bright future for both Wiseman and fellow Warriors lottery pick Jonathan Kuminga, but that bright future probably doesn't really start for another year or so.
Cedi Osman - G/F, Cleveland Cavaliers
Osman's first four games: 29.1 minutes per game, with 15.5 points per contest, plus 3.0 rebounds, 2.8 assists and 2.3 steals.
Osman's last three games: 16.7 minutes per game, with 2.3 points on 12.5% shooting with 2.0 rebounds, 0.3 assists and 0.7 threes per game.
Yikes.
Osman's shot has fallen off, and with a corresponding fall off in minutes too, he's basically lost his fantasy value. In most leagues, Osman can be dropped, especially because I don't really see a comeback happening.
Last game, Osman played his fewest minutes. Caris LeVert, Donovan Mitchell and Darius Garland all played 40-plus minutes in the overtime win, while Dean Wade played about double the minutes of Osman. At this point, I wouldn't be shocked to see Isaac Okoro surpass Osman in the rotation.
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