Fantasy Basketball Buy, Sell, or Hold: Terry Rozier and Kristaps Porzingis

Aaron Phung looks at whether fantasy basketball managers should be buying, selling or holding Terry Rozier and Kristaps Porzingis based on their recent play in the 2022-23 NBA season.

Trading in fantasy basketball can help you improve your team in the short, as well as in the long term. More than that, it's just plain fun. Negotiating with your mate, going back and forth with offers, and hopefully, reaching a mutually beneficial agreement in the end.

It's not always easy to find the right deal that both parties could agree upon, so using the current form to your advantage could be helpful for you to get a deal done, and perhaps even get the most out of it.

Here are our current Sell High and Buy Low candidates for the NBA season, right here at RotoBaller.

Terry Rozier

Over his past 3 seasons with the Charlotte Hornets, Terry Rozier has established himself as a deadly scorer in the NBA. Through an array of dribble moves and deep threes, he can be the scoring threat his team needs at the end of a tight game to push them over the edge. However, Rozier has not been looking like his normal self recently. Since the start of the 2022-2023 season, he has been struggling to find his shot. 

This year, Rozier has been shooting an abysmal 37.8 FG% and 31.7 3PT%. For reference, he has career averages of 41.6 FG% and 37.3 3PT%. Furthermore, he has been averaging 2.6 TO, 0.4 higher than his previous highest average in a season. So even though he is averaging a career-high in points this season with 21.6 PPG, his efficiency has taken a big hit. 

Does this mean you should look to give Rozier away? Not yet. His low shooting percentages may be concerning, but he is still matching his career averages in assists and rebounds with 5.4 and 4.8 this season, respectively. In addition, a career-high in PPG but low efficiency means that he is getting incredibly high usage. With both LaMelo Ball (ankle) and Miles Bridges out, he will continue to get a lot of looks as the Hornet’s third-best scorer. With some time, Rozier’s field goal percentages as well as his points per game will rise.

Baller Move: Buy low/ hold

Kristaps Porzingis

When Kristaps Porzingis was traded to the Washington Wizards in February of 2022, everyone wondered how this move would affect his performance. The 4th pick of the 2015 draft didn’t seem to fit on the Dallas Mavericks and needed a new team to find his groove again. Even though we only saw 17 games of him playing on the Washington Wizards last season, Porzingis seemed promising.

Porzingis did not fail to live up to expectations. This year, he is averaging 20.9 PTS and 8.8 REB on 48.0 FG% and 38.6 3PT. He also adds 1.4 BLK and 0.8 STL per game, making him a great all-around player on this Wizards team. In recent games especially, Porzingis has been on fire, averaging 25.8 PTS on 48.4 3PT% over the past 7 days. He appears to have really found his home in Washington surrounded by great talent in Bradley Beal and Kyle Kuzma. 

Despite his great production over the past few games, his stats do not appear to be sustainable. As mentioned above, he has been averaging almost 5 PTS above his season average this past week. Furthermore, his 3PT% has been extremely high. Porzingis has never shot above 40% on threes in his career. Unless he makes a big leap this season, his stats should regress back to their averages in due time. 

Another thing to consider about Porzingis is that he has an extensive history with injuries, the most severe ones being a torn ACL and meniscus. These injuries tend to leave players susceptible to future ones. This pattern holds up with Porzingis. Ever since returning from his ACL injury in 2019, he has only played in 166 out of 232 games. He seems much more comfortable on the court this season, but the risk of reinjuring himself is always there and something fantasy managers should consider. 

Given this information, Porzingis is a great sell-high target this week. Try trading for a more durable player such as Domantas Sabonis or CJ McCollum. 

Baller Move: Sell high