RADIO
Happy early New Year, RotoBallers! Hopefully, for those who celebrate, Santa brought some of the best gifts around. Maybe he brought your favorite team a win on Christmas Day or maybe he brought another loss to the Detroit Pistons to help them get closer to the number-one draft pick. Either way, it's better than just straight-up coal, right?
We're not trying to play the role of Santa Clause here, but we do give the gift of either supporting or refuting the fantasy value of players in dynasty leagues! The aim is to point out those players that are gaining and losing value to make it easier to negotiate some deals and to decide whether to keep or sell.
So, let's see what our dynasty-ranking elves have been up to these days and who they think is rising and falling. Okay, I'll stop with the cheesy Christmas references, I promise. Let's get into the Week 10 dynasty risers and fallers list!
Editor's Note: Our incredible team of writers received five total writing awards and 13 award nominations by the Fantasy Sports Writers Association, tops in the industry! Congrats to all the award winners and nominees including NBA Writer of the Year, Best NFL Series, MLB Series, PGA Writer and Player Notes writer of the year. Be sure to follow their analysis, rankings and advice all year long, and win big with RotoBaller! Read More!
Risers For Dynasty Fantasy Basketball Leagues
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (PG/SG, OKC)
Yes, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was a collectively predicted first-round pick in fantasy drafts and was even going in the top five in a lot of startup drafts. That doesn't mean his value can't grow even more with the fantastic level of play that he's displayed so far this year. After finishing as the number-three player overall in nine-category value last season, he's reached the number-one spot according to Basketball Monster.
The MVP candidate is only 25 years old and averages 31.0 points, 6.4 assists, 5.7 rebounds, 2.8 steals, 2.1 turnovers, and 1.0 three per game while knocking down an absurd 54.2% of his shots. In comparison, the league's leading scorer, Joel Embiid, is shooting 54.0%. Gilgeous-Alexander is shooting a slightly higher percentage as a guard and his only lower-valued stat compared to the league average is made threes per game.
While he may not be dropping all sorts of triple-doubles like Nikola Jokic or Luka Doncic, Gilgeous-Alexander is delivering across the board in every single category from offense to defense. He's shooting four percentage points higher, grabbing 1.4 more steals per contest, and even blocking more shots than Doncic. That's while blocking the same amount of shots as Jokic and scoring five more points per contest, on top of getting 1.6 more steals than him and Embiid.
Jalen Brunson (PG/SG, NYK)
After Becky Hammon went on ESPN and made a case that Jalen Brunson can't be the 1A type of player on a championship team, we all watched him carve up the Milwaukee Bucks for 38 points and six assists on Christmas Day. The Villanova product should be talked about as part of the MVP conversation right now while he's posting some of the best numbers of his career.
For our sake in dynasty leagues, it doesn't matter if Brunson can truly be the 1A player on a title contender or not. He can be someone to help managers win their fantasy championship. He's hovering inside the top 50 in terms of per-game value in nine-category leagues and sits just outside the top 20 in threes per game.
The 27-year-old wasn't even hitting 1.5 threes per game while in Dallas, then improved to 2.0 last season, and is now at 2.9 per contest this year. On top of that, he's averaging 26.1 points, 5.9 assists, 3.9 rebounds, and 1.1 steals while shooting 48.0% from the floor and 80.4% from the charity stripe while shooting 5.6 of them per game. If we shift to total stats instead of averages, Brunson ranks inside the top 30 and reached as high as 16th over the past two weeks. That's a nice chunk of value given the fact that Brunson wasn't very high in ADP.
Keegan Murray (SF/PF, SAC)
23 years old and the proud owner of three new franchise records for most points in a quarter, most threes made in a single quarter, and the most made threes in a single game. He was only one three shy of Stephen Curry's career-high and two shy of Klay Thompson's all-time NBA record. That's just one performance over the past couple of weeks for Keegan Murray who continues to impress as the Sacramento Kings are firmly in the playoff race.
Murray ranked outside of the top 100 during his rookie year despite getting plenty of minutes. In his sophomore season, he has seen an increase from 29.8 minutes to 32.4 per game and has turned that into top 60 production. He's posting better numbers across the board except for turnovers which makes sense given he increased his usage rate from 15.7 to 19.5. In comparison, there's only one other member of the 2022 NBA Draft class that is ranked higher on Basketball Monster and that's Chet Holmgren.
The sharpshooting forward is not only showing fantasy value, but after the Toronto Raptors reportedly offered Pascal Siakam for Murray, the Kings expressed that he's untouchable which raises his real-life value as well. Any fantasy manger would be happy with 16.2 points, 2.6 threes, 5.5 rebounds, 1.7 assists, and 1.2 steals per contest from a second-year player who's also shooting 45.7% from the floor and 85.1% from the free throw line.
Fallers For Dynasty Fantasy Basketball Leagues
Bradley Beal (SG, PHO)
Five straight seasons without playing more than 60 games in a season is the current streak that Bradley Beal is on at this moment. He's played six games so far this season and the Phoenix Suns only have 53 games left to play. The big three of Beal, Devin Booker, and Kevin Durant have played a total of 24 minutes together and have appeared in two games.
Beal had three seasons of elite production that placed him in the top 15 of per-game fantasy value, but that was the 2018-19 season through 2020-21. Since then, he's finished. 74th, 55th, and is currently ranked at 280th. The only positive value he's returning compared to the league average is his usage rating which doesn't translate to winning fantasy matchups.
Until he proves he can stay healthy, Beal is a liability for both the Suns and fantasy managers everywhere.
Scoot Henderson (PG, POR)
Once regarded as the top contender to Victor Wembanyama and Chet Holmgren for Rookie of the Year, Scoot Henderson has done nothing but disappoint so far except for some nice flashes here and there. He finally posted a quality game in a win over the Sacramento Kings on Tuesday night where he posted 17 points and 11 assists which was his second double-double of the year.
After starting in the first five games of his career, he hasn't started another one since and only received more than 25 minutes in eight of the last 15 games. Currently, Malcolm Brogdon, Shaedon Sharpe, and Anfernee Simons are all ahead of him in the depth chart. So, combine the fact that he's not playing as much as expected with his averages of 11.1 points, 4.5 assists, 2.6 rebounds, and 3.0 turnovers per game and you get someone who's not helping fantasy teams.
His value remains on the higher side given that he's a rookie and hasn't turned 20 years old yet. He also should receive more opportunities while playing on a tanking team, so he has the chance to grow as the year goes on. Henderson makes it on the fallers section because he doesn't seem like he can reach the ceiling that everyone predicted right now.
D'Angelo Russell (PG/SG, LAL)
Push has now come to shove and the Los Angeles Lakers decided to bring D'Angelo Russell off of the bench. He's taken the brunt of the social media storm from Lakers fans and he's the first scapegoat that could be on the way out. Even though he's not the only reason that the team has failed to meet expectations, he's been quite bad over the last few weeks.
Russell posted 10.5 points, 4.8 assists, 1.8 rebounds, 2.0 turnovers, and 1.3 threes per game while shooting 42.5% from the floor over the last four games. His assist numbers are still returning positive value compared to the league average, but everything else is now in the negatives.
The Ohio State product was ranked 190th over the past week in per-game fantasy value and sits at 97th for the season so far. This would be his lowest ranking since the 2020-21 season where he only played 42 games with Minnesota. His value is sinking quicker than Leo DiCaprio hanging off of the door in the Titanic. Fantasy managers might want to offer him to some other teams while convincing people that his value still exists because he's 27 years old.
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