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The playoff push for both NBA and fantasy teams alike has arrived! We have officially crawled our way through the All-Star break filled with dreams of the past All-Star games and everyone complaining about the current setup. Let's just all collectively understand that we got to see great basketball back in the day and it's never going to be the same, alright? Great, glad we got that out of the way!
Anyway, it's time to take a look at some dynasty fantasy basketball. Which players are starting to shine as the season progresses and which ones have fallen out of their rotation? Some benefitted from trade-deadline moves and others went right back to the bench, unfortunately. The great thing about the NBA is that there can be heroes at the end of the bench that no one knew about until they finally saw the light of the day on the court.
So, for those who may not know, we go over three players who have a rising dynasty value and three who have a falling value. This means their prospects over the current season and a few seasons in the future either are starting to look up or look very bleak. We're not concerned with the short-term performances like in redraft leagues. Let's get into Week 17 dynasty risers and fallers!
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Risers For Dynasty Fantasy Basketball Leagues
Ricky Council IV (SG, PHI)
Even as someone who follows the Philadelphia 76ers with a magnifying glass every season, I was not expecting Ricky Council IV to boost his value as much as he did over the past few weeks. Not only boost his value but also his playing time on a roster that has a lot of veterans. Council took advantage of the injuries and the moves at the trade deadline to showcase the type of talent he possesses. Whether that talent comes to fruition with the Sixers or another team next season is the big question.
First, let's clear up one thing. Council is not going to be a fantasy asset to win any sort of championship in his rookie year. He may have received some extra playing time, but the addition of Kyle Lowry put a damper on that in the short term. His short-lived outburst could have entered him into some offseason trade talks, especially if Nick Nurse decides to give some more opportunities while the team struggles to stay healthy. For fantasy managers, that's the best-case scenario.
In the three-game stretch that Council saw 20 or minutes on the floor, he averaged 13.3 points, 6.3 rebounds, and 1.0 assists per game while shooting 46.7 % from the floor. He showed a willingness to shoot the ball and an explosive ability to get to the rim. He even had a very good rebounding ability for a guard which can make a lot of fantasy managers happy if he starts to get more minutes. Either way, Council is a very long-term investment, but his value is moving in the right direction.
Jonathan Kuminga (PF, GSW)
The last time Jonathan Kuminga was on this list, he appeared in the fallers category because he was getting inconsistent minutes which produced inconsistent results and the Golden State Warriors were refusing to put their trust in him. Well, now that we're on the other side of the All-Star break, Steve Kerr and company have not only backed Kuminga but have entered him into the starting lineup as a mainstay.
He's hit the highest rank of his young career in nine-category leagues as he's knocking on the door of the top 200. Since becoming a regular in the starting five, he's averaged 17.9 points, 5.5 rebounds, 2.6 assists, and 1.8 turnovers per game while shooting 56.2% from the floor and 34.2% from beyond the arc. He's also been receiving 29.2 minutes a night and has bolstered his offensive rating up to 117 this season.
Sure, there's still a bit to be desired in terms of fantasy value outside of scoring and shooting percentages, but this is just his third season in the league and he's only 21 years old. Let's also not forget that he's been learning from one of the best cores in the league that has won multiple championships too.
Amen Thompson (PG/SG/SF, HOU)
Finally, one of the Thompson twins is getting some more minutes on the court! Amen Thompson saw a chunk of playing time to begin the season, sat out for a while with a sprained ankle, and now he's back making some waves. Fred VanVleet was forced to take a seat for a stretch of five games leading up to the All-Star break, so Thompson got some room to breathe.
Over the last week, two weeks, and two months, Thompson outperformed his season-long rank in both per-game and total fantasy value according to Basketball Monster. Over the last two weeks, which includes the games that VanVleet missed, Thompson averaged 15.2 points, 10.2 rebounds, 3.2 assists, 2.0 steals, 1.2 blocks, and 2.0 turnovers per game. That put him as the 38th-ranked player in nine-category leagues across that span. While he may not be knocking down a crazy amount of threes, his rebounding and defensive numbers have made up for it in a big way.
The bad news is that VanVleet has returned so Thompson moved back to his bench role. An added silver lining is that over their last two games since the All-Star break, he's started to take away some minutes from Jalen Green. So, keep on cheering for more minutes fantasy managers, his time is coming!
Fallers For Dynasty Fantasy Basketball Leagues
Jalen Green (PG/SF, HOU)
Time is ticking on the Jalen Green train and I'm not talking about some sort of self-destruction time. Green has been a good player, but the Houston Rockets have been waiting for him to break out into one of their best players. The high-volume, low-efficiency scoring is there, but the rest of his game seems to be somewhere else in the world hanging out with Carmen San Diego.
Despite being in the middle of his third season and surrounded by some very good players, Green is actually ranked lower than the aforementioned Amen Thompson and isn't even inside of the top 200 for nine-category leagues. He possesses two, yes two, stat categories that are returning positive value versus the league average. Those are points and threes per game, that's it.
Green isn't a defensive stat collector and he's barely giving any offensive stats with 3.4 assists and 4.8 rebounds per game. So, the one shining question is, what exactly does Jalen Green do for my fantasy team? That answer is, not much, and it's not looking like that's going to change any time soon.
Jaden Springer (PG/SG, BOS)
Right when Daryl Morey and Nick Nurse had us thinking that Jaden Springer was going to crack the regular rotation for the Sixers, Morey pulled the rug out from under all of us hopeful managers and traded him to long-time rival Boston. What a cruel joke for all of the Springer believers out there. Maybe I was the only believer, but it's still cruel!
Right before getting traded, Springer saw the court for around 20 minutes a game over his last five games with the Sixers. That didn't translate into that much scoring, but his defensive prowess came through multiple times while he grabbed around five boards on average. Then, after missing his first four games with the Celtics, he finally made his debut in the first game after the All-Star break where he saw two minutes.
The fact that he's not much of a three-point shooter means his path to playing time on an already great Celtics team is going to be difficult. His defense will help in certain moments, but his fantasy value looks like it's taking a big plunge after showing a bit of promise.
Bryce McGowens (SG, CHA)
At this point, there's not much left to say about Bryce McGowens, especially while he remains on the Charlotte Hornets' roster. With LaMelo Ball (ankle) missing a lot of time again, McGowens was starting to get some semi-regular minutes and put together a few good games here and there. After some trade deadline moves, he's back to the bench and barely sniffing the court yet again.
Tre Mann came over from the Oklahoma City Thunder and immediately took over as the starting point guard even though he was averaging just 9.2 minutes a night with the Thunder. Then, they added Seth Curry who's also seeing more time than McGowens. To top it all off, Brandon Miller is the future, Cody Martin returned to the court, and Vasilije Micic is even getting some minutes.
McGowens holds such little fantasy value that it's probably easier to just drop him to waivers where other fantasy managers are very unlikely to even touch him. Maybe a change of scenery would help his career, but until then, he's not on the fantasy radar in any format.
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