February 28, 2018

Milos Zvekic's buy low, sell high trade advice for Week 20 of fantasy NBA. His buy/hold/sell recommendations for Serge Ibaka and Russell Westbrook in fantasy basketball leagues.

The trade season in most fantasy leagues is drawing to a close on March 1st and there is little time to pull that final move that will make all the difference come fantasy playoffs.

What we all should look to do is use one guys string of great performances and swap him for a guy who generally brings more to the table, but has been feeling a bit under the weather and let it show on his game. Serge Ibaka is our hot player of the week while Russell Westbrook can't hit a jumper to save his life lately. Those two guys are our Sell High and Buy Low candidates for the Week 20, right here at Rotoballer.

Here's why...

Buy Low, Sell High Advice for Week 20

Are You for Real, Serge Ibaka?

After slumping a bit in early February, Ibaka's really picked it up in this period around the All-Star break. He is killing it with his last three with 19.0 points with 2.3 threes on 57.9% from the field and no misses in his six attempts from the free throw line, 7.3 boards, 1.0 assists, 0.7 steals, 2.0 blocks and 0.3 turnovers in 28 minutes a game. That has him at #16 in my Head-2-head 10-cat (double-doubles being the 10th cat) league.

Now Ibaka is good at everything. He is a roto dream and will contribute across the board without hurting you anywhere. But this run can be chalked off to a hot streak. He is better than his season average in every single category. He is better than his career average in all categories except for blocks (and he is just 0.3 off the mark there).

Ibaka has gelled well with Toronto. Their leading position in the East, along with Ibaka's stats this season is enough proof of that. But can we really imagine Ibaka playing this well for the rest of the year?

I for one highly doubt it. Especially if we think back to late January, early February when he was stringing together games with no more than 13 points and had a streak of 19 games in which he had one single steal.

If you own Ibaka, and he doesn't fit your team build perfectly, you would be wise to move on for the right price. Players like Khris Middleton, Bradley Beal or Ben Simmons, most guys from around the top-35 actually, would do it for me. Do keep in mind your playoff schedule though, as Toronto could have a favourable one if your fantasy playoffs end before Week 24 when Toronto has just two games.

Baller Move: Sell high

Time to Panic on Russell Westbrook?

Now first of all, I'm not sure anyone who drafter Russ will sell him low. But I have to advise for trying to buy low, and there is no harm in trying to do so is there? Now let's take a look at why Westbrook is a buy low option. He has shot abysmally in his last three, his turnovers were unusually high, even for him, and his scoring is down. Here is what it means statistically: 13.3 PTS on 0.7 3PM on 26.8 FG% and 88.9 FT%, 13.0 REB, 9.7 AST, 1.7 STL, 0.0 BLK and 6.7 TO in 35 minutes a game.

Holly crap! I hope you're punting FG% and TO.

Well, at least the free throws are back and he is rebounding, stealing the ball and assisting as per usual. But still, you don't want that from your first-round pick.

We all know that Russ can't play like this for long, and that he will turn it around in no time, so if his owner is pissed, this is the perfect time to strike him with a half-decent offer in hopes that his feelings will get the better of his judgement. If your team can handle having a guy like Russ on your team, and you can get Westy for anyone outside of the top-10 that would be a great deal. I won't even waste your time with player suggestions, if you can swap your second round pick for Westbrook, do it!

Baller Move: Hold or buy low

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