Throughout the season, players get hot and see an increased role while others struggle and fight to stay relevant. Experienced fantasy players know this happens every year.

In this weekly column, we’ll showcase those who have taken important steps forward and those who have taken steps back. These are the risers and fallers heading into Week 10 of the NBA season.

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Post-Week 9 Fantasy Basketball Risers

RISER - Kyle Lowry (PG, TOR)

Kyle Lowry won a gold medal with the US Men’s Olympic squad this past summer and didn’t have his typical routine in the offseason. That might be the reason he was slow out of the gate, but he’s been piecing it together lately. In the past week, he’s returning top-15 value averaging 4.1 threes, 23.9 points, 3.9 rebounds, 6.7 assists, 1.1 steals on 56.3 FG%/83.3 FT%. He continues to improve every season as he’s averaging a near career-high in points (21.9), rebounds (4.7), assists (7.2), threes (3.3) and field-goal (47.2%). The Raptors backcourt duo has established themselves as a force in the Eastern Conference; he should be headed to his second All-Star appearance. He’s looking like a good candidate to stay in the top-20.

RISER - Ryan Anderson (PF/C, HOU)

The biggest winner of the Clint Capela injury goes to Ryan Anderson since he should have a bigger frontcourt role for the next month or so. Last week, Ryno had his best outing of the season with 31 points, seven rebounds, and eight treys. He’s been mostly disappointing this season as he was expected to breakout with this high-paced, three-point slinging Rockets squad. He’s shooting 41.8% from the field, which is the third worst in his career. The rebounds (5.6) and points (13.9) are down from last season, so he's been mainly a threes-specialist (career-high 2.8 3PTM). He’ll put up numbers for January, so I’d be doing my best to move him before Capela returns.

RISER - Serge Ibaka (PF/C, OKC)

The Magic were doomed to have a frontcourt scramble before the season tipped-off. It was a busy and confusing Orlando offseason. Two full months into the season and Nikola Vucevic is coming off the bench with Bismack Biyombo as the starter. There are grumblings of a Vucevic trade, but Serge Ibaka owners are less concerned with that because he’s been putting up top-5 value in the past two weeks. He’s averaged 2.0 threes and 1.5 steals on 54.1 FG% in that span. Frank Vogel hasn’t touched his role as the starting power forward, and if they have any hope of signing him as a free agent, won’t do so for the rest of the season. If you didn’t panic in his first awful month, then you should continue to hold as he’s finding an identity with the Magic playing overall better basketball lately with their new rotations staying in place.

Post-Week 9 Fantasy Basketball Fallers

FALLER - Paul George (SF/PF, IND)

Paul George had one of the best comeback seasons in recent memory as he’d posted career-highs across the board last year. We might’ve been setting the bar a bit high as PG13 has underperformed as a standard first round pick (11 ADP). In the past three games, he’s scored under 20 points, and for the first time in the season, failed to hit a trey in back-to-back games. He’s turning out 29 overall value as the Pacers have had problems with the new look team. They rank in the bottom 10 for offensive rating (102.5). The news gets worse as George significantly regresses after December. His career points numbers from December to April goes as follows: 20.4, 16.7, 16.7, 15.9, 13.1. That spans over his seven year career, so there is some truth there. With this in mind, I’d prefer to stay away from him or sell him with the name value in trade situations.

FALLER - Reggie Jackson (PG, DET)

Has Reggie Jackson been worth the stash? With an 82 average draft position, he’s basically been a two-cat player with 14.2 points and 4.9 assists in 26.0 minutes. He’s also negatively impacting lineups with his 40.0 FG% (12.7 attempts). R-Jax is still the starter and won’t lose his job to Ish Smith as long as he’s healthy, so there’s plenty of buy-low value. Stan Van Gundy has been working him up to his usual workload (28.6% usage) and the minutes reached above 30 minutes twice in the last two games. He’s got to be better than what he’s shown. There’s obvious risk because his knee hasn’t looked 100%, but it’s possible owners are getting frustrated or worried with the low payoff after the month-long stash. It doesn’t hurt to throw out an offer.