RADIO
The NBA season isn't quite a week old yet, but it's never too early to start thinking about the changes you need to make to your fantasy basketball lineup, right?
Welcome to this year's fantasy basketball risers and fallers column, a weekly look at a few players whose stock is rising and a few who've been struggling with some analysis of why that's been the case.
It's still incredibly early and the sample size we have is too small to really draw many significant conclusions from, but we can at least try to make sense of the small amount of data we have, right? Okay! Let's do that.
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Fantasy Basketball Risers
P.J. Washington - F - Charlotte Hornets
If you asked me before this season to name, like, the 10 rookies who'd have the best starts, I wouldn't have even thought to name P.J. Washington, but the Hornets forward opened the season with 27-point performance against the Bulls in which he made seven threes. He only scored 10 in his second game, but added in 10 rebounds for the first double-double of his NBA career. Washington's second season at Kentucky saw him shoot over 40 percent from three while averaging 15.2 points and 7.5 rebounds, so this production isn't abnormal or anything.
Karl-Anthony Towns - C - Minnesota Timberwolves
It's not often that I'm going to be highlighting a guy who was universally a first round pick, but KAT's start to the year has been wildly good in a way that suggests he was maybe somehow being underrated on draft night by getting taken at, like, five or whatever.
Towns is shooting 60 percent from the floor through two games, averaging 36.5 points, 14.5 rebounds, and 5.5 assists for a Minnesota team that really, really needs that kind of production from him, especially with it looking like Andrew Wiggins has once again not taken any strides forward. I'm not saying Towns is going to lead the NBA in scoring this year, but weirder things have happened and the current volume he's receiving -- 20 attempts per game plus 10.5 free throw attempts per game -- is big. If he can keep getting to the line to get the easy points there, the sky's the limit for Towns.
Trae Young - G - Atlanta Hawks
While some of last year's rookies are off to rough starts due to injuries and suspensions, Trae Young's off to a really good 2019-20 campaign as a scorer. Young and the Hawks have played just one game this year, but that game saw him score 38 points and shoot 6-for-10 from three while adding nine assists and seven rebounds.
This is Trae Young's team. After a slow start to his rookie season, Young heated up in the second half of last year. That appears to have carried over. The rebounds will come down and the turnovers will stay high, but Young combined for 33 shot or free throw attempts in that opening game. No other Hawk combined for more than 16. Volume, y'all.
Hassan Whiteside - C - Portland Trail Blazers
I am definitely skeptical of Whiteside from a "can he help Portland win games" perspective, but through two games he's averaging 19 points and 14 rebounds per game with 1.5 blocks. His turnovers are up and I don't think he sustains an 80 percent mark from the free throw line, but you have to feel good about spending a late-ish pick on Whiteside at this point.
Ricky Rubio - G - Phoenix Suns
Rubio had 11 assists in Phoenix's first game and then nine in the second game. He had 11 points in that first game and then nine in the second game. Weird!
Phoenix Rubio has a great chance to be at or near the league lead in assists per game this year. Deandre Ayton's suspension does give him one fewer player to throw the ball to, but Rubio should still put up strong numbers and look a lot more like he did in his Minnesota career, not the Jazz version that we saw over the past two seasons.
Luke Kennard - G - Detroit Pistons
Need a three-point shooter who is on waivers? Well, you're in luck with Luke Kennard! The third-year guard is playing 29.5 minutes per game so far and averaging 21.5 points per contest. Yes, that will go down, but he's going to be a pretty high-volume three-point shooter this year for the Pistons. He's taken nine in each Detroit game so far. That kind of volume for a guy who is likely still on waivers? Yeah! Do it!
Fantasy Basketball Fallers
It's hard to get a read on who is a faller after two games, so I'm just highlighting three names this week. Usually, I'll look at five or six.
Mike Conley - G - Utah Jazz
You likely spent a pretty valuable draft pick on Conley, who has been an incredibly reliable player over his NBA career with the Grizzlies. But his Utah Jazz career is off to a rough start.
Through two games, Conley is shooting 14.8 percent from the floor and averaging 9.0 points, 4.0 assists, and 3.0 turnovers per game. While he'll definitely get better at some point, let's not ignore that Conley is 32 and has a lot of miles on him already, so Jazz Conley might not be reaching the level of Grizzlies Conley this year.
Deandre Ayton - C - Phoenix Suns
Really liked how Ayton played in Phoenix's first game, but then he was slapped with a 25-game suspension of violating the league's drug policy after testing positive for a diuretic. He'll appeal, but the Suns are still likely to be without him for a good chunk of time, which leaves fantasy owners with questions. Do you hold Ayton, because he can easily give you top-25 value for the rest of the season when he returns? Or do you trade him away, giving up the better player in exchange for someone who can help you stay on track? It's a tough call, and it's made especially tougher by the timing since you don't yet know if your team can survive Ayton's absence.
Bradley Beal - G - Washington Wizards
This won't last, but Beal's start to the year has been tough for Wizards fans and his fantasy owners. Yes, the raw scoring -- 18 points per game -- is there, but Beal is killing you in other ways. 29.8 percent from the field. 57.1 percent from the free throw line. 18.2 percent from three.
One issue might just be that the increase in volume this year is hurting Beal's efficiency. That isn't necessarily something that just magically changes -- if he keeps taking four more shots per game than he did last year, he may still struggle to score as efficiently as he had in the past. I think we can bet on enough improvement for Beal to not kill your percentages, but definitely not the start that fantasy owners hoped for.
