Fantasy Basketball Week In Review: Week 1

Antonio Losada looks back at Week 1 of the 2020-2021 NBA season, including fantasy basketball risers, fallers and takeaways from each night of action.

Welcome to the RotoBaller NBA Recap. In this feature, we will highlight a few key fantasy basketball takeaways from the games played during the past week. These viewpoints can be both positive and negative and will hopefully help to provide insight into different roster moves you should consider making.

Fantasy basketball has a lot of moving pieces with all the different scoring settings that are possible to play under, so I will always do my best to spotlight where players gain or lose value in certain game types.

Without further ado, let's get right into the 1st week of the season and try to figure out how to take advantage of what we saw transpire.

Tuesday, December 22nd

No true fireworks in the 2021 season tip-off

If anything was flashy in the first night of basketball this season, it was the reigning-champ's golden rings. Other than that, not much.

Of course, we had our dose of great basketball to the tune of a Clips squad looking for--and getting--its revenge against their neighbor Lakers. Paul George helped the lower-brother from LA to trump the Lake Show in a night in which he dropped 33 points (including five treys) while stuffing his line with 6 boards, 3 dimes, and a steal. If this is the PG the Clippers are getting this season they'll be much more pleased than with his Pandemic P version from the bubble.

Outside of the MVP of the night, there were some interesting developments to kick the year off.

• Caris Levert, playing off the bench, was plenty great for the Nets finishing with the second-most fantasy points of the slate to the tune of a 20-9-5-2-1 performance even though he could only shoot 35.3% from the floor.
• Dennis Schroder started for the Lakers (we'll see if that holds or not) and had a monster game (14-12-8) along with ex-Clipper Montrezl Harrell (off-the-pine) who himself put up a 17-10 dub-dub.

• James Wiseman's debut was nice to watch unfold, as the rookie completed a 24-minute performance of 19 points and 6 boards in which he even hit a three. The Warriors looked bad overall, and far from a contending squad, but the rook had a rather nice first game as a pro.
• Nicolas Batum also played his first Clip-minutes (28 of them) and was nice in a very diminished role he could only finish 7.3 percent of the possessions he played yet finished with the sixth-highest ROI of the slate.

• Patrick Beverly (10-6-3) and Joe Harris (10-7-2) started for LAC and BKN and both were nice for their low, below-50% rostered rates in fantasy leagues.

• On the other hand, Marc Gasol was terrible donning the Lakers purple and gold, playing just 12 minutes starting at the C spot.
• Same for other highly-owned players such as Anthony Davis, Andrew Wiggins, or Kyle Kuzma, all of which scored 13+ points but couldn't do much more other than that.

Wednesday, December 23rd

Stocked slate full of fantasy goodies!

With Christmas Eve empty of games in the schedule, the NBA packed 13 games (of which only 12 took place due to COVID-related reasons, with Houston/Oklahoma City postponed) forcing all teams to debut before Christmas. And oh, boy, did the night delivered.

• Just two nights into the season, we watched the first couple of 40-burgers courtesy of Ja Morant (44) and Terry Rozier (42). From Morant, you could expect it. Rozier, though, went nuts hitting a monster 10 treys (!!!) while shooting 65.2% from the floor and adding 3-2-2-1 boards/dimes/steals/blocks to his line.

• Nikola Jokic led the slate in total fantasy points thanks to his trip-dub of 29-15-14 against Sacramento in an OT losing effort. He also added 3 blocks in his 41 minutes of playing time, but he should be more careful as he committed 6 TOs on the game. Not that we care a lot, as he more than makes up for that with his staggering vision and passing prowess.
• Some under-the-radar players were balling last Wednesday: Josh Jackson, somehow, finished as the top-scorer in Detroit; Darius Garland went off for the Cavs starting at point guard and hitting 22 pops and 4 treys to go with 6&6 dimes and boards; and Jeff Teague, on relief-duties for Boston, put up a 19-3-4-2-1 stuffed line in 25 minutes that made him the fourth-best ROI returner on the day.

•  All of the above doesn't mean we didn't have our fair share of duds, though, starting with a very horrific performance by Jamal Murray. As good as the Joker was, Murray could only finish with a measly 9 points, 4 rebounds, and a single assist against the Kings...
• ...while fellow point-guard Dame Lillard put up another 9-point dud himself to which he could only add 4 boards and 7 dimes. Not the best of nights for the two small studs, surely.

• Some players with rostered rates below 50% in Yahoo leagues went on to play a ton of minutes for their teams on varying roles. Paul Millsap logged 36 minutes, Dorian Finney-Smith 36, Lonnie Walker IV 34, Isaac Okoro 34, etc.
• Among all of those "unexpected" minute-eaters, I'd highlight rookie Okoro in Cleveland, Finney-Smith (KP is out until the end of January), Patrick Williams (fourth-overall pick), Minny's Josh Okogie, and Mason Plumlee (watch out for a full rebuild in Detroit handing Plumlee even more opportunities).

Thursday, December 24th

Christmas Eve - No Games

Friday, December 25th

Plenty of Christmas gifts... but not a single competitive game

While I can't say the Xmas slate was bad, the truth is that it didn't offer the best of competitive basketball, as all five scheduled games ended in one-sided contests. That started with New Orleans falling to Miami and finished with the Clips beating Denver to death. Not that it affected our fantasy interest, though, as numbers kept piling in the season game logs.

• Zion is for real. You won't have a chance to roster Zion if you didn't draft him, or unless you pay a ton in an in-season trade for him. But he could very well be worth it. Zion was on a pitch count last season, but that's no more. He played 38 minutes against Miami and finished as the second-best player of the slate only bested by Kyrie Irving. Zion's 32-14 double-double was the second in two games for the second-year man.
• Jokic has started the season in peak form, and he fell just one board short of back-to-back triple-doubles. Murray righted his wrongs a bit, but Denver is 0-2, and the Nuggets better step up a bit through their next few games or it'll start to get worrying.
• Duncan Robinson can be acquired in one of each four Yahoo leagues for free, with a rostership of 76% on the platform. He's a walking bucket as he proved in Xmas by dropping 7 treys on the Pels and finishing with a nice 23-5 performance while shooting 57.1% from the floor.
• Middleton is the forever boring, forever great player we all have known for long. He finished 31-4-5-2 hitting 6 treys and in a forgettable night for Giannis he kept Milwaukee afloat.

• That's correct. Giannis flopped quite a bit and although he completed a dub-dub game (15-13) he was plain bad shooting 28.6% from the floor and 46.7% from the line.
• Steph was another serious dud, and the Warriors seem to be done even before the season has really started. That might be nice for fantasy GMs out there, as the quickest Golden State falls off the playoff picture, the higher are the chances the squad starts to feature more youngins you can most probably acquire on the low.

• LeVert kept playing off the bench, which should lower his fantasy-price a bit. He's a machine, though, so things might balance out a bit when it comes to valuing him in fantasy leagues.
• Michael Porter Jr. proved his GMs right in the season debut to the tune of a 24-5-2-2-3 incredible performance, but he went down a bit here finishing 10-3-2-2 against the Clippers. That wasn't bad, and MPJ stuffed the line for the second time in a row, but if he can't hit 20 PPG steadily his value might plummet over the year.

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