Fantasy Basketball Week In Review: Week 3

January 10, 2021

Antonio Losada looks back at Week 3 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 last week of 2021 games and try to figure out how to take advantage of what we saw transpire.

Monday, January 4th

Luka and Giannis extend Steph's weekend hangover

We don't cover weekend games in this column, but what happened last Sunday needs a special mention, folks. Steph cooked. That's it, that's the thing. Curry carried the Warriors to a W over the Blazers to the tune of a 62-point performance that marked a career-high... and now getting back to our thing we got two more incredibly great performances on Monday.

Luka led all fantasy players with his impressive 33-16-11 trip-dub against Houston in which he also committed 8 turnovers. I included that last bit because once he gets that right, Luka's fantasy tallies will be unthinkable. Giannis was the other monster of Monday, dropping 43 pops on the Pistons and adding 9 boards and 4 dimes to that scoring outing while shooting 70.8 percent from the floor on 24 FGA. No joke these younguns.

• Tim Hardaway Jr. came out of the left field for the Mavs and paired with Doncic to mollywhop the Rockets as he hit 8 triples for 30 points, grabbed 7 rebounds, and dished out 2 dimes.
• Speaking of bench-players, Cedi Osman had his best game of the season (those 2020 vibes...) by putting up a stuffed 18-7-72-2 line with just 3 turnovers in 38 minutes of playing time for the Cavs due to Exum leaving injured after playing just 49 seconds. Cedi is up for grabs in 91% of Yahoo leagues, so you know what to do.

• P.J. Tucker was, as he often is, rather disappointing in Houston's loss to Dallas. He started at PF, played 35 minutes, and all he could do was grabbing 4 boards and missing his lone attempted field goals while turning the ball over two times and committing three personal fouls. Horrific day for the Sneaker King... and for fellow big-man-Rocket DeMarcus Cousins who got ejected from the game with two techs in just 2:53 minutes.
• Robert Williams, on the total opposite side of the spectrum, logged a 11-15 game shooting 80% from the floor on just 19 minutes off Boston's bench. He was the most-efficient performer of the day generating 1.88 fantasy points (DK scoring system) per minute on the court.

• The Cavs are definitely going to regress a bit, and that was the case for Collin Sexton on Monday. He finished with 24 points in 38 minutes, but he needed to shoot the ball 19 times and scoring was all he did as he only added a 2-2-1 rest-of-line to those 24 pops while turning the ball over 6 times and committing 5 fouls on the night. All he did by scoring he undid with all those negative stats.
• Trae Young went to the free-throw line 15 more times against New York, hitting 12 of those. If you don't have Trae in your MVP ballot you better start getting him in there.

Tuesday, January 5th

The Lakers dodge a bullet and the Trailblazers start (?) to sink

If you were worried--as I was--about LeBron missing playing time this season for resting reasons, well, you can start fading that thought. James has yet to sit a game out, is playing 32.4 MPG, using 32 percent of the Lakers offensive possessions, and leading the Lake Show to a 6-2 record through Tuesday. Another day, another W, another top-5 fantasy performance for LBJ thanks to a 26-11-7 dub-dub against Memphis.

Is someone not so happy? Probably Dame Lillard. It's about (Dame) Time this guy and the Blazers as a whole level up and start putting on some sound performances. They dropped their game against Chicago of all teams on Tuesday and neither of Lillard or CJ McCollum did a lot to help Portland, let alone the rest of the pieces. Sure, the backcourt is dropping its 50+ combined points, but it's about the role/rest of players to step up and do more than Nurkic's 12-11 on the night, for example.

• Similar usage rates on opposite roles for Donovan Mitchell (41.9%) and Caris Levert (43.1%). DoMi started for Utah and although he finished a ton of possessions he was far from great with an average-ish 31-4-4 performance that wasn't enough to defeat Utah. Caris, once more off-the-bench and leading the second unit, logged an even higher usage but he finished 24-1-5 in 21 short minutes of playing time.
• Watch out for another tasty bench player in Patty Mills. If you read my deep-league WW-target column weekly you know I'm in love with Mills. He played 28 minutes on Tuesday and was the greatest Spur on the court. Mills put up a 27-1-1-1 totally dependant on scoring, but he hit 8 triples shooting 50% from the floor on 16 FGA.

• Whatever the Nets are doing with their bigs is just wrong. DeAndre Jordan finally hit the bench in favor of Jarrett Allen, and it should remain that way ROS. Jordan is absolutely done compared to Allen, and Tuesday proved so. Allen's line starting and playing 22 minutes: 19-18-1-3-2; Jordan's in 9 minutes: 5-4-1.
• In a low 20 minutes of playing time, JaMuchal Green was great for the Nuggets and the most productive of Denver on a per-minute basis. He finished 17-6-1 with 3 treys shooting 62.5% from the floor yet commanding just 23.9% of possessions.

• Bojan Bogdanovic--the one in Utah, that is--keeps underperforming to incredible extents. Another below-10 points game for him, and it's four of 7 already. BojBog is shooting a ridiculous 33% from the floor but attempting a high 12 FGA, which is killing Utah quite a bit. A really disappointing start to his season.
• Rookie Anthony Edwards has yet to start a game, but voices are claiming for such a thing to happen. The truth is, other than in the scoring front Edwards isn't being a productive fantasy player. He's hitting 13.9 PPG in 25 minutes per game, but other than that he's at just 2.1 RPG, 2 APG, and 0.9 stocks per match. Edwards ranks 1st in PPG among rookies, but only 11th in RPG, 7th in APG, 8th in SPG, and 8th in BPG, while turning the ball over the 8th-most times (1.6) per game.

Wednesday, January 6th

An 11-game slate gets reduced to a massive Wiz-Sixers showdown

With as many as 11 games on the schedule on Wednesday it was reasonable to expect great performances all around the nation. With 22 teams involved, that is just going to happen, right? It did, sure, but the two best fantasy players of the day happened to be moving around the very same court in Bradley Beal and Joel Embiid.

Just mere hours after Steph dropped 62 points, Beal cooked a 60-burger against Philly and completed a 60-7-5 game shooting 57.1 percent on 35 FGA. JoJo didn't fall too short of that performing level with a great 38-8-5-3-3 line on the night, helping Philly outlast the Wiz.

• Gordon Hayward posted a career-high 44 pops on Wednesday. Randle kept up his exploits with a 30-16-7 double-double. Russ contributed another near-trip-dub of 20-8-12... and pretty much every top-tier superstar played to expectations...
• ...except Trae Young and precisely Steph Curry. Young was horrific with just 7 points, 7 rebounds, and 3 assist in 35 minutes. Curry wasn't much better, finishing 13-4-5 in the same playing time. Nothing to worry about, though, as these two are weekly set-and-forget plays for every fantasy GM.

• WW-target of the day: Saddiq Bey. The Pistons are missing some bodies and they are plain bad. That means Detroit will test and see what they have in their young players, including Bey. Bey came off the bench and got himself a dub-dub to the tune of a 20-10-3 line with 6 treys.
• Terrence Ross could experience a bump-up in minutes with Markelle Fultz's season-ending injury (torn ACL). The same goes for Cole Anthony, who might be able to put up better numbers given more run and after struggling shooting from the floor lately (25.2 FG%).

• Elfrid Payton is solidifying himself as New York's starting point-guard. That means he will play a ton, as in Wednesday's 42-minute game in which he led the slate (along with teammate Julius Randle) in plus/minus at +25. 22 pops and 8 dimes, not bad given his availability in fantasy leagues.
• The return of Draymond Green to the Dubs starting lineup didn't affect Eric Paschall's second-unit presence. He finished Wednesday logging a huge 36% usage rate, turned the ball over zero times, shot 50% on 14 FGA, and put up a nice 19-3-1 line in 20 minutes. Not the worst forward to get into your bench.

Thursday, January 7th

A Euro-Battle takes place in the Mavs and Nuggets matchup

No one is surprised when either Luka Doncic or Nikola Jokic put on a monster game. The two of them combined for a couple of great performances on Thursday when facing each other's team in an OT-affair in which Luka came out winning.

Doncic dropped a near-trip-dub to the tune of a 38-9-13 line to go with 4 thefts and a block, but Jokic wasn't short of that level of play thanks to his own 38-11-4 dub-dub with 2 steals to spare. Both men shot 59+ percent from the floor, scored at least 2 triples, and logged usage rates above 36% while finishing with plus/minus marks of 12+ each. Not bad.

• Joe Harris, coming off the bench for a Nets squad missing both Irving and Durant for the second time in the season on Thursday, finished as the best fantasy-reserve on Thursday dropping 28 points (6 triples), grabbing 6 rebounds, and dishing out 4 dimes.
• LeVert started at the point, and as we could expect he excelled at that with a 22-7-10 line and a super-high 36.8% usage rate. Too bad his upside falls down the hill when he comes off the pine.

• Rookie Anthony Edwards put on another good performance while not starting, and it seriously time Minny consider giving him that starter role. He did it all with a 26-4-1-2 line, shot 42.9 percent on 21 FGA, hit 71.4% on 7 FTA, and was the hub of the second unit with a 35% usage rate.
• Jarrett Allen started for the Nets but his performance wasn't remotely close to that of two games ago. As long as he stays in the starting lineup, though, he should rack up fantasy points thanks to his double-double prowess.

• JaMychal Green was important for the Nuggets leading the second unit with 10 points and 9 boards. He's doing the most with his chances and odds are his minutes keep growing down the road (he played 18 on Thursday).
• Valanciunas is on his usual vibe and he isn't letting it go anywhere: another dub-dub to the tune of a stuffed 17-10-3-1-2 line on just 27 minutes for one of the best per-minute performances of the day.
• Gary Trent Jr.'s season is getting worrying, to say the least. Another game in which he logged 23+ minutes (four of six this season) and finished with a below-average production from a per-minute standpoint.

Friday, January 8th

LaMelo defeats Lonzo in the Big Baller Bowl; Curry strikes back

Even if the game had finished in a true stinker, the focuses were always going to be pointing toward the Pels and Hornets affair on Friday with both Ball brothers facing each other for the first time in their NBA careers. As it turned out, the younger of them got the W and also played incredible basketball, almost becoming the youngest player ever to post a trip-dub with a 12-10-9 line off the bench.

On the other unexpectedly-great matchup of the night, the Warriors came back from a 20+ point deficit to defeat the Clippers carried--once more--by Steph Curry. Curry drop 38 pops including hitting 9 treys on a dub-dub performance in which he kept racking up usage numbers. Will Curry stay healthy all year long having to shoulder such a huge load nightly? We'll see.

• Triples galore last Friday with as many as 26 players hitting 4+ treys on the day. Curry led the way with 9, followed by LeVert's 7 and Royce O'Neale's 6. For you fantasy GMs out there looking for bargains: Jordan Clarkson, Ben McLemore, Josh Hart, Miles Bridges, and Wesley Matthews all made the cut and might be some affordable players to consider adding to your rosters going forward.
• This night marked the third time in a row Jarrett Allen started a game over DeAndre Jordan. It's happening, folks, so go get Allen asap and drop the hell out of DAJ.

• Jerami Grant carried Detroit to a win thanks to a monster night scoring 31 points on 15 shots (66.7 FG%) and grabbing 10 boards. Grant did that on a rather low 23.1% usage rate and committing 5 personal fouls in 42 minutes, yet he was a top-10 fantasy play even with those caveats.
• At the other end of the spectrum, all of Rozier, Barrett, Westbrook and Payton shot 15+ field goals but hit 33 percent of them or fewer, with none reaching even 20 points even though all played 30+ minutes.

• Mo Bamba missed the start of the season and played his third game on Friday, and in a short run of 13 minutes, he was über-efficient getting a 12-7 with a promising couple of triples and no turnovers. Bamba led the Magic second unit with a 29.4% usage rate. Bamba is available in pretty much all Yahoo leagues, so if you have room in your roster you should be adding him. Know that he's bench fodder for now, but his role should grow as we get deeper into the year.
• The reserve of the night, though, was Hamidou Diallo (rostered in just 3% Yahoo leagues) and his 23-11-2-1 stuffed line against the Knicks. Go get Diallo.

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