Fantasy basketball buy & sell: Week 17

Here are three players to buy and three to sell in fantasy hoops this week. The buys are guys who’s stock is down at the moment for whatever reason—coming off injury, in a prolonged drought, just got traded to the Knicks and are now the only player on the team who’s good—while the sells are guys who’s value will never be higher and it’s time to capitalize on their recent production.

Your welcome all of you who added Joe Ingles last week. Just a nice little uptick in his scoring last week, averaging 14.7 points and hitting 2.7 threes a game over his last three. Still belongs on your team people.

Anyways, onto this week.

BUY

Dennis Smith Jr., PG, New York Knicks

Ignore stats. Ignore numbers. Ignore projections and percentages and all that calculator stuff. That’s not why DSJ is a buy. DSJ is a buy because the Knicks just traded away the greatest thing to have happened to them since the Monstars gave Patrick Ewing his powers back for cap space, DSJ and I guess DeAndre Jordan (who, the Knicks would like to tell you, is besties with Kevin Durant. KD TO NY!).

The Knicks know this trade was a PR disaster and they are going to be doing everything they can to prove that not only was getting cap space important, but this DSJ guy is here to stay. So get ready for all the minutes and every opportunity available being thrown Smith’s way in a hope beyond hope that he’ll prove to the New York crowd that he wasn’t just an afterthought addition to the trade. Maybe he’ll have a D’Angelo Russell-esque resergence.

Harrison Barnes, PF, Dallas Mavericks

Another beneficiary of the Porzingis trade, Barnes now has a chance to see an uptick in multiple major categories for fantasy go-ers. Already in the last week we’ve seen his minutes, points, rebounds and assists improve above his season averages. This past week he averaged 21 points, 5.3 boards, 2.7 assists on 34.7 minutes. With DeAndre Jordan out of Dallas, I would expect Barnes’ rebounds to improve a bit and his usage to also increase. Nothing crazy mind you, I don’t think he’s going to suddenly turn into a 20-10 guy, but I could see him becoming an 18-6 guy.

Otto Porter, SF/PF, Washington Wizards

It’s been a tough season so far for Otto Porter. He started out slow, then got injured and then, just before making his return, the Wizards traded for Trevor Ariza and gave him Porter’s starting spot. Again, a tough start.

However, over the last three games, Porter has made it back into the Wizards’ starting rotation (this time for Jeff Green) and has shown flashes of improvement. Ultimately, his still performing well below his career averages so now is the time to buy him and profit as he works his way back to his norm. Even if that takes time, he’s still giving you decent scoring (12.6 per game) and fine rebound production (5.6 per game). Last year he was 28th per FantasyPro’s player rater and if he can return to that after buying him for next to nothing, that’s a sound investment.

SELL

Kenneth Faried, PF, Houston Rockets

I feel like I’m going to curse myself because I just added Faried in my fantasy league yet here I am writing about how you should sell him. So I’ll add this disclaimer to help counteract the curse: you should think about selling Faried soon but you don’t need to do it right this instant.

Faried has been fantastic since arriving to Houston. Through eight games, he’s averaged 16.5 points, 10.1 boards, 0.8 steals and 1.1 blocks on 29.9 minutes. (Those rebounds is why I added him. My team needs to attack the boards better.) Faried’s production though is directly tied to Clint Capela’s absence. Once Capela’s healthily—something the Rockets are hoping will be true come February 21st—Faried will almost certainly lose his starting spot and certainly a good handful of minutes. Sell him before it’s too late.

Trae Young, PG, Atlanta Hawks

Sell Trae Young? But he’s been amazing these last couple of weeks. Yes italicized text, Trae Young has been on fire the last couple of weeks. Over his last six games, Young is averaging 24 points on 48.5% shooting, 3.2 threes, 3.5 rebounds, 8.5 assists, and 0.5 steals on 31.7 minutes. Those are the kind of numbers you love to see from a rookie on a bad team. That being said, he also averaged almost 3 turnovers per game in that time, including a game of five turnovers only five days ago.

I hate to build my whole reason on something other than performance, but there’s also the dreaded rookie wall looming. There’s no way this level of production, or even something a step down, will last for the rest of the season. We’re already seeing the effects of the long season as last night Young went 2-for-13 from the floor and 1-for-6 from downtown. If you’re in a dynasty league, hold onto him; but if you’re playing re-draft, now’s the time to part with him.

Andre Drummond, C, Detroit Pistons

Here’s all you need to know about Drummond: he’s a career 54% shooter, 54.2% free throw shooter and has a career average of 13.9 points per game. His last five games since coming back from a concussion, Drummond has shot 68.2% from the field on 13.2 attempts, a staggering (for him at least) 72.7% from the charity stripe and is scoring 21.2 points per game. These numbers are not going to last. I can promise you that. Sell. SELL. SELL!