6 Fantasy Basketball Players to Buy and Sell for Week 16
It's that time of the week once again when we look for three players to buy and three to sell in fantasy hoops.
The buy options are most often players who are not living up to expectations and present a nice buy-low window, but sometimes it's also about jumping on a player in the midst of a breakout before he reaches his full potential.
On the other side of the coin, we look at players to sell, either because they are temporarily punching above their weight class, or because their situation is about to get less friendly for fantasy purposes.
As always, check out last week's edition (and the week before for good measure) for other ideas that might still be relevant. We try not to repeat ourselves from week to week.
All rankings come courtesy of Basketball Monster.
Now, let's hit the market.
Buy
Devin Booker, PG/SG, Phoenix Suns
Devin Booker is having a rough 2019 from a fantasy perspective.
In his 12 games since the calendar flipped, he's been the 140th-ranked player in nine-category leagues, and that's been a tough pill to swallow for anyone who drafted him around his 24.3 average draft position (ADP) this year.
Whenever a scorer like Booker has that kind of dip in value, you usually have to look at the scoring and shooting percentages, but there's really been no issue there. His 24.2 points per game over that span compares favorably with his 24.5 on the year and 24.9 last season, while his shooting split of 49.3% from the field and 83.1% from the line is even better than his 45.4% and 84.5% over the whole 2018-19 campaign to date.
What's actually caused Booker to go from a mid- to early-round asset down to one well outside standard league value is his across-the-board drop-off in everything outside of scoring and shooting.
| Devin Booker | 9-Cat Rank | Minutes | Points | 3's | Rebounds | Assists | Steals | Blocks | FG% | FT% | Turnovers |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| First 28 games | 37th | 36.0 | 25.2 | 2.4 | 3.9 | 7.1 | 1.2 | 0.2 | 45.0% | 86.0% | 3.9 |
| Last 12 games | 206th | 31.5 | 24.2 | 1.5 | 2.9 | 5.6 | 0.3 | 0.1 | 49.3% | 83.1% | 4.1 |
The high turnover rate has remained the same, but the dips in threes, boards, assists, blocks, and especially steals has killed his value.
Booker might never live up to his second-round ADP, but he's better than this. The Phoenix Suns have been blown out four times over those 12 games he's played in 2019, and he left early in two others (one for back spasms and the other due to an ejection), so that explains why he's down 4.5 minutes per game since New Year's.
The Suns will surely be blown out in plenty more games as the season wears on, but regression is still bound to hit Booker on those counting stats eventually. If you're interested, now is a great time to buy low on him.
Jarrett Allen, PF/C, Brooklyn Nets
We talked about Jarrett Allen as a buy-low candidate back in Week 12, and he immediately rattled off a nine-game stretch in which he ranked 22nd in nine-category leagues. If you're kicking yourself over not buying low then, he's currently presenting you with another opportunity.
Over his last five games, Allen has been the 195th-ranked player in nine-category leagues, averaging 5.8 points, 0.0 three-pointers, 9.4 rebounds, 1.4 assists, 0.4 steals, 0.6 blocks, and 2.0 turnovers in 24.7 minutes per contest, while shooting 50.0% from the field and 83.3% from the charity stripe.
He's scored in single-digits for six straight games, his shooting mark from the field is down, and he's getting fewer blocks than we're used to. This little bump in the road is just a small sample, however, and the minutes and shot attempts have been low lately for a couple excusable reasons (a blowout, foul trouble, etc.).
Allen's been an early-round asset over the last month, even with this little cold spell included, so he's well worth buying low on right now. He goes through the occasional rough patch, but his upside is too good to pass up on when you can get it at a discount.
De'Aaron Fox, PG, Sacramento Kings
De'Aaron Fox has been one of the biggest fantasy breakouts of the 2018-19 season, ranking 61st in nine-category leagues through 49 games after going around pick 91 on average coming into this year. He's been slumping a bit lately, however, opening up a buy-low window.
Over his last five games, Fox has been the 236th-ranked player in nine-category leagues, averaging 15.2 points, 0.8 three-pointers, 4.8 rebounds, 6.4 assists, 1.0 steal, 0.2 blocks, and 3.6 turnovers in 32.5 minutes per contest, while shooting 40.0% from the field and 72.7% from the free throw line.
Most of his numbers over that span have been in line with his season-long averages, with the exception of his shooting mark dropping from 46.3% to 40.0%, and his defensive contributions going from 1.7 steals and 0.5 blocks to 1.0 and 0.2, respectively.
The minutes and usage have been consistent, so once Fox's shot starts falling and he manages to get back on track on the defensive end, he should go right back to being a mid-round asset with early-round upside. Buy away.
Sell
Andrew Wiggins, SG/SF, Minnesota Timberwolves
Andrew Wiggins has consistently been one of the most overrated players in fantasy basketball since he entered the league, but things seemed somewhat promising for a turnaround earlier in the season when it looked like he was adding more to his game outside of just scoring.
So much for that.
Even with the Jimmy Butler trade freeing up some usage and shot attempts for him, Wiggins has been having a very sub-par season. He's ranked a career-worst 172nd in nine-category leagues on the year, and things have been even worse than that lately. Over the last month, he's been the 215th-ranked nine-cat player, despite averaging over 21 points per contest over that span.
His shooting split of 40.1% from the field and 71.6% from the line at such a high volume is detrimental to any fantasy team, and he doesn't do enough in rebounding, assists, steals, or blocks to provide any additional value.
There always seems to be at least one person in every league that's willing to give Wiggins a shot based on his name and status as a former first overall pick. If you can trade him for anything of top-100 value, take it and run.
Eric Gordon, SG, Houston Rockets
Eric Gordon is scoring and burying threes in bunches lately.
Over his last seven games, he's averaging 19.3 points, 3.4 triples, 3.7 rebounds, 1.4 assists, 0.9 steals, 0.1 blocks, and 1.6 turnovers in 31.9 minutes per contest, while shooting 41.0% from the field and 83.3% from the free throw line.
That's good enough for 97th-ranked value over that span, but don't lose sight of the fact that he's only ranked 184th and shooting a career-worst 38.6% from the field on the year. He's benefiting heavily from all the injuries the Houston Rockets are playing through right now, and is almost certainly due to take a step back once they get healthy.
Pick the next big scoring game that Gordon puts up, and see what you can get back in return for him in a trade.
Justise Winslow, PG/SF/PF, Miami Heat
Justise Winslow has put up fairly decent numbers as a combo forward turned point guard for the Miami Heat, but maybe not good enough to warrant holding onto him too tightly in fantasy leagues.
He had three very solid games when this experiment first began, but he's only been the 134th-ranked player in nine-category leagues in the 14 games that have followed. His line of 14.2 points, 1.6 threes, 5.4 rebounds, 5.0 assists, 0.9 assists, 0.4 blocks, 2.1 turnovers, 45.8% shooting from the field, and 63.9% from the line over that span offers plenty of goodies, but he's not killing it enough in any one area to make him anything more than a decent late-round asset, despite the ample opportunity.
In the end, Winslow's fantasy appeal might be more hype than substance, and Goran Dragic's (knee) eventual return will likely just muddy things up anyway, so now might be the best time to try selling him on what has been a fairly decent stretch.
