Forgive the awful pun in the title that relates to an old slogan of Nokia for their mobile phones, but my age and lack of humor cannot be contained. Just like Dalton Knecht cannot be contained as of late and is connecting with impressive accuracy from the 3-point line. Connecting -> Knechting. Don’t make me explain it, it further ruins it…
Regarding last week’s suggestions, of course I jinxed De’Anthony Melton and he went down with a left knee injury, missing the whole week and more weeks to come. On the other hand, Jared McCain continued his hot streak as he has scored over 20 points in all of his last 5 games, while Luguentz Dort had 4 good and 1 bad game but he continues to be well worth a roster spot.
Buy
Dalton Knecht: Falling all the way to number 17 of this year’s draft, mainly due to his age, Dalton Knecht was expected to provide solid shooting for the Lakers from the bench and that is exactly how the season started. However, an injury to Rui Hachimura shifted the Lakers starting 5 and when Knecht started, fantasy magic happened. Including a record tying performance for a rookie yesterday with 9 triples, he is averaging 5.3 triples and 24.2 points in his last 4 games and it seems really difficult to remove him from the starting 5, even when Hachimura returns. If he continues like this you will not get many more chances to add him to your fantasy team, so act quickly (37% owned).
Kyle Kuzma: This is a great buy low window for Kuzma, as he has started the season with a very bad shooting slump in both percentages. To be more precise, he is shooting 41% from the field and 70% from the line as compared to 46% and 77% respectively last season. His minutes have also decreased so his outlook is not looking great, but those shooting numbers are bound to improve and in the correct build, he can still help with his scoring, rebounding and 3pt.
Grant Williams: Apart from Mark Williams who apparently never existed, if we follow Charlotte’s lackluster injury reporting, Nick Richards has also missed a sizeable chunk of time and these have resulted in Grant Williams getting a lot more playing time for the Hornets. During the last 2 weeks he is ranked inside the top75 in per game value with 12.7 points, 6.7 rebounds, 1.1 steals and 1.3 blocks. He will not stand out of the boxscore but he can be a valuable end of bench guy to bolster your stocks until the Hornets get healthier (27% owned).
Sell
John Collins: The fantasy analysts’ world was not ready to see John Collins ranked 33rd in per game fantasy value with 20% of the season gone, but this is exactly what is happening. Helped by injuries to the Jazz frontcourt and more importantly career highs in stealing rate and ft%, Collins has achieved this ranking with only 27 minutes per game. It is obvious that 97% shooting from the line in 3.1 attempts and 1.4 steals are both not sustainable for him and there is always the possibility of a trade to a contending team where his minutes would be further reduced so there is no better time than today to try and cash in on Collins. Obviously, it will be hard to get top50 value back but I would easily settle for a player with more secure fantasy future, when the games matter the most during fantasy playoffs.
