There is no way to avoid dedicating today’s introduction to the unreal game Donoval Mitchel had against the Chicago Bulls. 71 points, 8 rebounds, 11 assists, on 64.7% shooting. He single-handedly willed Cleveland backed into this game and sent it to overtime with an offensive rebound from his own intentional miss from the free throw line.
Legendary performance and it is incredible that he only had 8 points a few minutes before half time. We can safely say that he has adapted as good as anyone to his new team and the Cavs have thus become a very fun to watch team this season. Not sure they have the depth to go all the way but they are a tough team to beat with Donovan having such a spectacular season. Finally, we have to give credit to Robin Lopez for this hillarious tweet, pointing out that he combined with Mitchell for 72 points during that game…
Regarding last week’s suggestions, both Quentin Grimes and especially Immanuel Quickley had great weeks and remain premium streaming targets until the Knicks get back to full strength. The same can be said for Jeremy Sochan, who with an exception of a dud in the blowout at Brooklyn seems like a good value for the rest of the season. On the contrary, Damion Lee never got it going in Devin Booker’s absence and the returns of both Landry Shamet and Cameron Payne put a nail in his fantasy relevance coffin.
Buy
Kelly Olynyk: His return from injury has not been kind to fantasy managers that own him, but Kelly Olynyk is too good of a fit in Utah’s system to continue shooting 37% from the field, as he has during the last month. Now that’s a sentence I was not expecting to ever say. The rest of his stats remain steady and he is a top 80 player for the season, despite his recent slump, so I would definitely try to get him now via a trade offer. Picking him up from the wire, if he was dropped, is a no brainer in my book (70% owned).
Jalen Williams: I rarely recommend rookies in this column but you can’t deny that Williams has impressed from his first season and has rightfully earned significant playing time. There will be growing pains but the Thunder seem dedicated to his development and he is a top 90 player during the last 2 weeks. The reason is mainly his defense, with 1.3 steals during that span but his shooting (53.6%) and scoring (15.7) is also a nice bonus. I really like his outlook for the rest of the season and now seems like the last time you can have him for free (48% owned).
Jalen McDaniels: McDaniels is clinging to top 120 value for the season but the absence of both Gordon Hayward and Kelly Oubre, who will miss approximately 4-6 weeks with a hand injury, brings McDaniels in a prime streaming position. You can count on him for steals, good percentages and the elevated minutes should increase his rebounds and scoring (34% owned).
Sell
Gary Trent: Gary Trent has been on fire during the last month, with averages of 3.1 triples, 20.8 points and 1.7 steals and has been even better as of late, with back to back 35 and 32 point games. I don’t think a major decline is in the cards but I feel he will settle closer to the top 70 as the season progresses and now feels like an amazing time to extract some more value for him, targeting a top 35 player in return.
