Pelicans' Zion Williamson headlines fantasy basketball stock watch for week 8
Yahoo Fantasy basketball analyst Dan Titus offers two risers and two fallers in this week's edition of fantasy basketball stock watch.
Video Transcript
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DAN TITUS: Week seven is a wrap and I have four players whose stock is either rising or falling heading into week eight. I'm Dan Titus, Yahoo Fantasy basketball analyst. The first riser on my list is Zion Williamson. So it looks like point Zion is back. He's averaged 6.3 dimes in week seven along with almost 28 points, 10 rebounds and 3.8 stocks. He finished eighth in per game value in week seven and has been top 20 over the last two weeks. It's been an uphill climb for Zion. He's been in and out of the lineup, but I think he's finally found his footing into the top 50. Now, he has been benefiting from Brandon Ingram's absence, but I think fantasy managers can be very encouraged by him contributing to almost every category except for 3's. Zion is the real deal and his value is only going to go up.
So the second player on my risers list is Malik Monk of the Sacramento Kings. Malik Monk finished 45th in per game value in week seven, and has been just under top 80 over the last two weeks. Any time Malik Monk gets hot you need to roster him in fantasy. Now the big surprise is that Malik Monk is usually just a scoring and 3's kind of guy for your fantasy team, but he's really seen an uptick in assists over his last six games, averaging almost 5 dimes over the course of the last six games. And I'm really encouraged by his 30% usage rate over that span. And at only 54% rostered Malik Monk is a guy that I'd want to add right now considering his hot streak and how much usage he's getting in the Sacramento Kings lineup.
All right, let's move on to the fallers. The first one up is Gary Trent Jr of the Toronto Raptors. He's currently 125th in per game value, but his preseason ADP was around 89. So he's definitely underperforming right now, and that's partially because he might still be in Nick Nurse's doghouse. He called him out for his lack of defensive effort. He's now coming off the bench in his last three games, and he's seen less than 30 minutes in four of his last six games. And if you look at his splits this season unsurprisingly, if he gets anywhere between 20 and 29 minutes he's not nearly as productive in fantasy. And given the erraticness of his minutes right now he can't really be trusted. Maybe this is a buy low moment, but if he stays on the bench I'd be very concerned as a fantasy manager.
And the second player is Saddiq Bey of the Detroit Pistons. I have a lot of shares of Saddiq Bey, so personally this is really killing me to put him on this list. He's currently 142nd in per game value despite carrying an ADP of 93 in the pre-season. The Pistons have several options in their front court and unfortunately, it looks like Bey is now coming off the bench in his past three games. He just came off of 27.7 rebound and 6 assists outing. I might use that as an opportunity to sell high because there's no predicting where this is going for Saddiq Bey as he's regressing in literally every category this season, except for free throws. So hard player to trust right now. He's really in a rut. I would try to sell him before his value comes crashing back to Earth yet again.