Fantasy Basketball Recap: Week 19

There are only two more weeks left for fantasy basketball! In some ways this season feels like it just begun and in others, it's felt like it's dragged on for weeks. Fantasy basketball is much more of a grind than fantasy football, where you really only have to focus on your week for a couple of days.

Fantasy Studs

5 guys who stood out from the rest of the pack.

• Bradley Beal. Beal is a man on fire at the moment. This week alone he scored 53 points, 55 points, 30 points, and 40 points. Three of those games were loses, but at least your fantasy team benefited.

• Kristaps Porzingis. The Unicorn is putting up stat lines lately that no other NBA player has ever done before. He’s scoring and rebounding well, but he’s also blocking a significant amount of shots while hitting three’s consistentl.

• Aaron Gordon. He wasn't traded at the deadline, but he was snubbed at the dunk contest. Since then, he's playing with a chip on his shoulder. Friday night he recorded a triple-double and has four straight double-digit rebounding games.

• OG Anunoby. he’s only owned in 57% of leagues, but he’s been unreal lately. He had 13 steals total in back-to-back games. He also dropped a career-high 32 points in one of those games.

• Giannis. By now we are all on a first name basis with the Greek Freak. After listening to James Harden‘s trash talk, he put up a 41 points, 20 rebounds, six assists, and a steal. That’d be a good stat line for an entire week for some players.

Fantasy Duds

5 guys who probably wish they could have a do-over.

• Draymond Green. This season hasn't been kind to Green. This week wasn't kind either. In his lone game this week against the Lakers, he played under 10 minutes before getting ejected and only scored two points with one rebound and four assists.

• Eric Bledsoe. Two straight games were he scored in single-digits while scoring poorly. Thankfully for him, Giannis is his teammate.

• Will Barton. Barton had one good game this week, but a few other blah ones. None of them were terrible, terrible, but you’d hope to be getting a little more out of him.

• Larry Nance Jr. As I’ve written here before, I’m not sure exactly why Nance Jr. is rostered in as many leagues as he’s in, but in back-to-back games this week he shot poorly and didn’t hit double-digit anything.

• Bogdan Bogdanovic. He had a weird week. Two games he shot really poorly, and then bounced back shooting-wise but failed to grab a rebound or get an assist. It wasn’t a bad week, just all over the place.

Weeks 19 Overview

This week had a few injuries that will affect a few teams in your leagues. Kelly Oubre is out for the season, Jaren Jackson Jr. will miss a few weeks, as will Ben Simmons. Hopefully for you, your fantasy playoff spot is already squared away. If not, you may need to purge the waiver wire for help over the next two weeks. I had to make three moves in one league last week for this very reason.

The downside to this time of the year is teams resting players for a post-season run. Teams are not likely to risk injury in a game, especially if they are more or less guaranteed a spot in the playoffs.

Waiver Wire Potential

Here are 10 guys who are owned in 50% or less in standard Yahoo fantasy basketball leagues could possibly help your team this week.

• Norman Powell, SG/SF (50%). Powell is back and did well in his return, scoring 22 points with four made three's and three assists. He followed up that game by scoring 24 in his second game back.

• Dillon Brooks, SG/SF (47%). On Friday Books scored 32 points and he's sprinkling in stats all across the board. There's a reason the Grizzlies offered him an extension, he's been well worth it.

• PJ Washington, SF/PF (44%). Like Crowder, Charlotte's rookie is capable of doing a little bit of everything. Some night he'll get you a bunch of rebounds, another night it might be steals or three's.

• Jae Crowder, SF/PF (42%). The do-all play of Crowder is sometimes not reflected in his stat line, but thankfully his stat line shows enough to make him worth a look. He's a good source of steals, points, rebounds, and three's most nights.

• Jerami Grant, SF/PF (42%). Grant had back-to-back games scoring 20 points or more with a few made three's, rebounds, and assists. There's enough to go around in Denver.

• Seth Curry, PG/SG (41%). With Luka Doncic hobbled with a bum thumb and a sore ankle, Curry has stepped up his game. On Friday he scored a career high 37 points and had eight made three's.

• Cam Reddish, PG/SG/SF (33%). The Hawks rookie has really turned his season around lately and has become a quality contributor in real life, as well as fantasy.

• Damion Lee, SG (31%). Steph Curry isn't making his return just yet, so Lee still has some upside. Three straight games this week he had at least three made three's, 14 points, four rebounds, and four assists.

• Gorgui Dieng, PF/C (24%). This week we saw Dieng post a points and rebounds double-double and also block four shots. He won't do this every night, but the potential is there.

• Reggie Jackson, PG/SG (18%). Why not? Jackson had a near triple-double in 19 minutes on Friday.