It’s Thursday, and you know what that means.
Buy low, sell high is one of the oldest terms in fantasy, but it’s more involved than that. You have to look at the “low” and “high” of it to make sure you’re maximizing value. We can also buy the player, but question the team and role that they are in when it comes to maintaining the pace that they are on.
Most importantly here, with any call you make, you have to be willing to lose the deal or accept that you made the wrong call. It happens all the time when we think we are selling at the highest value, only for that player to buck the trend and play like a stud going forward.
With trade deadlines come and gone in the majority of leagues, we’ll be looking at players whose performance we buy in the larger sense for the rest of the season.
Now that you have an idea of what to expect for this column week to week, let’s get to the players.
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Buy
We’ve been waiting, Mr. Sengun. The breakout finally happened for him – but it just so happened at a point in the season where few manages could benefit from it.
What’s more, his 21-point, 14-rebound performance came in an overtime win against the Lakers where Christian Wood sat out, freeing Sengun up for 40 minutes of playing time.
Could he turn into a pumpkin again? Sure, he could, but it would behoove the Rockets to unleash Sengun moving forward and finally admit that he makes their team better right now than Wood does.
Sticking in Houston, it took a while but the No. 2 overall pick is starting to look like the No. 2 overall pick.
Sengun went off Wednesday, sure, but Green went off for the sixth straight game. In eight games since the All-Star break, Green has scored fewer than 18 points once, and fewer than 20 points just twice. Wednesday night, he had a career-high 32 points.
Over the last month, Green is posting top 100 numbers, and over the last two weeks, he’s posted top 55 numbers.
Green is trending up to close the season, and I’m buying him going forward for this year and next.
Immanuel Quickley (PG/SG – NYK)
It’s really, really hard to trust the Knicks, but Quickley has earned the trust of late. Yes, he’s coming off a nine-point performance his last game out, but he played 30-plus minutes for the second straight game and has been above 26 minutes in five of his last six games.
What’s more, before his nine-point outing – where he still had 12 combined rebounds and assists – Quickley scored 48 points in his previous two games.
It looks like Coach Thibs is trusting Quickley and rewarding him with big minutes down the stretch.
Sell
There’s no player I was more wrong about post-deadline than Harrell, and it makes me sad. He’s playing limited minutes with the Hornets, and when he’s on the court, he’s not making a difference.
His ceiling is capped, and he’s splitting time with Mason Plumlee, who is half as good as Harrell.
He may be a top 120 player on the season, but he’s barely a top 200 player since the deal. He’s a hard pass.
Wizards Guards
When Bradley Beal went down and with Spencer Dinwiddie in Dallas, it looked like Raul Neto would be a solid steamer moving forward. Then the team acquired Ish Smith, and it looked like he’d be a solid add.
Finally, the team signed Tomas Satoransky, who enjoyed the best time of his career with Washington.
The result has been a maddening timeshare that is benefitting none of the players – least of which fantasy managers.
None of the players are good, and without an extended role, none of them are worth using in fantasy. You can move on from all of them.
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Michael Waterloo is a featured writer at FantasyPros. For more from Michael, check out his archive and follow him @MichaelWaterloo.