Welcome to another season of Risers and Fallers! I’m excited to be back so let’s dive into three players making an early-season push to have a big fantasy impact, and three guys whose stock has fallen in the first week of the season.
For all intents and purposes, we could call this one, “who’s hot and who’s not.”
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Risers
Unfortunately, Jerome is already rostered in most leagues, but it could be time to offer him up in a trade while his value is so high. Jerome lit up Utah for 45 points and a bunch of goodies on opening night, and then came back with 28 points and five dimes against Golden State.
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Ty Jerome knocks down the 3-pointer
Jerome’s hot start can, somewhat, be attributed to the teams he was facing, as both the Warriors and Jazz are off to rough starts. The Grizzlies like Jerome and have built the offense to help him succeed, but the bottom line is that he will have a hard time sustaining this shooting pace all season. If you can move him for a struggling veteran who will surely bounce back (Trey Murphy III or Brandon Miller?), do it.
Schroder has seemingly been in the league forever and has played for 12 different teams, but still continues to make noise in fantasyland. He’s had two nice games and one clunker so far, but is hot, racking up 25 points, six boards, four assists and three 3-pointers on Saturday night against Miami.
Coby White (calf strain) will eventually be back to rain on the Schroder parade, but so far, Schroder has been a great waiver-wire grab. Go get him if you need assists and some points, but if you’re looking for steals, threes and blocks, you might want to keep fishing. And be prepared to say goodbye to Schroder once White is back in action.
The Bulls have a bit of a log jam at forward with Caleb Wilson, Matas Buzelis and Leonard Miller, but they’re currently incredibly thin at center. Smith is really the only big man doing anything in Chicago, as Zach Collins and Tobe Awaka have barely seen the floor thus far.
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Jalen Smith elevates for slam
Smith has been incredibly consistent in his first three games, scoring 14 or 15 points in each, and has averaged 8.0 rebounds and 1.5 steals, while also knocking down a total of four triples in his past two. I don’t necessarily trust him to stay healthy, but if it happens, it looks like he could get a solid 25 minutes of action all season. If he’s available in your league, think about picking him up. Just be prepared for Nic Claxton (hamstring) to eventually come back and ruin the party.
FALLERS
Turner has been serviceable thus far, but failed to even score a point in Saturday’s loss to Philadelphia and may already be on thin ice with his managers. He’s averaged just 7.7 points and 4.3 rebounds over three games, and while he has accumulated four 3-pointers and six blocked shots, his shooting hasn’t been great and he’s being pushed by fantasy darling Kel’el Ware.
Turner played just 20 minutes on Saturday night due to foul trouble, while Ware finally came through with 19 points, 13 rebounds, a steal, two blocks and two triples in 29 minutes. Turner hasn’t lost his starting job and is an easy lowball trade target, but if the Bucks coaching staff falls in love with Ware, Turner might be a headache to roster this season.
Jalen Johnson, Nickeil Alexander-Walker, Dyson Daniels, CJ McCollum and Aaron Wiggins are all off to very hot starts for the Hawks, while Okongwu has struggled to get it going. He hasn’t been awful, but he also hasn’t scored more than 10 points in any of his three games, hasn’t had more than six boards in any of them, and finally had his first block and steal of the season on Saturday.
Okongwu will eventually get going, but the rise of Wiggins gives the Hawks another mouth to feed and Okongwu may have trouble producing much offense as long as all of his teammates are healthy. But he’s a big man who can hit threes and produce across the board, and this might be a good time to make some offers for him, before he breaks loose. Just beware that there is a remote chance he remains the Hawks fifth or sixth option on offense for the near future.
Green is 36 years old, the Warriors are not a good basketball team and both Green and Stephen Curry are already getting nights off. I have a bad feeling about this. In addition to sitting out the second night of a back-to-back on Saturday, Green has scored a total of just seven points with just two blocks, one steal and one 3-pointer through two games.
With the Warriors already struggling to compete, it’s hard to imagine Green and Curry putting in a full season of work instead of getting rest and figuring out their future. And, really, Green’s production simply doesn’t warrant a roster spot in most fantasy leagues. Drop him for Jalen Smith, Yaxel Lendeborg or Wendell Carter Jr. and don’t look back. His name is simply bigger than his game at this point.
