Rest-of-season fantasy basketball rankings for roto leagues
Jimmy Butler has taken flight in recent weeks. Just how high has he climbed in the rest-of-season rankings? Photo by Aaron Lavinsky/Zuma Press/Icon Sportswire
You may notice that while I've kept LeBron James and James Harden at Nos. 1 and 2, respectively, this week, I have swapped Giannis Antetokounmpo and DeMarcus Cousins at the next two spots, with Milwaukee's star forward moving to No. 3 and Cousins dropping to 4.
That's what happens when Antetokounmpo averages 30.6 points, 11.6 rebounds, 4.6 assists and 2.6 steals while shooting 53.3 percent over his past five games.
The bigger story, though, is the rise of Jimmy Butler, who continues to move up the rankings and jumps up 10 spots to a season-high No. 18 this week. Butler's days as a passive option in his first season with Minnesota are a distant memory, as he has racked up scoring outputs of 37 and 38 in two of his past four games.
Butler is playing as many minutes as anyone in the league right now and producing as a scorer, rebounder, distributor, defender and 3-point threat while making more than 85 percent of his free throws and shooting a healthy 46 percent on the season. There's a good chance he remains in the top 20 going forward.
Lonzo Ball's shooting probably isn't going to improve a whole lot over the course of the season, but his confidence -- and the confidence Lakers coach Luke Walton is showing in him -- is starting to be more apparent. Earlier in the season, Walton often opted for more experienced players in crunch time, but that's no longer the case. Now, with Ball believing in himself, he is all the way up to No. 58 this week and looking increasingly like a top-50 option, despite the poor shooting.
Pat yourself on the back if you found a way to beat the rest of your league to Nikola Mirotic (49), whose Chicago Bulls team has incredibly won all six games he's played in since joining the then 3-20 Bulls. The Bulls rely on the veteran for his scoring, rebounding and 3-point shooting, and he has exceeded expectations with 20.3 PPG, 7.3 RPG and 3 3PG thus far. It's fair to question how long Mirotic can continue at this pace, and this may be about his peak value in fantasy this season, but he's worthy of the lofty ranking based on his hot play of late.
Rudy Gobert, who is expected to be out for a month due to a new knee injury, drops all the way to No. 81 and leads the list of notable names to fall in the rankings. Others include Aaron Gordon (38), James Johnson (89) and -- the biggest of all -- Pau Gasol (131), who hasn't had much fantasy value at all since Kawhi Leonard returned and is in danger of falling out of the top 150 if he doesn't pick it up this week.
New arrivals this week include Dallas' ageless guard J.J. Barea (118), Gobert's replacement in Utah, Ekpe Udoh (136), and Brooklyn's new addition Jahlil Okafor (140), who appeared in his first game with the Nets and had 10 points, 4 rebounds and 1 steal in 23 minutes.
