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When DeMarcus Cousins went down to injury at the end of January, I briefly raised Anthony Davis to the number two slot in the rankings behind Russell Westbrook. Ultimately, Davis' history of ouchy injuries and the monster production and robust histories of Westbrook and James Harden nudged Davis down a notch. However, he and the rest of his Pelican teammates seem to have hit their stride of late and are playing some of the best basketball in the league. Davis is leading the way with cartoonish, Chamberlain-ian numbers: Starting with a Feb. 10 win over Brooklyn, he's logging 41.5 points, 15.0 rebounds, 3.2 blocks, 3.0 steals, 2.0 assists and 1.5 3-pointers per game, with a 54.2 FG% and 82.2 FT% (on 12.2 FTA/game).
Davis has no current weaknesses in either roto or points-based leagues, and unless he suffers an injury or slows back to human he's earned the top spot in these rankings.
The other huge injury under consideration is the loss of Jimmy Butler due to a torn meniscus. Butler has already had the surgery to repair the injury, and is listed officially as being out indefinitely, but the usual expected recovery time for an injury like his would likely keep him out much of the rest of the regular season, if not all of it. Butler has been one of the biggest impact players in the NBA for most of the season, and his loss creates a vacuum that the Timberwolves have plenty of talent with the capability to help fill. Karl-Anthony Towns remains a top player, but each of Jeff Teague, Andrew Wiggins, Nemanja Bjelica, Jamal Crawford and even Taj Gibson have seen/should continue to see improvements in their production with Butler sidelined. Thus, look for several Timberwolves to move up the rankings this week.
Positional breakdown
Point guard
Jrue Holiday is showing that Anthony Davis isn't the only Pelicans player heating up. He is averaging 25.3 points, 8.3 assists, 5.3 rebounds, 1.8 steals, 1.2 3-pointrs and 0.5 blocks during his last six games.
Jeff Teague had been playing well prior to Jimmy Butler's injury, and has continued to step up since Butler went down to the tune of 21.6 points, 6.4 assists, 4.6 rebounds, 1.4 steals and 1.6 made treys averaged during his last five games.
Emmanuel Mudiay has moved into the starting lineup for the New York Knicks, and in his first start he turned in 20 points, 7 assists, 2 steals, 2 rebounds, 3 3-pointers and 1 blocked shot.
Shooting guard
Bradley Beal has been a force since John Wall (knee) went down. He has averaged 27.8 points, 7.5 assists, 4.5 rebounds, 1.5 steals, 1.0 blocks and 3.0 3-pointers during his last four games played.
Andrew Wiggins has been up-and-down all season as he learned to defer to Jimmy Butler, but he has scored over 20 points in all three games since Butler went down and projects to numbers more like last season over the rest of the regular season.
Small Forward
Tomas Satoransky has stepped in admirably for the injured John Wall (knee), averaging 13.8 points, 7.4 assists, 3.0 rebounds, 1.8 3-pointers, 1.2 steals and 0.6 blocks during his last five games. Wall is not expected back for several more weeks.
Kawhi Leonard was speculated to be out for the season as recently as this weekend, by head coach Gregg Popovic, but now is reportedly planning a return to the court sometime in March. This was enough to keep him from dropping out of the rankings completely.
Power Forward
Ben Simmons had risen several spots in the last rankings, as he was showing signs of returning to his pre-funk levels. He has stepped it up even further since then, averaging 20.8 points, 9.0 assists, 7.8 rebounds, 1.8 steals and 0.5 blocks in his last four games.
Tobias Harris was the lesser-known member of the Blake Griffin trade, but he is hot of late to the tune of 24.3 points, 8.7 rebounds, 4.7 assists, 1.0 steals , 3.3 3-pointers and 0.7 blocks in his last three outings.
Julius Randle had been struggling for playing time, but in his last six games he has gotten starter minutes and averaged 19.7 poins, 9.7 rebounds, 5.0 assists, 0.8 steals and 0.7 blocks per game.
Center
Nikola Jokic is a walking triple-double these days. During his last six games, he has averaged a triple-double to the tune of 22.8 points, 11.5 rebounds, 10.0 assists 1.7 3-pointers and 1.8 combined blocks/steals per game.
DeAndre Jordan grabs double-digit rebounds essentially every game. In his last five games, he has averaged 16.6 points, 15.6 rebounds, 2.4 assists, 1.6 steals and 1.6 blocks over his last five games.
Dwight Howard has had a throwback season. During his last four games, he has averaged 16.3 points, 13.8 rebounds and 1.3 blocks per game.
