Click here for rest-of-season roto-league rankings and reaction.
Read below for rest-of-season points-league ranks.
The bottom of the top 150 is getting incredibly competitive at this time of season, which is as expected because we've reached the transition period of the campaign, when injuries, trades, rookie development, the upcoming trade deadline and decisions on the directions of teams are conspiring to jumble up player values.
How do you rate established producers who have been dealing with extended injuries? Players like Goran Dragic, Kristaps Porzingis, Caris LeVert, Dwight Howard, Isaiah Thomas, Carmelo Anthony and Kent Bazemore could all have arguments for the top 150 based upon the estimate of when they might return to regular action on the court.
Lonzo Ball just slid out of the top 150, but only barely, because I estimated his 4-to-6-week injury return as 30 percent of his value. He'll likely be back in the top 150 in a week or two, as his absence coefficient shrinks, but for this week he's on the outside looking in.
On the other hand, what should we do with players who are producing very well now, in part because of injuries to teammates? Josh Jackson and Shabazz Napier slid into the top 150 this week in that very situation. Kenneth Faried was somewhere in the fantasy wasteland, but he joined the Houston Rockets at a time when Clint Capela is on the shelf, and all of a sudden he's a nightly double-double threat again. Jahlil Okafor went from near Rookie of the Year to completely off the radar, but injuries to the top three bigs on the Pelicans all of a sudden have him rekindling memories of the upside that he showed as a rookie. Is he a top-150 guy?
Ultimately, in this space, I rely on numbers -- projections and production -- to help me make these calls. I could easily shift the numbers around a bit and the rankings would shift accordingly, so these rankings should never be taken as gospel. But they do make a good estimate of tiers of interest, and one of the goals here is to keep you informed of those tiers.
So for this week, I did feel it important to acknowledge players like Jackson, Napier, Faried and Okafor with spots in the rankings and likely mentions in the blurbs. They need to be on your radar. Will they stay in the rankings moving forward? Well, I guess we'll just have to wait and see.
Without further ado, here are my rest-of-season points rankings for this week.
Point guard
D'Angelo Russell, Spencer Dinwiddie and Shabazz Napier of the Brooklyn Nets are all on the move this week. Russell has played exceptional ball this month, averaging 24.8 PPG (50.5 FG%, 94.7 FT%), 7.0 APG, 3.7 RPG, 3.7 3PG and 0.9 SPG during his past 11 contests. Dinwiddie had played well for the first two months of the season but had been ceding responsibility to Napier for weeks before suffering the thumb injury that will sideline him for the next three to six weeks. Dinwiddie's absence opens the way for Napier to expand his influence even further, at least until Caris LeVert (foot) is able to return, and thus, Napier earned a spot in this week's rankings.
Darren Collison will be called upon to produce more consistently on offense with Victor Oladipo done for the season. He has averaged 18.0 PPG, 8.7 APG, 3.3 RPG and 1.7 3PG during his past three outings, and he has the upside to continue at that level moving forward.
Shooting guard
Jimmy Butler is dealing with a sprained right wrist but maintains roughly the same ranking this week because the injury is considered minor. He may return as soon as Tuesday and thus did not receive any injury adjustment in the rankings.
Tomas Satoransky was a strong play in place of an injured John Wall last season, and he appears to be improving on that performance in similar circumstances this season. He has scored at least 20 points with at least eight assists in two of his past three games, notched a triple-double seven games ago, and is establishing himself as a true impact player moving forward this season.
Small forward
Will Barton's place in the rankings is volatile right now, as he returned very slowly from his long injury absence, which tanked his season averages, but he has shown signs of a return to form in recent games. He is not all the way back, but if he continues to build on the 17.3 PPG, 6.0 RPG, 3.7 APG and 2.0 3PG that he has notched during his past three outings, he should move back up the rankings relatively quickly.
T.J. Warren has been shut down from basketball activities for at least two to three weeks with a sore right ankle, and he will be re-evaluated then. With the timing of the All-Star break, Warren could be on the shelf until late February. His absence opens up space for Josh Jackson, who has taken advantage of the added opportunity to the tune of 15.5 PPG, 7.5 RPG, 1.8 APG and 0.8 3PG during his past four outings.
Power forward
Anthony Davis, Julius Randle and Nikola Mirotic are moving in different directions due to injuries. After rumblings that he could be out for a month subsided, it now appears that Davis could return from his finger injury as soon as the upcoming week. Meanwhile, Randle has missed the past two games with an ankle injury, and no timetable for his return has been released. Mirotic is expected to be out for at least the next one to two weeks with a calf injury, and it is possible that it could be longer.
Tobias Harris has shared the scoring load with frontcourt mate Danilo Gallinari all season, but with Gallinari sidelined, Harris has stepped up the pace. He has scored at least 27 points in four of his past six games and is averaging 23.7 PPG (49.0 FG%, 89.2 FT%), 7.7 RPG, 4.5 APG and 2.2 3PG during that stretch to show what he's capable of if given more rein.
Center
Al Horford has had a down season, but the 12-year vet has stepped it up of late to the tune of 18.6 PPG (66.1 FG%, 100.0 FT%), 8.8 RPG, 1.8 APG, 1.8 BPG and 1.6 3PG during his past five games. He is still the clear-cut best big man on the Boston Celtics, and the team will likely lean on him more as it tries to get into postseason form.
Okafor was an afterthought in the rotation of the New Orleans Pelicans before injuries overcame their entire crew of star big men. Okafor has taken advantage of his increased opportunity to average 19.8 PPG (75.0 FG%, 50.0 FT%), 10.8 RPG and 2.8 BPG during his past four contests. He could return to the bench once Davis, Randle and/or Mirotic return to form, but he also could play well enough to earn himself a more prominent role moving forward.
Methodology
The rest-of-season rankings are influenced by my projections, current player performance, injury and player situation factors to quantitatively estimate the rest-of-season rankings with more precision.
Also, our rankings include arrows to indicate whether a given player made a notable move up or down the rankings since last week. This helps keep you up to speed with how player values are changing during the course of the season.
Note: These rankings reflect the expected player value for the remainder of this season.
