Fantasy

Fantasy Basketball Category Analysis: Week 24

Which players should owners be looking for in each specific category? Here's a look at our list.

Immanuel Quickley is a good add for owners who are looking for assists.

If you’re new to this column, here’s what we will be looking at each and every week.

Every week, we’ll be looking at players who are widely available and rostered in fewer than 60% of fantasy leagues on Yahoo. We’ll be focusing on 8-cat leagues because turnovers are a waste of a category, to be honest. We’ll be looking at players who can help you in each of the eight categories who you can get before your league-mates catch on.

The eight categories we’ll focus on each week are:

Points
Rebounds
Assists
Steals
Blocks
Threes
Field-goal percentage
Free-throw percentage

Let’s get to it over these last couple of weeks that are sure to be wild and weird.


Points

Drew Eubanks (PF/C – POR): 57%

They are going to run out of 10-day contracts for Eubanks to sign by the time the season is over. But he’s on his fourth-such contract now, and he’s on his eighth-straight game of scoring double-digits in points.

Over the last two weeks, Eubanks is the No. 55 player in fantasy – once again showing that opportunity is sometimes the most important thing you can have in fantasy hoops.

Pick him up and run him out for the rest of the season.


Rebounds

Aleksej Pokusevski (SF/PF – OKC): 33%

The poor shooting percentage hurts, yes, but Poku is doing everything else that you could possibly hope for.

He’s averaging 12.1/7.9/3.4 over the last two weeks, and that includes a 10/15 game against the Heat last week.

Unless you’re in a razor-thin battle for field goal percentage, Poku should be rostered and started moving forward.


Assists

Immanuel Quickley (PG/SG – NYK): 48%

We’ll keep Quickley here in this section this week, and it’s nice to see his rostership number has climbed 12%.

Quickley continues to see consistent minutes in the mid-20s, and over the last two weeks, he’s averaging 4.4 assists per game.

That’s helped elevate him into a top 100 player over that stretch and a top 65 player over the last month.


Steals

De’Andre Hunter (SF/PF – ATL): 50%

Hunter’s been solid if unimpressive offensively of late, but he’s been chipping in enough defensively to help his all-around game.

He’s coming off a three-steal game Friday night, and he’s been a top 140 player over the last two weeks,

With the big minutes he’s playing, the upside and the all-around contributions, he should be rostered and started across the board.


Blocks

Indiana Bigs

For the first time in this column, we are going to list a team and its position instead of players. The Pacers are up in the air with what they are doing with their bigs as they navigate injuries and also “injuries” as they look to complete the tank job.

So whether it’s Jalen Smith, Isaiah Jackson or Goga Bitadze, they are worth rostering and using for block and rebound help.


3-pointers

Donte DiVincenzo (PG/SG – SAC): 14%

DiVincenzo continues to play big minutes, and he’s doing enough to post late-round numbers over the last couple of weeks.

In four of his last five games, he’s hit at least two 3-pointers. In three of those games, he has three or more made 3s.

With the minutes and the shot attempts he’s registering, he’s worth streaming in deeper leagues.


Field-goal percentage

Damian Jones (C – SAC): 4%

With Domantas Sabonis and Richaun Holmes both away from the team for the foreseeable future, Jones has backdoored his way into fantasy relevancy again.

He’s played 55 minutes over his last two games, and he’s shooting 73% from the field in those games with 25 combined points.

Look, there are sexier picks out there, but at this point in the season, we want players who are playing. Jones fills that void.


Free-throw percentage

Tyus Jones (PG – MEM): 28%

You know the drill by now with this category. We find someone who can knock down free throws, yes, but it’s also to highlight a player who we can’t quite squeeze into any of the above categories. This week, we’ll talk about Jones.

With Ja Morant shut down for a couple of weeks, Jones becomes a no-brainer, must-roster player.

We’ve seen him flourish in Morant’s absences in the past, and the results thus far have been no different.

He’s scored 40 points with 22 assists in his last three games, and he’s playing in the high-20s in minutes.

It’s a league-winning type move to pick him up over the final couple of weeks.

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