NBA Player News

Both Ellis and STAT are attempting an NBA comeback, but the odds are against them after they’ve spent multiple years out of the league. Ellis is 33 years old but averaged just 8.5 points per game in his final season back in 2017 and he looked a step slow on defense. Stoudemire is 36 and has been irrelevant since 2012.

While Coulibaly has reached double figures in six of his last seven games, the point totals have been modest, and the efficiency has been lacking. Over the past two weeks, he’s shot 38.8% from the field and averaged 11.4 points per game, which is why the second-year wing has not been a top 200 player during this stretch. Like Washington’s other young players, Coulibaly has been given every opportunity to play through his issues, and that isn’t changing. He’s worth rostering in some standard leagues, but fantasy managers will take a hit in the field goal percentage category.

Sarr finished Thursday’s defeat with his first double-double since January 10 and sixth of the season. While the rookie’s season-long fantasy value has been low, he’s been better recently. A 9th-round player over the past two weeks, Sarr has averaged 11.4 points, 7.6 rebounds, 1.9 assists, 0.8 steals, 1.5 blocks, and 1.6 3-pointers per game. Percentages have been an unsurprising issue for Sarr. However, he’s been allowed to play through his inefficiency, which won’t change anytime soon.

Poole has scored 20 points or more in 23 games this season, five shy of his 2023-24 total. Fantasy managers can benefit from the points, assists, steals, and 3-pointers he recorded on Thursday, but the shooting efficiency wasn’t there. Over the past two weeks, Poole has shot 38.3% from the field, one reason why he’s been an 8th-round player during this stretch. He continues to exceed his Yahoo ADP for the season, but there’s always the question of whether or not he’ll be shut down eventually.

Bamba played 15 minutes in this game, which is a similar workload to what he saw as a starter over each of the last two games. However, he had some streaming upside as a starter, but the odds of anyone starting him with Ivica Zubac back were incredibly low. Of course, this ended up being arguably his best game of the season. He set new season-highs for points, blocks and 3-pointers in the win, though this isn’t enough to justify him as a streaming option. He played well in this game, but he shouldn’t be rostered in standard leagues.

Harden was one of a few rotation players that sat out against Boston on Wednesday. However, they were all fresh for their matchup with Washington, and Harden ended up recording his second triple-double of the season, with the first coming back in October. Inefficiency still plagued him, but the counting stats were strong once again. Harden has at least 10 assists in three straight games, though he has turned it over at least five times and made less than 40% of his shots in each of those. They wrap up the week against the Bucks on Saturday.

24 hours after DJJ scored a season-high 29 points with the Clippers playing without their top four scorers, he was able to remain in the starting unit for another game with Kris Dunn still sidelined. He picked up right where he left off and scored 10 of his 19 points in the first quarter. Two of his three highest-scoring games of the season came over the last two days, and he was able to provide plenty of 3-pointers and defensive stats in both. They’ll close out the week against the Bucks on Saturday, though it is unlikely that Jones Jr. stays this hot.

After struggling with his shot against Washington on Tuesday, Reaves responded well with his performance in this blowout win over the defending champions. He ranks inside the top-40 in 9-cat leagues over the last two weeks, which has been a result of his production in points, assists and 3-pointers. He was huge in this win, and he’ll look to keep it going during their matchup with Golden State on Saturday to wrap up the week. He recorded a triple-double with 26 points when they faced off on Christmas Day.

Davis has only had a few games where he didn’t record a double-double this season, and this was one of them. However, he likely would have if the game was closer, since he only played 31 minutes, and he was still able to provide plenty of value across the board. Davis has once again been a top-five player in fantasy basketball, and there is no reason to think that he’ll slow down soon. He’ll look to keep things going against the Warriors on Saturday to close out the week.

The Lakers have now won four of their last five games, with LeBron scoring at least 20 points in all of them. He has been playing well recently and ranks inside the top-20 in 9-cat leagues over the last two weeks. James played 31 minutes in this game, though he may have played more if the game was closer. They’ll wrap up Rivals Week with a matchup with the Warriors on Saturday. LeBron had 31 points and 10 assists when they last faced off, which was on Christmas Day.

This certainly wasn’t one of Tatum’s best games, but he was still able to post a full line in the loss. They escaped with a win over the other Los Angeles team on Wednesday, but they weren’t able to complete the sweep on the second night of a back-to-back. Tatum has had a strong season, which is why he was once again named an All-Star starter on Thursday night. They’ll need him to be much better in Dallas on Saturday if they want to close out the week with a win.