NBA Player News

This will be his second workout with the Knicks. Thabeet has worked out for several other teams, but New York and Milwaukee will be the only teams he worked out for twice. The fit doesn’t make much sense, as they already have Taj Gibson backing up Mitchell Robinson.

KAT played just 24 minutes in his first game with the Knicks, which limited his production. That can be attributed to the lopsided score, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t disappointing for fantasy managers. Still, there is no reason to hit the panic button this early. Towns is the starting center for the first time since before Rudy Gobert joined Minnesota, and he should be far more effective moving forward. KAT provided first round value in 9-cat leagues in every season prior to Gobert’s arrival, and while he may not provide that level of production, he should be far better than he was in this game.

The hype entering this season was centered around New York’s starting unit, but McBride showed up in this game. With Mitchell Robinson sidelined for at least the first two months of the season, McBride will be the team’s best reserve player early on. Though Tom Thibodeau will play his starters a lot, there is still enough minutes for McBride to make an impact in fantasy hoops. He’s rostered in just 9% of Yahoo leagues, which means that he will be a coveted target on the waiver wire this week. He should have season-long value, so he’s worth the investment.

In his first game with New York, Bridges got off to a slow start with his new shooting form. However, he was able to hit some shots down the stretch and ended up hitting over half of his shot attempts. Still, there is a reason to be considered about Bridges in fantasy hoops between his lack of production in other categories and his new, strange shooting form. That doesn’t mean that he’s definitely going to be disappointing for the rest of the year, so don’t overreact too much to just one game. He’s still going to play 82 games, and he should improve as he adjusts to playing with this new team.

With Kristaps Porzingis sidelined for a while, Horford will be the team’s starting center for a while. Though their first game was slightly limited by the lopsided score, he was still able to contribute value across the board. Horford hasn’t ever finished outside the top-100 in his career, and while his minutes will be limited and he probably won’t play back-to-backs, that won’t change this season. Especially until Porzingis returns to the floor, Horford will have plenty of value in 9-cat leagues. He’s reaching the end of his career, but he’ll be looking for another ring before he calls it quits.

After enjoying the best season of his career last year, White brought some of the magic into this season. He didn’t reach his typical production on the defensive end, but he was lethal from beyond the arc as the team tied the NBA record for 3-pointers made in a game. White only played 27 minutes due to the lopsided score, and while he may not be this effective from beyond the arc all year, he should be in for another big season in fantasy hoops. Still, they took 61 threes as a team, so White should see plenty of attempts all season long.

Clearly, Tatum heard all the noise this summer and wanted to make a statement on opening night. He got off to a quick start, scoring 15 points in the first quarter, and he helped Boston tie the league record with 29 threes made. Tatum was going in the latter half of the first round in most drafts after not playing to his ADP last year, but we’ll see if he can avoid that happening again during his revenge tour. The Celtics were able to do this against a tough defensive team, so there really wasn’t any championship hangover. Both Tatum and Boston should be incredibly dangerous this season.

Bamba dealt with this knee issue throughout the preseason, and now it will keep him sidelined for their season opener. Kai Jones should fill in as the backup center behind Ivica Zubac, but that likely won’t be enough minutes to justify streaming him in standard leagues.

The injury issues have already creeped up for Williams, but this absence isn’t expected to be a lengthy. However, it does open the door for Donovan Clingan to be the team’s backup center to start the season. Deandre Ayton will still be the primary big this season, and it’s unclear what type of role Williams will have when he’s healthy.

Juzang won’t play a large role when Utah’s rotation is healthy this year, so this absence won’t impact fantasy basketball.

Jeffries was rerouted to Charlotte has part of the deal that sent Karl-Anthony Towns to New York. It’s unclear how long this fracture will keep him sidelined, but it won’t impact fantasy basketball.