NBA Player News

He’ll provide some shooting and emergency depth to New York’s backcourt, but he’s irrelevant in fantasy hoops.

McCollum got hot late in this game and nearly helped the Pelicans pull off the comeback. He scored 17 of his season-high 36 points in the fourth quarter, with 14 of those coming in the final five minutes of the game. With Brandon Ingram and Zion Williamson sidelined indefinitely, McCollum will continue to be one of their primary scoring options. He may not have big nights like this consistently, but he is certainly capable of getting hot in a hurry. He’ll look to help the team end their losing streak in Indiana on Sunday.

Murphy got off to a hot start in his game and scored 16 points on 5-of-7 shooting in the first quarter. However, over the final three quarters, Murphy had just five points on 1-of-6 FGs. He wasn’t able to build on his strong start, and the team wasn’t able to help him get good looks. Murphy has had a solid year, but they’re going to rely on him even more moving forward with Brandon Ingram set to miss an extended period of time.

DeRozan’s production hasn’t taken much of a hit in his first year in Sacramento, but this game was unique. He was able to make a big impact in categories that he has traditionally been weak in. He posted season-highs in both steals and 3-pointers in this game, though he still did plenty of work at the free throw line, which is more typical for him. DeRozan will continue to be a top-50 player in 9-cat leagues moving forward, but managers shouldn’t get accustomed to him providing steals and 3-pointers at this rate.

Fox had a poor shooting night, but he was still able to record a well-rounded stat line. This was their third straight win, and they’ll look to make it four in a row against the Nuggets on Monday, which would be their longest streak of the year. Fox’s 3-point percentage is down in comparison to last year, but his field goal and free throw percentage are both up from last season. He’ll continue to be one of the premier fantasy hoops options, but he hasn’t played his best yet.

It has been a difficult season for Adebayo and the fantasy managers that have him rostered, but he has started to figure things out recently. Prior to this game, he had made at least 50% of his shots in three straight games and still shot fairly well in this one. Adebayo has had one of the worst shooting seasons of his career, but his value will rise if he continues to shoot like he has recently. They’ll have a few days off before he’ll look to keep this up in Detroit on Monday.

Herro’s excellent season continued in this game, and he has been especially hot as of late. He has shot better than 50% in each of their last four games while averaging 26.3 points, 5.5 assists and 4.8 triples per game. Herro is in the midst of the best year of his career, and he has been Miami’s top option on offense. The rumors have been swirling about a potential Jimmy Butler trade, but Herro won’t be impacted by any move that may or may not happen. He’ll just keep cooking.

Murray continues to struggle with efficiency, but the counting stats have been better for him recently. He is averaging a career-high in turnovers while boasting the worst field goal percentage of his career in his first year with the Pelicans. He has only played nine games, so it isn’t time to freak out yet, but it has certainly been a frustrating start to his tenure with the team in what has been a disappointing year for them. Though it hasn’t happened yet, he’ll eventually start to figure things out.

Sabonis dominated the Pelicans from the opening tip, and it showed up in the box score. He had a 20-point double-double before halftime and ended up setting his season-high for points and tying his season-high for rebounds. Sabonis has been a top-10 player in 9-cat leagues this season, which is partially due to him averaging career-highs in points and 3-pointers. However, the main reason is that he has been shooting a career-high in both field goal and free throw percentage. His FG% has always been strong, but FT% was a weakness for him prior to this season. This was the fifth time in his career that he has made at least nine free throws without missing.

Jovic hasn’t been part of the rotation even when healthy recently, but he was able to log 24 minutes off the bench in this game and make a big impact. He fell one point shy of tying his season-high for points, which was encouraging to see after a mostly disappointing season. Jovic and Dru Smith (11/3/3/1) led the bench unit in this game with Pelle Larsson still sidelined and Terry Rozier still struggling. Jovic isn’t worth adding off the waiver wire just because he played well in this game, but he’s worth keeping an eye on.

With Scottie Barnes set to miss “several weeks”, Mogbo was able to slide into the starting unit and provide decent numbers. He logged 30 minutes and was able to record solid production in rebounds and assists, though he didn’t do much scoring. He hasn’t been much of a scorer this year, but he has been able to provide defensive stats in limited minutes, so those should come as he starts more games. Mogbo is available in 97% of Yahoo leagues and should be a worthy streamer until Barnes or Immanuel Quickley returns to the lineup.