The improbable rise of Kelly Olynyk for the Houston Rockets is one of the more entertaining fantasy basketball stories at this moment. Just last night, the stretch big scored 21 points while missing just a single shot in a loss to the Phoenix Suns. Amazingly, Olynyk is ranked 12th on the Player Rater during the past week.
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Olynyk averaged 10.0 PPG with solid rebounding and shooting rates in 26.9 MPG as a productive member of the Miami Heat frontcourt this season, and he’s risen to 28.0 MPG and 18.7 PPG with even better complementary stats in six games with Houston.
Even when the shooting cools off, a unique blend of shot volume, steady minutes, and his ability to create assists from the high post could merge to support top-100 fantasy value for Olynyk in Houston.
Monday recap
Highlights
Kyrie Irving, Brooklyn Nets: 40 points (15-28 FG), 2 rebounds, 7 assists
Julius Randle, New York Knicks: 19 points (7-19 FG), 15 rebounds, 12 assists
Lowlights
Ricky Rubio, Minnesota Timberwolves: 4 points (1-5 FG), 1 rebound, 5 assists
Monday takeaways
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Toronto’s Malachi Flynn has strung together some strong games since Kyle Lowry got hurt. The rookie point guard produced four steals and three blocks to go with 16 points and respectable rebounding and assist totals in a win over the Wizards last night.
2 Related
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Detroit Piston’s rookie center Isaiah Stewart produced four blocks and a dozen points in 22 minutes with Mason Plumlee resting last night. If there are more opportunities for Stewart to start down the stretch, he’s proving himself worthy of streaming in such scenarios.
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Thunder rookie Aleksej Pokusevski scored 19 in the loss the Pistons and has at least 19 points in three of his past four games. Between Pokusevski, Theo Maledon and Moses Brown, Oklahoma City has multiple free-agent targets to consider.
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Minnesota’s D’Angelo Russell surprisingly returned last night despite not having played since February 8 and being listed as doubtful before the game. Russell scored a team-high 25 points in 24 minutes off the bench for the Timberwolves. It looks like coach Chris Finch is focused on getting Russell on track as a scoring guard with the team missing Malik Beasley (see below).
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Joining Olynyk as a top fantasy free agent from Houston’s lineup is Jae’Sean Tate. The versatile rookie forward scored 18 points and collected 12 combined rebounds and assists in the loss to the Suns. The Rockets are asking a lot of Tate each night, given the roster’s lack of scoring and playmaking at the wing.
Injuries of note
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Minnesota’s Beasley will miss more than a month of action due to a significant hamstring injury. Jaylen Nowell should play a sizable role once he’s back from a leg injury, but it’s likely that Russell will eat up a lot of Beasley’s workload.
Analytics advantage for Tuesday
Jusuf Nurkic won’t play tonight for Portland as the team seeks to manage his right knee. Whenever Nurkic has been off the floor this season, Enes Kanter has averaged 16.3 points and an awesome 15.8 rebounds per 36 minutes.
Kanter is third in the entire league with a 23.6% rebounding rate, so he’s a strong daily fantasy option for this matchup with the Clippers.
Top player to watch on Tuesday
With New Orleans so depleted in the backcourt and Atlanta in need of Bogdan Bogdanovic’s scoring savvy, the Serbian shooting guard is in a great spot to produce tonight. For those in need of some scoring upside, Bogdanovic is still a free agent in 41% of ESPN leagues. The Pelicans, meanwhile, have allowed 46.2 DraftKings points per game to shooting guards this season, 10th most in the league.