Fantasy Basketball-Top 5 Sleepers You Need to Know-10/30/14
The NBA had five games on the Thursday night schedule highlighted by LeBron’s emotional return to Cleveland. The Knicks crashed the party and pulled the upset winning 95-90 and handing the new-look Cavs their first loss of the season. In the late-night TNT game, the Steve Ballmer-owned Clippers held off the Thunder who played hard despite being short-handed. The Mavs, Timberwolves, and Wizards also pickup up wins last night.
If you’re playing fantasy basketball, there are some significant sleepers starting to emerge who could be able to help your team at some point this season. To help you keep tabs on players stepping up, each day at Fansided we’ll help you out with the top five sleepers you need to know from the night before. The big-name stars aren’t covered in this post, but if you need daily value or help from the waiver wire, you’ve come to the right place.
Here are the top five sleeper options who put up solid stat lines last night:
Oklahoma City Thunder. Perry Jones. 1. player. 149. The Thunder took another huge hit last night as Russell Westbrook suffered a broken hand and will miss significant time along with teammate Kevin Durant who was already sidelined. Last night, the scoring slack was picked up by Perry Jones who will see plenty of time and take plenty of shots in the coming weeks. Last night, he played 42 minutes while making 10-17 from the field including three three-pointers. Jones added seven boards, three assists, and a block. Expect Jones to be the leading scoring option for the Thunder in the short term although his 1-9 on opening night is also a cautionary tale on the downside to having someone who takes such a high volume of shots. Right now, Jones is available in almost all leagues and is a nice pickup if you need points in the coming weeks.. SF
Shane Larkin. 2. player. 27. Jose Calderon is sidelined for 2-3 weeks which opens the door for Larkin to join the Knicks starting lineup and play significant minutes in the near future. In the first two games of the season, Larkin has played 26 and 28 minutes. Last night, he had five assists and five steals along with two rebounds and nine points. Larkin won’t pour in a ton of points, but he can contribute in other peripheral categories especially assists and steals. Larkin doesn’t have huge upside, but he can help in those hard-to-find categories over the next couple weeks.. PG. New York Knicks
If you are looking for a higher scoring option at the point, check out D.J. Augustin who is in a time share right now with Brandon Jennings who is still ailing from an Achilles tendon injury. Augustin has scored 15 and 20 points in his first two games this season and added six assists and three rebounds last night in the Pistons loss to the T-Wolves. Augustin may see his role diminished as Jennings recovers, but in the short term he’s a solid pickup for points and assists.. PG. Detroit Pistons. D.J. Augustin. 3. player. 64
38. Another player filling in for an injured option and making the most of his opportunity is second-year player Evan Fournier who is filling in for Victor Oladipo. Last night, Fournier knocked in three three-pointers while shooting 8-10 from the field and scoring 21 points to go with four rebounds, and a steal. He doesn’t contribute much more than points, but can help you if you need scoring. SG. Orlando Magic. Evan Fournier. 4. player
79. Coming off the bench for the Mavs, Aminu played 20 minutes in Dallas’s route of the Jazz. Aminu quickly picked up 16 points and 10 boards for his first double-double of the season while also adding an assist and a steal. When he gets time, Aminu will contribute meaningful rebound numbers, but his minutes may be too inconsistent for him to be relied on every night.. SF. Dallas Mavericks. Al-Farouq Aminu. 5. player