Click here for rest-of-season roto-league rankings and reaction.
Read below for rest-of-season points-league ranks.
There has been quite a bit of volatility in the league this season, which has led to wildly fluctuating player values. The move that sent Jimmy Butler to the Philadelphia 76ers in a package that sent Robert Covington and Dario Saric to the Minnesota Timberwolves shook up the trade values for everyone on both teams.
The Los Angeles Lakers continue to modify their strategy on a nightly basis as they learn to play with LeBron James, while the Boston Celtics have had growing pains when dealing with a fully healthy roster. The big rumor news of the day, per Adrian Wojnarowski, has the Washington Wizards willing to trade anyone and everyone on their struggling roster right now.
The point? Volatility is fun and leads to lots of opportunity for the savvy fantasy basketball manager. Here, as always, let's keep track of the changing value for players on the fantasy basketball landscape as we make our way through the season.
Rest-of-season points-based rankings breakdown by position
Point guard
Kemba Walker turned in his worst game of the season on Tuesday, with only seven points on 16 field goal attempts against the Cleveland Cavaliers, then turned it around with the game of his career, with 60 points on 34 shots Saturday against the Philadelphia 76ers. On the whole, Walker continues to be one of the most dominant guards in the NBA this season.
Kyle Lowry had a great start to the season, with averages of 17.0 PPG on 46.8 FG% and 11.9 APG through his first 10 games, but he has slowed a bit, with averages of only 11.0 PPG on 36.1 FG% with 8.2 APG in his past six games.
Trae Young has slowed down from the field of late, averaging 11.7 PPG on 31.3 FG% in his past six games after averaging 19.0 PPG on 43.6 FG% through his first 10 contests.
Shooting guard
Victor Oladipo slid down the rankings a bit on the basis of a poor game (8 points, 3-12 FG) on Friday and one injury-shortened game (two points, five minutes played) on Saturday. Oladipo's knee injury from Saturday is not expected to be more serious than general soreness, so he should have the chance to bounce back next week.
Devin Booker's season has been intriguing as he tries to figure out the best way to lead his young team, and it appears of late that he might be shifting a bit from a monster scorer into a bit more of a point guard. After averaging 27.8 PPG (50.7 FG%), 8.3 FTA, 6.8 APG through his first four games, Booker has averaged 15.0 PPG (35.0 FG%), 2.8 FTA, 9.3 APG with two double-doubles in his most recent four games.
JJ Redick moved into the starting lineup last week after the Butler trade and has improved his scoring output from 15.2 PPG on 35.7 FG% with 2.1 3PG in the nine games before the switch to 21.2 PPG on 57.7 FG% with 3.2 3PG in the five games since the switch.
Small forward
LeBron is coming off his best statistical week as a member of the Lakers. He averaged 39.0 PPG (58.5 FG% , 79.3 FT%), 7.3 RPG, 6.3 APG, 4.7 3PG, 1.7 BPG and 1.0 SPG in three contests to edge Kevin Durant for third overall in the rankings.
Paul George has stepped up his game in a major way with Russell Westbrook out (ankle, personal) the past couple of weeks. In his past five games, George has averaged 27.8 PPG (45.7 FG%, 88.5 FT%), 10.0 RPG, 5.0 APG, 2.6 SPG, 4.0 3PG and 0.8 BPG.
Robert Covington's early returns since the trade indicate that he might be a bit more of a scoring threat for the Timberwolves, with 14.0 PPG on 9.7 FGA and 3.7 3PG, than he was for the 76ers, for whom he averaged 11.6 PPG on 8.9 FGA with 2.3 3PG.
Power forward
John Collins made his season debut on Saturday after missing the first month of the season with an ankle injury. He scored 12 points in 12 minutes, is expected to see 18 minutes in his next game and should ramp up from there until he returns to normal playing time.
Lauri Markkanen hasn't played a game yet this season, but he participated in the non-contact portion of Monday's practice and remains on course to return sometime in the next few weeks.
Marvin Bagley III slid slightly in this week's rankings because his production went down slightly, but there have been grumblings that the Sacramento Kings want him to play more and that this could lead to more opportunities for the rookie.
Center
Nikola Vucevic is playing some of the best basketball in the NBA of late, averaging 25.5 PPG (58.9 FG%, 89.5 FT%), 11.7 RPG, 3.3 APG, 1.2 SPG, 0.8 BPG and 1.7 3PG in his past six games. Vucevic has an injury history that is concerning, but the level that he's playing at now makes him an intriguing trade option as either a sell-high or a pick-up-before-the-hype-catches-up candidate.
Jonas Valanciunas is getting the short end of the stick with Serge Ibaka and Pascal Siakam playing so well in the Toronto Raptors' frontcourt. Valanciunas continues to be a per-minute monster, but he has played more than 19 minutes only once in his most recent four games, after playing 20 or more minutes in four of his previous five.
Tristan Thompson has quietly become a walking double-double threat with all of the injuries in the Cavaliers' frontcourt, averaging 14.2 PPG (62.7 FG%), 14.4 RPG, 2.4 APG and 0.8 SPG in his past five games.
Methodology
I calculated preseason projections for more than 320 players to feed the fantasy draft kit, and we now have in-season player data to give feedback on how players are performing. The rest-of-season rankings are influenced by my projections, current player performance, injury and player situation factors to quantitatively estimate the rest-of-season rankings with more precision.
Also, our rankings include arrows to indicate whether a given player made a notable move up or down the rankings since last week. This helps keep you up to speed with how player values are changing during the course of the season.
Note: These rankings reflect the expected player value for the remainder of this season.