Every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, we pose a question to a rotating panel of ESPN fantasy basketball experts to gauge their thoughts on a hot topic. Today's contributors are ESPN Fantasy's Joe Kaiser, Kyle Soppe and DFS expert Renee Miller.
After missing the first six weeks of the season while recovering from knee surgery, Tyreke Evans has seen his minutes and production increase this month. He opened eyes with 29 points and 4 steals Thursday, yet remains available in more than half of ESPN leagues. Should he be owned in all formats? Is it time for fantasy owners to deploy him in their lineups every night now?
Renee Miller: Evans is a player I've typically rooted for, in real and fantasy basketball. For his seven-year career, Evans has averaged right around 17 points, 5 rebounds, 6 assists, 1.3 steals and 0.4 blocks per game with limited turnovers and personal fouls to weigh you down. His upside is much higher than that, and I consider him a legitimate double-double threat when healthy. So, of course, it comes down to health with him, as he's missed significant time over the past year with knee surgery.
He's also dealt with the odd injuries here and there throughout his career, so that's one thing to consider. The other is that he's surrounded by what one might consider injury-prone players (Jrue Holiday, Anthony Davis), and when one of them has missed time, Evans has taken on additional usage and exceeded his normal production (by about 7-10 fantasy points per game over the past two seasons).
We saw it again just last week when Davis was out. Evans' own talent should eventually earn him a regular 30-35 minutes in the Pelicans' rotation -- and they desperately need his offense -- which is reason enough to add him. The potential for additional upside due to the possible absence of teammates is something to keep an eye on if you're limited by the number of games you can use in any given week (or if you're considering him for DFS lineups).
Kyle Soppe: Yes, yes, and yes. The third "yes" was getting a head start on a future question about if Evans gains value if Davis ends up sidelined (it sounds like he avoided disaster last night, but the next time he plays 70 games in a season will be his first).
Listen, the Pelicans don't have many other options with a healthy Davis, and that is why Evans is averaging nearly one shot every two minutes, the highest rate of his career, despite not being 100 percent healthy. Evans is averaging more than 15 points a game since joining the Pellies in 2013, a level of scoring that can have stand-alone value, but let's not forget that he boasts a well-rounded skill set (averaging 10.1 rebounds-plus-assists for his career) that allows him to have value even on a poor shooting night.
New Orleans lacks just about everything on offense, so Evans filling up the stat sheet should be the norm and not the exception. With the team playing just two back-to-backs over the next month, owners should feel fine about plugging him into both daily and weekly transaction leagues.
Joe Kaiser: Any time you have Evans on your roster, you know what to expect. He's a player you hope will perform well while you have him, even if it means you might not have him all season or into the fantasy playoffs. That's just the reality at this point. Evans is coming off three knee surgeries and has missed at least 10 games in all but one of his seven previous NBA seasons.
He's not a great fit in all leagues due to his poor shooting, but when he's right, Evans is capable of scoring 13-15 PPG, grabbing 3-4 rebounds, dishing out 4-5 assists and adding 1-2 steals per game. He has scored 12 points or more in four-straight games and is worth picking up as long as your team can afford a hit to its field-goal percentage.