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Updated fantasy hoops points rankings: Trust Wiggins going forward?

Minnesota Timberwolves wing Andrew Wiggins is averaging 25.0 PPG so far in January. AP Photo/Jim Mone

Click here for rest-of-season roto-league rankings and reaction.

Read below for rest-of-season points-league ranks.


Here are my updated rest-of-season rankings for points leagues, as of the second week of 2019.

Point guard

Kyrie Irving dropped a few spots this week, but that's more because of hot play from risers like John Collins and Bradley Beal than it is poor play from Irving. His latest ouchy injury also cost him a percentage point in my health estimate, which may have accounted for a spot or two in the bunched up 20s of the rankings.

Kris Dunn has found his level after his long injury layoff, averaging 14.4 PPG (48.1 FG%, 75.0 FT%), 7.2 APG, 4.7 RPG, 1.7 SPG and 0.5 3PG SPG during the past month to set his healthy expected value moving forward.

Tomas Satoransky has taken advantage of his increased opportunity to settle in as a strong all-around contributor in the Wizards' backcourt moving forward. He has averaged 11.3 PPG, 6.0 RPG, 5.6 APG, 1.4 SPG and 1.3 3PG during his past eight games, including a triple-double on Friday in a win over the Bucks.

Shooting guard

Beal has been playing absurd basketball since John Wall went down for the season, averaging 30.2 PPG (47.2 FG%, 80.4 FT%), 6.4 APG, 5.4 RPG, 3.7 3PG, 2.4 SPG and 0.6 BPG during his past nine outings. If he can maintain this level, he should continue to move up the rankings going forward.

Devin Booker is brilliant when he plays, but he just has not been able to stay healthy this season. He is currently in the midst of his fourth stretch of missed games, which makes him hard to rely upon and slides him down the rankings. With that said, he averaged 28.7 PPG, 7.6 APG, 4.3 RPG and 2.2 3PG during his last 11 games in December which makes him a risky but extremely high-ceiling prospect for the second half of the season.

Will Barton returned to action on Saturday after having missed essentially the entire season with a groin issue. The team will bring him back slowly, but when he's up to speed, he still has impact-player expectations for the second half of the season.

Small forward

Rudy Gay will miss his fifth straight game on Monday night due to a left wrist sprain. He has enough injury history that the unknowns with this injury did cost him a few percentage points in the health column, which has affected his ranking. Once he's back and healthy, he could move back up the list a bit.

Andrew Wiggins is up several spots this week based upon his recent play, but that has happened in the absence of the injured Robert Covington. Covington still has no timetable for his return from his ankle injury, so Wiggins should have good short-term upside, though he has long-term questions.

Taurean Prince returned on Saturday from an ankle injury that sidelined him for more than a month. He played only 11 minutes and will be on a minutes restriction for a bit, but he should ramp back up to his usual expectations in the coming weeks.

Power forward

Collins was one of the most popular "sleeper" picks this season, as most everyone expected him to build on his strong rookie season. He has done so, notching 16 double-doubles in his past 20 games, a stretch during which he has averaged 20.4 PPG, 12.1 RPG, 2.1 APG and 0.9 3PG.

Draymond Green has produced well enough to move up the rankings a bit after injuries had really hampered his production. However, as I advocated here, Green could be a sell-high candidate because DeMarcus Cousins is expected back soon and Cousins' presence could negatively affect Green's production moving forward.

Center

Enes Kanter has had several things going on of late, including injuries and his continued public feud with the Turkish government, that are affecting his availability on the court. In his absences, sophomore Luke Kornet has shown himself to be capable of putting up roto-worthy numbers in the short term.

Myles Turner was playing some of the best basketball of his career in December before ending the year with a shoulder injury. Turner has returned to practice but still has availability questions that cost him a bit in this week's rankings.

Boogie is coming. The tentative target date for Cousins' return is this Friday, Jan. 18, and Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr has already declared him the starting center. When Cousins does return, here's a projection of what his production might look like.

Methodology

The rest-of-season rankings are influenced by my projections, current player performance, injuries and player-situation factors to quantitatively estimate the player's output with more precision.

Also, our rankings 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.