Joe Kaiser, ESPN Staff Writer 5y

Fantasy hoops updated roto ranks: Can anyone unseat Harden at No. 1?

Fantasy NBA, Fantasy, NBA

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

Read below for rest-of-season roto-league rankings and reaction.


So much has happened during the past week, from DeMarcus Cousins making his Golden State debut to Anthony Davis and Clint Capela getting injured. All of it has an impact on this week's rankings.

Davis is expected to miss 1-2 weeks with a sprained finger, which means more usage for other Pelicans notables like Jrue Holiday, Julius Randle and Nikola Mirotic. Davis' absence doesn't impact his ranking much, but I've flip-flopped him with Karl-Anthony Towns, with KAT now at No. 2 and Davis one spot behind him.

It's worth noting that James Harden's grasp on the top spot is stronger than ever following another ridiculous week by the leading MVP candidate. Incredibly, the Rockets' superstar has averaged 44.3 points during his past 10 games, and he's up to 4.9 3PG on the season while continuing to be one of the league's best rebounders and dishers from the backcourt.

The Capela injury is a big deal, though, with thumb surgery sidelining Harden's key teammate 4-6 weeks during one of the most critical parts of the fantasy season -- the push to the playoffs. For now, Capela slides all the way down to No. 137, a range I've had Kevin Love at for some time. It's advisable to hold onto Capela in any league with the luxury of an IR spot. It's trickier in leagues without one, as you want to be careful not to miss the playoffs for the sake of having Capela take up a valuable roster spot.

Cousins played 15 minutes in his first game in a year and the numbers looked impressive in the box score (14 points, 6 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 block and 1 steal to go with 3 3-pointers). That being said, he's clearly going to need some time to get back in basketball shape and won't play in the second of back-to-backs, which is why I've slid him down to No. 48.

The star-studded Warriors can afford to bring Cousins along slowly ,and it appears that last week's ranking of 31 was a bit too optimistic, at least in the short term. As Cousins sees his minutes ramp up, there's a good chance I will be bumping him up the rankings in the weeks to come.

Speaking of rising in the rankings, consistently impressive play out of the likes of Jarrett Allen (56), Justise Winslow (72) and Derrick Rose (77) lead to higher ranks this week, while Denver's Will Barton leads the list of notable fallers, dropping from No. 67 to 79 due to unimpressive play since returning to the Nuggets' lineup. Atlanta's Taurean Prince (109) and Lakers big man JaVale McGee (127) are two other significant fallers.

This week's newcomers include Charlotte's Bismack Biyombo (132), Philadelphia's T.J. McConnell (134), Atlanta's Kevin Huerter (138) and San Antonio's Marco Belinelli (144).

Here is a look at the rest of my updated top-150 roto rankings:

Note: These rankings reflect the expected player value for the remainder of this season.

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