We are about a month into this NBA season, and already there are all kinds of storylines we couldn't have predicted.
It was spectacularly controversial when my colleague Bobby Marks suggested the Warriors might miss the playoffs this season, but a month (and a Stephen Curry broken hand) later, the Warriors might legitimately be the worst team in the NBA. Meanwhile, teams like the Phoenix Suns, Minnesota Timberwolves, Dallas Mavericks and Miami Heat are looking down in the standings on perennial playoff regulars like the San Antonio Spurs and Portland Trail Blazers. In the NBA, life comes at you fast!
But what about players who are actually playing better than we expected. Do we just accept that this is the new normal? Or, especially in fantasy basketball circles, should we look at some of these situations with skepticism and an eye toward opportunity?
Of course, I argue the latter.
Now, there are some changes that I predicted, so I therefore expect them to last. For example, in my preseason rankings, I had Pascal Siakam as a top-10 player who would bump his scoring average way up into the 20s, so I find his hot start believable. I'm even willing to consider that some players may have finally gotten over a hump, as I'm cautiously optimistic that this new-and-improved Andrew Wiggins might actually be for real.
But there are other cases where a player is off to a hot start and I'm not convinced it will last. Or, said another way, there are players whom I think are, right now, as valuable as they will ever be. Thus, if you can trade them away now, while they are at their highest value point, it will benefit your team in the long run.
Without further ado, let's check out some of the prime sell-high players in the NBA.