Fantasy Basketball: Pick-up or Pass on 6 players who stepped in season openers

Fantasy Basketball pass on No. 2: Royce O’Neale will likely fall back to Earth.

A perfect example of an impact player whose influence over the game doesn’t always translate to the box score, forward Royce O’Neale of the Brooklyn Nets had a nice debut for his new team. Though his team collapsed under the weight of its own expectations, O’Neale racked up 10 points, seven rebounds, three steals, three assists and two blocks in 34 minutes. This made for a sizeable influx of fantasy basketball points across platforms, but it’s not to be expected of him consistently.

First of all, O’Neale benefitted from the absences of Seth Curry and Joe Harris — two players in the conversation to start for Brooklyn this season. The team also got out to a horrible start, trailing by 18 points at the end of the first quarter, opening the gateway for him to fire away along with the rest of his team.

If you’re in a deep league with 12+ players, O’Neale might warrant more consideration. While he’s a good defensive player, he doesn’t average a ton of steals/blocks (he averaged a modest career-high in combined defensive stats with 1.5 last season). If you believe he’ll be more impactful in your league’s format then by all means, pick him up! But for most standard points leagues, O’Neale doesn’t need to be rostered on fantasy basketball teams right now.