Fantasy Basketball

Sarr’s production wasn’t off the charts, but he hit the most important shot of the game. Down 112-111 with 0.8 seconds left on the clock, Sarr caught an alley-oop inbounds pass from Jared Rhoden and laid it up for the game-winning bucket at the buzzer. Olivier and brother Alex of the Wizards played their first head-to-head matchup in the NBA and exchanged jerseys after the contest.

Quickley led Toronto in the scoring department thanks in large part to his five made three-pointers. IQ logged just 33 appearances a season ago, and fantasy managers will hope for a healthier season when selecting him on draft day.

Due to lower back injury management, Filipowski has been limited during the preseason, sitting out Utah’s first two preseason games. While he’s unlikely to begin the regular season as a starter, the second-year post player’s minutes will likely increase after an impressive showing at Summer League. Filipowski will be worth taking a late-round flier on, especially with Lauri Markkanen and Walker Kessler’s availability concerns.

Like fellow starter Lauri Markkanen, Kessler has not appeared in any of Utah’s preseason games due to a sore left shoulder. Fully participating in Sunday’s practice may be a positive sign regarding Kessler’s availability for Monday’s preseason game against the Mavericks. When healthy, he has top-50 fantasy potential, especially in free-throw percentage-punt molds. However, there are lingering tanking concerns, even if the Jazz front office said during the summer that they would not go that route this season. Jusuf Nurkić filled the void in the starting lineup for Utah’s first two preseason games.

Limited to individual workouts after suffering a wrist injury while playing for Finland at EuroBasket, Markkanen fully participated in Sunday’s session. Jazz head coach Will Hardy said Friday that the forward’s limitations were about maintenance rather than significant injury concerns. Sunday’s development should be taken as a sign that Markkanen is on track to be ready to go when the Jazz open the regular season on October 22.

Murray injured his left thumb during the first half of Friday’s exhibition defeat. Further examination of the injury revealed a torn ulnar collateral ligament that will require surgery. He’ll miss at least four weeks, opening up a spot in the starting lineup. While this will push Murray down some draft boards, Malik Monk, Keon Ellis and rookie Nique Clifford will be worth a look in many leagues. Clifford has been used at all three perimeter positions during the preseason, and Clifford’s defensive ability could mesh well with the Kings’ starting lineup if given the opportunity to start. Monk remained a starter last season after the Kings traded De’Aaron Fox to the Spurs.

The Wizards are the last NBA team to open their preseason schedule, and they’ll do so without an expected starter. Bilal Coulibaly remains out after undergoing thumb surgery a few weeks before the start of training camp, opening up a spot in the starting five. George and Middleton will start at the forward spots on Sunday, with the former potentially being the player more likely to move to the bench once Coulibaly returns. Even if he comes off the bench when the regular season begins, playing time will not be an issue for George on the rebuilding Wizards.

After sitting all five expected starters in Friday’s win over the Celtics, the Raptors will have Quickley, Barrett and Barnes on the court Sunday afternoon. Jakob Poeltl remains out and Brandon Ingram will miss a second straight game, resulting in starts for Walter and Mamukelashvili. While the latter is essentially guaranteed a spot in the Raptors’ regular-season rotation, Walter could use a good effort on Sunday to help separate from the pack among Toronto’s surplus of reserve wings.

Throughout the offseason, there were reports of a potential partnership between the Kings and Westbrook, who has been a free agent since opting out of the final year of his deal with the Nuggets. It was also reported that, with the signing of Dennis Schröder, the Kings would need to move a guard to make room for Westbrook. Malik Monk and Devin Carter, whose names were mentioned in trade rumors to make that happen, remain on the Kings’ roster. Would that remain the case if the team were to sign Westbrook now? Or will the most recent rumblings be a way to drum up interest in either of those players? Westbrook hasn’t been a consistently impactful fantasy option in recent years, so he is not a player managers should look to draft and stash in anticipation of a potential move to Sacramento.

Oso Ighodaro got the starting nod at center, and he finished with a 12/5/3/1 line across 20 minutes. Nick Richards also got some run and provided an 11/5/2 line across 16 minutes. Mark Williams will presumably be the Suns’ starting center if healthy, but Phoenix’s frontcourt rotation is a bit murky for now with Williams banged up.