Fantasy Basketball Players to Target After Recent Injuries to Karl-Anthony Towns, Evan Mobley and Ben Simmons

There’s been a number of injuries that have happened over the past few days in the NBA. Today, I wanted to discuss three of them in a little more depth and identify some possible players to target while those guys are out.

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Ben Simmons’ Injury

Simmons will miss the remainder of the season with a back injury.

Simmons only played in 15 games this season, but him not being available the rest of the season will open up some opportunities for other players to earn some minutes and possibly be decent fantasy assets.

Guys like Lonnie Walker IV, Dorian Finney-Smith and Cameron Johnson will pick up a lot of the minutes Simmons could have played.

This season, Finney-Smith has played in 54 games. He’s averaged 8.9 points, 4.7 rebounds, 1.5 assists, 0.8 steals and 0.6 blocks. Johnson is at 49 games played, with averages of 13.8 points, 4.4 rebounds, 2.5 assists, 0.8 steals and 0.3 blocks. Walker has appeared in 43 games, averaging 11.4 points, 2.2 rebounds, 1.4 assists, 0.7 steals and 0.3 blocks.

The averages to each player likely won’t change too much (since Simmons hasn’t played many games), but they won’t have any minutes taken away either. Walker is owned in 19% of leagues, while Johnson is at 87% and Finney-Smith at 41%. Johnson is banged up right now, and has hovered between the 80-95% mark all season.

Johnson is the guy I’d want to add first and foremost, with Finney-Smith and Walker pretty much equally second, but those two guys are more deep league options.

Evan Mobley’s Injury

Mobley tweaked his ankle earlier this week, and he’s likely to be out a little while. 

Mobley has dealt with injuries throughout the season and only gotten 38 games in. He’s averaged 31.1 minutes per game though, so that’s a bunch of minutes to fill in, even if it’s only for a week or so.

In the first game after the injury, Dean Wade got a start and 30 minutes for Cleveland. Georges Niang started and got 25 minutes. Damian Jones logged nearly 11 minutes off the bench, but he just played for Jarrett Allen (37 minutes, 7 seconds). It’s also worth noting that Donovan Mitchell and Max Strus were out for that contest, so Cleveland could elect to play smaller until Mobley is back.

For the season, Niang has appeared in 62 games, averaging 8.6 points, 3.5 rebounds, 1.2 assists, 0.3 steals and 0.2 blocks. Wade is at 53 games played, averaging 5.5 points, 4 rebounds, 0.8 assists and steals and 0.5 blocks. Jones has averaged 1.8 points, 1.3 rebounds, 0.5 assists, 0.4 blocks and 0.1 steals across just 26 games.

Niang and Wade are the guys I’d be most interested in streaming until Mobley is back. Niang is owned in just 7% of leagues, while Wade is at 11% - Jones is available in just about every league right now. I don’t see either Niang or Wade as a standard league option however, at least at this point.

Because of their season numbers, I’d only want to start Niang or Wade when the matchup is favorable, so be sure to use the FantasySP Defensive Rankings to determine the best situations.

Karl-Anthony Towns’ Injury

Towns is the biggest name to go down with an injury, with a meniscus surgery expected to keep him out until the postseason.

Towns has played in 60 games this season, averaging 22.1 points, 8.4 rebounds, 3 assists and 0.7 steals and blocks across 32.8 minutes.

Kyle Anderson and Naz Reid are the two most likely players to fill in for Towns. In the first game without Towns, Anderson started and played just under 28 minutes. Reid came off the bench, but played 26 minutes.

For the season, Reid is averaging 12.3 points, 4.9 rebounds, 1.1 assists, 0.8 blocks and 0.7 steals across 63 games. Anderson is at 6.2 points, 4.1 assists, 3.5 rebounds, 0.8 steals and 0.5 blocks across 61 games this season.

Reid is available in just 13% of leagues, so act quickly if you want to add him. Anderson is at just 52%, so he’s more likely to be available in your league. Reid would be who I’d target, while Anderson is more of a streaming option in deeper leagues for me.