Fantasy Basketball Mailbag: Aron Baynes is back - but for how long?

It’s fantasy playoff time for a lot of you, so I took your questions from Twitter and Instagram to try and help you make the most of your fantasy team. Let’s get to it.

@vsamerv: Is Aron Baynes a hold for the rest of the season?

Deandre Ayton is out with an ankle injury, which is not considered serious. But while he is out, Aron Baynes is going bananas.

He scored a ridiculous 64.7 fantasy points across the weekend in his first start and then backed it up with 34.9 on Monday.

Unfortunately, the game prior to Ayton’s ankle injury, Baynes literally didn’t play a single second.

That won’t happen every game, but as soon as Ayton is back and playing 30 minutes, Baynes’ value disappears into thin air and he won’t be worth it in most fantasy leagues.

For now, he is someone to have, but be aware that his fantasy value has an expiration date.

@arivera_arm: Is Jarrett Allen worthy of a spot in a 10 team league?

One day after inexplicably firing their head coach Kenny Atkinson, and the reason for that firing being speculated that it was due to Jarrett Allen starting over DeAndre Jordan, DeAndre Jordan started over Jarrett Allen on Monday.

A ridiculous way to run a team with a puppet head coach now in place, it seems.

The early returns for Allen’s bench role aren’t good.

Against the Bulls, Allen played just 19 minutes, scoring 20.7 fantasy points. This sort of level of production and playing time is not going to cut it for 12 team leagues, let alone 10 team leagues.

At this time of year, you need to be streaming those players who trend down and Allen is one of those.

@utterchaos402: Are you more likely to drop injured players like Ben Simmons or Malcolm Brogdon in the playoffs or play a player down and take the chance they come back?

This, like a lot of questions in fantasy basketball, doesn’t have a clear cut, black and white answer.

Often, in the first round of a playoff matchup, your team will be significantly stronger than your opponent, so you can deal with holding an injured player, especially a top 20 player like Simmons.

But, in a tight matchup, no matter how good Simmons may be, come the end of March, if he is even back, if he is putting up zeros, he is a drop.

Brogdon is a little different.

He is a drop because his upside isn’t worth holding in most cases given how neutered he has been since Victor Oladipo has returned. Most times you are going to have to drop players who aren’t contributing in a playoff setting, though.

@dharmawan20: Are you worried about Hassan Whiteside in the playoffs when Jusuf Nurkić returns?

Nurkić has a return date from his fractured leg of March 15th.

It’s awesome to see the big fella get back onto the court after suffering a setback when he first returned to practice.

But the Blazers are going backwards in the playoff race and are unlikely to make it this season.

Nurkić is a burly seven-footer and I can’t see the Blazers coming in and playing him 25 minutes a night this season.

He’ll likely slide into the Caleb Swanigan/Wenyen Gabriel minutes, play 15-20 minutes a night behind Whiteside and then take the starting job back next season.

So, the answer is yes and no.

Whiteside won’t play many 36-minute games, but he hasn’t played many of those this season.

He’s more likely to hold around 28-31 minutes, with Nurkić getting the rest.

Maybe that changes in the last week of the season, but otherwise, I don’t see a big dropoff coming for Whiteside. I could be wrong, but the Blazers would be foolish to push Nurkić into his usual role so early.

Don’t forget to follow me on Twitter and keep an eye out for the next mailbag tweet to gather your questions.