Either because they had a great end of season, or their fantasy price was low from the beginning, here’s a list of the key players that won’t be as free as they were this year. Let’s start!

Quentin Grimes

There’s no other way to start this list. Quentin Grimes has seen his minutes participation increased after being traded from the Mavs. Of course, the absences of Embiid, George and especially Maxey at the end of the season gave Grimes a huge gap to develop his game in the 76ers.

He’s listed at $5.5 this year, and will probably increase at least $3, up to $8.0 at the beginning of next season.

With that being said, watch out if the Embiid-George-Maxey trio is healthy. In this case Grimes will not see as much ball as he had during these last games. So we must be careful when picking him up. He can be a great pick if we know some of these players are injured or out for at least a week.

For some advanced insights, with Maxey being the “healthiest” of these 3, look at his stats with and without Maxey:

	Points	Rebounds	Assists
✅ With Maxey	15.0	5.1	3.3
❌ Without Maxey	25.1	5.2	5.1

His 15 points per game are increased because of a 44-point performance on a game versus the Warriors.

Dyson Daniels

I will be quick here because I already wrote a whole post on this great fantasy player.

Dyson Daniels has secured his starter spot during this season and will continue for the following seasons. Him being a serious candidate for both Defensive Player of the Year and Most Improved Player is enough reason for an increase in his price.

Starting at $7.5, he went up to $8.7 and will probably start on at least $10.0 next year. This will, sadly, make him a worse option and we will need to look for cheaper alternatives.

As an interesting fact, DD started at $6.5 in 2023/24 season and went down to $6.1 at the end of the season, probably because of his injury.

Ivica Zubac

He was already established as a started in the Clippers. However, Ivica Zubac has had a great increase in participation in the Los Angeles Clippers offensive end of the floor. Look at his evolution

• Minutes: 26.4 -> 32.8 minutes per game
• Points: 11.7 -> 16.8 points per game
• Rebounds: 9.2 -> 12.6 rebounds per game
• Assists: 1.4 -> 2.7 assists per game
• Field goal attempts: 7.6 -> 11.8 FG attempts per game, maintaining similar percentage (~63%)

If we compare his fantasy statistics, Ivica went from 1920.7 total fantasy points to (!!!) 3181.0 total fantasy points, almost a 66% increase! The double-double machine – 59 out of 80 total games with a double-double, with 4 20 points/20 rebounds games – is a great addition to any fantasy team.

His price started at $11.0, increasing up to $11.8 at the end of the season. Unlike the other cases, I don’t think his price will increase as much, but probably will start at $12.0 or $12.5 because of his characteristics. Zubac averaged 39.9 fantasy points per game in total and 42.9 fantasy points in the last 30 games.

Still recommended.

Amen Thompson

As with the San Antonio Spurs prices, the NBA fantasy administrator didn’t know what to do with the Houston Rockets player prices. It’s pretty hard to predict what the depth chart will look like in the middle of the season for these teams because of their young core.

For that reason, they decided to give most of their young players a similar ~$10 price – see Stephon Castle, Vassell, Keldon Johnson, Sochan (Spurs) and Jalen Green, Thompson, Tari Eason, Jabari Smith Jr and Cam Whitmore (Rockets) – and let the future decide their impact on their teams.

They clearly missed what Amen Thompson’s impact would be on the Rockets this year. The “older” Thompson brother has finished 3rd in total fantasy points for his team with 2464.3, and 2nd in fantasy points per game with 35.7. We would have seen these number increased if he didn’t get injured right after starting to stand out for the Rockets, especially in the offensive end.

He has been evolving throughout the whole season, starting from the bench and transitioning to a starter, replacing Jabari Smith Jr in this position. Amen averaged 11/6.5/2 from the bench during 27 games, and 16/9/5 when starting, which is a notable gap. If Amen continues to improve and adds the 3-point game he lacks, he will be a great fantasy pick next year, and a great player for the Rockets in the following, and he’s only 22!!!

His price didn’t vary as much as other players here, starting at $10.0 and finishing at $10.5. That’s only because of the injury, as he was on a streak to go up to $10.7 or $10.8. I would say he should start at $10.5 or $11.0 next year, depending on the Rocket’s off-season moves.

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Let me know in the comments your next year’s NBA Fantasy picks and who do you think will increase its price the most!