Welcome to the first edition of “Stock Up Stock Down” for the 2025-26 NBA season. I’ll be here every week to highlight which players are on the rise as well as those players who are losing ground.
We’re only one week in, so this is still a small sample situation, but some early trends are already having an impact on fantasy outcomes. Let’s dive in.
📺 → Watch the NBA Coast 2 Coast Tuesday on NBC and Peacock: The Knicks take on the Bucks at 8pm ET, followed by the Clippers at Warriors at 11 pm ET. Both games are available on Peacock. Check your local listings for the NBC game in your area.
📈 STOCK UP
Dillon Brooks – SF/PF, Suns
There’s a lot to like about Brooks’ early tenure over in the Phoenix desert; he’s logging over 30 minutes per game, isn’t being shy about shooting (has he ever been?), and continues to embrace his role as the primary defender. As a result, he’s averaging nearly 20.0 points and almost 4.0 stocks per game across his three appearances. Low field goal and three-point percentages would likely make him less attractive to fantasy managers in category leagues, but he holds value in points leagues. Brooks will likely remain in this role regardless of team success and shouldn’t be impacted much, if at all, by Jalen Green’s eventual return from injury.
Cedric Coward – SG, Grizzlies
Coward had set new career highs in points, three-pointers and assists in each of the Grizzlies’ first three games, including a 27-point, 6-three-pointer outburst against Indiana on Saturday. Veteran Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and sophomore Jaylen Wells are currently starting ahead of Coward in the backcourt. Yet, the rookie’s minutes have consistently been in the low-to-mid 20s through the first week of the season and should remain there, so long as he continues to perform well to begin his career. There’s obviously plenty of room for growth, especially in the non-scoring parts of the game. It appears he’s got a good foundation, though, and some upside to go with it.
27 POINTS.
6-6 FROM DEEP.
Memphis’ 2025 No. 11 pick Cedric Coward had an incredible showing at home tonight 🎯
He is the 1st rookie in @memgrizz franchise history to record 6 triples without a miss! pic.twitter.com/fHY79xChzD
— NBA (@NBA) October 26, 2025
Keyonte George – PG/SG, Jazz
Pay attention to what’s going on in Salt Lake City. The Jazz have are performing like one of the better offenses in the league and are putting up lots of points, albeit over a three-game sample. The man orchestrating the offense is George, who’s tallied at least nine assists and 16 points in ball three of Utah’s games. Extremely poor shooting from beyond the arc has prevented these double-doubles or near-double-doubles from really jumping off the page. While George isn’t a proven knockdown shooter by any means, he hovered around 34.0 percent from deep through two full NBA seasons, which is a stark contrast from the 18.2 percent he’s currently producing (4-of-22). An eventual return to form as a three-point shooter, paired with his early-season improvements as a facilitator, should land the third-year guard on more fantasy rosters than he currently is.
“The Klaw” capped a short Week 2 for the Clippers with a buzzer-beater as his fantasy resurgence continues.
📉 STOCK DOWN
Bradley Beal – SG, Clippers
Brad Beal missed the majority of the Clippers’ preseason and only played in the first half of the finale after working his way back from offseason knee surgery. Then, he began the regular season in the Clippers’ opening unit and appeared in two games before missing the third and being ruled out for the fourth due to back injury. The injury doesn’t appear to be long-term or overly concerning, but given his health over the past few seasons, an injury this early in the season is at least somewhat noteworthy. A slow integration and cautious approach seems to be in place for the first-year Clipper, but once he gets the ball rolling, he seems like a good fit alongside James Harden, one of the league’s best facilitators. Stock down for the time being, but I like how this plays out in the long run.
D’Angelo Russell – PG, Mavericks
Even with a strong 24-point performance in Dallas’ lone victory of the season, it’s hard to feel encouraged by Russell’s start to his career as a Dallas Maverick. He’s yet to start a game, despite the team dealing with injuries to several key starters. And in his four appearances, he’s shot poorly overall and struggled with efficiency from beyond the arc. It seemed, at the time of his offseason signing, that Russell would hold down the starting point guard position for however long Kyrie Irving needed to fully recover from an ACL tear. That just hasn’t been the reality to this point. Maybe eventually, but not now.
Dyson Daniels – PG/SG/SF, Hawks
Between Kristaps Porzingis, Nickeil Alexander-Walker, and Luke Kennard, the Hawks added a good chunk of talent to their roster over the offseason, which seems to have slowed Dyson Daniels’ production to begin the season. The minutes, assists, rebounds and steals are all down from a season ago, and he’s taking nearly half the field goal attempts that he did during his breakout 2024-25 campaign. To me, the question is not whether Daniels is regressing or failing to apply what led to his success during his first season in Atlanta. Rather, the question is if he will find his way amongst a deep team that has many mouths to feed. There probably won’t be a clear answer this early on the season. Not a great start, though.
