While it’s important not to overreact to the first few games of a season, it certainly can’t hurt to react to what happened. That means you shouldn’t make any drastic moves because of a few bad games. However, we can acknowledge what happened and how it should make us feel. It’s tempting to throw everything out the window early in the season if things don’t go the way you expected, but a big part of success in dynasty leagues is staying patient and sticking to your beliefs in certain players.

We can still be excited or frustrated about the start of the year. We’ll discuss five players that I’m happy with how they’ve started and five that I haven’t been so optimistic about. Then we decide whether it is sustainable or not. By taking the time to analyze multiple aspects of a player’s start, we can make the best decision.

Five players I’m excited about:

Cam Thomas

On a tanking Nets team, the expectation was that he would make a ton of shots, and if they went in, he would make a big impact in fantasy basketball. It’s still early, but the results so far are great. In the past, Thomas has had some high-scoring nights, but he couldn’t do much else in category competitions, so when he had bad nights he wasn’t effective. He hasn’t made any major mistakes this season, but his field goal percentage is 44.8% so far, which is right on par with his career average. So despite now becoming the undisputed leading scorer with Mikal Bridges gone, Thomas has posted career highs in points, rebounds, steals, 3-pointers, free throw percentages and shot attempts without sacrificing his shooting efficiency. This isn’t an insanely hot shooting start with him making 60% of his three-pointers. This percentage is absolutely sustainable, which is encouraging moving forward. However, his long-term value is more of a question mark. Win-now teams should take advantage of this, but dynasty rebuilding teams should look to sell Thomas high.

Jordan Poole

Like Thomas, Poole was expected to dominate on a bad team. Well, that was the expectation last year too and we all know how that went. Obviously, things are different this time around, and the main reason for that is that he is now orchestrating the offense more as the team’s point guard. Poole has been a top five player in 9-cat leagues so far, which can be blown up in three games. He is averaging 5.3 triples and 3.0 steals while making 51.2% of his field goal attempts and 61.5% of his three-pointers. Is that sustainable? Probably not, but the expectation was never a top five season from Poole. He was much better than last year and reminded everyone how talented he is. I’m happy he’s playing so well, and I hope he can keep it up, even if I’m not optimistic it will be as good as his first three games.

Christian Braun

Denver’s shooting guard battle came down to Braun and Julian Strawther, with the winner of the battle getting a prime role that should play well in fantasy hoops. However, that didn’t necessarily mean that production would be based on talent, but that the opportunity for the starter would be enough to provide standard league value. Early results suggest Braun will be more than just a beneficiary of a major role. So far, he is averaging 14.0 points, 5.3 rebounds, 1.0 steal, 1.8 blocks and 1.0 triple in 35.4 minutes per game while making 53.8% of his shot attempts. The Nuggets have been disappointing to start the season, but Braun has been excellent, having played well in 9-cat leagues. If he continues to play at this level, Denver won’t have to look elsewhere for a new shooting guard for a while.

Evan Mobley

It was always destined to happen, but Mobley’s breakout seems to have finally arrived. On offense, he continues to extend his range beyond the three-point line, he creates his own shot off the dribble, he runs the floor in transition and he knows how to move without the ball to get easy shots at the rim. Ideally, managers wanted him to play centrally, but he has been able to take advantage of smaller fours by overwhelming them, and bigger fives by using his pace to get around. Mobley has generally been an underachieving free throw shooter, but after shooting 71.9% last year, he has knocked down 88.2% of his attempts from the charity stripe on 4.3 shots per game. He has even shown some nice gaming skills. In defense he has been the absolute monster we knew he could be. Not that he was bad before, but the numbers were excellent to start this season. There have been many positive signs of Mobley’s development so far, and it shows in the box score.

Payton Pritchard

With Kristaps Porzingis sidelined until December, Pritchard is Boston’s sixth man to start the year, allowing him to play a big role. He shot poorly in the season opener, but has been on a tear since. He is averaging 16.3 points and 4.8 triples in 25.0 minutes per game off the bench, and he has made more than 60% of his shots over the last three games. He will still be overshadowed by the stars in Boston, but he has been effective in his role, generating top-75 value in 9-category leagues thus far. More minutes have helped, but he has simply been better offensively this season. It’s unclear when he’ll really get the opportunity and role he needs to provide value in more categories, but it’s good to see him playing at this level early this year.

Five players I’m frustrated with:

Tyrese Haliburton

Monday night’s loss to the Magic went much better for Haliburton, but there were certainly some concerns before that. He averaged 9.3 potential assists per game (a number that now rises to 10.0 after Monday’s game), after averaging 17.8 per game last year. Was Monday’s 10 assist game simply the result of his teammates making shots and not Haliburton making more open shots? If that’s the case, that number won’t hold and Haliburton won’t match his assist average from last season. Nothing changed about Haliburton’s talent, but it appears the Pacers are putting the ball more in Andrew Nembhard’s hands and using Haliburton away from the ball. I’m not worried about Haliburton yet, as the defense is clearly targeting him early, but for a guy drafted in the top ten in both reddraft and dynasty formats, this start hasn’t been optimal. (I’m including an excellent tweet thread that goes into much more detail about how Haliburton has been used).

Scot Henderson

It would take a lot to make me give up Scoot, but inefficiency remains a major problem for him. This isn’t the kind of inefficiency he makes up for with crazy counting stats, either. He just shoots a low percentage and turns the ball over a lot. It’s better than his rookie year, so things are moving in the right direction. His field goal percentage has increased from 38.5% to 41.2% and he is only turning it over 3.3 times per game, which is certainly better than 4.3. Henderson is playing better this year, but it hasn’t shown up yet in a way that benefits fantasy managers. However, we will remain patient because learning to play point guard in the NBA takes a long time.

Jalen Johnson

Atlanta made Johnson the team’s second option this summer, and the way the defense treated him as a number two has affected his play early. Before he finally found out Monday night, Johnson had shot 29% from the floor. He’s 3-of-13 on 3-pointers, and he made a lot of floaters and mid-range shots that simply didn’t fall in the first few games. My frustration was not directly with the percentage, but with the photos he took. JJ has developed enough of an attacking game where he can do a little bit of everything and score at all three levels. However, that doesn’t mean the bread and butter of his game isn’t still attacking the rim and getting vertical. He’s taken a few three-pointers that felt early or rushed, and while the fadeaway floaters are shots he can make, he’s athletic enough to get to the rim for a stronger finish. He was better at that on Monday against Washington, which is encouraging for managers moving forward.

Jonathan Kuminga

Last season was strange for Kuminga, as he expressed his frustrations with the organization’s inability to develop him early. Ultimately, he figured things out and finished the year incredibly strong. However, his start to this season has not been what we expected. He started at small forward in a bigger lineup for Golden State, but he wasn’t his typical efficient self. Kuminga has made a few extra three-pointers, but his field goal percentage was 33.3% through their first three games, which is down from 52.9% last year. I don’t expect that number to stay that low, but another concern is the lack of minutes. Their first two games were blowouts, so he played less than 20 minutes, but against the Clippers he played just 22 minutes in a close loss on Sunday. Steve Kerr eventually took him off the bench for Tuesday’s game against New Orleans, but he played his best game of the season in 28 minutes. It may seem like a demotion, but Kerr attributed the move to the configuration and spacing of the lineup, and the early returns have been positive.

Amen Thompson

It was always going to be difficult for some of the young guys from Houston to play a big role this season, but it felt like Thompson was good enough to make that happen. However, Ime Udoka preferred Dillon Brooks over Amen, playing him 33.7 minutes per game to Thompson’s 21.1. In those minutes, Amen has not been as productive as we had hoped, which I can partly blame on Udoka. Thompson’s attacking play in the half court may be limited at this point in his career, but there have to be better ways to use him than leaving him in the corner. One way Udoka has tried to do this is by having Amen be the screener in PnR plays, which has had mixed results. On the defense front, the stocks simply haven’t been there. Do I give up on Thompson? Not even close. Am I a little frustrated with the way he’s played and how the Rockets have used him? Absolute.