This article is part of our Rebound & Rant series.
Two weeks ago, the R&R looked at stud players who were playing like duds. Today, let's flip that and look at a few fantasy darlings who are far exceeding preseason expectations. Can they keep up their surprise performances, or should we expect a return to pedestrian production?
If you drafted any of these guys, you definitely deserve a Ron Swanson happy dance:
Kyle Lowry 
Year after year, Lowry seems to get slighted by expert prognosticators. I love the guy, as he's been a staple of my RotoWire Staff Keeper League squad (yeah, I'm in first, baby). Lowry is starting in his second All-Star Game on Sunday. In the preseason, RW and Yahoo had Lowry ranked 25th overall in nine-category leagues. Well, so far this season he's ranked fifth. Boom! He's having his best season, with career-highs in points (21.1), rebounds (4.9), steals (2.3), treys (2.8) and minutes (37) per game.
Will this continue? Heck, yes, that's a no brainer. The Raptors heavily depend on their backcourt of Lowry and DeMar DeRozan (aka "Slash Brothers", per
@Thes0ulprovider). They'll keep running those two into the ground to maintain their second-place standing in the Eastern Conference. You should do the same with Lowry. And why not enjoy his Top 10 plays (so far) of the season, too:
Will Barton 
I've already shamelessly shared my love for Barton. He's earned his "The Thrill" nickname. Preseason rankings had him at 216, but season-to-date he's 43rd (again, nine-category league). And the dunks are absurd,
Two weeks ago, the R&R looked at stud players who were playing like duds. Today, let's flip that and look at a few fantasy darlings who are far exceeding preseason expectations. Can they keep up their surprise performances, or should we expect a return to pedestrian production?
If you drafted any of these guys, you definitely deserve a Ron Swanson happy dance:
Kyle Lowry
Year after year, Lowry seems to get slighted by expert prognosticators. I love the guy, as he's been a staple of my RotoWire Staff Keeper League squad (yeah, I'm in first, baby). Lowry is starting in his second All-Star Game on Sunday. In the preseason, RW and Yahoo had Lowry ranked 25th overall in nine-category leagues. Well, so far this season he's ranked fifth. Boom! He's having his best season, with career-highs in points (21.1), rebounds (4.9), steals (2.3), treys (2.8) and minutes (37) per game.
Will this continue? Heck, yes, that's a no brainer. The Raptors heavily depend on their backcourt of Lowry and DeMar DeRozan (aka "Slash Brothers", per
@Thes0ulprovider). They'll keep running those two into the ground to maintain their second-place standing in the Eastern Conference. You should do the same with Lowry. And why not enjoy his Top 10 plays (so far) of the season, too:
Will Barton
I've already shamelessly shared my love for Barton. He's earned his "The Thrill" nickname. Preseason rankings had him at 216, but season-to-date he's 43rd (again, nine-category league). And the dunks are absurd, as we'll again see Saturday during the dunk contest.
But the bloom might be off the rose. Or more accurately, Barton might be getting tired. Over the past 30 days, his average game production is ranked 71st. Barton has never seen this much playing time, as he's already played 535 minutes more than all of last season and 1,131 minutes more than in 2013-14. Look, The Thrill is still a great asset in even shallow leagues, but I'd expect low-60s ranked production for the rest of the season. If you can deal him for DeRozan, Kris Middleton or Derrick Favors, I'd jump at it. Sell high.
Kristaps Porzingis 
It's a crapshoot trying to forecast rookie production, but the Zinger sure is a fun guy to cheer for during SportsCenter. And if you haven't seen it yet, you certainly need to check out his rap song from the Latvian motherland:
OK, now that his name-chorus is burned into your brain, let's think about his production of the next 30 games or so. He's gotta hit the rookie wall soon, right? Heck, his per-game numbers have him ranked 33rd this season. How can he keep that up? Actually, a few weeks ago, it looked like he already hit the wall. An upper-respiratory illness forced him to miss a road game on the 28th, and over the past 10 games he's shot under 40 percent. But can you really deal him? Where else are you going to get that mad mix of treys and blocked shots? Still, I'd go to the Knicks fan in your league and deal him. Kurt Rambis is not going to turn this team around and Porzingis has never played this many games in his short career. He will start dragging. Leverage his huge name recognition and get a dull but productive Nikola Vucevic. Yeah, I said it, deal him.
Otto Porter 
You must love Porter. Prematurely labelled a bust after a rough rookie year, Porter has become the multi-category, team-oriented facilitator the Wiz dreamed of when they took him third in the 2013 draft. Before you say "What, Porter!?!" realize he snags 1.7 steals and hits 1.2 treys per game while shooting 47 percent from the field
Yahoo has him ranked 41st in season-to-date per game averages but I think the arrow is pointing up for Porter. He's returning from a hip injury that forced him to miss four games and there is talk of playing him
more at power forward on the assumption that Jared Dudley will slow down (good bet). Deal for him now, especially if you have turnovers as a category.
That's it for me, ballers – ADIOS AMIGOS!!!
In completely different news, RotoWire's Daily Fantasy Lineup Optimizers were just named a finalist for a 2016 Sports Technology Award for Best Technology for Commercial Returns. Kudos to everyone at RotoWire for inventing the Optimizers and making sure it's always filled with fantastic content and advice. (All I did was fill out the prize application). I love that tool...here's a link to the NBA Lineup Optimizer. And here's the official Vine announcing our prize:
