In fantasy basketball, sometimes you need to take calculated risks, especially near the end of a season when injuries and trades may have made it more difficult to play things safely. This may involve picking up a player who isn’t a sure bet to get consistent minutes or doesn’t always shoot a high percentage from the field.
If you’re in such a position in your WNBA fantasy league, Washington Mystics forward Emily Engstler is a player whose potential reward could outweigh her risk. Engstler hadn’t seen much playing time this season, and though she briefly showed what she was capable of during a short stretch in late June, she hasn’t been worth rostering in fantasy leagues up until now.
With Myisha Hines-Allen now with the Minnesota Lynx and Shakira Austin once again on the sidelines (ankle injury), Engstler has finally gotten an opportunity to play in August, and she’s proving what a great fantasy player she can be. In her last five games, Engstler is averaging 12.4 points, 5.8 rebounds and three defensive stats (steals and blocks), which is good for 28.6 fantasy points per game. She’s also knocking down 2.2 3-point shots per game at a 50 percent clip.
Engstler won’t stay that hot from the field, of course, but her recent run shows how valuable players who put up consistent defensive stats can be. Engstler’s defensive playmaking has been her calling card going back to her collegiate days at Syracuse and Louisville, and even if she isn’t scoring, she’s probably going to be contributing somewhere else in the box score. Consider picking her up for the final stretch of the regular season for as long as Austin is out.
Michaela Onyenwere stepping up scoring in Chicago
Michaela Onyenwere is another player who’s had to wait for a consistent role with her respective team, and while the trade that sent Marina Mabrey to the Connecticut Sun opened up additional playing time on the wing, it’s taken a while for Onyenwere to settle into an offensive rhythm.
With Sky guard Chennedy Carter battling an illness, Onyenwere has stepped up in Chicago’s offensive hierarchy. In her last six games, she’s averaging 15 points per game, shooting 56.9 percent from the field and making 1.5 3-pointers per game. During this span, Onyenwere is averaging 21.2 fantasy points, which is almost double what she’s putting up for the season (10.8).
The concern with Onyenwere in most scoring formats is that her fantasy value is tied almost exclusively to her scoring. Even with the increased workload, in her last six games she’s averaging just 2.2 rebounds (understandable, given the amount of rebounding elsewhere on the Sky roster) and one combined defensive stat per game. Now that Carter is back in Chicago’s lineup, we’ll see if Onyenwere remains a go-to offensive player for the Sky.
Dorka Juhász, Myisha Hines-Allen in timeshare territory
Depth is usually seen as a good thing in real-life basketball, but it isn’t always that way in fantasy basketball. Those who drafted Dorka Juhász to their fantasy teams in 2024 are learning that the hard way.
Juhász, who is coming off an All-Rookie selection in 2023, was a popular choice in many fantasy leagues this season. The addition of Alanna Smith to Minnesota’s lineup (and her ability to play center in smaller lineups) ended up mitigating some of Juhász’s fantasy value, though, and with Minnesota having recently acquired Hines-Allen at the trade deadline, the path to consistent minutes for Juhász suddenly seems to be in peril.
In nine games since the trade deadline, Juhász is averaging 3.7 points, three rebounds and 0.7 defensive stats in 13.8 minutes per game. Making things even more frustrating is that her minutes have been all over the place; she recently played 30 minutes against Chicago on Sept. 1, but had a four-game stretch in August in which she didn’t crack double-digit minutes. Hines-Allen, meanwhile, has averaged 15.3 minutes with the Lynx and has been moderately productive (7.6 points and 4.6 rebounds), but has hit 20 minutes only twice.
It’s obviously a good problem to have for the Lynx, who are trying to make a championship run and have no real incentive to play either Juhász or Hines-Allen heavy minutes. In fantasy basketball, though, it’s going to continue to be problematic for those with either player on their teams. Barring an injury, it seems the matchup will determine which forward head coach Cheryl Reeve favors.
For the purposes of this article, “fantasy points” refer to standard ESPN fantasy league scoring, in which points, 3-pointers, rebounds and assists are each worth one fantasy point and steals and blocks are each worth two fantasy points. All player and team stats for the 2024 season are current through Sept. 7.
