Brice Sensabaugh jumped 70 places on our points board in one night, and Lauri Markkanen's broken hand is the reason it should last

No player on Wednesday's slate moved further on our boards than Brice Sensabaugh, who went from 279th to 209th on our points board under ESPN's standard scoring and from 295th to 222nd on our 9-cat board after one game. The game itself was one more loss for Utah, 123-108 to Orlando, which ESPN's recap counted as the Jazz's tenth in a row, but Sensabaugh scored 19 points in 23 minutes off the bench on 6-of-10 shooting with three threes, made four of his five free throws, and added a steal and a block. That is 34 fantasy points under ESPN's standard scoring, from a player who had scored more than 12 only once before it.

Most of the move is not about the 19 points. It is about the minutes our projections now expect him to inherit, because Lauri Markkanen has two non-displaced fractures in his right hand and will be reevaluated in four weeks, which we covered when the Jazz announced it. Our live projections read that absence on Wednesday night and handed Sensabaugh 6.6 more minutes a game, for a projected 22.5 minutes, 13.3 points and 2.1 threes a night, against the 14.9 minutes and 8.1 points he has averaged across his first 12 games. This piece explains why that projection is reasonable, why it is not certain, and which managers should act on it.

Every player in this story is on the fantasy basketball rankings and the 2026-27 projections, and the NBA depth charts show where each one stands in his team’s rotation tonight.