Jeremiah Fears had 77 fantasy points with Dejounte Murray away, and managers should add him without expecting it again

Anyone who started Jeremiah Fears on Thursday got a week's worth of production in one night, and anyone deciding whether to add him this morning has to separate how good the night was from why it happened. In New Orleans' 132-120 win over Sacramento, the Pelicans' first of the season according to ESPN's recap, Fears finished with 22 points, eight rebounds, a career-high 13 assists, two steals and four blocks on 9-of-16 shooting, and our box score scores that line at 77 fantasy points under ESPN's standard scoring. His four games before it had produced 5, 7, 14 and 16.

The reason the ball was in his hands is not a basketball one. ESPN's game page listed Dejounte Murray as out for the birth of his child, which is an absence of days rather than weeks, and Fears played 29 minutes after logging between 21 and 24 in each of his first four games. This story looks at what Thursday changed on our boards, what it did not change, and how to treat Fears once Murray is back in the lineup.

What our boards did with one game

Our projections move a line slowly on a single result, and they still moved Fears a long way. On our points board under ESPN's standard scoring he went from 162nd to 121st overnight, with his projected average rising from 25.7 to 28.6 fantasy points a game, and on our 9-cat board he rose from 202nd to 165th. The analysts' consensus has him 129th in points leagues and 134th in categories, so on points our board now sits slightly ahead of the analysts, while in 9-cat it still has him 31 places behind them. The 9-cat gap comes from his shooting: he is at 37.7 percent from the field through five games, and our projection has him at 44.1 percent for the season, which is closer to the 43.4 percent he shot over 82 games last year than to anything he has shown so far.

The projection behind the points ranking is 26.7 minutes a night, 14.9 points, 3.9 assists and 1.3 steals, which is a rotation guard's line rather than a starter's. That is the right way to read Thursday, because the 13 assists came in the one game this season he ran the offense without Murray. Murray averaged 6.0 assists in his first four games, and our points board has him 30th, so when he returns the playmaking goes back to him.

The blocks are the part that might last

Four blocks from a guard is the least repeatable number in the line, and also the one worth watching. Fears averaged 0.4 blocks last season and had none in his first four games this year, so nothing in his record suggests a shot-blocking guard. His steals are steadier: he had one in each of his first four games, 1.2 a game last season, and our projection has him at 1.25.

What to do

In 12-team points leagues Fears is worth a bench spot now, because our board already ranks him above the 156th player that sits on the edge of a standard roster, and a guard who starts and plays 25 minutes can give you a 30-point night whenever Murray, whom our projections have playing about 66 of 82 games, sits out. Do not start him over a proven guard on the strength of Thursday alone. In 9-cat leagues his shooting makes him a streamer until he is back above 42 percent from the field. We covered his preseason role in the preseason position battles, and Zion Williamson, who scored 22 on 10-of-12 shooting with five steals in the same game, remains the Pelican to own first.

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.