Rondae Hollis-Jefferson

Hollis-Jefferson just wrapped up his rookie contract with the Nets, and the team ultimately did not extend a qualifying offer to him after a number of injuries led to the 24-year-old appearing in just 59 games for the team last season. As a result, Hollis-Jefferson was unable to match the production from his rock-solid 2017-18 campaign. After averaging 13.9 points and 6.8 rebounds across 28.2 minutes per game the year before, Hollis-Jefferson's numbers dropped last year to 8.9 points and 5.3 rebounds while playing just over 20 minutes per contest. Beyond the injuries, Hollis-Jefferson also has the emergence of rookie Rodions Kurucs to thank for his reduced role last year. Now, the versatile forward will get a fresh start in Toronto. Given the current state of the Raptors' frontcourt, Hollis-Jefferson should be able to carve out a solid role off the bench for the defending champs behind rising star Pascal Siakam. While Hollis-Jefferson's offensive game doesn't come relatively close to that of Siakam, as he is just a career 22.3 percent shooter from the outside, he does boast similar versatility on defense, which should be valuable to Toronto's second unit.

In what was expected to be his first full season as a starter, Hollis-Jefferson wound up dealing with some injury issues in 2017-18. Most notably, he missed a stretch of 11 games from the end of January through most of February, which resulted in him playing just 68 total games. Still, when healthy, Hollis-Jefferson took another step forward, averaging career highs across the board of 13.9 points, 6.8 rebounds and 2.5 assists in 28.3 minutes per game. He also kept up his steady work on the defensive side of the ball and tallied at least 1.0 steal per game for the third straight year. Just 23 years old, Hollis-Jefferson remains one of the younger pieces who the Nets will continue to develop and build around. The Arizona product is expected to start alongside Jarrett Allen in the frontcourt and should once again push for minutes in the upper 20's. He showed some slight improvements in terms of efficiency last season but still shot a meager 24.1 percent from distance and 78.8 percent from the free-throw line, the former of which must improve if he's to effectively space the floor. Even so, Hollis-Jefferson's contributions across stat sheet, including reliable outputs in the defensive categories, will give him plenty of utility in the bulk of Fantasy leagues, even if he fails to markedly improve as an outside shooter.

After playing in just 29 games his rookie season, Hollis-Jefferson was able to stay healthy for nearly the entire 2016-17 campaign and took part in all but four contests. He was a steady bench piece for the Nets early on in the year, before eventually taking over starting power forward duties from Trevor Booker. In the 50 games he started, Hollis-Jefferson averaged 9.0 points, 6.3 rebounds and 2.2 assists across 24.2 minutes, which was just slightly better than what he produced in a bench role. Still, he showed enough improvement overall to be one of just two players coach Kenny Atkinson confirmed will be in the starting lineup to open the 2017-18 season. That means he's essentially locked in as the team's starting power forward. Brook Lopez, last season's scoring leader, is gone, but the Nets brought in the likes of D'Angelo Russell, Allen Crabbe and DeMarre Carroll, meaning Hollis-Jefferson may see only minor gains, despite going into his first year as a full-time starter. Expectations can be tempered for the 22-year-old forward, but the Nets appear keen to facilitate in his development and it wouldn't be overly surprising if he improved as the year went on. Hollis-Jefferson isn't the best free-throw shooter at 75.1 percent from the charity stripe and he's not much of a three-point threat -- 22.4% 3PT last season -- so that hinder his chances of making major strides as a scorer.

The No. 23 pick in the 2015 NBA Draft was one of the Nets' few bright spots last season, even if an ankle injury limited him to just 29 games. Hollis-Jefferson moved into the starting lineup just six games into his rookie season on the back of efficient shooting and strong perimeter defense. While Hollis-Jefferson's counting stats were nothing spectacular -- 5.8 points, 5.3 rebounds, 1.5 assists and 1.3 steals in 21.2 minutes per game -- he shot nearly 46 percent from the floor while recording a team-best 105 defensive rating. Improving as an outside shooter must be a priority as he enters Year 2, but if Hollis-Jefferson sees a significant uptick in minutes -- a strong possibility on a Nets team void of high-end talent -- he projects to provide enough value across multiple categories to be a decent bench option in most fantasy formats.

Hollis-Jefferson was drafted by the Trail Blazers but flipped to the Nets in a draft-night trade. The rookie small forward out of Arizona averaged 11.2 points, 0.2 three-pointers, 6.8 rebounds, 1.6 assists, 1.2 steals, and 0.8 blocks in 29 minutes per game as a sophomore last season. Hollis-Jefferson is a defense-first player who can do a little bit of everything, but regardless of how many intriguing intangibles he has, there's equal bust potential for him. Most of the fascination with Hollis-Jefferson likely stems from the fact that the Warriors used a similar player in Draymond Green at center in their stretch run to locking up the NBA title last season. Through 10 games at the NBA's summer leagues in Orlando and Las Vegas, Hollis-Jefferson averaged 10.2 points, 0.5 three-pointers, 6.9 rebounds, 2.0 assists, 2.0 steals, and 0.8 blocks in 28 minutes per game while shooting 37 percent from the field, 24 percent from three, and 59 percent from the line. Though his counting stats (points, three-pointers, rebounds, assists, steals, blocks) are nice, his shooting percentages won't cut it in the NBA. Hollis-Jefferson's defense is going to give him a long leash, but if he doesn't improve his shooting over his first couple seasons, he might be limited to being a bench or situational player most of his career. The Nets have Joe Johnson starting at small forward, but there's little else on the roster that should stand in the way of Hollis-Jefferson earning a decent amount of minutes as a rookie. Avoid him in rotisserie leagues that use percentages, but keep an eye on RHJ in head-to-head leagues in case he gets enough minutes to collect the big steal numbers and other across-the-board production he's capable of providing.