Who are the biggest surprises of the NBA season thus far?

We’re in the seventh week of the fantasy basketball season, and most teams around the Association have played at least 20 games coming into Wednesday. There’s a healthy dose of stats and information available, so now is an excellent time to get a temperature check on some of my takes from earlier in the preseason.

The consensus top-24 in fantasy are generally playing to expectation — aside from LaMelo Ball’s unfortunate injury luck and James Harden’s untimely foot ailment. But the same can’t be said for players outside the first two rounds. Here, I’ll opine some of the biggest surprises of the fantasy basketball season a quarter of the way through.

Current per-game ranking: 3

The biggest surprise seven weeks into the season is the play of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. He’s playing at an MVP level, and even though he won’t win the award, Most Improved Player is warranted. His ascension reminds me of Ja Morant last season, where he made a gigantic leap from a good player to a superstar overnight.

But there’s one significant difference — Ja Morant never stood atop the fantasy mantle as the number one player in per-game value.

I excluded SGA from my draft plans not because of OKC’s tank potential but because he sustained a Grade 2 MCL sprain right before training camp. That same injury kept him on the sidelines for all of the preseason, so entering the season, I was skittish about investing in a player with a laundry list of injuries early in his career. And it’s not like the draft world didn’t know about this injury. His ADP was 46.7 in the preseason after finishing 37th in per-game value a year ago.

Had he not been injured, he would’ve been a surefire third-rounder this offseason. But, those who patiently waited for him to fall into the fourth and sometimes fifth rounds got the value pick of the year.

SGA is averaging 31.1 points, 4.9 rebounds, 6.1 assists, 1.1 3PM, 1.7 steals and 1.2 blocks with 51/34/92 shooting splits. He is the quintessential fantasy player who…