Round 1 gave us clues. Round 2 gave us confirmation.
That is the point where Fantasy Lab gets more useful.
One game can lie to you. Two games can still lie to you too, obviously, but by the end of Round 2 we have a much better idea which early fantasy performances were built on something repeatable: minutes, responsibility, usage, creation and trust.
This is not a list of the highest Round 2 scorers.
It is a list of the role changes we actually believe.
Some are already looking permanent. Some are very real right now but come with an expiry date attached. The distinction matters, because fantasy managers do not get points for identifying yesterday's breakout. They get points for working out what survives into next week.
If you missed the first edition, start with Fantasy Lab: 7 Round 1 Role Changes That Matter More Than the Box Score. For the immediate Round 3 decisions, our Round 3 Trade Targets, Round 3 Injury Report and Fantasy Draft Waiver Wire are already live.
The quick read
| Player | Round 2 signal | Fantasy Lab read |
|---|---|---|
| Arnas Velička | 17 points, 11 assists in 31.1 minutes | Brisbane's offence really is his |
| Nick Rakocevic | Back-to-back 20-point games while Humphries sits | This is bigger than a one-game injury fill-in |
| Max Mackinnon | 31 points, 12 rebounds in 29.2 minutes | Brisbane is giving him real starter responsibility |
| Kendric Davis | 31 points and six assists in under 28 minutes | The minutes still have room to grow |
| Elijah Pepper | 25 points in both Round 2 games | Perth's temporary creator role is very real |
| Anthony Dell'Orso | 20/6/3 steals, then 15/11/5 | Round 1 was the outlier, not the opportunity |
| Dylan Windler | 26 points, eight boards in 23.9 minutes | More than a complementary shooter while Perth is depleted |
1. Arnas Velička: Brisbane's offence really is his
We said after Round 1 that Brisbane had handed Arnas Velička the keys.
Round 2 did nothing to change that view.
Against Illawarra, Velička followed his spectacular debut with 17 points, four rebounds, 11 assists, two steals and a block in 31.1 minutes.
The important number is not 17.
It is 11.
After opening NBL27 with 14 assists, he has now produced 25 assists across his first two games. That is not hot shooting. That is offensive structure.
Brisbane is running through him.
Will Weaver has given Velička the ball, the minutes and the authority to organise the Bullets, and the team is 2-0. He has already shown he can create for Tyrell Harrison, find shooters and still score enough himself to punish teams that go under screens.
The NBL's Round 2 reporting reinforced the point: Velička backed up his debut with another double-digit assist game while Brisbane's offence continued to function around him.
For SuperCoach, there will be weeks where his scoring fluctuates. For Draft, there will be nights where somebody else gets hot. None of that changes the core fantasy appeal.
Primary creators get repeated chances to score fantasy points even when the shot is not falling.
Fantasy Lab verdict: confirmed. This is Brisbane's offence until somebody proves otherwise.
2. Nick Rakocevic: this is bigger than a one-game injury fill-in
Round 1 told us Nick Rakocevic had more opportunity while Isaac Humphries was out.
Round 2 told us Adelaide is comfortable actually using him.
Rakocevic produced 20 points, eight rebounds, three assists, a steal and a block in 36.6 minutes against Perth, then followed it with 21 points and 12 rebounds against Cairns.
That is two straight 20-point games.
Humphries' absence is obviously the trigger. We should not pretend otherwise. When Adelaide gets its starting centre back, frontcourt minutes will tighten.
But this does not look like Rakocevic simply standing in the right place while a teammate is injured.
Trevor Gleeson's flex offence is asking more of him as a decision-maker, and Rakocevic has publicly talked about feeling more comfortable in both the system and his second season with Adelaide. Against Cairns, he played a major role in the home win and finished with 21 and 12 despite leaving value at the free-throw line.
The role is broader than rebounding and put-backs.
He is screening, rolling, making reads and getting enough touches to stay involved even when Bryce Cotton owns the headline possessions.
That matters because temporary minutes can create temporary fantasy value. A broader offensive role can survive even after the roster gets healthier.
Fantasy Lab verdict: the Humphries injury created the opening, but Rakocevic is doing enough to keep part of the expanded role when the opening closes.
3. Max Mackinnon: Brisbane is not treating him like a rookie
There is no sensible projection where Max Mackinnon shoots like this every week.
That is not the interesting part.
Mackinnon erupted for 31 points and 12 rebounds in 29.2 minutes against Illawarra, hitting six threes in Brisbane's 103-95 win.
Six threes will not repeat every night.
The 12 rebounds are what we care about.
Will Weaver specifically praised Mackinnon's work on the glass and defensive effort after the game. That tells us his minutes are not being held together by one hot shooting streak.
He is earning them with things coaches trust.
Brisbane is playing Mackinnon as a genuine rotation pillar rather than protecting him as a first-year player. He can rebound, defend across positions, run in transition and attack a closeout. When the shot falls, the ceiling becomes enormous.
When it does not, he still has routes to minutes and fantasy production.
That is the difference between a breakout box score and a breakout role.
For SuperCoach, his price will eventually catch up. For Draft, he has already moved beyond speculative upside.
Fantasy Lab verdict: believe the minutes and the rebounding. Treat the 31 points as the bonus, not the thesis.
4. Kendric Davis: the production is already ridiculous — and the minutes are not normal yet
Kendric Davis is giving us the opposite problem.
The production is not hiding the role.
The minutes are hiding the production.
Davis played just 27.95 minutes in Round 2 and still finished with 31 points, four rebounds, six assists and a steal.
That is absurdly efficient fantasy production for a player still below what we would consider normal lead-guard minutes.
We already saw it in Round 1, when his SuperCoach output was elite despite a sub-30-minute workload. Round 2 strengthened the case rather than correcting it.
This does not mean Davis will score 30 every night.
It means he does not need 35 minutes to matter.
That is a very useful fantasy profile because any increase in workload becomes upside rather than a requirement for relevance.
The thing to monitor now is not whether Davis can produce. That part is settled.
It is whether his conditioning, rotation pattern and game situation gradually push him closer to the low-30s.
If that happens, there is another level available.
Fantasy Lab verdict: production confirmed. Minutes are the remaining lever.
5. Elijah Pepper: Perth's temporary creator role is completely real
There is an expiry warning attached to this one.
That does not make the opportunity fake.
With Brandon Knight still unavailable and Jaron Rillie yet to play, Perth has been forced to create by committee. Elijah Pepper has been right in the middle of it.
Pepper scored 25 points in both Round 2 games.
Against Adelaide he added three rebounds and three assists. Against New Zealand he finished with five assists, four rebounds and three steals in only 25.8 minutes.
That second line matters.
Pepper is not simply catching fire as a scorer. Perth is using him to initiate possessions, attack off the bounce and help organise an offence that does not currently have its natural point guard.
John Rillie has openly described the Wildcats' approach as winning by committee, with Pepper, Dylan Windler, Kristian Doolittle and Anthony Dell'Orso sharing creation responsibility.
That is the role signal.
The complication is obvious: Knight is still coming.
When he arrives, Pepper should lose some ball-handling. Jaron Rillie's eventual return adds another creator to the rotation.
So the correct fantasy conclusion is not "Pepper is now Perth's point guard".
It is "Pepper has genuine short-term creator value, and some of the confidence he is building may survive the role change".
Fantasy Lab verdict: real role, temporary conditions. Use it while it exists.
6. Anthony Dell'Orso: Round 1 was the lie, not Round 2
Opening night was ugly for Anthony Dell'Orso.
Round 2 was a much better representation of why Perth trusts him.
Against Adelaide, Dell'Orso played 34.3 minutes and finished with 20 points, six assists and three steals. Two nights later against New Zealand, he produced one of the strangest guard lines of the round: 15 points, 11 rebounds, five assists and two steals in 29.5 minutes.
The exact numbers are not repeatable.
The involvement is.
Dell'Orso is touching too many parts of the game to dismiss him as a scorer who happened to get hot. He is handling the ball, rebounding, creating and generating defensive stats.
Again, Perth's injury situation matters. Knight and Rillie will change the guard rotation when they return.
But Dell'Orso has now shown enough that the question should be "how much of this survives?" rather than "was Round 2 a fluke?"
That is a significant shift from where we were after Round 1.
For Draft managers, he has moved firmly onto the waiver radar. For SuperCoach, his role is more interesting than the opening-week score suggested.
Fantasy Lab verdict: the role is real; the size of it is the variable.
7. Dylan Windler: more than a complementary shooter while Perth is depleted
Dylan Windler might be the most overlooked part of Perth's current committee.
His Round 2 numbers tell two different stories.
Against Adelaide he played 35 minutes and finished with 16 points, four rebounds and three assists.
Against New Zealand he needed only 23.9 minutes to produce 26 points, eight rebounds, three assists and two blocks.
That second game is a ceiling performance. The broader role is the real signal.
Perth is asking Windler to do more than stand in the corner and space the floor. He is rebounding, moving the ball and taking on some secondary creation while the Wildcats wait for their point guards.
That gives him multiple fantasy pathways.
The shooting will swing. The minutes may swing. The return of Knight should simplify his offensive responsibilities.
But Windler has shown enough across the first two rounds to suggest he can produce without needing one narrow stat category to carry him.
That makes him far more useful in fantasy than a pure three-point specialist.
Fantasy Lab verdict: the expanded role is situational, but the multi-category production is real.
What we actually believe after two rounds
Round 2 lets us separate these seven into two groups.
Looks durable
Arnas Velička — lead creator, massive assist responsibility, secure minutes. Nick Rakocevic — bigger offensive role even if Humphries eventually reduces the minutes. Max Mackinnon — starter-level responsibility built on rebounding and defence, not just shooting. Kendric Davis — elite production already; workload can still rise.
Real now, but situation-dependent
Elijah Pepper — extra creation while Perth waits for its point guards. Anthony Dell'Orso — legitimate all-round involvement, but future guard depth matters. Dylan Windler — expanded secondary creation while Perth is short-handed.
That distinction is the whole point.
Fantasy managers do not need every role change to be permanent.
Sometimes the edge is recognising that a temporary role is real before everyone else realises it has an expiry date.
Round 3 questions Fantasy Lab is watching
The next round should tell us even more.
Can Velička keep piling up assists once opponents start scheming specifically for him?
Does Mackinnon still approach 30 minutes on a normal shooting night?
How much of Rakocevic's role remains if Humphries gets closer to returning?
Does Davis finally push beyond 30 minutes?
And most importantly for Perth: what happens to Pepper, Dell'Orso and Windler as Knight and Rillie get closer?
Those are better questions than asking who scored the most last weekend.
Because scores move fast.
Roles are the part worth chasing.
What to read next
- NBL27 SuperCoach Round 3 Trade Targets: Buy, Hold & Sell
- NBL27 SuperCoach Round 3 Injury Report
- NBL27 Fantasy Draft Waiver Wire: 8 Players to Add After Round 2
- NBL27 Fantasy Lab: 7 Round 1 Role Changes That Matter More Than the Box Score
Sources and methodology
Fantasy Lab uses Buckets' NBL game logs alongside official NBL reporting to separate short-term scoring spikes from repeatable role signals. Round 2 game statistics in this article are drawn from completed NBL27 games available in Buckets at publication time.
Key official reporting used includes the NBL's Round 2 SuperCoach recap, Max Mackinnon's Round 2 feature, Nick Rakocevic's expanded Adelaide role, and reporting on Perth's committee playmaking approach.
Buckets is an independent fantasy basketball platform and is not affiliated with SuperCoach or the National Basketball League. SuperCoach is referenced for analysis and scoring comparison.
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