🎆 Happy New Year! 🎆
If your new year’s resolution is to tinker around the edges of your fantasy team, you’ve come to the right place. A scrub center guaranteed to win blocks for you is just waiting on the waiver wire. On a more serious note, the well must be pretty dry in most leagues by now. The best we can get at this point of the season seems to be players returning from injuries, players replacing injured players, or single-category difference-makers.
Week 12 Fantasy Basketball Deep Waiver Wire Adds
TJ Warren, SF/PF – Brooklyn Nets (28% rostered)
Stat highlight: Top-15 player in the 2019-20 fantasy season
Poor TJ has had it rough since the bubble in Orlando having played only 16 games in the last three seasons. In better news, he seems to be healthy now and is gearing up to average 30 minutes per game. If he, indeed, is capable of somewhat recreating the 2019-20 glory days, he would come out on top of all the second-tier scorers on the Nets bench and likely be the best fantasy option of the bunch. Warren’s last week’s performance ranks him roughly 130th per game in 9-category fantasy.
Mark Williams, C – Charlotte Hornets (16% rostered)
Stat highlight: Never attempted a shot outside of the paint in 30 attempts in the NBA
Having only played 12 minutes of NBA basketball before last week, rookie Mark Williams seems to have carved out a nice backup center role within the Hornets rotation. In 18 minutes he averaged 10 points (shooting 69.6% from the field), 7 rebounds, 1.25 steals and a block in 4 games. That all ranks him among the top 100 of the last week. The Hornets aren’t playing for anything anymore so there is no reason why there couldn’t be 18 minutes of playing time available for a rookie going forward.
Grayson Allen, SG/SF – Milwaukee Bucks (15% rostered)
Stat highlight: Attempted 27 three-pointers in the last 3 games
Despite being on a bit of a cold run, Grayson Allen is probably the best source of threes available on the waiver wire in most leagues. Allen is a career 39% shooter from three so there is no reason to be scared off by short-term results.
Patrick Beverley, PG – Los Angeles Lakers (8% rostered)
Stat highlight: His strongest fantasy category is probably turnovers…
Beverley ranks in the top 100 players of last week’s fantasy basketball, largely thanks to making 2.7 threes per game. Or 8 per 3 games. With many Lakers high-usage players out injured and a 4-game week coming up, Beverley could conjure up some above-average performances for himself. Exciting stuff, I know.
Ricky Rubio, PG – Cleveland Cavaliers (7% rostered)
Stat highlight: Career averages of 30 minutes, 7.6 assists, 1.8 steals per game
This is probably more wishful thinking than an analysis of cold hard facts but don’t you feel like the world is a better place with Ricky Rubio around? I do. Perhaps ahead of schedule, Rubio could return this week from a torn ACL injury. It might seem logical to write him off with Garland and Mitchell on the roster but Rubio has been able to carve himself a role on every NBA team he’s played for. The best-case scenario here will be, perhaps, Rubio running the second unit with 6-7 assists per game.