RADIO
The deeper a fantasy league, the harder it is to hit a winner with your last few picks. It is also harder to find decent help from the waiver wire if your late-round picks don't do you justice. If you picked up a few stinkers, don't lose hope just yet. I will try to help you pick up a winner.
Here are my deeper league waiver wire pickups for your fantasy basketball teams. These players should be available in most leagues and they might just help you out, whether it's a few weeks rental or a long-term fix to a problem your team is having.
If a guy on your team is frustrating you with his weak performances, give some of them a go. They might just be worth it.
Reggie Jackson (PG/SG, LAC)
12% rostered
The Clippers didn't make any resounding move leading up to/on the trade deadline day other than adding Rajon Rondo in exchange for Lou Williams and later proceeded to sign DeMarcus Cousins to a 10-day deal off the free-agent pool. The move made some sense given Patrick Beverley's issues... and even more now that he's injured once more and will miss the rest of the regular season. That means Reggie Jackson, who could have seen himself put into a super-reduced role, is now the starting point with Rondo nurturing injuries too.
Don't get it wrong. Reggie has started 29 games through Saturday, but he benefited from Bevs' absence in his string of post-AS-break starts. While not a mighty great player, Jax can handle the rock and he's been a league-average performer on a per-minute basis since the break (0.90 FP/min). Truth be told, the first three months of the season weren't good at all for Reggie. He was averaging just 17 FP and a measly 8-2-3 line from Dec. 22 to Mar. 24. Then, March 25 arrived and with it a new, evolved version of Jackson.
From Mar. 25 on and through last Saturday, Reggie has played nine games averaging a way-better 28 FPG while playing 28 MPG. Jackson is now averaging a good 16-3-4 with a stock per game on top of that. The shooting has gone up from 38 percent from the floor to 50 percent in the aforementioned span, and that's not because he's shooting fewer rocks per game, but rather the opposite going from 7 FGA to almost 12 FGA these days. Reggie is a three-point machine (3 3PG in the last nine), comes with scoring upside, almost never fails to grab 3 boards, and adds steals on a nightly basis while keeping up a near-2.5 AST:TO ratio. One to have ROS in deeper leagues if you can still find and add him for free.
Kentavious Caldwell-Pope (PG/SG, LAL)
11% rostered
I bet you won't believe what I'm about to write: KCP was the eight-overall pick from the 2013 draft. For real, folks. The Pistons picked KCP back then above the likes of CJ McCollum, Steven Adams, and a certain Giannis Antetokounmpo. Damn. The thing is, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope is still just 27 years old yet everybody has this image of the über-veteran holding the Lakers together, even more now that LeBron James and Anthony Davis have been out--and will remain there for at least two weeks each.
KCP isn't an otherworldly talent, nor the Lakers savior, but given the current status of this franchise (I mean, they have just added Ben McLemore to the fold...) odds are he is one of, if not the, best players available on a nightly basis, which will stay the same for one or two weeks still at the very least. See, KCP has started all 49 games he's played this season, and that will keep happening ROS. Kentavious' heavy minutes (27 MPG on the season up to 32 since LBJ got injured) and low usage rates are killing his per-minute efficiency, as it is to be expected, but KCP is also getting bulky counting stats nightly precisely thanks to that playing time.
Caldwell-Pope is averaging an 11-3-2 line since he's on the court without LeBron James (Mar. 20) in the 11 games he's played through Saturday. Although KCP is far from the greatest shooter ever (37 percent FG% in that span), the truth is that he's on the court to hit his spot-up treys and he's hitting 2+ per game. In Thursday's and Saturday's games, KCP shot the ball 20 and 10 times respectively, rebounded to an average 53% accuracy from the floor, and put up 28-4-1 (with 6 treys) and 14-3-5 (with 4 triples) lines. There is nothing too crazy about KCP logging those minutes (39 and 32) and opportunities with the lack of warm bodies around L.A. these days. If only for a couple of weeks, make sure to get yourself some KCP shares.
Markieff Morris (PF/C, LAL)
11% rostered
If we look at the season from Feb. 24 on, Markieff's and KCP's (read above) years are pretty much the same when it comes to their usage by the Lake Show. Morris has started every game at the PF position from that day on, and it's already been 21 such matches in a row for Kieff. Morris has played 26 MPG in those games, though his minutes have gone quite up since LeBron joinEd Davis on the shelf: from 26 minutes on the full span to almost 30 MPG in the last two weeks of games.
Even with that uptick in playing time, Morris has been able to sustain a league-average FP/min mark of 0.90. Considering his rostership, the fact that he is starting every game next to Andre Drummond (who will get most of the D attention, freeing Morris), and that he comes with three-point upside, Markieff is a clear target and must-add player at least for the next couple of weeks (when AD/LBJ could potentially return).
Morris is putting up a nice 11-6-1 line as a starter to go with a stock per game on top of that. Again, MaMo is great as a big man with long-range shooting prowess and good percentages even with his profile. Morris has scored 2+ triples in eight of his last 10 games, is hitting 52 percent of his field goals in the past two weeks (10+ FGA), and although he doesn't to the charity stripe a lot he still finds his way to score 12+ points more often than not. Good for points, rebounds, FG%, and the random steal here and there.
Kenrich Williams (SF/PF, OKC)
10% rostered
The Thunder--believe it or not--have found a gem in Aleksej Pokusevski. I know you're laughing at that, but it is the truth and you only have to read my WW-post about Poku this past weekend to know more about it. Do you know what is true, also? Kenrich Williams being another top-notch addition by OKC via New Orleans. The Pelicans signed Kenrich a couple of seasons ago after he went undrafted, and the Thunder acquired him via trade last November in the deal involving Jrue Holiday. Quite a steal, that was.
Kenrich was already doing things in New Orleans, and in his two years there he played 85 games. Now part of the Thunder, he has 53 games this season alone and 10 starts on top of that: Williams started at all SG/SF/PF in a stretch from early to mid-February and is back in the starting unit these days, with three consecutive starts in three of the past four games playing 21, 34, and 31 minutes for OKC. He didn't start on Saturday against Philly, but with Pokusevski getting injured, Kenrich could very well come back to start nightly. Either coming off the bench or starting, Williams has been a rather nice asset IRL and in fantasy leagues. He's putting up an 11-5-3 average line since the break, and he's ramped up his efforts of late reaching an even better 10-6-4 since Mar. 31.
The growing pains were real for Williams in the first couple of months of the season, as he could only average a measly and below-average 0.74 FP/min before the All-Star, but he's been a completely different player since then putting up nightly 0.99 FP/min marks after that hiatus in his 16 games from that point on. Williams will give you 10+ points almost every day even on low usage, is a great rebounder, and comes to a rather nice upside in the dimes and steals categories for the forward positions he most often mans.
Derrick Favors (PF/C, UTA)
8% rostered
Your true "super-deep fantasy league" target has arrived. The Utah Jazz is the best team in the whole NBA, they count their games by wins, will probably end the regular season sitting at the top of the Western Conference... and they'll do so while using Derrick Favors no more than 16 MPG, let alone running him for 20 rounds of the clock any given day. I mean, just last Saturday, against the lowly Kings, all Favors got to play was 17 minutes, so you get an idea of how Utah is managing his minutes.
If you're like some of my friends and play in 20-team leagues, with 15 players per roster, you know you need to hustle and find your way toward anything resembling value out there. Enter Derrick Favors, he of the 8-percent rostership in Yahoo leagues. Favors, while not playing more than 15 minutes a night, is producing as many fantasy points as he can given his super-limited runs. He's strung 15 games in a row playing at an above-average FP/min level producing a 1.17 mark in that span (going back to Mar. 16), and he's indeed had above-average performances in 39 of his 51 GP (more than 76% of his games, that is).
Favors is a low-maintenance guy averaging a lowly 6-5-1 line on the year with a block per game on top of that. He's shooting 64% from the floor on a limited 4 FGA with usage rates around 14%. No, Favors is not going to be the man winning you the league. But when it comes to working and exploiting slim pickings in hugely deep leagues, this is the type of guy that might turn into a more-than-useful asset to have around.
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