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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.
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9% rostered
In a season that was always going to be a "lost" one, the Pistons need to find out what they have and have not in their hands. That's the main goal of rebuilding teams such as Detroit is these days, and given their current status and the fact that young players like rookie Killian Hayes are injured for long, it makes sense to put kids like fellow-rookie Saddiq Bey out there for long stretches. And that is precisely what has happened in this month of February.
Bey had logged seven starts through Friday's game against Boston when he got everybody's attention with a 50-FP performance facing the Celtics. In another off-the-bench game for Bey, he put up a season-high 30 points, 12 boards, and 7 treys. He didn't contrib any other goodies, but he also shot 83% from the floor on 12 FGA and hit all of his 3 FTA. Not bad for a rook, was it?
Barring Detroit's game against Utah on Feb. 2, Bey has played at least 18 minutes in all other February's games averaging 24 MPG. He's gone on to score 10+ points in four of the six games played in that span (including 1+ 3PG in all six games), and he's also added 4+ RPG and 1+ APG+SPG in the past two weeks of games. We can expect Bey to keep building a resume going forward and Detroit to keep giving him reps, which makes Saddiq a nice deeper-league WW-flyer to take.
Dorian Finney-Smith (SF/PF, DAL)
8% rostered
Dorian Finney-Smith has yet to come off the bench in a single game this season. Believe me, because that's absolutely true through Friday's slate of games. DFS has played 18 matches so far this season starting at either the PF (first half of the season) or SF (second half) position. Dorian is also playing a lot of minutes, getting average runs of 31 MPG on the year and 33+ during this month's games.
One thing you have to keep in mind is, though, that DFS is far from a go-to player for the Mavs on offense. Sure, he starts every game and plays extended periods of time, but his usage rate of 10% in February tells you all you need to know about how and when he's used. That usage, obviously, limits his numbers in categories such as points and assists, but he rarely turns the ball over and is a great spot-up shooter.
On the year, DFS is attempting just 7.3 FGA per game, although he's scoring 8.8 PPG and hitting 1.8 3PG per contest. That is where Dorian's value is at. In the 18 games he's played, only twice did he not hit a trey, and in the past seven games (all in February) he's scored a total of 13 long-rangers already. DFS is one of only 14 players scoring 1.8+ 3PG while attempting fewer than 8 FGA per game, and one of only four (Batum, JaMychal Green, Royce O'Neale) pairing that with 5+ RPG and 1+ APG.
Grayson Allen (SG/SF, MEM)
7% rostered
While Grayson Allen started the first four games of the season for the Grizzlies, that didn't last long as he was out of the starting five as soon as we flipped the calendar page to 2021. Since then, Allen hadn't logged a start. Until last Friday, that is, when he was put in the starting lineup against the Lakers and he went on to have his best game of the season in 35 minutes of playing time. All Allen did was scoring 23 pops (including 6 triples) while shooting 62% from the floor, and on top of that, he stuffed the line with three rebounds, a dime, and a couple of steals.
Coming off the bench is Allen's bread and butter, though, and what you should expect going forward. Allen's usage rate as part of the second unit sits at a healthy 18.5% on the year, which isn't bad at all. He's attempting around 8 FGA per game while sustaining 40/41/88 shooting splits and scoring 2+ three-point shots per game.
Allen and teammate Desmond Bane are the only two players in the NBA scoring 2+ treys per game in fewer than 23 MPG on the season. There are only 16 players averaging 2+ triples per game while also adding 2+ rebounds, 2+ assists, and 1+ steal per game to their nightly average, and Allen is by far the most affordable one and the one doing it in the fewest amount of playing time (23 MPG compared to second-lowest Horford's 28 MPG).
Jalen Brunson (PG/SG, DAL)
6% rostered
In a season in which the Mavs are performing a little bit below expectations--they come off putting up the best offensive performance ever in 2020--they have been forced into a constant search of solutions to their woes. One of the better contributors of late, which has proved to be way more productive coming off the bench, is Jalen Brunson.
Brunson rode the pine until Jan. 7, then missed a span, and when the Mavs came back in full force on Jan. 18 they did so with Brunson manning the starting PG spot. It took five games for the Mavs to send Brunson back to the bench, making him a second-unit player once more. It made sense, as even though his numbers when starting were good, his per-minute levels of production were way below league-average.
It's been 10 games in a row coming off the bench now, and Brunson is putting up 23+ FP per game with an above-average 1.05 FP/min since the start of February. He's scoring 10+ points almost nightly these days (12+ PPG in Feb.) while grabbing rebounds (4.5+ RPG) and dishing out dimes (4+ APG) easily. The shooting percentage from the floor is quite high (54%, more than a three-pointer per game too) on a healthy usage rate (18%), and Brunson adds value in 9-cat leagues as he hasn't turned the ball over more than once in the past 11 games.
Reggie Bullock (SG/SF, NYK)
3% rostered
Every time Bullock has been active this season (23 of 28 games), Reggie Bullock has started for the Knicks at the SG position. You might like that, or you might not, but that's as true as Elfrid Payton starting over rookie Immanuel Quickley under Tom Thibs coaching hand. When such a starter is rostered in fewer than five percent of Yahoo leagues, something is wrong. That might be the case, but we're hunting for super-deep format flyers here, so it's alright.
Bullock's most appealing trait is his shooting, even more as of late. In the last six games he's played, Bullock shot 55% from the floor on 46 total FGA (near 8 FGA per game). He's scored at least a triple in all but six games this season, and he's averaging 1.8 3PG on the year. The points are low because his usage is thin, but he's a great spot-up shooter that won't miss when given the rock.
Bullock is putting up an average 9-3-1-1 line on the season in 27 MPG. If you're hurting for three points, high shooting percentages, or a small-but-constant production of rebounds/assists/steals then Bullock should be a nice low-cost asset to go after.
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By popular demand, RotoBaller has aggregated all of our fantasy basketball NBA waiver wire pickups into a running list of NBA waiver options, so bookmark the page and check back often for updates.
