This NBA regular season is reaching it's final stretch and most teams know by now whether they have a shot to reach the playoffs or not. The ones that do not usually use the remainder of the season to experiment with their lineups, develop their young players or just plain tank to get as high a draft pick as possible.
All three of the centers in our Week 19 waiver wire pickups for power forwards and centers here at RotoBaller, have found themselves in a favorable situation because of their teams deciding to switch their focus away from winning now. None of them have had the best of seasons if you look at the whole period, but all of them have recently shown that they have what it takes to be fantasy relevant. It just remains to be seen if they will earn themselves a role on their respective teams, large enough to produce the stats we have seen they're capable of.
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Standard League Waiver Wire Big Adds
Willy Hernangomez, C, NY (45% Owned)
Willy Hernangomez didn't have too big a role on the Knicks until not that long ago. He actually averaged just 14 minutes per game in his first 41 games of the season and picked up a few DNPs too. Willy did make use of the time he was given though having recorded averages of 5.6 PTS on 53.9 FG% and 73.3 FT%, 5.1 REB, 0.8 AST, 0.3 STL, 0.5 BLK and 1.1 TO in his first 41 games. Those performances paved his way to becoming the first option behind Joakim Noah, and eventually overtaking the Frenchman for the most minutes at the center position in New York.
Furthermore, Noah got injured. Surprise, surprise... Since Jan. 31 Willy played in 10 games and averaged 11.4 points on 54.9% from the field and 75.0% from the charity stripe, 9.9 boards, 2.3 assists, 0.9 steals, 1.1 blocks and 1.3 turnovers in 26 minutes per contest. Those are some lovely stats from the rookie, and his game is very fantasy-friendly.
Now Noah did play a total of 35 minutes in those 10 games so that did help Hernangomez get a few extra minutes. But the Knicks are in no hurry to bring Noah back, with the way his "backup" has been playing. Moreover, New York is four games behind the eight spot in the East, and while they haven't given up on the playoffs just yet, it seems unlikely that they will be in the hunt for too long. And once they're out, 22-year-old Willy will probably be one of the youngsters whose development will become a primary goal for the Knicks. Just imagine the European combo of him and Kristaps Porzingis dominating the paint in a few years.
In Willy you get an all around contributor who doesn't hurt you in any category in particular and can help a lot in the rebounds and defensive stats columns, so if that's what you're searching for Willy is a pretty decent option with a possible sky-high upside.
Marquese Chriss, PF, PHO (24% Owned)
Marquese Chriss' situation is a lot similar to Willy's. He didn't start the year off with too many minutes either. There's actually a huge gap between his lowest amount of playing time with just under a minute and a half against the Lakers on Nov. 6, and his highest on Jan. 30 against the Grizzlies when he logged a little over 34. His minutes have been largely impacted by the veteran Tyson Chandler playing so well, and another rookie, the number four pick in last year's draft, Dragan Bender battling it out with marquese for minutes at the PF spot.
But things are looking up for Chriss. Dragan Bender has been injured for a while, and has just shedded his walking boot a few days ago. Tyson Chandler has picked up two consecutive DNP-CD's and it seems that the last-placed team in the West has turned their attention to their young talent. In his last 12 games he has averaged 10.6 PTS with 0.8 3PM on 42.9 FG% and 58.3 FT%, 4.3 REB, 1.0 AST, 1.3 STL, 0.9 BLK and 0.9 TO in 24 minutes a game.
Now, on one hand it has to be said that those kind of low efficient stats aren't everybody's cup of tea. But on the other hand, owners in deeper formats have a chance to add a young prospect who gets a tone of steals and blocks, has a few rebounds, hits a three and assists every once in a while. And the most important thing, we've seen that he is capable of doing it all better. A lot better!
Standard League Honorable Mentions: Frank Kaminsky (51% owned), Jon Leuer (44% owned)
Deep League Waiver Wire Big Adds
Alan Williams, PF, PHO (8% Owned)
Alan Williams is in the same waters as Chriss. Heck, they're on the same team, too. Now, Marquese is only 19 while Alan is 24. And Marquese was the eight pick while Alan was undrafted. So it's easy to see why Chriss has played in 59 games so far this season compared to Williams' 25. Also, Chriss has averaged 19 minutes per outing this season while Williams is getting just eight and a half. But, whoever says that Williams doesn't have potential doesn't seem to have paid closer attention.
Alan has played more than 20 minutes in a game just four times this season. He double-doubled in each of those four games, averaging 14.5 PTS on 62.5 FG% and 72.7 FT%, 13.0 REB, 1.0 AST, 1.7 STL, 2.5 BLK and 1.0 TO in 27 minutes a game. And his season high in minutes, 34, came in his last game on Feb.26 against the Bucks, so that might be a good sign for him going forward, since it seems that he has outperformed his frontcourt rival Alex Len.
His owners can only hope that the Suns stick to their current plan of giving their young players more time to grow at the expense of their more experienced players, but for those kind of stats, Williams is worth a speculative add if you have someone on the deep end of your bench that isn't meeting your expectations.
Deep League Honorable Mentions: Ivica Zubac (16% owned), Skal Labissiere (4% owned)
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.