RADIO
You and your friends love fantasy basketball? Each and every one of you got a few more mates who love it too and would like to join your league? With deeper leagues, some of the players that we own are bound to let us down at some point.
If you're ready to move on from those underperformers, here are my Week 7 deeper league waiver wire pickups for your fantasy basketball teams. These are some options for a replacement player which should be still available on the waiver wire in deeper leagues.
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Deep League Waiver Wire Add
Dwight Powell, PF/C, DAL (23% owned in Yahoo! leagues)
If Dirk Nowitzki and the rest of Dallas Mavericks' frontcourt were healthy I probably wouldn't be writing about Dwight Powell. But injuries are an everyday occurrence in the NBA, and bench players get their chance to shine and show they are deserving of a more significant role. That is exactly what happened with Powell.
He started the season playing 15-20 minutes per game. But since Dirk is injured and Andrew Bogut, who already missed five games out of 21 the Mavericks have played, has suffered a knee bone bruise and is scheduled to miss anywhere between 10 days and four weeks of action, Powell's minutes have increased drastically. In his last four games he racked up averages of 11.0 PTS, 7.0 REB, 1.5 AST, 0.8 STL, 0.8 BLK on 57.6 FG% and just 0.3 TO in 27 minutes per game.
Considering there are no updates on Dirk's status and Bogut is out for a couple of games at least, there is no reason to think Powell won't be getting the same amount of minutes and chances to keep up his solid production. Even when both the veterans return, his recent performances earned him plenty of minutes in a healthy Dallas rotation. Moreover, Dallas is the worst team in the Western conference with 4-17, so as the season progresses, and their chances for a playoff birth come to a close, the veterans will be getting even more rest and up-and-comers like Powell will take over.
Powell is already owned in almost one quarter of Yahoo! leagues and won't be on your waiver wire for long, so if you like what he is producing don't hesitate for too long. Later might be too late.
Super Deep League Waiver Wire Add
Kyle O'Quinn, PF/C, NYK (5% owned in Yahoo! leagues)
Kyle O'Quinn's situation is somewhat similar to Dwight Powell's. He started the year as a backup to Joakim Noah and was getting around 10-15 minutes per game on average. But Noah already missed five games and his stats have taken another step back this season. That is why O'Quinn was given an opportunity, and so far he has taken advantage.
In his four games last week (Noah played in three of those) O'Quinn played 23 minutes per game and averaged 11.5 PTS, 9.0 REB, 2.0 AST, 0.3 STL, 2.0 BLK, all on a ridiculous 71.0% shooting from the field. Granted his best performance did come when Noah was out, scoring 20 points on 9-11 shooting and grabbing 13 rebounds.
But he kept his production up even when Noah returned, and it is quite possible that he will keep it up the rest of the way too. Not to mention Noah's recent injury woes. In addition to missing five games already this season, he had a nightmare with Chicago last year playing in just 29 games. Noah played more than 67 games in only three of his nine seasons in the NBA.
O'Quinn's recent run of nice performances combined with Noah's injury proneness and poor outings should be enough for owners in very deep leagues to take a flier on him. His rebounds, blocks and high FG% might be pretty helpful come fantasy playoffs.
Insanely Deep League Waiver Wire Add
Sam Dekker, SF, HOU (5% owned in Yahoo! leagues)
Just like my other two picks for this week, Sam Dekker also started the season in a lesser role than the one he is currently in. In his first 17 games of the season he eclipsed the 20 minute mark just twice, although he never played less than 10 either. But in his last five games he is playing 24 minutes per game and scoring 11.0 points, grabbing 6.0 rebounds and adding 1.0 3-pointer, 1.2 assists, 1.0 steals and 0.4 blocks with 51.2% of his field goals going in. Not too shabby is it?
All that extra run he has been getting is based just on his hard work, good play and more trust from his coach Mike D'Antoni. No injuries have hit the Houston Rockets so far, except Nene Hilario getting his rest days here and there and Patrick Beverley who started the season injured, but is back now. But, the Rockets have a few players on their roster who are injury risks. Apart from Beverley, who is a point guard and whose absence wouldn't change Dekker's situation much if at all, and Nene who has already missed four games this season, there are the two new additions from New Orleans, Eric Gordon and Ryan Anderson. They are great shooters who fit D'Antoni's system very well. But they both played over 66 games in just one season in their NBA careers so far.
It should be mentioned that Donatas Motiejunas saga is still unfolding. Houston matched his offer sheet from Brooklyn as a restricted free agent a few days ago, but he failed to report for a physical with the Rockets. It's unclear what that means and if or when D-Mo will be playing for the Rockets again. If he does, Dekker would get some more competition for his minutes. But for now, I believe that a hard working youngster like Dekker would be in favor with the coaches and the team over a disgruntled, injury prone Motiejunas who is in a battle with Houston over his contract for around six months now, and has declined to report for a physical.
If Dekker stays on his coach's good side and continues to get minutes in the mid 20s, his production should be enough for a deep league owner to fondly remember the day he picked him up from the waiver wire. Furthermore, an injury to any one of the players mentioned above would mean more run for Dekker and even more time for him to bless his owners with his increasing multicat contribution.
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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.
