RADIO
If you're in a deep league you're bound to have a player who isn't meeting your expectations. If your doubts about that changing are strong, move on immediately. If you think he might improve, you can hold on for a while, but let enough be enough and don't get too attached. Sometimes, when there's enough upside and the league is so deep that it's really difficult to find a decent replacement taking a dip in the free agent pool, a fantasy owner's patience can be rewarded.
It's your job to decide weather to wait for a player to get out of a slump or to pull the triger on another hot free agent. It's my job to suggest some options, based on the moves, talks and performances around the NBA, that may make you a genius among your fantasy NBA peers if you decide on one of the first two options.
A trade, a trade rumor and a young player surging will make the headlines of today's Week 15 deeper league waiver wire pickups for your fantasy basketball teams. Enjoy!
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Deep League Waiver Wire Add
Jamal Murray, SG, DEN (22% owned in Yahoo! leagues)
When you look at Jamal Murray's stats for the entire season, you don't really see the potential that is there. His 8.4 PTS with 1.2 3PM on 38.1 FG% and 86.1 FT%, 2.5 REB, 1.8 AST, 0.5 STL, 0.3 BLK and 1.2 TO in 20 minutes a game don't warrant a pick up in most leagues. But let's cut the kid some slack. He is a 19-year-old rookie still adjusting to the style and pace of the NBA.
And it seems that the adaptation is going pretty well. Murray has really picked it up in his last four games with averages of 14.8 points with 1.8 threes on 42.6% from the field and no misses in 12 attempts from the line, 2.5 boards, 1.8 assists, 1.0 steals, 0.5 swats and 1.8 turnovers in 26 minutes per game. Now those some pretty nice stats for fantasy owners. An across the board contribution with just a small hit in TO and FG%, and from a three point shooter. Not too bad for a rookie, eh?
Now don't get too blown away by Jamal's performance. It came at a time when Denver wasn't at full strength. Nikola Jokic missed three of those games, Will Barton and Emmanuel Mudiay missed two, Danilo Gallinari missed one and Jameer Nelson was ejected after just four minutes in another of those games. So all that might have meant a few extra minutes for Murray.
But if you look at it realistically, when wasn't Denver banged up lately? And it's not as if Murray got double the minutes due to other players missing time. It might just have bumped his court time up by a minute or two.
He is a decent shooter with three point range and rare mistakes from the charity stripe who also gets some defensive stats a few boards and dimes. Furthermore he's got talent and potential. Along with The Joker, Mudiay and Gary Harris, the number 7 pick from last year's draft is pegged to be the future of Denver so he should be getting enough minutes to develop into the player the Nuggets needs him to be.
Super Deep League Waiver Wire Add
John Henson, PF/C, MIL (7% owned in Yahoo! leagues)
Let me bore you with this intro explaining why it hurts me to write this. I picked up Henson in my 20-team 10-cat (double-doubles the 10th cat) head-to-head league from the wire on Jan 18. He played a total of 64 minutes in his next eight games, picking up four DNP-CD's in that spam. I was in a comfortable third spot in the league which seeds eight teams for the playoffs, and the injured Pau Gasol became available. Having the room to wait, and in need of a center since my other's are DNP-CD kings Henson, Jusuf Nurkic and Brook Lopez, I pounced on the opportunity and cut Henson. Four days later, Miles Plumlee is traded to Charlotte, Henson starts and scores 16 points on 7 of 12 from the field and 2 for 2 from the line, grabs five rebounds, gets one steal and blocks four shots with no turnovers in 30 minutes. My mistake.
I'll keep the rest of it short since my whining took up plenty of your patience.
Henson's per 36 minutes career averages are 14.6 PTS on 53.3 FG% and 57.3 FT%, 9.7 REB, 1.9 AST, 0.8 STL, 2.9 BLK and 2.2 TO. With Plumlee out of Milwaukee it will be Greg Monroe and Henson sharing the majority of frontcourt minutes. The Bucks did get Roy Hibbert and Spencer Hawes back in the trade with the Hornets, and Thon Maker might get some opportunities, but it still seems Henson will be getting minutes at the high 20s which will make him worth owning in most leagues. Moreover, smarter men than me have said that a trade to clear up the Bucks' frontcourt is probable to happen.
If you like Henson's upside, could use his rebounds, high FG%, splendid defensive stats and aren't too bothered by his poor free throw shooting, pick him up!
Super Deep League Waiver Wire Add
Justin Hamilton, SG/SF, NY (3% owned in Yahoo! leagues)
Justin Hamilton wasn't too involved in the Knicks' plans when the season started, having eclipsed the 20 minute mark only once in the first seven games. He's had his ups and downs during the season, but recently one of his ups has stuck around for a while. Since the game against Toronto on Jan 15 Justin has been pretty good with 9.5 PTS and 1.5 3PM on 42.0 FG% and 86.4 FT%, 3.6 REB, 1.3 AST, 1.0 STL, 0.5 BLK and 0.5 TO in 23 minutes per game. Those are some pretty decent contributions from a player owned in only 3% of the leagues.
Now if nothing changes in New York, Hamilton should be getting over 20 minutes a night and treating his owners to stats pretty similar to those mentioned above according to his career averages of 5.3 PTS with 0.8 3PM on 39.6 FG% and 81.3 FT%, 1.9 REB, 0.7 AST, 0.7 STL, 0.3 BLK and 0.7 TO in 15 minutes per game. That's enough for some deeper league formats, but not really standard league worthy is it?
But Hamilton might be looking at a break. The rumors of the Knicks trying to trade Carmelo Anthony are heating up by the day. If Melo was to leave New York, and not too much talent at the two and three spot come to the Big Apple in exchange, Hamilton could get even more run and responsibility.
With his recent run of good performances, and those possible outlooks which could boost his value even further, Justin Hamilton is worth the gamble in most deep and perhaps even in some shallower leagues.
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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.
