This year, RotoBaller is separating its waiver wire recommendations by position a little differently. In our three position breakdowns, we'll be separating players into GUARDS, including point guards (PG), shooting guards (SG), and combo guards (PG/SG); WINGS, including small forwards (SF), swing men (SG/SF), and small ball fours (SF/PF); and BIGS, including power forwards (PF), centers (C), and bigs who play both front court spots (PF/C).
All of these positional recommendations will be written from the point of view of rotisserie leagues, meaning they'll value across the board category contributions. They're still useful for head-to-head category leagues, but they won't take into account how well a player fits into your ability to punt categories in H2H settings. We'll provide options who may be available in both standard leagues (less than 50% owned) and deeper leagues (less than 25% owned). All position eligibility and ownership rates based on Yahoo! fantasy leagues.
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Standard League Waiver Wire Big Adds
Clint Capela PF/C, HOU (67% Owned)
The projections for how Clint Capela would fill Dwight Howard’s role never took into consideration just how much James Harden would change as a player. Harden was never shy to dish the ball but he now resembles a basketball Santa handing out free buckets to anyone that wants one. Clint Capela has been greatly benefitting from the benevolent bearded baller.
After going four straight games with scoring less than double-digit points Capela has rebounded by pouring in four straight 12 or more point performances. He’s also been actually rebounding the ball at a rate of nearly eight boards a game. Right now he’s hovering at 10 points, eight rebounds, and 1.5 blocked shots per game on 61% shooting. There’s no reason he shouldn’t remain at these numbers all season including his scary-looking 31% shooting from the free throw line. Capela rarely gets to the line enough to make his free throw performance that damaging but eventually those missed shots will add up and all takers have to be willing to deal with that.
Lucas Nogueira C, TOR (25% Owned)
DeMar DeRozan is having an MVP start to the season. The rest of the Raptors are also playing well despite people questioning how the team would be able to replace the defense and rebounding of Bismack Biyombo who came up huge during the playoffs last season. Well it seems that the Raptors management knew they had a direct Biyombo replacement in Lucas Nogueira.
He started the season off slow with little playing time but now that he’s seeing the court his averages are around eight points and seven boards a game. The fact that he’s adding 2.5 blocks and two steals per game while shooting 88% from the field and 75% from the free throw line make his pedestrian numbers a lot more appealing. As long as he is getting minutes than Nogueira will be worth rostering especially if his rebounding and defensive production stay consistent.
Standard League Honorable Mentions: Al Jefferson (32% owned), Larry Nance Jr (22% owned)
Deep League Waiver Wire Big Adds
Kelly Olynyk C, BOS (23% Owned)
After missing some of the preseason and the start of the regular season Olynyk has returned healthy and played in three games for the Celtics. He is still a three pointing shooting big man that can consistently score, grab a few rebounds, and even dish out a few assists.
The Celtics have a deep team with a few players that are expected to get the ball before Olynyk has any offense run through him. That being said he has shown to be productive when he can stay healthy and with no Al Horford and a Celtics frontcourt that lacks talent in a lot of areas expect Olynyk to get career highs in minutes and shots.
Deep League Honorable Mentions: Frank Kaminsky (14% owned), Channing Frye (8% 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.