With week one behind us, our teams are starting to fall into place and our weak spots and areas of improvement are becoming more evident. Instead of trading away everything and the kitchen sink, the waiver wire can be extremely useful given the proper insight. Finding a player that is primed to break out can make or break your entire season. Players like Joe Ingles, Jonathon Simmons, and Nikola Mirotic use to fly under the radar sitting on the wire all season and now they are some of the most valuable fantasy players.
Zach Collins is still on top of my radar when it comes to free agents, but there are still plenty of names out there ready to be scooped up and rostered immediately. There is a serious lack of big men available that will produce given their situations, so if you need a forward or center, your best bet is going after Alex Len, Dwight Powell, or taking a nightly flier on Nerlens Noel. Other than that, Rodney McGruder and Dorian Finney-Smith will be your most popular pickups given their high-minute situations. While McGruder is worth the pickup based on his previous production and outlook over the next month, Finney-Smith will likely lose all his minutes when Harrison Barnes returns.
As a reminder, for standard (10-12 team) league adds, we use a general rule of thumb of an ownership rate of under 50% on Yahoo. All position eligibility based on Yahoo leagues.
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Standard League Adds for Week 23
Damyean Dotson, SG, – New York Knicks
Ownership: 17%
14.7 PPG / 6.7 REB / .486 FG% / 1.7 SPG
The Knicks are a bit of a mess right now when it comes to rotations, but Damyean Dotson is a clear bright spot. His ownership is going to start rising with every game and his minutes do not seem in jeopardy for the next month or so. The Knicks primarily revolve around Tim Hardaway Jr. and secondarily whoever else has the hot hand. Luckily for Dotson and hopeful Dotson owners, he is falling into that secondary role with confidence. He is contributing with 3.0 3PTM a game and his upside in steals means he will be getting crunch time minutes because of his defense. He can make plays, but he is a score-first guard that rebounds well, so do not expect a huge increase in assists moving forward.
DeAndre' Bembry, SF – Atlanta Hawks
Ownership 4%
9.5 PPG / 6.5 REB / 2.8 AST / .412 FG%
Deandre Bembry also offers you a decent source for steals given his relatively low minutes, but in recent games, he has taken no less than eight shots and played 30 minutes despite only shooting 4-for-11 from the field. There is some competition for minutes between Kent Bazemore, Taurean Prince and Bembry, but Bembry and Prince are both hustle-first, defensive-minded wings that have proven to be a tandem that can cause serious matchup problems. Bembry will get you across the board stats, but he will have consistency problems when it comes to shooting. He can hit threes, but he prefers to drive, find the open shooter and get ready for a rebound. Bembry is an ideal fantasy player he just needs the minutes. The best thing about him is that he creates usage for himself by going after every loose ball.
Cody Zeller, C – Charlotte Hornets
Ownership 8 %
8.0 PPG / 6.0 RPG / .577 FG% / 2.0 APG
This time would be better spent talking about Zach Collins, but he was covered last week and it's more interesting to find the next big sleeper for Week 2. Cody Zeller doesn't have the most upside out of all the big men on the wire and let's be honest, there are not many left. Alex Len has upside while John Collins is out, but Zeller offers better percentages with more longevity. If you need blocks, Zeller has never averaged more than one block a game in his career, although his 0.2 blocks per game are lower than usual. He won't be a source for defensive stats, but he can be a decent source of points, rebounds, and efficiency for the time being.
More Fantasy Basketball Analysis
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.