Our wings for today have either already shown they had potential, have a very soft touch when it comes to long range shooting or have the opportunity to break out in their new situation on their tanking team.
In addition to being decent add for owners in different situations, they all have favorable fantasy playoff schedules, and that is definitely something most owners with some spots left on their roster should be taking into consideration when choosing that final guy to finish off their roster. Here are our Week 20 waiver wire pickups for the wing spot here at RotoBaller.
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Standard League Waiver Wire Wing Adds
Bojan Bogdanovic, SG/SF, WAS (54% owned)
My neighbor from Croatia Bojan Bogdanovic is a class A shooter. He is an experienced player, captain and a true leader of his national team. He is one of the great three-point shooters in the NBA and has been showing just how good he is no matter what team he plays for. He was recently traded from the Brooklyn Nets, where he was one of the bigger offensive threats, to the Washington Wizards, where he is an option from the bench.
It hasn't bothered him much as his posting averages of 18.2 PTS and 4.0 3PM on 56.9 FG% (and an astonishing 64.5 percent from 3-point range) and no misses in 13 attempts from the line, 1.6 REB, 0.6 AST, 0.4 STL, 0.2 BLK and 1.2 TO in 26 minutes a game in his past five. That is some elite shooting and only Kemba Walker and James Harden have hit more threes over their last five contests in the whole NBA.
It's obvious that Babo has fit in well with the Wizards, and he is a skilled shooter who you just can't leave open, not for a second. But it's not very realistic for him to keep shooting 64.5 percent from beyond the arc the rest of the way, and his lack of other stats do have him pegged as a three-point specialist in most leagues.
On the bright side, Washington has four games in each of the default fantasy playoff weeks (Week 20-22) so there's some added value to Bojan because of that. So if you're searching for a sharpshooter riding a hot streak and the Wizards' schedule meshes well with your fantasy team's playoff schedule, Bogdanovic is worth a pickup.
Maurice Harkless, SF, POR (43% owned)
Maurice Harkless was starting for Portland for most of the season but had a downfall from late January to early February. He had just regained some momentum with a 19 point/7 rebound game on Feb. 13 when a trade brought in Jusuf Nurkic and sent away Mason Plumlee. Nurk is a center who is active on the offensive end and finishes a lot more possessions with his own shot than Plumlee does.
With Nurk now in town and Al-Farouq Aminu getting healthy and improving his shooting, it was somewhat uncertain what Marice's role will be with the Trail Blazers going forward. Luckily for his owners, Harkless has remained relevant even with all the changes and stiffer competition for his minutes. Including the aforementioned game from Feb. 13, Harkless has averaged 13 PTS with 1.4 3PM on 55.9 FG% and 60.0 FT%, 6.4 REB, 1.4 AST, 1.3 STL, 1.4 BLK and 0.9 TO in his last seven. Furthermore, his 33 minutes per game in that period trail only the Blazers two stars Damian Lillard and C.J. McCollum.
Those defensive stats are insane, but don't seem too unsustainable with him averaging 1.2 steals and 0.9 blocks in 29 minutes a game during this whole season. The free throws do hurt a bit, but at 3.6 attempts per outing and his across the board production, he can be forgiven.
Harkless looks like a shoo-in to get 30+ minutes a game the rest of the way for Portland, and he brings a lot to the table for his owners, so if you don't mind the FT% terribly and you do have someone who contributes less than Maruice does, it wouldn't be a bad idea to at least consider him. If you need another incentive, Portland plays 11 games in Weeks 20-22, and five of those 11 games come on a 5-game nights. Moreover, Portland's game against Minnesota was just postponed yesterday. We don't have the info when it will be played, but the chances are that it will come sometime during the fantasy playoffs. Oh Goodie!!!
Other options: Tim Hardaway Jr., SG/SF, ATL (52% owned) and Terrence Ross, SG/SF, ORL (50% owned)
Deep League Waiver Wire Wing Adds
Caris LeVert, SG/SF, BKN (5% owned)
With the hero of our first story of the day, Bojan Bogdanovic out of Brooklyn, some space has opened up for Caris LeVert to show what he's made of. And while he has been seeing 20 minutes or more in each of his five games since Bojan's departure, he hasn't really taken full advantage of the opportunity. He has averaged just 9.6 PTS with 0.8 3PM on 54.1 FG% and 44.4 FT%, 3.2 REB, 2.4 AST, 1.4 STL, 0.0 BLK and 1.2 TO in 24 minutes a game.
And while the steals and the field goal efficiency is pretty decent, especially from a player owned in 5% of the leagues, the poor free throw percentage and the lack of blocks keep him from being a fantasy option outside of deeper formats.
The positives with LeVert are that he does contribute across the board, except for the blocks, and the FT% on the season is 69.0 percent, so it's not as bad as it seemed recently, although neither is his FG% which is at 43.8 percent on the season at the moment. Also, Brooklyn is only playing for honor this season, as they can't reach the playoffs, and their first round pick has been traded away a long time ago. So they will probably be resting their star players in Brook Lopez, and even more the injury riddled Jeremy Lin. Hopefully the same won't apply to the 22-year-old rookie, as he could benefit a lot from the rest days the Nets give his more experienced teammates.
And one more thing, which apparently means so much to me today, Brooklyn also has 4 games in all three of the default fantasy playoff weeks. So if you're in a deep league and can use some steals and a pinch of other stats as well, and you believe that the Nets will resort to the tactics of developing their young talent instead of playing their stars to their limits, Caris LeVert should at least be on your radar with fantasy playoffs close enough that we can smell them.
Other options: Austin Rivers, PG,SG,SF, LAC (22% owned) and Terrence Jones, SF/PF, MIL (34% 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.