It’s Thursday. You know what that means.
It’s time for another look at the waiver wire to find players that you can add for short-term and long-term success.
We’ll look at players that you should consider picking up who are rostered in four different rostership tiers:
- 50-60%
- 30-49%
- 15-29%
- 0-14%
What’s more, we’ll give you a breakdown of how many games each team has for the upcoming week so that you can maximize the minutes of your streamers.
Without further delay, let’s get to it, starting with the schedule of games being played for next week.
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Five games:
N/A
Four games:
DAL, LAL, MIL, NYK, PHI, PHX
Three games:
ATL, BOS, CHA, CHI, CLE, DEN, DET, GSW, HOU, MEM, MIN, NOP, OKC, ORL, POR, SAC, SAS, TOR, UTA, WAS
Two games:
BKN, IND, LAC, MIA
Rostered in 50-60% of leagues:
Run – don’t walk – to get, umm, Walker from your waiver wire. Over the last two weeks, Kessler is putting up top-50 value in 9-cat leagues. It’s the blocks that we love, of course, as he’s registered at least three in a game five times in his last seven games. But he’s also helping with rebounds and points, too, averaging 10 each in the last two weeks. He’s also played at least 21 minutes in six of his last seven games.
The Torrey Craig streaming stretch seems to be coming to an end soon, as Johnson is working his way back from an MCL surgery in November. Johnson is taking part in shootarounds and working toward drills, so his return should be back right before or after the New Year.
Rostered in 30-49% of leagues:
Sometimes, deadlines suck. Sorry, editor who is editing this (I love you). Wednesday, I wrote that Duren is the perfect player to trade for at a suppressed price. So long to that idea. Duren’s name was all over NBA Twitter Wednesday night after he pulled in 19 rebounds (!) in 36 minutes. Sure, it was against Charlotte, but 19 rebounds are 19 rebounds, and he’s had at least 12 boards in four straight games. He’s a priority add.
I’m going back to the well with Okongwu, and you should, too. Clint Capela is dealing with an injury, and the Hawks are being tight-lipped about the severity of it. What it does, though, is open the door for Okongwu for the short-term at least. Okongwu had a double-double Wednesday, and I’ll repeat again – he’s the best center that Atlanta has on its roster.
Rostered in 15-29% of leagues:
We’ll look back at the end of the year and wonder why Dyson Daniels and Jalen Williams weren’t more hyped up throughout the year as rookies. Williams is nearing must-roster territory for me, as he’s averaging over 30 minutes per game and helping offensively for fantasy managers.
We’ll keep Wagner here another week, as he’s continuing to start over Mo Bamba for the Magic. He had a bounce-back game in a blowout win over the Hawks, dropping 17 points, three three-pointers, and five boards in 30 minutes.
Rostered in 0-14% of leagues:
Donte DiVincenzo (PG/SG – GSW)
This is a wait-and-see with DiVincenzo, as he did have a good game in Wednesday’s loss to the Pacers, but the real reason we have him here is the injury to Steph Curry. If Curry is out for any extended period of time, we should see more run for DiVincenzo in the starting lineup or right off the bench.
If Biyombo is a recommended option here, you know that Deandre Ayton has to be hurt. That’s the value he has, but the value is legitimate value, as he produced for fantasy managers earlier this year – especially in rebounds and blocks – when Ayton missed time.
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Michael Waterloo is a featured writer at FantasyPros. For more from Michael, check out his archive and follow him @MichaelWaterloo.