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.
Five games:
N/A
Four games:
BOS, CHI, DAL, DEN, DET, MIL, NYK, OKC, ORL, PHI, POR, SAC, SAS
Three games:
ATL, CHA, CLE, GSW, HOU, IND, LAC, LAL, MEM, MIA, MIN, NOP, PHO, TOR, UTA, WAS
Two games:
BKN
Check out the latest fantasy basketball expert consensus rankings 
Fantasy Basketball Waiver Wire Week 12
Rostered in 50-60% of leagues
The Pelicans are going through it, as they still haven’t gotten Brandon Ingram back and now they’ll be missing Zion Williamson for at least 3-to-4 weeks, but probably longer. As great as they are defensively thanks to Jose Alvarado, Herb Jones and Dyson Daniels, they need someone to step up offensively. I expect it to be Murphy, who should get the majority of the offensive looks sans Williamson. We know he can be deadly behind the arc, but I think he can create inside the three-point line, too.
OK, so the follow-up wasn’t as good as the original, but that’s going to happen with rookies — especially on a back-to-back after an emotional win over the Celtics. Still, Williams is one of the more polished rookies for fantasy purposes, and he’s consistently seeing high minutes. Even though his scoring dipped his last time out, Williams still came through for fantasy managers with five steals, giving him nine in the last two games.
Rostered in 30-49% of leagues
Oof. It was a bad L for Charlotte on Wednesday against Memphis, but it’s not the only loss they’ve suffered, as Kelly Oubre is set to miss some time for them. That should mean more time for McDaniels, who played 27 minutes and scored 16 points, grabbed seven rebounds and recorded four STOCKs in the blowout loss. McDaniels is a priority pickup for fantasy managers.
Gafford continues to play big minutes for the Wizards, and despite battling through an elbow injury, it hasn’t slowed him down much if at all. Over his last four games, he’s averaging 13.25 points, eight rebounds and two blocks per game while shooting 70 percent from the field. He’s worth grabbing and using in standard 12-team leagues.
Rostered in 15-29% of leagues
We’ve all seen the underhand free-throw attempts at this point, right? Well, Sochan is starting to open eyes with his offense, too, which was the biggest knock on him coming into the league. Before a pair of lackluster offensive outings where he scored five points combined in two games, Sochan was in double-digits in three straight games while still offering up the STOCK numbers that you want to see.
It’s a long road back for Isaac, but the fact that he is practicing in full is huge news for someone who hasn’t played in an NBA game since 2019. He’s a lottery ticket at most, as any time he gets will be limited and ramped up slowly. I don’t mind the gamble in deeper leagues and keeper/dynasty leagues, especially for the defensive upside that he has.
Rostered in 0-14% of leagues
It took Steve Clifford long enough to play Williams, but the question now is if he will play three big men with Nic Richards being healthy. Mason Plumlee will still see mid-20 minutes each night, but the rest of those should go to the rookie out of Duke who has shown instant fantasy-relevant flashes over the last couple of weeks.
The Grizzlies’ depth is a great thing for Memphis fans (hello, it’s me!), but outside of Ja Morant, Jaren Jackson Jr. and Desmond Bane, it’s hard to trust any Grizzlies player for fantasy. With the latest report that the next big star could be dealt to Memphis when they become available, I’m looking at Williams as a prime trade candidate. If he gets dealt, there will be a race to get him in your leagues. But if you have the room and stash him now, you can beat the rush for what will be a high-upside player in a landing spot with a likely better path forward to playing 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.
