It’s Friday. You know what that means. We’ll be looking at players who are widely available and rostered in fewer than 60 percent of fantasy leagues on Yahoo. We’ll be focusing on 8-cat leagues because turnovers are a waste of a category, to be honest.
The eight categories we’ll focus on each week are:
- Points
- Rebounds
- Assists
- Steals
- Blocks
- Threes
- Field-goal percentage
- Free-throw percentage
View the best player prop bets for tonight’s slate with our NBA Prop Bet Cheat Sheet 
Fantasy Basketball Waiver Wire Pickups
Let’s get to it for the playoff push.
Points
Dennis Schroder (PG – LAL) 44%
Someone had to step up in LeBron James‘ absence, no? It looks like, in the year of our lord Anna Kendrick 2023, it’s Schroder. He’s scored 25 or more points three times since Feb. 9, and he’s on a stretch of five straight double-double outings. With James out at least for the next three weeks, Schroder should continue to put up points off the wire.
Rebounds
I’m already looking forward to the 2023 fantasy basketball season, because I know that I’ll be writing about Looney weekly again, begging you all to pick him up. He’s the most boring top-100 player around, but he’s still a top-100 player. He’s contributing in points more and more, too, but the rebounds are why you have him. And if you don’t have him, you should.
Assists
Patrick Beverley (PG/SG – CHI) 12%
It might be silly season in Chicago for Pat Bev, as he’s played at least 22 minutes since joining Chicago. In his last game, he dropped 10 dimes. I’d snatch him up for the stretch run if I needed some help in the assist category.
Steals
Matisse Thybulle (SG/SF – POR) 33%
We didn’t get the best news on Anfernee Simons, so that continues to extend the run of Thybulle. He has at least one steal in every game with Portland since the trade deadline, and in his last game, he contributed four blocks, as well.
Blocks
Talen Horton-Tucker (SG/SF – UTA) 32%
We talked about THT in our Waiver Wire column this week, and we’ll loop back around to him again here. The scoring is nice, and it’s something that I’d expect from him. But the blocks – especially with Walker Kessler racking up so many in the paint – surprise me a bit. THT has nine blocks over his last four games, including six over his last two.
Threes
What do you know – it’s March, and SGA’s knee is giving him issues. It’s rest city SZN, baby. I expect Joe to be one of the biggest silly season players down the stretch, and we’ve already seen him put up big scoring performances in back-to-back games out of the All-Star break. Joe has 15 threes in his last four games.
Field Goal Percentage
Gafford has played 31 or more minutes in three straight games, and over the last two weeks, he’s shooting 80.8 percent from the field. It’s been frustrating to roster him this year, but the Wizards should continue to play him at a high volume down the stretch.
Free-throw percentage
Austin Reaves (SG/SF – LAL) 20%
With this category, we typically highlight a player who doesn’t fit in the other areas but can be a sneak deep-league pickup. This week, it’s Reaves. We talked about Schroder already, but Reaves is doing more than jaw-jacking with Josh Green on the court. He’s scored at least 17 points in three of his last four games, and over the last two weeks, Reaves is shooting 89.5 percent from the charity stripe.
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Michael Waterloo is a featured writer at FantasyPros. For more from Michael, check out his archive and follow him @MichaelWaterloo.
