Here we are, we’re already three weeks deep of the NBA and fantasy basketball season. As we continue to progress into the season, injuries will continue to compile, leaving more and more options on the waiver wire. Although we’re still early in the season and many may feel like they’re content with their squad or still feel like it’s “early” and they “have time” to make it up. Be diligent. Play the early weeks like they’re the last weeks. Every win matters, no matter what time of the season it comes and some of those wins can be attributed to the work performed on the waiver wire.
This series drops every Sunday night on our website (www.weknowfantasy.com), to allow our readers to put in their waiver wire claims for Monday or Tuesday morning, depending on how their league is set up. In this series we try to stay under the 40-percent owned mark in Yahoo and/or ESPN leagues. We will also include at least one player that is very minally owned, to be able to cater to all players and all sized leagues. There is no set number of players to be featured in this article but there will be at least five each week. Be sure to check out how our suggestions from a week ago performed below as well!
Week 3 Suggestions
Danuel House Jr., SG/SF, Houston Texans - Averaged 15.3 points over the last 7 days
Goga Bitadze, C, Indiana Pacers - Averaged 15 points over the last 7 days
Nerlens Noel, PF/C, Oklahoma City Thunder - Averaged 9.3 points over the last 7 days
Eric Paschall, SF/PF, Golden State Warriors - Averaged 20.3 points over the last 7 days
Glenn Robinson III, SG/SF, Golden State Warriors - Averaged 13.5 points over the last 7 days
Harry Giles, PF/C, Sacramento Kings - Averaged 5 points over the last 7 days
Week 4 Suggestions
Frank Ntilikina (New York Knicks) - Owned in 28% of Yahoo and 0.5% of ESPN leagues
Upcoming Schedule: @CHI, DAL & CHA
If you’ve been following this series thus far, you know I’ve been saying that you need to add and play players at this point of the season that play a large number of minutes. Over his last five games, Ntilikina has played 38+ minutes three times. He played 33 in another. That’s a lot of minutes to play. He’s not doing the most stats wise during those minutes, but he’s at least on the court for a lot of game time. The stats will come. Add him before it’s too late.
Chris Boucher (Toronto Raptors) - Owned in 17% of Yahoo and 0.8% of ESPN leagues
Upcoming Schedule: @LAC, @POR & @DAL
Like I said in my introduction, as we get further into the season, we have many more injuries to deal with. The defending champions are a team going through that right now. Serge Ibaka is out indefinitely with an ankle injury and Kyle Lowry will miss at least two weeks with a thumb injury. In Ibaka’s absence, Boucher will be the biggest benefactor, as he is set to see a large uptick of minutes. Last season he posted great per 36-minute numbers. I like him a lot while Ibaka is out.
Alec Burks (Golden State Warriors) - Owned in 32% of Yahoo and 1.6% of ESPN leagues
Upcoming Schedule: UTA, @LAL, BOS & @NO
In every edition of this series thus far, we’ve included at least one Golden State player. We’ll keep the trend going this week with Bruks, as the Warriors continue to see injuries and players returning from injuries. Burks has returned from an ankle injury and has gone on to top 25 minutes per game in each of his last three games. In those three games he’s averaged 19.7 points, seven rebounds and two assists. I can’t promise that Burks will continue this roll with how this Warriors team is going, but with the way he’s playing currently, he needs to be rostered.
Bobby Portis (New York Knicks) - Owned in 37% of Yahoo and 39% of ESPN leagues
Upcoming Schedule: @CHI, DAL & CHA
Portis had a pretty awful week, which saw him being dropped in eight-percent of Yahoo leagues and five-percent of ESPN leagues. Now is your time to grab him. On the season he’s averaging 10 points, 8 rebounds and 1.3 assists on the season. Over the last week he’s averaged just six points, 7.7 rebounds and 1 assists. He’ll bounce back to form and with the rest of his team around him getting better, he’ll start putting up better numbers as well.
Ivica Zubac (Los Angeles Clippers) - Owned in 33% of Yahoo and 13.4% of ESPN leagues
Upcoming Schedule: TOR, @HOU, @NO & ATL
Zubac is one more for the category players than the points players. He’s a situational role player but he has a big fantasy impact and that has to do with his shot blocking. He has the ability to block shots and not take away from your field goal percentage. This is hard to find. Although Zubac is deemed a role player in real life, he’s a top-100 fantasy player.
Jaxson Hayes (New Orleans Pelicans) - Owned in 7% of Yahoo and 4.9% of ESPN leagues
Upcoming Schedule: HOU, LAC, @MIA & GS
Derrick Favors isn’t cutting it in New Orleans. The inevitable youth movement will take over sooner rather than later, meaning Hayes should be getting the nod here soon, as the Pelicans have just two wins on the season. Hayes is averaging just 16 minutes on the season, but if he can cut into Favors’ and take over the starting spot as many project, he’ll get that needle closer to the 25 mark where it needs to be for fantasy relevance. In a game earlier this year where he played 24 minutes, Hayes had 19 points.
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