Malik Monk (SG, SAC) - Fantasy Basketball Waiver Wire Pickups for Week 18

February 12, 2023

Malik Monk is worth considering as a fantasy basketball waiver wire pickup heading into Week 18 of the 2022-23 NBA season.

BALLER MOVE: Add in 14+ Team Leagues

ROSTERED IN: 16% of leagues

ANALYSIS: Malik Monk left Friday's game early with an ankle sprain and with just 15 minutes on his odometer against the Mavs back then. He missed Saturday's matchup entirely but the injury isn't considered a concern going forward. Terence Davis was the man playing in replacement of Monk on Saturday and he had a game for the ages (22-6-3-2) but it's hard to see him retaining that role once Monk is back.

Between the start of January and Saturday, Davis had logged 224 total minutes to Monk's 431. Yes, that's pretty much half the playing time, so you get an idea. In fact, Monk has gone from playing 19 MPG through January to a much healthier 27 MPG in February not counting his 15-minute, injury-cut-short last outing.

In his last 10 games (numbers include those from the last game in which he got injured and left early), Monk had one of (if not the) strongest spans of his season to date. He hit double-digit points in all but two games and averaged a full 14-3-4-1 per-game line. Not bad at all!

On the season, Monk has played extraordinarily efficient (fantasy) basketball off the pine, averaging 1.04 FP/min (league average at 0.90). That has only improved of late, though, with Monk putting up a gaudy 1.10 FP/min in his last 18 games.

The turnovers are a bit high for the assists he dishes out (3.85 to 1.95 ratio) but the shooting seems to be fixed (above 50% from the floor in his last 10 games), the points are nearly a lock to hit 12+ nightly, and the boards/steals are as high as you can demand from a second-unit man.

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