RADIO
The deeper a fantasy basketball league, the harder it is to hit a winner with your last few picks. It is also harder to find decent help from the waiver wire if your late-round picks don't do you justice. If you picked up a few stinkers, don't lose hope just yet. I will try to help you pick up a winner.
Here are my deeper league fantasy basketball waiver wire pickups for your fantasy basketball teams this upcoming week. These NBA players should be available in most leagues and they might just help you out, whether it's a few weeks rental or a long-term fix to a problem your team is having.
If a guy on your team is frustrating you with his weak performances, give some of them a go. They might just be worth it.
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Fantasy Basketball Waiver Wire Targets for Week 20
Tari Eason (PF, HOU) - 8% rostered
The San Antonio Spurs are struggling massively and the Houston Rockets aren't far behind. That's reasonable, though, considering the Rockets and the Spurs boast very inexperienced squads filled with rookies. One rookie calling Houston home is Tari Eason.
After bringing Kenyon Martin Jr.'s basketball corpse back to life, the Rockets are determined to do something similar with Eason. He had a rough start to his pro days with an average 8-5-1-1 stat line during the first three months of play, but since he got his first start back on January 21, Eason has been an entirely different man.
From January 21 on, Eason has appeared in 19 games (three of them starting at PF), playing around 24 MPG. He's putting up a nightly 12-7-1-1 stat line to go with 0.7+ BPG. You might think there's not a lot of change, but the kid is really growing on a weekly basis.
In the six games played after the break, Eason has averaged a 14-8 line on points and boards to go with 1.6 APG, 1.8 SPG, and 0.8 BPG. The closer you get to the present day, the better he gets.
The shooting is fixed entirely with Eason hitting seven 3PM in his last six games and at least one three-point shot in all but one of those matches. In the last five outings, he's scored at least 10+ points every time while also getting two double-doubles and grabbing at least 5+ boards in each of those performances.
It's a really small sample, but from February 26 on (five games), Eason has averaged 1.18 FP/min and 34 FPPG. Looking at the full-season picture, those are the numbers averaged by the likes of Jaren Jackson Jr., Christian Wood, and Clint Capela, to name a few.
Devonte' Graham (PG, SAS) - 7% rostered
The Spurs sold the house before the deadline, acquiring veteran Devonte' Graham in the process. It is funny because DG is just 28 years old, but he's one (the third) of the oldest members of the current squad present in San Antonio each and every game.
Graham's deal with the Spurs runs until 2025, so there is a chance he gets moved once more by SAS if their timelines don't quite fit going forward. That, of course, will only happen from next summer on, so rest assured Graham will still cook ROS when given the chance, whether that's starting or coming off the pine, considering the awfulness of this Spurs roster.
Since arriving from NOLA, Graham has appeared in 10 games with San Antonio, scoring 10+ points in all but one and averaging a much better 15+ points on a per-game basis. He's hit at least one three-point shot in 15 consecutive games, and he's averaged a ridiculous 3.3 3PM per game in SAS.
Other than scoring, Graham is rather nice (for the guard he is and the role he boasts in the Spurs context) on the boards (2.5+ RPG) and assisting buckets (4+ APG). The turnovers are always at none, one, or two, so he pretty much doubles or triples the AST:TO ratio nightly.
The minutes are going to sit around the 25-to-28 clip ROS, but that's more than enough for a fantasy asset doing it off the pine these days as he's putting up 1.01 FP/min since he got traded to Texas.
Xavier Tillman Sr. (PF, MEM) - 4% rostered
The Memphis Grizzlies probably didn't plan to feature Xavier Tillman Sr. as much as they've been forced into doing of late judging by the playing time the big man got through the first three months of the season.
Tillman logged a total of 311 MP through January 16 (28 games) but he's played 439 since then in 17 games through Sunday's outing against the Clippers. He only started one game in the first span compared to 12 in the second. He only played more than 20 minutes in a single game then, compared to 14 such performances now. You see the trend.
The injuries to Steven Adams and now Brandon Clarke (to a lesser extent, but still) have opened the door for Tillman to rack up minutes, playing time, opportunities, and an unexpected bunch of games handed his way in which he's been a top 75 player in all fantasy leagues for up to two weeks now (after the All-Star break).
Since the start of February, Tillman is averaging a low-but-good 8-6-1 per-game stat line. He's had two double-double games in his last four. Since returning from the break (six games played), he's putting up (nearly) 11-8-3-1-1 nightly stat lines.
With Jaren Jackson Jr. healthy and Steven Adams eventually getting back to the starting lineup, Tillman's upside will inevitably go down a bit. Even then, though, he's more than earned a larger role in the rotation than the one he held for the first weeks of the season and that should keep him a viable streamer for those navigating the home stretch of the season in deeper leagues.
Grayson Allen (SG, MIL) - 4% rostered
If you have paid attention to the news, then you're aware the Bulls have released Goran Dragic only for the ancient European to sign with the Bucks. Not really troubling for Grayson Allen's upside ROS, though, considering Dragic mans the point more than the two-guard, and also that the Dragon had been playing badly all year long in Chicago.
Allen, on the other hand, is the bonafide starter at either the three (if/when Khris Middleton is out) or the two-spot. Grayson has come off the pine just twice in 61 games, and those two occurrences took place all the way back in November, so no worries on that front.
As you'd expect from someone sharing the court with a loaded set of teammates, Allen's usage rate is ground-level low at 14% this season. Not a real problem, though, as Allen is on the court to do what he does best: shoot low-volume attempts (barely eight FGA) but most of them from beyond the three-point arc on a spot-up shooting role.
Allen is deadly from distance. He's hitting 2.1 3PM per game, attempting 5.1 3PA a pop for a 41.6% success rate. Only 10 players in the whole NBA are keeping up such a high 3P% on 5+ 3PA per game. Allen is one of only seven players scoring 10+ PPG while doing it, on top of everything.
The guard is also contributing a nice 3.4 RPG and 2.4 APG along with 0.8 SPG through the year while keeping his turnovers down to 1.1 TOPG. Allen is a lock to score at least 1+ 3PM per game and he usually finishes matchups filling the stat line all across the board, although always (reasonably) on the low side of the spectrum. The per-minute efficiency isn't good because he plays almost 28 MPG, but that serves the purpose of helping him reach numbers on brute force.
Naz Reid (C, MIN) - 4% rostered
As long as Rudy Gobert is healthy, Naz Reid won't be getting remotely close to starting games for the Wolves. That said, he's been the ultimate off-the-pine big man in terms of fantasy per-minute efficiency, putting up gaudy numbers while logging fewer than 20 minutes on a daily basis.
Reid has played more than 20 minutes just five times (in 13 games) since the start of February. Of those games, he started three. Also, he topped 22 minutes just twice (36 MP in two of those starts). In those two outings, Reid finished as a top 10 fantasy performer with fantasy tallies of 52 and 61 FP. No joke.
The great thing about Reid is that he's an absolute possession eater in the Wolves' second unit with a usage rate around 26% from February 1 on and topping 28% in six of the last seven games he's played. Reid is averaging a ridiculous 1.18 FP/min through the full season, and an even more impressive 1.24 since February 1. After the All-Star break? 1.49 FP per minute. That's bonkers, folks.
Reid has scored 10+ points in five consecutive games, all after the break, and is putting up nightly 16-7-2-1-1 stat lines. Again, this man has been good to do that while playing an average of just 22 MPG. He's basically an unstoppable basketball machine these days, so take advantage while the glitch remains there.
Reid is scoring points in bunches, grabbing boards like a madman, hitting triples from distance, dishing out the odd dime, and stealing possessions like his life depended on it. Must add ROS with question marks floating about KAT's return to the court.
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