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Handcuffing is a popular strategy in fantasy sports that involves drafting the backups to your studs. While it might sound moronic to draft bench guys, the heart behind it is to shield against injuries. This makes a ton of sense in fantasy football, with injuries more frequent and positional scarcity being a thing. Deploying this strategy in fantasy basketball, however, is a bit more nuanced.
When injuries strike in the NBA, coaches have a lot more flexibility to construct their lineups. They can play small, go big, or full-on Dwane Casey with a double-big lineup. That said, if you are going to handcuff in fantasy hoops, it's imperative to know which players to target.
Below are a few of my favorite handcuffs to target for the 2023-2024 fantasy basketball season.
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Valuable Handcuffs To Target In 2023-2024
Davion Mitchell - PG - Sacramento Kings
Mitchell didn't do anything worth writing home about last season, but he wasn't given much opportunity either. The Kings were among the healthiest teams, so he was only asked to start a total of nine games. Eight of those nine starts came when De'Aaron Fox was out of the lineup and Mitchell posted a modest 9.2 points, 4.0 assists, 1.2 steals, and 1.3 threes. Sure, those numbers don't jump off the page, but his upside is what I'm excited about.
Remember, he averaged 17.6 points, 7.6 assists, and 1.7 threes in 19 starts to close out the 2021-2022 season. We've seen what he's able to do on a depleted roster and it will be hard for Sacramento to have as much injury luck as they had last season. Keep an eye on Mitchell as a streamer in the event Fox is forced to miss any time.
Richaun Holmes - C - Dallas Mavericks
Despite the Dereck Lively II hype, I'm fully convinced that Dwight Powell will always be the Mavericks' starting center. No, like seriously. 20 years from now, we're going to be sitting around a campfire discussing the Mavs' starting five and Powell will be in that conversation. Hidden behind all of the noise is Holmes, who was acquired by Dallas in a salary dump of sorts after falling out of the Kings rotation. We know he's capable of producing when given the minutes, and sharing the court with Luka Doncic could pay huge dividends. I'm not drafting Holmes at the moment, but if anything were to happen to Lively or Powell, Holmes has a top-40 upside in fantasy.
Naz Reid - C - Minnesota Timberwolves
Reid is worth more than a handcuff, as he's able to provide some sort of standalone value. But if anything happens to Rudy Gobert or Karl-Anthony Towns, it's game time. Naz played in 10 games without them last season and posted 17.2 points, 7.6 rebounds, 1.5 steals, 1.1 blocks, and 1.8 threes in 27 minutes. The Timberwolves awarded him with a three-year, $41 million extension in the offseason, meaning he's locked and loaded as a high-end streamer if injuries strike the frontcourt. His minimal standalone value and upside make him an intriguing late-round draft pick this season.
Keyonte George/Kris Dunn - PG - Utah Jazz
I'm going to go with the twofer on this one, as it remains to be seen how Utah's backcourt rotation will look this season. George balled out in Summer League but is still a rookie. Dunn finished last year strong but it was with a depleted Jazz roster. Both have question marks but the upside is there should anything happen to Collin Sexton or Talen Horton-Tucker. I'm not drafting either of these guys, but their minutes and roles are worth paying close attention to as the season progresses.
Deni Avdija - PF - Washington Wizards
Avdija has made his way up the rankings throughout the offseason and it's easy to see why. He's a talented forward on a poor Wizards team without much depth. He should play a decent role out of the gate, but if anything happens to Kyle Kuzma, he'd get a big value boost. He saw just under 32 minutes in the 14 games that Kuzma missed last season and averaged 14.4 points, 7.0 rebounds, 3.7 assists, and 1.1 steals on 53%/37% shooting splits in the process. It remains to be seen how Washington will structure its rotation outside of Kuzma, Tyus Jones, Jordan Poole, and Daniel Gafford. Avdija will join Corey Kispert and rookie Bilal Coulibaly as candidates for serious playing time, making him a great late-round draft pick.
Malaki Branham - SG - San Antonio Spurs
First off, I would like to make a peace offering to Spurs Twitter. If you haven't heard by now, a tweet of mine appeared to have struck a nerve among the fan base. While I was speaking positively about their second-year wing Malaki Branham, some folks didn't take kindly to the fact that I suggested he may not find many minutes this season.
While I do believe his minutes will be up and down with a healthy Devin Vassell/Cedi Osman in the picture, Doug McDermott providing much-needed spacing, and Julian Champagnie hanging around, he has the makings of an elite handcuff if things go off the rails. By all accounts, the Spurs love him and he already saw his playing time increase to 25 minutes per game without Vassell in the lineup last season. So if he's sidelined once again, Branham is a name to watch.
Alright, Spurs fans, now can we be friends?
Paul Reed - C - Philadelphia 76ers
Reed has shown a great deal of upside over the years, but for whatever reason Doc Rivers would never give him a fair shot. Now that Rivers is out and Nick Nurse is in, it remains to be seen what type of role he'll be given in the rotation. Regardless of what his playing time looks like out of the gate, he should be in a good spot to produce if Joel Embiid or P.J. Tucker is forced to miss any time.
He posted Per 36 numbers of 17.3, points, 14.1 rebounds, 3.2 steals, and 2.4 blocks on 70% shooting in 14 games that Embiid missed last season. Nurse has stated that he loved Reed and Mo Bamba is the only reliable backup big on the roster. Based on sheer upside alone, I'm willing to take him in the final rounds of drafts this season.
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