The Fantasy Basketball Cut List: Players to Drop or Hold - Week 13

Thunder Dan Palyo offers advice on which players to drop in fantasy basketball leagues as of January 15, 2025. He helps managers make those tough decisions on who to cut in order to add breakout players off the waiver wire.

Welcome back to the Cut List, which should be a weekly feature here at RotoBaller for the remainder of the fantasy basketball season!

I've received a lot of good feedback on this piece this season, and some readers have told me, "Thanks for giving me that extra nudge to cut Player X loose, I had been wanting to for a while." That's my goal: to give you the confidence to make those tough calls in order to keep the most competitive rosters in your leagues.

Just a reminder (or perhaps a disclaimer) that this article identifies players who can be safely cut in standard 12-team leagues. If you are in a smaller or larger league, then your level of patience with certain players will vary, and you should always trust your gut over some basketball analyst who doesn't know your team as well as you do. If you are making cuts, then you are probably looking for players to add, so check out my weekly waiver wire article. Alright, let's roll up our sleeves and make those tough decisions—who are some of our cut candidates for this week?

Highly Rostered Players to Consider Cutting

All roster percentages are courtesy of Yahoo!

Kel'el Ware, PF/C - Miami Heat (65%)

Yes, as the season goes along, I am going to get more aggressive with some of these calls. Ware appears to be a top-30 player in 9-CAT when you pull up his full-season stats - and in just 24 minutes a game, which is pretty impressive.

However, his ranking is skewed by some massive performances that he put up while starting for Miami - either when Bam Adebayo was out, or alongside him for a stretch when Miami experimented with a big frontcourt in their starting lineup.

The Heat have had one (or more) of their main rotational players injured for much of the season - namely, Tyler Herro, who has appeared in only ten games for Miami so far. It appears as if Erik Spoelstra's experiment with Ware starting alongside Adebayo is over, and that he prefers to play a smaller lineup with Andrew Wiggins at the four and three guards (Norman Powell, Tyler Herro, and Davion Mitchell).

The Heat have two other players who are quite versatile on their second unit - Jamie Jaquez Jr. and Nikola Jovic. Both players have size, guard skills, and the ability to stretch the floor with their shooting. The depth is a great thing for Miami in real life, as they have gotten good minutes from players like Pelle Larsson and Dru Smith at the guard positions. But it really hurts Ware's chances at consistent minutes if they're only going to play him backup center minutes, which is what has happened in their last three games.

Ware has played just 16.7 minutes across those three contests, averaging 6.7 points and 3.0 rebounds with only two treys and no blocks. He obviously has a fantasy-friendly game, but his viability in standard leagues appears to be linked to Bam's health. If Bam were to get hurt, he'd be an instant pick-up, and if he's just resting one night, Ware makes a great streamer. But at this point, I don't think we need to hold him if this is what his role looks like now.

Previously Featured On The Cut List (And Still Cuttable)

• Cam Thomas (8o%)
• Bennedict Mathurin (81%)
• Jakob Poeltl (78%)
• Anfernee Simons (74%)
• Christian Braun (66%)
• Cameron Johnson (65%)

Allow me to ramble on a bit about some of the players who I have highlighted in previous weeks, who I still think are over-rostered right now.

Cam Thomas is back, but is coming off the bench and is still a risk to miss games occasionally. He's miserable in Brooklyn, and the Nets, who seem to want to develop their young players and have started to value defense, don't seem too worried about Thomas's playing time. Thomas's game is best-suited for points leagues anyway; he's a terrible 9-CAT player. Without minutes and lots of shot attempts, he's pretty useless.

Mathurin, Poeltl, and Johnson are all still out, with no timelines for their return. Mathurin was already slumping before getting hurt, Poeltl was playing limited minutes and sitting out back-to-backs, and Johnson had only a brief run of productivity in Denver when other guards were hurt.

I don't know how many times I have to say it, but Simons is waiver wire fodder and a points/threes streamer at best. His rostership has to be inflated by the high-score leagues, right? He ranks outside the top-200 in 9-CAT and has pretty much all year.

Christian Braun has been awful since returning to the Denver lineup and is hurt - again. I wouldn't waste time on him. Denver has found a gem in Peyton Watson, and I think he will hang onto a starting role even when Jokic comes back. Denver will be scary when they get Murray, Watson, Gordon, and Jokic all back in the same lineup, and whoever slots into that fifth slot is going to have to eat last in that offense. We saw how that didn't work out for Cam Johnson earlier this year.

Lightly Rostered Players to Consider Cutting

Reed Sheppard, PG/SG - Houston Rockets (39%)

Sheppard makes his second appearance on the Cut List this year, and I know many of you have probably gone back and forth on him this season as often as I have.

As much as I love Reed's game and his potential of becoming a very good NBA player and useful fantasy asset, his head coach, Ime Udoke doesn't seem to share that same affinity for him.

He continues to see minutes in the low twenties, and he even bottomed out at just 15 minutes against Sacramento last weekend. I would have thought an injury to Tari Eason would assure Sheppard more minutes lately, but the Rockets chose to start Josh Okogie over him and play JD Davidson more minutes against Chicago.

It feels like Sheppard is going to be on the bubble for 12-team leagues in this current role. If you don't HAVE to drop him, I wouldn't. But I know these are tough times in the fantasy hoops streets with injuries piling up and the need to stream to make up games being a priority for many managers. So do what must be done!

Kelly Oubre Jr., SF/PF - Philadelphia 76ers (19%)

I chose to discuss Oubre here because I had received so many questions about stashing him over the past few weeks. I had warned a lot of folks that I thought he was returning to a very crowded rotation and would have a hard time getting consistent minutes.

I am not here to tell you "I told you so," but just to point out that outside of one very good game (which was a spot start for a resting Paul George), it's been tough sledding for Oubre. Even with Dominick Barlow getting hurt early in last night's game, Oubre managed just seven points, five boards, and two threes in 26 minutes.

He's relegated to streamer duty at this point because when the Sixers have their full rotation healthy, he's just not going to get enough minutes or shots to hang onto fantasy viability.

Others Who Can Be Cut:

• Keegan Murray - INJ (39%)
• Jerami Grant - INJ (36%)
• Tari Eason - INJ (32%)
• Brandin Podziemski (28%)
• Tobias Harris (28%)
• Herbert Jones - INJ (17%)
• Kyle Kuzma (15%)
• Zaccharie Risacher (14%)

On the Hot Seat

You don't have to drop them yet, but these players are flirting with the list if they don't improve their performances soon.

Kristaps Porzingis, PF/C - Atlanta Hawks (92%)

I really regret drafting Porzingis this season in several leagues. I was sucked into his potential upside at his ADP, and I wrote things like "if he can even give us 50-60 games at 28 minutes per night," which, in hindsight, looks pretty stupid.

Porzingis has played in only 17 games this season, so the hope for even 50 games played was a pipe dream. And he's played only 24 minutes a night. Yet, he's still inside the top-70 this season in 9-CAT. That's the most frustrating part! If he could manage to stay in the lineup, he could produce really good fantasy value even when playing only half the damn game!

He sat out for the third straight time on Tuesday, after he had seemingly made progress and appeared in four out of five games before that for Atlanta. He's now dealing with an Achilles issue on top of the POTS illness that he's battled since last year.

I am holding Porzingis in all leagues, at least for another week or two. Not many players who are this injury-prone and annoying are worth the headache, but Porzingis is a fantasy beast and not someone we should cut hastily.

Collin Gillespie, PG/SG - Phoenix Suns (35%)

Gillespie is one of the waiver wire heroes of the first half, so let's give him his flowers. No one had him working his way from backup point guard into a starting slot alongside Devin Booker, and he's been a huge part of a really strong start for this Phoenix squad.

His strong play earned him the opportunity to keep those minutes, but he's starting to show signs of slowing down. The return of Grayson Allen is eating into his minutes and role a bit, and the eventual return of Jalen Green to the starting lineup at shooting guard looms large.

I am not cutting Gillespie just yet, but he's been moved to the hot seat, where he could be the next guy to get cut if his production continues to dip. His role won't disappear entirely even when Green gets back, but he's going to take a backseat on offense to other higher usage players and will likely become a streamer or deep-league player only at some point.

Underperforming Players to Hold

Coby White, PG/SG - Chicago Bulls (90%)

White has been maddening to roster this season, but dropping him out of pure frustration at this point seems foolish to me. Yes, he wasn't very good last night, scoring just six points against Utah, but he still handed out seven assists to salvage his line. He's on this 30-minute cap right now and sitting out games for rest, but he's simply too good a basketball player to just give up on, and we still don't know what his future holds for this season.

The Bulls are already rumored to be shopping him ahead of the deadline, and a change of scenery may actually help his value, depending on where he lands. Ideally, he gets back into good form while Josh Giddey is still hurt and can showcase his game for any potential suitors. Even without a trade, we saw what White did down the stretch last season, and he just needs to get healthy and stay on the court to flirt with top-75 production.

Isaiah Hartenstein, C - Oklahoma City Thunder (91%)

The OKC big man has not played a game since December 28th, and we don't have a definitive timeline for his return either. Those situations are incredibly frustrating, and the fact that OKC doesn't really need him back anytime soon only further complicates things.

However, we know how important he is to this team and what he can do as a starter in this lineup. He's a double-double machine who can pile up assists and sprinkle in some valuable defensive stats - and he can do it in 26 minutes a night. He's worth holding onto with one of your IR slots. I'd cut a lot of other injured players who are lesser fantasy assets before I ever considered dropping Hartenstein outright.

Thanks for reading, and good luck making those tough roster decisions this week!

More Fantasy Basketball Analysis