Week 11 Fantasy Basketball Waiver Wire: NBA Category Specialists

January 9, 2015

In his Week 11 NBA Category Specialist column, Trevor Crippen searches the fantasy basketball waiver wire for some sleepers that can help out in specific statistics.

The 2014-15 NBA Season is rolling right along, and with that it is time to dive back into the fantasy basketball waiver wire. Today, the focus is on sleepers of the “Category Specialist” variety that can each help out in different areas during Week 11.

Position Eligibility & Ownership Rate Based on Yahoo! Fantasy Basketball Player List

Field-Goal Percentage Specialist

Tyler Zeller (BOS, PF/C) - 29% Owned

The minutes given to Celtics centers have been inconsistent as always, Zeller included. He has fluctuated between 12 minutes played and 29 minutes played in the last couple weeks alone. If you average everything out, he has been efficient if not flashy in his limited time, particularly in the two percentages, where he is shooting .623 on FGs and .852 on FTs. That FG percentage might have a lot to do with the inconsistent minutes – Brad Stevens lets him have a lot of run if the matchup is good, and barely plays him when it is not. A higher percentage of field goal attempts come in favorable matchups, so he puts up a .623 FG% despite being not being the sort of elite talent like Andre Drummond or DeAndre Jordan that you expect to shoot over 60%.

While it is hard to rely on Zeller week-to-week due to the inconsistencies in his counting stats, if you are working on a weekly fantasy matchup that is running close in both percentages he is the rare guy who can help you in one without hurting you in the other. In fact, he can actually help you a lot in both. Zeller straddles the line between elite percentage specialist and so efficient he is a must own. Any bump in the consistency of his minutes while somehow retaining that efficiency would land him in the latter category.  For now, keep him on the top of your list of streamers.

Free-Throw Percentage / Three-Point Specialist

Tim Hardaway Jr. (NYK, SG) - 29% Owned

With J.R. Smith and Iman Shumpert now in Cleveland, a bounty of playing time now lies ahead for Hardaway. in New York. His overall fantasy value is capped due to his awful FG% and non-existent rates in rebounds, assists, steals, and blocks. He does shoot a ton of threes, but he is not a threes-only guy. He has got one other thing going for him -- he gets to the line at a nice rate, too, while shooting over 80%.

Projecting his free throw attempts and percentage to over 30 minutes a game in playing time indicates he should have a top notch impact on free throw % going forward, comparable to that of Paul Pierce or Klay Thompson (though obviously without most of the other good things they do). He also should take a ton of shots, so he could score some nice points, too, if you are willing to risk big hits to your field goal percentage in the process.  If Zeller is a "best of both worlds" percentages guy, Hardaway is more of a "trade one for the other" style of percentage specialist.

Blocks Specialist

Hassan Whiteside (MIA, C) - 11% Owned

I suggested Whiteside as a very deep league option in my NBA Centers article for Week 11 – and someone with upside to keep an eye on in general. Right after I sent the article to press, he caught everyone’s attention with his best game yet on Sunday 1/4, hitting 5 of 7 shots in 27 minutes with 11 points, 10 rebounds, 1 steal, and 5 blocks.

With that performance, he has graduated to “blocks specialist” status in even standard leagues now. While it is a small sample size and he should regress, the blocks per minute played he is putting up so far can only be matched by Rudy Gobert. Whiteside will miss free throws and his value outside of blocks is limited – but if you need a short term blocks specialist, no widely available fantasy play comes close to him now that Gobert is owned in all leagues where people are paying attention.

Steals Specialist

P.J. Tucker (PHO, SG/SF) - 26% Owned

No one is more steadily decent while being completely ignored in fantasy basketball than Tucker. His ceiling is admittedly quite low because of his lack of scoring. But the guy will not hurt your percentages, he will contribute decent rebounds, he will hit some threes, and he will get steals. In standard leagues, he is my go-to steals streamer because of how little he hurts you to get them – you do not have to sacrifice as much to play him as you would with Tony Allen or Marcus Smart, who are fantasy black holes in multiple categories.