J.J. Hickson (PF/C, DEN) - NBA Waiver Wire Pickups

BALLER MOVE: Add for REB and BLK in Deep H2H Leagues

OWNED: 7% of Yahoo! Leagues

ANALYSIS: At this point in his career we know what J.J. Hickson is. He is an excellent rebounder. He's a terrible free throw shooter (which makes him untouchable in roto leagues). He will get you some blocks, but never as many as you would expect (only 0.9 per 36 minutes in his career). He will have wildly unpredictable playing time and production. At the moment, he is the starting center for the Nuggets when they play standard big lineups, which has led to at least 25 minutes played in three of his last four games. In those four games, we've seen The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly from Hickson.

THE GOOD: This kind of playing time can lead to excellent FT% punt lines from Hickson like 11/9 against the Trailblazers, when he put up 19 points, 13 rebounds, and 3 blocks on .636 shooting (with a .455 FT%).

THE BAD: He will have duds like 11/5 against Utah where he got eaten up by Rudy Gobert and laid an egg with 4/9 shooting for 8 points, 7 rebounds, and 1 block to go along with his 0/4 FT shooting and 4 turnovers.

THE UGLY: Hickson is completely unplayable against some teams, and he'll be buried on the bench when it makes more sense for the Nuggets to go small. This happened on 11/6 at Golden State, where he was benched in favor of a small ball lineup featuring three guards with Kenneth Faried at 5 and Danilo Gallinari at 4. Hickson only played 7 minutes. In addition to games where he's a bad match up, he's also bound to see a few random 15 minute games when he commits 3 fouls in the first 3 minutes.

Bottom Line: Hickson makes for a nice deep league add, punt play, or rebounding streamer, but don't count on him suddenly becoming some sort of star.