January 17, 2017

Trevor Crippen recommends Week 13 fantasy basketball waiver wire pickups for NBA guards (PG, SG, PG/SG). Add these potential waiver sleepers to your lineups.

In this post, we are looking into some potential Week 13 waiver wire pickups for guards. We'll provide options for guards, eligible at PG, SG, or PG/SG who may be available in both standard leagues (less than 50% owned) and deeper leagues (less than 25% owned), and will typically provide a boost in points, assists, threes, and steals.  All position eligibility and ownership rates based on Yahoo! fantasy leagues.

This year, RotoBaller is separating its waiver wire recommendations by position a little differently.  In our three position breakdowns, we'll be separating players into GUARDS, including point guards (PG), shooting guards (SG), and combo guards (PG/SG); WINGS, including small forwards (SF), swing men (SG/SF), and small ball fours (SF/PF); and BIGS, including power forwards (PF), centers (C), and bigs who play both front court spots (PF/C).

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Standard League Waiver Wire Guard Adds

Sergio Rodriguez, PG, PHI (21% owned)

I feel like half of the guards I write about in this column are Philly point guards.  Let's keep it up, because the clear add for the short term in standard leagues at the point guard position is Spanish Chocolate, Sergio Rodriguez.  T.J. McConnell is now out for an undetermined period of time, Ben Simmons is still not ready to make his NBA debut, and Jerryd Bayless is gone for the season but not forgotten (ok, maybe a little bit forgotten).

That means Rodriguez is essentially the last man standing at point for the 76ers.  He put up a solid showing in a start on Monday night, playing 32 minutes and tallying 10 points, 7 rebounds, 6 assists, 1 steal, and 1 three. He should continue seeing big minutes moving forward, and while he's not a great scoring guard, he will be a nice source of assists until McConnell or Simmons gets healthy enough to return to the court.

Jodie Meeks, SG, ORL (8% owned)

Meeks is an extremely short-term add with Evan Fournier sitting out due to a bruised heel. Meeks has been very good when Fournier's been out. In a prior five game run with Fournier sidelined, Meeks averaged 13.4 points, 2.8 threes, and 1.2 steals, all while hitting half his shots and all of his free throws. In two more starts now that Fournier's out again, he's been slightly cooler as a scorer -- with only 11.5 points and 2.0 treys per game on .412 shooting, despite playing many more minutes per game. He did rack up an uncharacteristic 10 assists in those two starts, though.

Meeks plays best as an efficient source of steals, treys, and scoring. A fluky ten assists in two games aside, his best fit is with an assists-punting team hungry for his strong stats. When Fournier gets over his heel issue, which may take a week or two, Meeks's value should plummet again (and it will never quite be what it was in that original five game stretch, because he won't hit half his shots like that). He's still a tremendous short term quick-fix in standard leagues in the meantime.

Standard League Honorable Mentions: Austin Rivers, PG/SG, LAC (16% owned); J.J. Barea, PG/SG, DAL (26% owned); Seth Curry, PG/SG, DAL (26% owned)

Deep League Waiver Wire Guard Adds

Chasson Randle, PG, PHI (0% owned)

Let's keep this Philly point guard game going. Sergio Rodriguez isn't actually the only point guard on the 76ers roster -- he's currently being backed up by rookie Chasson Randle, who they recently signed to a 10-day contract off of the Knicks D-League affiliate. With McConnell out, Randle put up some promising fantasy-friendly numbers in his first game on the second-string, sinking 3 of 6 shots including 2 three-pointers, totally 10 points, 2 rebounds, 1 assists, and 1 steal in 15 minutes of action. Some of his non-fantasy numbers were decidedly less impressive, as he looked like the mismatched rookie he is on defense. He managed to commit 5 fouls in his limited amount of playing time and his +/- was -7 in a game that the 76ers won by 9 points (the 76ers were +16 with starter Rodriguez on the court). I suppose we can cut him a little slack -- he's only two games removed from the d-league.

In super deep leagues (at least on Yahoo -- as of this writing, he doesn't even appear to be in the player pool on ESPN), Chasson Randle is an interesting gamble. Randle certainly profiles a better shooter and scorer than Rodriguez -- he was averaging over 20 points per game in the D-League, including averaging 40% from three for 2.6 made threes per game. Rodriguez is an older guy who hasn't exactly had sterling health himself this season. Randle finds himself only one injury away from getting the chance to show he can be a decent fantasy source of scoring and threes.

Deep League Honorable Mentions: Garrett Temple, PG/SG, SAC (7% owned); Caris LeVert, SG, BKN (4% owned); Raymond Felton, PG/SG, LAC (5% owned)