January 23, 2017

Trevor Crippen recommends Week 14 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 14 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

T.J. McConnell, PG, PHI (30% owned)

I hope you didn't actually pick up any of the guards I recommended last week -- as Jodie Meeks immediately got injured (it's what he does) while T.J. McConnell's injury at the time ended up less serious than it seemed, meaning Sergio Rodriguez and deep league add Chasson Randle didn't get the boost I was thinking they might. Back to McConnell -- I've featured him multiple times, and he was surging in performance and ownership up until the injury a week ago. His injury only cost him one game, and he was able to pick up right where he left off -- averaging 8.7 points, 5.0 rebounds, 8.0 assists, and 1.3 steals on 52.7% shooting in the three games since.

He makes a tremendous add for head-to-head builds where you're punting points and/or threes, and a generally good add for any team in need of a boost in assists. He should probably be owned in all leagues -- he's a better option than many players with double the ownership percentage. Kyle Korver, Emmanuel Mudiay, Jordan Clarkson, and Marcus Smart are all 60%+ owned guys I'd be willing to drop, depending on team build and punting considerations, if I could add McConnell.

Raymond Felton, PG/SG, LAC (39% owned)

Felton was really the priority add last week, with Chris Paul's injury taking place after I posted my column. He's still free in the majority of leagues, though. It's not like his stats have been super-glamorous -- the more dynamic Austin Rivers has been taking up a ton of the extra scoring burden -- but the veteran Felton has been a workman like traditional point guard option for the Clippers. He's been a good source of assists without committing very many turnovers in his run as starter so far, with a Chris Paul-esque 5.7 assists vs. 0.7 turnovers per game over the seven days. He's also going to get you decent steals and have a good FG% for his position. What he won't do is score big numbers or shoot a ton of threes. On a lot of team builds, that's perfectly fine -- threes are the easiest stat to find on the wire. Felton's assists are a more scarce and desirable get.

Standard League Honorable Mentions: Garrett Temple, PG/SG, SAC (24% owned); Seth Curry, PG/SG, DAL (39% owned)

Deep League Waiver Wire Guard Adds

Dejounte Murray, PG, SA (7% owned)

With Tony Parker sitting out due to a bum ankle, Spurs first round pick Dejounte Murray has had a chance to flash some of his skills, and show the world once again the tremendous player development ability of the Spurs organization. Especially impressive is how good he's looked shooting the ball -- he's hit 5 out of 7 from beyond the arc and 9/9 from the line in the three games, after starting off the season 3 of 7 from three and 6 of 12 from the line, not to mention only shooting 28.8% from three and 66.3% on FTs in his one year in the NCAA at the University of Washington.

This is a small sample size for sure, and he'll definitely regress back to the mean a bit in both respects, but I don't think we can discount the Spurs history here. They have shown they can find guys with room for improvement in their shots in the draft, and they know how to bring about that improvement.  I think we give them the benefit of the doubt and expect that Murray's going to be a good shooter in his career. In keeper and dynasty leagues, he should already be owned, but with his current opportunity, seasonal league owners should give him a look in deep leagues.

Deep League Honorable Mentions: Jameer Nelson, PG, DEN (8% owned); Terry Rozier, PG, BOS (1% owned)