Fantasy Basketball Deeper League Pickups: Week 3

January 5, 2021

Antonio Losada digs up deeper league NBA waiver pickups for Week 3 of fantasy basketball. These waiver wire adds can be sleepers for fantasy basketball teams.

The deeper a fantasy league, the harder it is to hit a winner with your last few picks. It is also harder to find decent help from the waiver wire if your late-round picks don't do you justice. If you picked up a few stinkers, don't lose hope just yet. I will try to help you pick up a winner.

Here are my deeper league waiver wire pickups for your fantasy basketball teams. These players should be available in most leagues and they might just help you out, whether it's a few weeks rental or a long term fix to a problem your team is having.

If a guy on your team is frustrating you with his weak performances, give some of them a go. They might just be worth it.

Deeper League Waiver Wire Adds

Robert Williams (C, BOS) - 14% rostered

The Celtics brought Tristan Thompson to bolster their interior presence, but after we get past TT and Daniel Theis it is slim picks in the Beantown Boys paint. Enter Robert Williams. The Time Lord is playing either 10 or 20 minutes per game, as he's alternated those marks in the five games he's played this season for Boston. He's performed all around the board, truth be told, with games ranging from 6-10-2-1-4 stuffed lines to others in which he could only finish with an ugly 0-5-0-0-1.

For someone lowly rostered with upside for dub-dubbing (he put up a 12-4 against Indiana and a 6-10 facing Memphis) if given the minutes (20+), those numbers are not bad at all. Williams' field goal percentages are always going to be great and end on the 75+ percent as he just doesn't bother stretching the floor at all, so it's all cupcakes for him in the restricted area. If only could he get to the line a bit (he's yet to attempt a freebie) he'd raise his ceiling even more.

Monte Morris (PG/SG, DEN) - 12% rostered

MoMo has played in all five Nuggets games through Saturday and even started once for an injured Jamal Murray to close the 2020 calendar year five days ago. Obviously, the 36+ minutes Morris logged starting at the point are not going to be there often, but he's managed to find his way to the court for an average of 27.4 MPG so far and while he will keep his peripheral role (Murray, Jokic, MPJ, Harris, and Barton--at least--are above him in the pecking order) he's made the most of it.

Rostered in only one of every 10 Yahoo leagues, you better target Morris as a must-add WW player. Morris has scored 10+ points in each of his last four games to go with 1.5 3PM per game, 2.3 RPG, 3.8 APG, and a spicy 55.4 FG%. Don't get overly high expectations because he's a bench player, but he's one of the guys getting off the bench with the largest per-game runs on average once he gets in the court.

Patty Mills (PG, SAS) - 9% rostered

When wrote the first entry of this weekly column seven days ago Patty Mills and the Spurs had played just a couple of games. They have completed five now, and Patty Mills looks even better now than then. Sure, he had his best game of the season in G2 on Dec. 26th, but he's settled on a steady and very reliable, low-variance  10-3-4 average line to go with 2+ treys in each of all five games he's played.

Mills is averaging near 23.5 MPG and that shouldn't be changing soon, and his back-to-back eerily similar 12-3-4-2 and 10-3-4 lines against the Lakers bode well for him going forward (he shot the same exact 42.9 percent from the field on 7 FGA each time). Mills has been able to keep his turnovers down to three over the season with no more than one in any game, and he avoids foul trouble with no more than 2 PF in any of his past four games, which allows him to stay in the court for as many minutes as Pop wants. Source of treys, FG%, and assists.

Raul Neto (PG, WAS) - 2% rostered

If we know something about the Wizards, it's that 1) they seem to not know how to put on winning efforts, 2) Russell Westbrook is the starting point guard and a nightly walking trip-dubber, and 3) Russ is going to get rested often. That, by extension, means that Raul Neto is the defacto backup point-guard of the team and one primed to see large playing time whenever Russ hits the DNP list with some 10-to-15 MPG when Westbrook is playing.

In the two games Russ has missed this past week, Neto went to play 32 and 22 minutes and finished with 22-4-5-3 and 15-4-1-3 lines shooting 58.8 and 71.4 percent from the field on 17 and 7 FGA respectively. When Neto starts he's a rather nice play to have around. When he has to come off the bench, though Neto has also played way above average on a per-minute basis. Neto projects as a source of points and triples with high shooting averages--and low turnover rates--for GMs in deep, 9-cat leagues.

Denzel Valentine (SG/SF, CHI) - 1% rostered

The Bulls are a mess of a squad with nothing to lose and no short-term expectations floating above their heads. Valentine is just another one of the men-in-red this season, and although he's not lived up to his draft-pedigree (former lottery pick in 2016) he can still put up some numbers here and there.

Valentine has played three games this season averaging 16 MPG coming off the bench, and he showed his best version in two of those putting up averages of 12.5 points, 3 rebounds, and 1.5 steals in those two combined and shooting 64.6% from the floor while hitting 3 and 2 triples respectively. The completion is stiff at Chicago's wings with Zach LaVine, Otto Porter, and rookie Patrick Williams around, but Valentine could turn into a season-long 18-minute player with upside for good numbers as one of the leading men on the Bulls second unit.

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