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The deeper a fantasy basketball 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 fantasy basketball waiver wire pickups for your fantasy basketball teams. These NBA 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.
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Fantasy Basketball Waiver Wire Targets for Week 18
Danilo Gallinari (SF/PF, ATL) - 13% rostered
No moves from the Hawks on deadline day and pretty much at all this season with the Knox/Reddish flip being the only one taking place, which... I mean... whatever. If anything, getting rid of Cam Reddish has allowed the Hawks to boost Gallinari's minutes a bit, though that's not quite been what has happened as the Italian has gone from 22 MPG before January to 25 MPG this calendar year. Anyway, Gallinari has kept his off-the-pine role and won't be a starter ROS (most probably) while he's kept producing goodies on his oft-exploited cats.
While Gallo had a "rough" shooting stretch from Jan. 23 to Feb. 3 (28% from the field in six games, excluding a perfect 5-for-5 outing against Sacto), he's now back on track and hitting jump shots once more, having hit an average of 55% of them from the field in his last four games, all of them taking place in February. The triples aren't huge in terms of volume, but he's steady at hitting them with 1.6 3PM per game on the year and dreamy season-wide splits sitting at 42/39/92--something only D-Rose and Gallo have done while playing 25+ games and 23+ MPG. The boards are good at 4.5 RPG, and there is upside in the assists and steals cats, too; nothing crazy, but more than enough for someone available in almost nine of every 10 Yahoo leagues.
Dwight Powell (PF/C, DAL) - 8% rostered
It is true that Powell lost hold of the starting C position a little over a month ago and spent some time coming off the pine, but it's also true that he'd started the prior 23 games going all the way back to Dec. 1, and he's now started seven in a row in the past two weeks of play, and all of them this month. And truth be told, DP has been better in terms of per-minute production in those games starting than playing from the bench, even though the minutes have been higher in the former stint.
Powell has been good for an average 9-5-1 with 1+ stocks per game. That's nothing incredible, but this is a deeper-league WW target column so you know what we're into. The Mavs just got rid of Kristaps Porzingis while adding a couple of small players in exchange, so Powell will keep manning the paint all day every day. The points aren't horrific--nor impressive, mind you--but the percentages are always sky-high because this big boy operates exclusively in the zone. It might sound a bit like cherry-picking numbers, but only 25 players have logged 10+ games over the year while averaging a 7-4-1 per-game line while turning the ball over fewer than once a pop, including Powell.
Kenrich Williams (SF/PF, OKC) - 6% rostered
Talk about a team going nowhere, these Thunder. Saying that because they are four games behind Sacramento on the season, just imagine! Now, jokes aside, that's probably the best possible thing that can happen to a seemingly always-rebuilding team looking to land a top-three pick. Anyway. Kenrich Williams has been fantastic and surely an above-average player since we flipped the calendar page to the 2022 year. The FP/min are not mindblowing at 0.93, I know, but K-Will is keeping those up in 24 MPG that have turned into a bulkier 28 MPG through the past week of play (four games through Saturday).
Williams has been keeping up good shooting numbers on a reasonable-but-still-low usage rate (16% since the start of February) with a nice 49% field-goal percentage while hitting five total treys in his seven games of late. Kenrich is never going to bomb from beyond the three-point line because he just hits a couple of treys per game, but hitting 35% of them over the year isn't that bad. More appealing, though, are the steals (1 SPG on the season), the blocks (0.7 BPG in Feb.), and the rebounding (two games at 10+ in the past week to go with a season-long 4.5+ RPG).
Rajon Rondo (PG, CLE) - 5% rostered
The Cavs are for real, for real. Rondo might be past his prime, because of course, but Rajon keeps it up more often than not and while playing off the pine. For a contending (?) team in Cleveland, he does more than enough to put an eye on him when it comes to deeper-format rostering. The Cavs handed Rondo more than 20 minutes just once in his first nine games with the squad, but it's been three in a row now for RR, playing 32-22-34 through last Friday's outing against Indy. And oh boy, did he put on nonsensical shows.
Rondo had been nice in his first run of games in Ohio, averaging close to a good-not-great 6-3-4-1 per-game line. Considering the minutes, that's not bad, let's be honest for a second here. But in the past three games, he's just freaking exploded. Rondo has averaged a 12-5-7 with 1.6 SPG in those three, and although the truth is a little bit hidden under the surface--he had two 40+ FP outings sandwiching a way lower 16-effort in which he put up a 5-3-4-1 line--he still showed what he's still capable of. This team is not going to rely on Rondo heavily because it just doesn't seem to need him that badly, but for a second-unit man barely rostered and going totally under the radar, you can do much better. Beware of the turnovers and the putrid shooting percentages, though.
Deni Avdija (SG/SF, WAS) - 5% rostered
The Wizards are cooked for the year. Bradley Beal has been shut down ROS, Dinwiddie and Bertans are gone, and Washington boosted the tank by adding Kristaps Porzingis. Uh oh. Avdija, one of the remaining hopes in D.C., has started a handful of games this year on the wings, but he's an off-the-pine player more often than not and that shouldn't change any time soon, even with the trade-deadline shuffle. That said, we're talking about a rotation that currently has the two of Raul Neto and Corey Kispert starting at the point and two-guard spots. I mean...
Avdija is definitely not a league winner, nor a franchise savior for that matter, but he's shown enough to have him out there going throwing the growing pains and keeping his development going. Getting back to the start of February (six games through Saturday), Avdija has boasted good enough shooting percentages (44% from the floor hitting five total treys, 95% from the charity stripe) on a very low usage rate (14%) and an average of nearly seven FGA. Avdija has been good at stealing the rock all year and has 0.8+ SPG in the past six to go with an average 9-5-1 in 26 MPG. Most of Avdija's upside, to my eyes, comes from an eventual ramp-up in minutes as the season gets close to the finish line given that Washington is playing for nothing and hey, it's better to run with the young man than the likes of Neto/Ish Smith if you ask me.
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By popular demand, RotoBaller has aggregated all of our fantasy basketball NBA waiver wire pickups into a running list of NBA waiver options, so bookmark the page and check back often for updates.
