Boban Marjanovic (C, PHI) - Week 20 Waiver Wire Pickups

BALLER MOVE: Add In 14-Team Leagues, Stream In Shallower Leagues

OWNED IN: 21% of leagues

ANALYSIS: It's Boban's world, and we're just living in it.

As someone who watches a lot of 76ers games, I was skeptical of the trade that brought center Boban Marjanovic to Philadelphia. Sure, the Sixers got Tobias Harris, but they also ended up with some depth issues up front and Boban essentially serving as the team's backup center.

Now, Marjanovic isn't known for his quickness, and that's made him unplayable in the past on the defensive end, but he's possibly one of the best offensive players ever when it comes to efficient scoring at the rim. This season, he's shooting 62.4 percent from the floor in 11.3 minutes per game, and he's provided decent rebounding numbers with 4.4 per game in that limited playing time. Marjanovic is big, and accurate, and he's got a gravity when he's under the basket.

The big question mark for Marjanovic in terms of fantasy production has always been about opportunity, not production. If he gets onto the floor, he's able to score and rebound at a level that makes him worth rostering, but in an evolving NBA where teams want to move outside and defenses want to be able to switch, especially in pick-and-rolls, having a player who's such a liability in space has become...well, a liability.

But Marjanovic currently finds himself in potentially the best position he could be in in the NBA. The Sixers have an elite center in Joel Embiid, but to back him up you have Amir Johnson, who hasn't been a consistent rotation piece since December, and Jonah Bolden, a rookie who has promise as a stretch five but hasn't really gotten much run at the five. That leaves those backup five minutes for Marjanovic, and he's made some good things happen with them. He's playing 16.5 minutes per game in six games with Philly, and he's scored in double figures in half of those games. He's also gotten the starting nod for the past two games with Joel Embiid out with a knee issue. Embiid is likely to miss at least another game or two, making Marjanovic a good streaming option for those. And even after that, he's earned himself the backup job for Philly, so fantasy owners needing help in points, rebounds, and field goal percentage still will have reasons to look Boban's way.