JaMychal Green (PF/C, DEN): Week 5 Waiver Wire Pickups

BALLER MOVE: Add in 14-Team Leagues ROSTERED IN: 16% of leagues ANALYSIS: The Nuggets lost Jerami Grant this past offseason and while JaMychal Green is far from his level of play, the truth is that he's doing more than enough to be considered a viable player for slightly-deep-league fantasy GMs. Green has taken on a […]

Nickeil Alexander-Walker (SG/SF, OKC): Week 5 Waiver Wire Pickups

BALLER MOVE: Add in 14-Team Leagues ROSTERED IN: 12% of leagues ANALYSIS: Nickeil Alexander-Walker has done it all this season: he was extended (fifth-year option picked by NOLA) prior to the start of the year, then proceeded to play seven games coming off the bench, and finally he started at the point this past Wednesday... […]

Doug McDermott (SF/PF, IND): Week 5 Waiver Wire Pickups

BALLER MOVE: Add in 14-Team Leagues ROSTERED IN: 10% of leagues ANALYSIS: I was wrong about Indiana and its outlook for the 2021 season. I thought they'd drop a little bit in the standings, and the fact that they lost T.J. Warren a while ago only reinforced my thoughts. How wrong I was... Indiana is […]

Royce O'Neale (SF/PF, UTA): Week 5 Waiver Wire Pickups

BALLER MOVE: Add in 14-Team Leagues ROSTERED IN: 22% of leagues ANALYSIS: Somebody explains to me how Royce O'Neale, Utah Jazz starter in all 11 games through Thursday. Yes, I know, Royce is not a world-beater, but again, he's starting games and playing north of 31 MPG, folks! Where can you find such a guy in […]

Paul Millsap (PF/C, DEN): Week 5 Waiver Wire Pickups

BALLER MOVE: Add in 14-Team Leagues ROSTERED IN: 40% of leagues ANALYSIS: That Paul Millsap is more cooked than not, we all know. With that out of the way, though, Millsap is still a starter for this Nuggets squad, is logging 23.9 MPG this season, using a reasonably healthy 18.3 percent of offensive possessions, and averaging […]

Hamidou Diallo (SG/SF, OKC): Week 5 Waiver Wire Pickups

BALLER MOVE: Add in 12-Team Leagues ROSTERED IN: 41% of leagues ANALYSIS: While Hamidou Diallo cooled off a bit against the Lakers on Wednesday, the truth is that the Thunder forward has had quite a week going back to Jan. 8th and that game against the Knicks in which Hami logged a season-high 29 minutes […]

Shake Milton (PG/SG, PHI): Week 5 Waiver Wire Pickups

BALLER MOVE: Add in 12-Team Leagues ROSTERED IN: 33% of leagues ANALYSIS: I can't build a big case for Milton based on his recent play. Milton was one of Philly's COVID-affected players this past week, so he missed every game the team played from Jan. 7th to Thursday's match against Miami, limiting his minutes to […]

Fantasy Basketball Deep League Targets: Week 4

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 […]

Fantasy Basketball Category Streamers - Week 4

Here we go again. This past week we have seen four teams with positive or inconclusive COVID-19 tests, leading to quite a few key players quarantine. We even saw the Miami Heat and Boston Celtics game postponed Sunday (even though the Denver Nuggets vs. Philadelphia 76ers game on Saturday should have also been postponed). Streaming […]

Fantasy Basketball 9-Cat Waiver Wire Pickups - Week 4

Well, we knew things wouldn't go smoothly all year. COVID-19 has hit the NBA. The Sixers just played a game with seven players. Jayson Tatum is quarantining. Things are a mess. This is going to be an odd year, and this week is when that oddity really starts to hit. What guys should you be […]

Robin Lopez (C, WAS) - Week 4 Waiver Wire Pickups

BALLER MOVE: Add in 14-Team Leagues ROSTERED IN: 2% of leagues ANALYSIS: On Sunday, it was announced that Washington Wizards center Thomas Bryant would miss the rest of the season with a torn ACL. A difficult season for the Wizards is getting more difficult, as a player who was expected to be part of the […]

Rudy Gay (SF/PF, SA) - Week 4 Waiver Wire Pickups

BALLER MOVE: Add in 14-Team Leagues ROSTERED IN: 28% of leagues ANALYSIS: Rudy Gay was once a big-time scorer in the league, averaging as many as 20.1 points per game back in 2008 with Memphis, but he has carved out a concrete role over the last four seasons with the Spurs as a high-volume scorer […]

Denzel Valentine (SG/SF, CHI) - Week 4 Waiver Wire Pickups

BALLER MOVE: Add in 14-Team Leagues ROSTERED IN: 1% of leagues ANALYSIS: At 27, Denzel Valentine easily qualifies for the elder-half of the Chicago Bulls roster, and he has managed to maintain a workable level of playing time (17.5 minutes per game) and, like his other three seasons in Chicago, used that time to produce […]

Kelly Olynyk (PF/C, MIA) - Week 4 Waiver Wire Pickups

BALLER MOVE: Add in 14-Team Leagues ROSTERED IN: 28% of leagues ANALYSIS: Kelly Olynyk has carved out enough of a role in the Miami Heat frontcourt to be playing a career-high 25.2 minutes per game, and while Maurice Harkless could eat into those minutes upon his return, Olynyk has likely established his presence in the […]

Taj Gibson (PF/C, NYK): Week 4 Waiver Wire Pickups

BALLER MOVE: Add in 14-Team Leagues ROSTERED IN: 1% of leagues ANALYSIS: The ultimate under-the-radar addition to your squad, folks. The Knicks just announced that they have waived Omari Spellman to make room for newly signed Taj Gibson. Both parties came to an agreement after not reaching one last November, so it looks like two […]

Shake Milton (PG/SG, PHI): Week 4 Waiver Wire Pickups

BALLER MOVE: Add in All Leagues ROSTERED IN: 31% of leagues ANALYSIS: Somebody please explain to me how in the world such a beast as Shake Milton is just part of a roster in one of every three Yahoo leagues. I don't need to make any deep study here to make you see the upside […]

Eric Paschall (SF/PF, GSW): Week 4 Waiver Wire Pickups

BALLER MOVE: Add in 14-Team Leagues ROSTERED IN: 9% of leagues ANALYSIS: Eric Paschall had a rather stunning start to his career playing as a rook last season for the Warriors. That contrasted to his start to the 2021 season, as he started the first two games of Golden State at PF, played 21 and […]

Robert Williams (C, BOS): Week 4 Waiver Wire Pickups

BALLER MOVE: Add in 14-Team Leagues ROSTERED IN: 28% of leagues ANALYSIS: Robert Williams is still a ways away from becoming a Jaylen Brown-caliber player, sure, but as many voices as are calling for Jaylen to get more recognition than he usually gets are also claiming Boston to play Williams for longer stretches of minutes […]

Saddiq Bey (SF, DET): Week 4 Waiver Wire Pickups

BALLER MOVE: Add in 14-Team Leagues ROSTERED IN: 8% of leagues ANALYSIS: Detroit is the closest to a pure rebuilding franchise we have in the Association these days. The Pistons have plenty of young, unproven players in their squad, and also a bunch of veterans (namely Blake Griffin and Derrick Rose) they'd be better off […]

Tyus Jones (PG, MEM): Week 4 Waiver Wire Pickups

BALLER MOVE: Add in 14-Team Leagues ROSTERED IN: 21% of leagues ANALYSIS: Sixth-year vet (already!?) Grizzly Tyus Jones has started every game since Ja Morant went down injured at the end of the 2020 calendar year. From that day on, Jones has logged five starts at the point and averaged almost 28.5 MPG of playing […]

Justin Holiday (SG/SF, IND): Week 4 Waiver Wire Pickups

BALLER MOVE: Add in 14-Team Leagues ROSTERED IN: 20% of leagues ANALYSIS: It looks like fantasy GMs are finally catching up to Justin Holiday's potential in this Indiana Pacers team. Holiday, even playing off the bench for Indy, is logging 29.5 MPG on the season and a pretty heavy 35 MPG in the past week […]

Nico Batum (SF/PF, LAC): Week 4 Waiver Wire Pickups

BALLER MOVE: Add in All Leagues ROSTERED IN: 42% of leagues ANALYSIS: This is probably the last time I write about Batum as a WW-target over here, basically because he keeps putting up numbers while starting for the Clips and his rostership is growing by the day. But given Batum is still available in almost 60% […]

Fantasy Basketball Category Streamers - Week 3

Another week down and we are now starting to see where team rotations are heading while some navigate injuries or COVID-19 complications. Congrats to the managers starting off the season 2-0 and for the others, there is still a lot of season left! Ja Morant (ankle), Spencer Dinwiddie (knee), Karl-Anthony Towns (wrist), Alec Burks (ankle), […]

Fantasy Basketball Deeper League Pickups: Week 3

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 […]

Fantasy Basketball 9-Cat Waiver Wire Pickups - Week 3

Happy 2021! It seems strange for it to be a new year and for the NBA to only be entering its third week, but that's how things go in these strange times. This past week's highlights include the Wizards finally winning a game and the Rockets finally getting to see what John Wall could do […]

Deni Avdija (SG/SF, WAS) - Week 3 Waiver Wire Pickups

BALLER MOVE: Add in 14-team Leagues ROSTERED IN: 25% of leagues ANALYSIS: Deni Avdija was the 9th pick in the 2020 NBA Draft by the Washington Wizards and has been thrown into the fire right away, taking a starting position for the Wizards. While Avdija isn't a freak athletically or has an amazing stroke from […]

Raul Neto (PG, WAS) - Week 3 Waiver Wire Pickups

BALLER MOVE: Add in 14-Team Leagues ROSTERED IN: 2% of leagues ANALYSIS: The Washington Wizards haven't had the best start to the season, and it has only been six games into the season. With the acquisition of Russell Westbrook this offseason, Wizard fans hoped to have a powerful guard combo of Westbrook and Bradley Beal […]

Payton Pritchard (PG, BOS) - Week 3 Waiver Wire Pickups

BALLER MOVE: Add in 14-Team Leagues ROSTERED IN: 6% of leagues ANALYSIS: According to Brad Stevens, Kemba Walker won't be back, "anytime soon." For whatever that timetable might look like, that leaves the opportunity available in the immediate future for rookie point guard Payton Pritchard to continue surprising people with his early season play. So […]

Mike Muscala (PF/C, OKC) - Week 3 Waiver Wire Pickups

BALLER MOVE: Add in 14-Team Leagues ROSTERED IN: 5% of leagues ANALYSIS: Even with big men Al Horford and Darius Bazley occupying the Thunder front court, eighth-year center Mike Muscala is still getting some of the most playing time per night of his career (18.6 minutes per game), and he is contributing in the most […]