RADIO
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.
Derrick Favors (PF/C, UTA)
10% rostered
Going back to Jan. 8, all games the Jazz have lost can be counted with two, let alone five fingers. Only the Nuggets (in an impossibly-efficient night) and the Clippers (edgy four-point victory) were able to defeat Utah, and the Jazz keep churning results with the most team-oriented game this side of San Antonio's 20-year dynasty. Favors, an offseason addition for Utah, is one of those role guys playing efficiently, making the most of his minutes, and most of all putting up bonkers shooting numbers for the Jazz.
Favors has not started a single game for the Jazz this season. He's a pine-rider by nature, and the truth is that with Royce O'Neale's and Rudy Gobert's defense, it's better to keep things that way for Utah. But Favors is playing his 17 MPG on the season while posting 6-5-1 averages this year. That's not mindblowing, of course, but keep in mind those minutes and you'll arrive at Favors great per-minute fantasy mark of 1.07 since the start of February (1.03 on the year, still way above average; around 0.9 FP/min for the league).
Barring a couple of games in consecutive nights against Boston and Milwaukee in mid-February, Favors has been able to put up above-average per-minute marks in his other eight games this month through last Friday, and he's gone for a mighty 1.16 average. Favors is a lock to post nightly 6-6 lines with upside for more and finds his mojo in the shooting percentages: 62 percent from the floor and 81 percent from the free-throw line. Low counting stats due to the low minutes, but great efficiency to have rostered in deeper-format leagues.
Garrett Temple (PG/SG, CHI)
8% rostered
At 34 years of age, Garrett Temple has been reborn in Chicago after signing with the Bulls this past offseason. It took him a few years, but this is the best version of G-Temp we've seen in the league since his heyday in the mid-2010s.
Temple is a role player for a rebuilding Bulls squad that is using the vet as a guide to the younger men in the squad. Temple had started a couple of games prior to Feb. 12, but he's been a starter for five straight matches since that day up to last Saturday's contest against Sacramento. Going back to Feb. 8, Temple has played at least 28 minutes in all of the seven outings he's played in that span, averaging 33 MPG and straight balling.
The line in the last six games read 11-4-2-1-1, which is a stuffed one, and on top of that Temple is shooting mightily from the floor hitting shots at a 60 percent clip while he has also scored 1+ trey in each of those matches. Temple will eventually get back to riding the pine, but even coming off the bench he was playing 26+ MPG on the year with an average 8-3-2-1 line before this hot stretch. Definitely one to have rostered in deeper formats out there.
Juan Toscano-Anderson (SF/PF, GSW)
7% rostered
I have written about JTA in past columns, and I will keep doing so as long as he keeps playing heavy minutes and putting up numbers as a key role player for this season's Warriors. Golden State is nurturing more than one, two, three... injuries these days, and that has opened the door to Juan to become a starter. That's correct, a starter. And not in just a couple of games.
JTA has logged 10 consecutive starts and has started all but one of his 11 games this month (he logged 27 minutes in the other one though). The minutes have gone a little bit down of late, same as the usage rate, but Toscano does what he's asked for and makes the most of his chances. As a starter, Toscano is averaging nearly an 8-6-3 line a game, shooting 63.5% from the floor, and hitting almost one triple per game to bulk up his fantasy tallies.
While not a long-term solution for fantasy GMs out there, JTA is more than a viable flyer to take given the thin GSW depth in the paint and this man's prowess to keep fighting for a spot in an NBA team given his G League background. The efficiency is low on a per-minute basis because he's on the floor more often than not, but his total numbers make a little bit up for it as he gets touches just on pure playing time.
JaMychal Green (PF/C, DEN)
6% rostered
First of all, keep in mind that JaMychal Green is currently injured and was forced out of the Nugs vs. Cavs game last Friday after playing just 1:15 minutes then and there. That's no bueno, I know, but Green's comeback is expected to happen as soon as Tuesday with Denver playing again on Thursday. Green should be back this week, and given what he's been doing lately he should be on your radar as a WW-target to acquire and roster going forward.
The best part of Green's potential addition for your roster is that he has looked more like a season-long keeper than a fruit of a couple of explosions here and there. Green came to Denver to make up for Plumlee/Jerami departures and so far, so good for the new Nugget. He's playing 22 MPG and putting up a 9-6-1 line on the year on some low-maintenance 19% usage rate.
Green can hit it from a distance (1.6 3PG on the year, and although he's gone through a rough shooting stretch in the middle of February he's still putting in 49 percent of all shots he's taken this season (7.2 FGA per game). With Millsap as the only playable big in Denver's depth chart above Green, the latter will keep logging minutes through the season and starting when someone goes down--precisely what happened in the last three games he played before getting injured himself.
Isaiah Roby (PF/C, OKC)
6% rostered
The Oklahoma City Thunder, as much as they look like a rebuilding team that should be--Adam Silver permitting--tanking, just refuse to do so, or simply don't know how to do it. Roby, the second-year man, and 2019 second-round pick out of Nebraska, should be one of the Thunder's building pieces going forward at the PF/C position. And at this point in their process, that might be the case whether they like it or not. Why? Well, the Thunder have a big man in Al Harford, and after that, it's slim picks featuring the likes of rookie Aleksej Pokusevski and fellow sophomore Darius Bazley. Oh, and Al Horford might be on his way out before the deadline or as a bought-out player.
Roby has started 9 of the 23 games he's played this season, and while his usage rates fall below the 20-percent mark more often than not (17.2% on the season) he's still playing an average of 21 MPG this year. Roby has played at least 18 minutes in all last seven games, all this month, and he's been excellent on that second-unit role putting up a very good 1.1 FP/min in that span.
Roby has started to hit treys on a steadier basis lately, scoring almost one per game in his last six games through last Friday while keeping up a great 62 percent FG% in those matches. Although he's had a little bit of trouble with personal fouls, Roby is turning into a 10-10 player off the bench for the thunder with some upside on the assists cat and averaging 1+ stocks per game.
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