RADIO
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 14
Caleb Martin (SG/SF, MIA) - 15% rostered
It was clear that the minute Jimmy Butler came back, Caleb Martin would undoubtedly hit the pine. And that's precisely what happened in the past couple of games (back-to-back this past Fri./Sat.) when Butler finally started and went for 33 and 35 minutes of playing time. That said, Caleb had started seven games in a row prior to that, getting back to Dec. 28. And hey, it's not that he was bad as to get obliterated from the rotation anytime soon. Martin has been good for an average 13-6-1-1 line in the past seven games (including those last two coming off the pine), all of them taking place this month.
While the minutes have obviously gone down from 34 MPG as a starter to just 21 and lately 17 as a second-unit man, it's also true that Martin's usage rate sat at 21.3% on Saturday against Philly mostly because he's now one of the better players on the Heat bench. The shots will probably remain kind of the same in terms of volume (in the 6-to-8 FGA clip) but the percentages are so wonderful (54% in the past three weeks of play; 10 games) and the triples are dropping at such a nice rate (1.3 3PM a pop in that span) that Martin should retain most of his value. Superb contributor on the steals department too with exactly 1.0 SPG on the year and an even better 1.4 since we flipped the calendar page--including two and three steals in the last two games off the bench, mind you!
Tyus Jones (PG, MEM) - 15% rostered
Jones' 12-start stint in early-to-mid-December was awesome, but it was also a mirage and nothing that would last forever. Ja Morant went back, is now leading the Grizzlies, and he's even slowly but surely entering some MVP conversations. Okay, that might be pushing things a bit, but you get where I come from. Jones, though, has kind of retained a viable role for those managing in deeper leagues--if we assume what took place on Jan. 13 and 14 is not the road ahead for Jones, that is.
Tyus only played 16 and 14 minutes in those two matches, and of course, his production cratered fruit of the low volume/playing time. As long as Jones stays on the court for 20+ minutes, he should still be somewhat productive, but if he falls from that mark, you'd be better off him and looking into other potential additions. Jones can give you points and treys (not the most steady at hitting long rangers, though) but he surely needs to hoist more than his late four FGA against Dallas last Friday. The rebounds aren't bad for a point, and he can dish out dimes keeping turnovers on the low, but Jones' mojo is definitely to be found in his scoring and shooting (10.5 PPG and a 53.4% from the field since we entered 2022) with the Griz rotation fully healthy.
Furkan Korkmaz (SG/SF, PHI) - 7% rostered
Korkmaz has been asked to do a little bit of everything by the Sixers as of late. After he stayed off the court for 10 days in December and since coming back on Dec. 23, Kork has played 11 games through Saturday, starting six of them. His minutes have fluctuated from a low of 15 to a high of 40(!). He's averaging 31 MPG in January (seven games) while having five starts since the flip of the calendar page, and he's been able to keep up a 13-4-2 line in that span. The minutes are dropping daily (36-40-33-28-27-27-25) but they shouldn't fall below the 20-mark going forward.
Furkan isn't the greatest three-point shooter as he's boasting a season-long 29.7% from beyond the arc, but he's hoisting 4.8 3PA a game and has hit an average of 1.7 3PM per game this month, nothing to be too mad at. While not visiting the free-throw line that much, he's automatic at hitting freebies. And as far as scoring goes, Kork has dropped 10+ points in 12 of the 23 games in which he's logged 20+ minutes of playing time (average of 11.4 PPG in those 23 matches). Low 0.8 TOPG average to go with nice rebounding numbers for a guard (3.1 RPG), super-low assists, and some steals upside (0.6 SPG).
Josh Richardson (SG/SF, BOS) - 7% rostered
The splits don't lie sitting at 45/41/85 on the season for J-Rich as a Beantown Pinerider. In other words: Richardson is one of 13 players keeping up that slash-line without applying any filters to it, and one of only six doing so while having at least 10 games played averaging 20+ MPG. The other ones: Grant Williams, Seth Curry, Kessler Edwards, Desmond Bane, and Zach LaVine. Not the worst of groups of players if you ask me, that one. The Celtics are so lost that it's hard to make any solid prediction about what is going to happen before the deadline, who will stay put, who will be gone in three weeks, etc. But for now, Richardson has been as good as second-unit men doing it in Boston get.
Richardson has played 10 games since Dec. 29, averaging 28 MPG. He's been good for an average of 9.5+ PPG, 2+ RPG, 1.8 APG, 1+ SPG, and 0.5+ BPG in that span. While the scoring and the total points scored on a per-game basis are hella bouncy (he's got 13+ points in three of those 10 games, but also six or fewer in another three), J-Rich is what he is: a spot-up demigod hitting at least one trey every game in nine consecutive games through Saturday and hitting 1.5 3PM since entering the 2022 calendar year. Not much more to like about Rich in the rest of cats, but he carries monster-high shooting splits and some upside in the steals and turnover cats.
Lamar Stevens (SF, CLE) - 5% rostered
No Lamar in the NFL postseason? No problem, as his fellow Stevens is active and balling for the Cavs to very tasty extents! It's been seven straight starts for Stevens in the Cavs backcourt next to Garland, but it must be said that recently acquired Rajon Rondo has missed some games of late that might change this equation once he's back available to enter the court. Stevens, though, has been a nice finding by Cleveland. He's on a very limited diet of shots (7+ FGA, 10+ FGA in only two of his last seven matches) but he's still averaging 10+ PPG in January.
While Stevens is not a three-pointer and has gone through some shooting growing pains (24% from the field in the Dec. 31 to Jan. 7 span), he's now (last five games) shooting a marvelous 60.8% on exactly nine FGA a pop. It's not that Stevens is playing a lot of minutes, which bodes well for him and his statline, given that he's not having to rely on massive playing time/volume to put up his numbers. It's hard to find Lamar in the daily sheet without at least a token in virtually every statistical cat, as he's gotten to such lines in five of his last eight games with an average production of 10-3-1-1 in January. Not the safest of WW targets, of course, but an interesting one given his ridiculously huge availability and nice outcomes of late--only for those managing in super-deep formats, don't get it wrong!
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