Fantasy Basketball Deeper-League Waiver Wire Adds for Week 19: Bruce Brown, Onyeka Okongwu, Raul Neto, Corey Kispert, Grant Williams

March 1, 2022

Antonio Losada's deeper-league waiver wire pickups and fantasy basketball sleepers for Week 19. His top free-agent options for 12-team fantasy leagues or deeper.

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.

Fantasy Basketball Waiver Wire Targets for Week 19

Bruce Brown (SG/SF/PF, BKN) - 16% rostered

The Nets are far from its final form. Ben Simmons is a sublime addition as a top-10 player in the NBA when available, but sadly he's still not quite there. Kyrie can only play away from home. KD is still recovering. What I'm saying is that Brooklyn is getting forced into finding solutions to their current rotation/availability problem, and Bruce Brown has been a staple starting six consecutive games and seven of the last eight on the wing.

Brown is playing an average of 32 MPG in the past two weeks and never fell below 26 of them. Of course, the minute he gets back to the pine, his upside will be cut in half, but as long as he retains those bulky minutes of playing time, his production will stay up and be good enough for deeper-format GMs. Brown is great at scoring with high percentages (13+ PPG, 55% from the field in the past six games, 78% from the charity stripe), has more than solid rebounding/diming, and he's finding a way to steal possessions easily (1.8 SPG in the past two weeks) while barely committing TOs (0.3) for those in 9-cat leagues.

Onyeka Okongwu (PF/C, ATL) - 13% rostered

The rook out of USC didn't even play a single minute before mid-December, and even when he did, he just logged 67 minutes of play before the flipping of the calendar page. Things changed for him with the start of the 2022 year, though, as Okongwu has now appeared on 25 games and even started five of those at different points during the month of January. That was not going to happen unless Capela/Collins gets banged up and Okongwu gets starting nods, so tame your expectations a bit on that front.

The minutes will stay around 20 MPG for the remainder of the season, even more considering the Hawks need their vets performing at the top of their levels to hold onto a play-in/playoffs seed. Okongwu, though, is growing by the day and he's been fantastic for the last three weeks of play. In that span, OO has played eight games averaging a 9-4-1-1-1. Nothing incredible, but a packed line with at least a token in every cat. That doesn't mention his phenomenal shooting (77% from the field) given his null floor stretching, although of course, he's keeping up that number on a rather low five FGA diet. Okongwu is surely a deep-league-only WW target, but one with plenty of upside and a potential chance down the road if any big man on the Hawks' rotation misses time.

Raul Neto (PG, WAS) - 12% rostered

Neto never entirely left the Wizards rotation, but with the likes of Dinwiddie, Beal, and the platoon of Avdija/Holiday, it is not that Neto could benefit a lot and instead got relegated to a lowly backup role more often than not. That has now changed because basically three of those aforementioned players are gone or shut down for the year, and Neto has been the main gainer for those absences as he's now the starting point of the Wiz. Neto has started every game from Feb. 10 through Saturday and that's been seven in a row for him while staying on the court for 29 MPG in that span.

Neto has provided a ton of goodies even on a rather large amount of playing time. For someone nearing the 30 MPG, Neto's above-average 0.93 FP/min efficiency has been rather good to see happen. Neto has dropped 10+ points in six of those seven games, 20+ two times, and hit a combined nine triples for an average of 1.3 3PM per game in this starting stretch. The turnovers could be lower, but you can't have it all at this point into the season for such a low price/high availability in all Yahoo leagues. The steals, on the other hand, are top-of-the-class at 0.8 SPG on the season and 1.3+ SPG since the start of February. Not the flashiest of points, but one dishing out a solid 5.5 APG as a starter while shooting 52.6% from the floor in his past seven.

Corey Kispert (SG/SF, WAS) - 8% rostered

It's been 16 days and seven games played by the Wiz in that two-week span through Saturday night. Kispert, of course, has started all of those matches while logging 30+ minutes every time for an average slightly higher of 33 MPG. Not bad. The Wiz, if you know, are throwing the season away after shutting down Bradley Beal and for some reason trading for Kristaps Porzingis, who is yet to hoop in D.C. having stayed out for a month and going.

In other words, the Wiz are here for 1) the tank and 2) see what and what not do they have in their roster. Thus, the Kispert Gamble. Kispert was drafted inside the first half of last summer's draft, so it's not that crazy to see him getting reps of late, and he's been far from bad. Kispert is hitting threes nicely (only missed on scoring at least one last Saturday after doing so in 13 consecutive matches). As a starter in the last seven games, Kispert is putting up a nightly 10-4-2-1 line on a rather low usage rate (16.3%). The shooting percentages are great factoring in his ability to hit shots from beyond the arc (43% from the field, 89% from the charity stripe), and Kispert is also contributing nearly 1.5 stocks a pop, which could be much worse. Now, watch out for those turnovers if they impact your league scores because he's sucked a bit on that front (1.8 TOPG in the last seven).

Grant Williams (PF/C, BOS) - 6% rostered

Four games in a row for G-Will hitting 10+ points have me looking happy and hunting for this bargain. Williams started a couple right before the AS break, and although he's now back on the pine, he's still getting his 26+ minute run (it's been like that for all but three games in February). Boston has turned into a menacing defensive squad through the last few weeks, and Williams has helped with  0.9 BPG in the month of February to go with 0.5 SPG and a total of 1.4 stocks a game. Not great, but more than solid.

That production on the scarce cats looks even better considering he's avoiding turning the ball over too much and that he's having a ridiculous shooting year compared to his first two seasons in the league. Williams has gone from posting 42/32/65 splits in 2020 and 2021 to a mighty 49/44/91 this year, which is even more bonkers if you peep at his 3.5 3PA per game, virtually doubling his past attempts and raising his eFG% to an impressive 63.8% through 57 games played. In fact, Williams is one of 15 players with such eFG% while attempting 5+ FGA a game, and the only one hitting more than 0.2 3PM per game--in other words, there are just no big men with his three-point stroke, as simple as that.

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