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 21
Naz Reid (C, MIN) - 8% rostered
The Wolves are this close to making it to the postseason led by the trio of D'Lo, KAT, and Ant. That's fantastic! Of course, there had to be some negatives for us fantasy GMs, and one of them is the magnificent play of Towns relegating Reid to a very limited playing time. Even then, though, the deeper we get into the regular season, the higher the chances will be for the big man to get some sort of an (at least slightly) larger role: Reid's MPG is down to just 16 since the start of February.
Now, for the good, Reid has been an absolute menace coming off the pine mostly after the break. He's a staple in Minny's second unit, getting a phenomenal 22% usage rate from Feb. 25 on (seven games played) and making the most of it, averaging an above-average 1.24 FP/min. In fact, Reid has averaged an even better 1.52 (!!!) FP/min this week through Saturday (four games played) which is absolutely bonkers (league average at around 0.90). Reid is a fantastic scorer (11+ PPG in March), rebounder (6+ RPG), and all-around shooter (70.8% from the field, 0.9 3PM per game). Watch out for those turnovers if they mean something in your league, though.
Max Strus (SG/SF, MIA) - 5% rostered
Strus' minutes have been all over the place for quite some time, but he keeps finding his way to get a bunch of 20+ minute games more often than not coming off the pine for the mighty Heat. Since the start of March (seven games played through Saturday), Strus has averaged 22 MPG while playing more minutes than that average three times and even getting a start against Brooklyn last week. When the wing is in, you know what he'll do: wait, then fire. That's pretty much Strus for you, a spot-up three-point shooter with limited upside in the rest of cats.
The season averages tell you all you need to know about Strus. He's putting up 10+ PPG but a rather low 3+ RPG and 1+ APG. Look deeper, though, and you'll find Strus' calling card: 6.5 3PA per game and 2.6 3PM made a night. Even on such a tough shooting profile, Strus is still boasting 44/40/77 splits and is the lone player this season hitting 2.5+ three-pointers per game on fewer than 26 MPG over the full year. Surefire shooter available for cheap if you're needy there.
Serge Ibaka (PF/C, MIL) - 7% rostered
I'm writing this just after seeing a tweet pop up in my timeline regarding Brook Lopez and his potential comeback, which is expected to happen today. That's fantastic for Milwaukee's chances at a chip, but of course bad for Ibaka and his opportunities going forward. That said, though, I don't expect Lopez to get up to speed and a 100% conditioning and performing levels of play from the get-go, nor Milly to risk another injury or further damage to Brook with the postseason being the real reason the Bucks do this thing called basketballing. So Ibaka should hold onto his role ROS and then, when the postseason arrives, maybe give up a bit of it if/when Brook is back in full force.
Ibaka, by the way, seems to have finally found his mojo in the cold Milly after having a rough start with his new franchise. He's gone from putting up a putrid 0.63 FP/min in his first seven games with the backs to an impressive 1.27 in the last four (all of them played from Mar. 6 to last Sunday). Serge had an outlier of a match against Atlanta (1 FGA, 2-5-0-2 line in 18 minutes) but was great in the other three games, scoring 14+ points in each of them (including one, two, and two triples), pulling down 7.6 RPG, and blocking four total shots in that span. Ibaka can hit three-point shots but he often keeps it short in terms of range, which helps his shooting percentages (50/38/69 this season) while he's a good shot-swatter at 0.7 BPG over the year (1.5+ per 36 minutes).
Bones Hyland (PG/SG, DEN) - 4% rostered
Hyland isn't starting games anymore after doing so for three consecutive nights before the ASB, but that hasn't meant bad things are plaguing his most recent set of performances. In fact, it's been the total opposite. Bones has played five games in March (only looking at those with 12+ minutes logged), and he's hit double-digit scoring figures in all of them, averaging 13+ PPG off the pine. He's yet to finish a game playing that time without scoring a three-pointer, which is something he's done for 12 (!) consecutive games and still going (the streak goes all the way back to Feb. 8).
Bonesy Hyland's usage in the Nuggets' second unit has been up to nearly 23% since coming back from the break and has only gone below 19% once in that span. Of course, the shot volume isn't incredibly high (7.5+ FGA) but the percentages can't get any better at a quite-high 52% in the past six outings, while the freebies are falling at a nice 71% clip. The Nuggets can't sleep on their laurels even though they're pretty much locked into the postseason already, but with no news coming from the MPJ/Murray fronts and the seed more secured each passing day, odds are Bones keeps active and getting bulky (and growing) minutes ROS.
Jordan McLaughlin (PG, MIN) - 1% rostered
Let me make this simple. JML before the break: 41 games, 13 MPG; JML after the break: nine games, 19 MPG. Not that bad a development if you ask me. See, McLaughlin isn't going to hand you a fantasy league, far from it, but he's getting his minutes and although he's not the best player around Minnesota, he's still producing and more than anything contributing in the scarcest of categories: steals. You won't believe this, but McLaughlin has committed 17 (!) thefts in his last seven games played for an average of 2.4 (!!) per game. That is something nobody in the NBA has been good for over the full season, and only three players (Alex Caruso, Paul George, and Dejounte Murray) are at 2+ SPG.
Of course, JML's season-wide average is down to just 0.9, but that's a nice enough mark that is growing bigger by the day. More encouraging is the fact that McLaughlin is one of only four players this season (more than five games played) to post 0.9+ SPG and no more than 0.5 TOPG. The blocks aren't there as the other ultra-scarce stat, but you can't get everything from a guy rostered in just 1% of Yahoo leagues. Good for us, he makes up for that with 2.9 APG over the season and a better 4+ APG mark since coming back from the break.
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