Fantasy Basketball Waiver Wire Pickups for Week 21 Include Talen Horton-Tucker, Killian Hayes, Nick Richards, Isaiah Jackson

Week 21 fantasy basketball waiver wire pickups, adds, and sleepers for the 2022-2023 NBA season. Justin Carter recommends free agent targets in 9-category leagues.

Welcome back to RotoBaller's weekly fantasy basketball waiver wire column and schedule breakdown. It's fantasy playoff time, so let's see if we can get you over the hump and get you a title.

These recommendations are mainly for 9-cat leagues, but if you play in another format, there's a good chance that the information here can still help you. We'll be looking at centers, forwards, and guards whose low rostership and upside make them ideal players to get onto your fantasy team.

Our staff at RotoBaller has great insight and daily columns on how to improve your squad and tips to make your team successful, so be sure to check them out! Now, let's get prepared for Week 21.

NBA Week 21 Schedule Guide

Let's take a look at some notable things on the schedule this week.

Teams with four games: Boston, Denver, Detroit, Golden State, Houston, Los Angeles Lakers, Memphis, Miami, Milwaukee, Minnesota, Orlando, Phoenix, Sacramento, San Antonio, Toronto

Teams with three games: Atlanta, Brooklyn, Chicago, Cleveland, Dallas, Indiana, Los Angeles Clippers, New Orleans, Oklahoma City, Philadelphia, Portland, Washington

Teams with two games: Charlotte, New York, Utah

Number of teams playing each day:

Monday: 14
Tuesday: 16
Wednesday: 14
Thursday: 10
Friday: 16
Saturday: 16
Sunday: 16

Back-to-Backs:

Sunday/Monday: 0
Monday/Tuesday: Detroit, Milwaukee, Phoenix
Tuesday/Wednesday: Cleveland, Los Angeles Lakers, San Antonio
Wednesday/Thursday: Sacramento
Thursday/Friday: 0
Friday/Saturday: Boston, Chicago, Golden State, Memphis, Minnesota, Philadelphia, Washington
Saturday/Sunday: Denver, Los Angeles Clippers, Miami, Orlando, Toronto

9-Category Leagues - Waiver Wire Adds

This column is written based on H2H 9-category 12-team leagues. All players in this article are rostered at around 50 percent or less.

Talen Horton-Tucker, G/F - Utah Jazz - 48% rostered

Horton-Tucker is on fire, scoring 20-plus points in three consecutive games. He capped that off with a stellar showing on Saturday, scoring 37 points on 14-for-24 shooting with 10 assists and eight boards. The Jazz are a little beat-up right now with Jordan Clarkson (finger) and Collin Sexton (hamstring) both out, and as long as they're not on the court then Horton-Tucker will continue to be the focal point of this Utah offense.

Which, uhh...probably says more about the Jazz than it does about Horton-Tucker, but...

Killian Hayes, G - Detroit Pistons - 44% rostered

Jaden Ivey's out for at least another game due to COVID protocols and Alec Burks is sidelined with a foot issue, plus Bojan Bogdanovic is still out with Achilles issues. Basically, the Pistons are all hurt.

Hayes took advantage of that last time out, playing 37 minutes and scoring 17 points while adding in 13 assists, six rebounds, two steals and one block. He doesn't really shoot threes, so that's a downside, but he's a good source of other counting stats and is available in over half of leagues.

Nick Richards, C - Charlotte Hornets - 35% rostered

Richards has posted two double-doubles in the past three games, but maybe even more important right now is his block numbers, as he's recorded 10 of them over the last three games.

There's been an uptick in minutes with Mark Williams (thumb) out, so we'll need to keep an eye on his availability. If he comes back in time for Tuesday's game, Richards' fantasy value likely plummets. (And don't rush out and add Williams if he does return, because he's not going to give you the same ceiling as Richards with blocks.)

Isaiah Jackson, F/C - Indiana Pacers - 28% rostered

Myles Turner missed last game with a sore back and is also set to miss Monday's meeting with the Pistons because of the back issue as well. With Turner out on Saturday—also against Detroit—Isaiah Jackson stepped up, playing 26 minutes, his most since Feb. 13. He finished with 19 points, 11 rebounds, two steals and two blocks. Good short-term streaming play if you need help with rebounds and blocks.

Royce O'Neale, G/F - Brooklyn Nets - 34% rostered

Nice little run for O'Neale, who has scored in double figures in the last three games that he played—though he did miss a game in that span with hip soreness. O'Neale has two double-doubles in that span as well, including posting 12 points and 15 boards against the Timberwolves, with two assists, three steals and three threes. He isn't the most efficient player, but if you can afford to take a hit in field goal percentage then O'Neale can be a nice add.

Isaiah Livers, G/F - Detroit Pistons - 16% rostered

Like I mentioned above when discussing Killian Hayes, the injury bug just keeps hitting the Pistons, which is also opening up usage for Isaiah Livers, who has scored in double figures in three of the last four games. He had four steals, two blocks and made three threes last time out, who while the rebounding and assist numbers could use improvement, he's someone you can stream for help in those other areas.

Terrence Ross, G/F - Phoenix Suns - 12% rostered

Freed from Orlando, Ross has posted some good numbers, especially in the last two games with Kevin Durant (ankle) out. Against OKC, he had 24 points and made six threes while adding two steals, and then against the Kings he had 18 points with four threes and another couple of swipes. Ross should play 20-ish minutes per contest until Durant's back, giving him some appeal for people in need of threes.

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