Jabari Smith Jr. (PF, HOU) - Fantasy Basketball Waiver Wire Pickups for Week 22

March 19, 2023

Jabari Smith Jr. is worth considering as a fantasy basketball waiver wire pickup heading into Week 22 of the 2022-23 NBA season.

BALLER MOVE: Add in 14+ Team Leagues

ROSTERED IN: 47% of leagues

ANALYSIS: Flipping the calendar page has done a world of good to Houston Rockets’ rookie Jabari Smith Jr., hasn’t it? Smith wasn’t bad before March, but he’s been absolutely unstoppable in the third month of the year and definitely someone doing more than one would expect from a fantasy player still available in more than 50% of all ESPN leagues out there.

Barring a 21-minute stinker on Mar. 1, Smith is putting together a masterful month this time out. Everything is working for him and he’s contributing all across the board nightly while amassing really large play-time diets. Smith has logged at least 27 minutes in each of his last eight games played while averaging an even higher 34 MPG to go with a production of 33.4 FPPG. It’s not that easy to average above-average FP/min when you get that type of run, so there’s that.

Smith has hit nearly 55% of his 95 FGA attempted in the past two weeks while scoring at least one three-point shot in each of the games pertaining to that span (actual average at 2.25 3PM per game). He had three consecutive dub-dubs less than a week ago (30-12, 20-10, and 24-11) and in the last two weeks of play, he’s averaged a 17-7-1 line to go with 1.5 stocks per game evenly split between blocks and steals.

It’s hard to know if Smith will be able to keep these levels up, but there is no real concern about whether or not this is just a fluke because these were the expectations from the minute he got labeled (and drafted) as a top-3 pick so all of this makes sense—it just took a little bit longer than it should. Points, rebounds, blocks, steals, and gaudy shooting percentages with low turnovers. Seriously, there is nothing not to like around JSJr. game these days and entering the home stretch.

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