Jeremy Lin (PG/SG, ATL) - Week 5 Waiver Wire Pickups

BALLER MOVE: Add In 14-Team Leagues

OWNED IN: 11% of leagues

ANALYSIS: It's been seemingly a lifetime since "Linsanity" and it's also been a lengthy stretch of time since Jeremy Lin has seen considerable NBA court time (before his 13 games this season he had played just 37 games since 2016). From the surface, Lin's body of work for the Atlanta Hawks this year appears rather insignificant. In just 16.8 minutes per game he has averaged just 9.5 points, 2.6 assists, and 0.8 steals while also shooting a mediocre 33.3% on his 2.1 attempted three-pointers per contest. With "Ice" Trae Young starring in his rookie season to the tune of 18.5 points and 8.2 assists in 30.6 MP each game, it may seem as though Lin has been relegated to an irrelevant back-up role on the 3-10 Hawks squad. However, Lin has seen a moderate uptick in both performance and floor time ever since Atlanta's game against fellow bottom-dweller Cleveland on October 30th.

In that seven-game stretch Lin has averaged 13.4 points, 3.7 assists, and 1.3 steals about 20 minutes per game. Not only that, he has been shooting at a far-better clip from beyond the arc over the last seven games by draining eight of his 19 three-point attempts for a high-quality shot-percentage of 42.1%. Lin has still suffered from roller-coaster results from one game to the next, but he nets big rewards when deployed for enough time on the right night as evidenced by his recent outings of 23, 19, and 19 points against the Kings, Hornets, and Pistons respectively. Inconsistency aside, even with Trae Young taking the lion's share of work out of the back court for the remainder of the year, there will still be a place for Lin's skill set for Atlanta. Even though he is just eighth on the roster in total minutes-played (218), he is second on the team in total assists (34), fourth on the team in total steals (10), and fifth in total points scored (123). His efficiency is also noteworthy when compared to the rest of the team. His assist-percentage (23.7%) and his true-shooting percentage (60.4%) both rank second on the Hawks and speak to his level of operation on offense, while his steal-percentage of 2.1% indicates that he is a prime candidate to nab a few if he seems ample court time. Even in the neighborhood of 20.0 MP each game behind possible ROY Trae Young, Jeremy Lin is a choice value-option in deeper leagues at both guard positions.