Malaki Branham (SG, SAS) - Fantasy Basketball Waiver Wire Pickups for Week 19

February 19, 2023

Malaki Branham is worth considering as a fantasy basketball waiver wire pickup heading into Week 19 of the 2022-23 NBA season.

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ANALYSIS: The Spurs are going nowhere. Well, they are obviously headed toward Wamby Station, but that's going nowhere in the current NBA season. In other words: San Antonio has all reasons and then some to play as many kids as they can, for as much as they are able to, if only to know more about what they have and have not in their roster for the rebuilding years ahead of them: enter rookie Malaki Branham.

Branham started a couple of games at the beginning of November but even then he only logged 14 and 23 minutes, respectively, to not-so-great results. He did it again in December, but things didn't really get any better. That, though, has changed in February after spending the better part of the two months before that playing around 20 MPG off the pine.

The rookie went into the All-Star break having started all last seven games with the Spurs. He didn't start on February 1 against the Kings but he played a (then) season-high 32 minutes, so you can pretty much count that as another start on his game log and baby pro resume.

Looking exclusively at February statistics, Branham has been able to nearly keep up an extraordinary 18-4-3 per-game line while also adding a stock per game to it and hitting 2.3+ 3PM a pop. Barring a dreadful outing against Toronto on February 8, Branham has scored at least 2+ three-point shots in each of the other seven matchups he's played this month.

Through the break, among rookies, Branham ranks ninth in PPG and eighth in APG. Looking strictly at his February numbers and assuming he can stay in possession of his current role in SAS, if he can keep up with his stat line, he'd rank second in PPG, 12th in RPG, and fourth in APG.

He'd also be one of only 30 players in the NBA as a whole averaging 18-4-3 lines with 2+ 3PM per game.

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