Marquese Chriss (PF/C, CLE) - Week 20 Waiver Wire Pickups

BALLER MOVE: Add In 14-Team Leagues

OWNED IN: 8% of leagues

ANALYSIS: You'd be forgiven for not wanting Marquese Chriss on your fantasy team. His NBA career has been wildly disappointing since the Suns made him the eighth pick in 2016. He struggled through two seasons in Phoenix where the team gave him plenty of chances to make a difference -- Chriss started 124 games over those two years -- but watched him regress in his second year and wind up as an expendable option heading into last Summer. Phoenix flipped him to Houston, where he played just 6.5 minutes per game in 16 contests, and was dealt again at the deadline. Now, Chriss is a Cavalier and is...maybe showing something?

Cleveland is in a bad spot, and the only thing they can do at this point is lose a lot of games, get a good draft pick, and try again next year. That gives them incentive to play Chriss -- he either helps them lose by being a net negative on the floor, or he shows you enough positives that you keep him around next season. So far, it's been a little of both.

In Cleveland, Chriss is playing 20.7 minutes per game, and he's putting up some respectable numbers: 11.5 points and 5.3 rebounds on 48.1 percent shooting. He's also upped his three-point game, and is making 44 percent of his 4.2 threes per game. Chriss has received a lot of attention in the past for his on-court struggles, but if he can develop into a stretch four or stretch five, he's got a future in the NBA.

And he's got a present on fantasy teams -- at least in deeper leagues. If Chriss keeps firing up the long-range shots at this rate, he can be a good addition to a team that can afford to sacrifice a few rebounds from their power forward or center spots in exchange for a boost in threes.

There are reasons to worry, though. Chriss has played fewer than 20 minutes in each of the past two games as the Cavaliers have worked Kevin Love back into the rotation. But they've also won those games, and down the stretch I'd imagine they start to play it safer with Love's minutes -- no back-to-backs, maybe some more rest days, etc. Still, Love is the primary reason I have Chriss as an add in 14 team leagues and not 12 team ones, because his presence does create a lot of risk for Chriss owners.