Onyeka Okongwu (C, ATL) - Fantasy Basketball Waiver Wire Pickups for Week 17

Onyeka Okongwu is worth considering as a fantasy basketball waiver wire pickup heading into Week 17 of the 2022-23 NBA season.

BALLER MOVE: Add in 14+ Team Leagues

ROSTERED IN: 14% of leagues

ANALYSIS: The first piece of the trade deadline domino fell on Sunday when Kyrie Irving was sent to Dallas in the first winter blockbuster. That has nothing to do with Atlanta, of course, but it might be a sign of things to come--mostly regarding John Collins leaving the Hawks once and for all.

Onyeka Okongwu has not started a game since he did for the last time on January 18. That matchup wrapped up a 12-game span of consecutive starts for the young man made possible by Clint Capela getting injured. Now that both Capela and Collins are back, OO is an off-the-pine daily performer logging some 20 MPG.

In the 17 games he's started this season (he's appeared in 51 total matches), Okongwu has averaged nearly 30 FPPG and stat lines in the 10-9-1-1-2 vicinity, getting around 33 MPG in those games. For context, only two players in the NBA are doing that over the full season this year: Anthony Davis and Nic Claxton. Even lowering the 2.0 BPG down to 1.0 BPG, you still only get seven players on a season-wide 10-9-1-1-1 average line.

It's impossible to know whether or not Atlanta will finally pull the trigger on a Collins deal, and what would happen with Okongwu if that happens. Even if he keeps playing off the pine with a similar set of teammates, though, OO is still a viable fantasy asset for those managing in deeper leagues.

In his last eight games (all of them in the second unit), he's averaging nearly a 10-7-1 line with 0.5 SPG and 1.5 BPG. The shooting percentages are always sublimely high because he just never stretches the floor, and the blocks are nonsensical with 66 total swats over 52 games--only 10 players in the NBA have blocked more shots than Okongwu this season and only four of those have logged fewer total minutes.

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