The Fantasy Basketball Drop List: Week 7

February 4, 2021

Justin Carter looks at fantasy basketball players who can be dropped in Week 7. These are players who are struggling in the 2020-21 NBA season.

Every fantasy sports site is filled with articles about which players you need to pick up, but what about the guys you need to be dropping in order to fit those new players into your lineup?

Have no fear -- RotoBaller is here is tell you who you need to be dropping when you make your waiver claims this week.

Below is our weekly fantasy basketball drop list, a look at players who are can be dropped in some or all formats. Every Thursday, we'll look at why it's fine to move on from certain players based on their recent play. Remember: every league is different, so make sure you evaluate what options you have to replace these players before you actually drop them.

Players to Consider Dropping or Replacing

Wayne Ellington (G/F, Detroit Pistons)

33% rostered

Am I, personally, dropping Wayne Ellington? Probably not for at least another game, mainly because I've committed myself too hard by hyping him up on this website for two weeks. There's some phrase for the logical fallacy I'm committing here, but I'm writing this way too early in the morning for my brain to figure out what I'm talking about.

Anyway, Wayne Ellington.

For a brief stretch, it looked like Ellington was Detroit's best weapon. But that seven-game stretch saw Ellington shoot a wildly unsustainable 59.7 percent from three. That was bound to cool off, and it appears over the past few games that it has.

The problem: I didn't anticipate his actual playing time would cool off as well.

Over his seven games of pure shooting bliss, Ellington was playing 30.9 minutes per game. Over the past two games in which he's a combined 1-for-13 from the floor, he's averaging 18 minutes per game. Ignore the fact he's shooting just 7.7 percent in that frame. Ellington's value has been about three-point volume, and he's taken just 3.5 per game over the last two games. If he's playing under 20 minutes per night, it's hard to see him getting back close to the volume that made him a quick-rising fantasy play.

Kendrick Nunn (G, Miami Heat)

18% rostered

We're not far removed from Nunn playing 30 minutes per game for the Heat, but it appears he's now firmly outside the rotation. Nunn hasn't played in Miami's past three games.

While he had a solid eight-game stretch in which he averaged 34.2 minutes per game while posting 16.4 points, 4.3 rebounds, 2.9 assists, and 1.3 steals per game on 48.1 percent shooting with 2.1 threes per game, the fact that Nunn opened the year outside of the rotation meant there was always a chance his elevated role was temporary.

And with Jimmy Butler, Goran Dragic, and Andre Iguodala all back coupled with improved play from Max Strus off the bench, it appears Nunn's spot has just vanished.

We know he can compile numbers in a larger role, so if COVID issues strike again in Miami, Nunn could become valuable again. But overall, it looks like we're right back where we were at the start of this season: with Nunn not being relevant in fantasy basketball. Go ahead and drop him. It's clear he's not considered a core part of this Heat team.

David Nwaba (G/F, Houston Rockets)

3% rostered

I love David Nwaba, and he'd gotten up to around 10 percent rostered at one point because people were starting to come around on him, but he's now missed a couple of games in a row with an ankle injury and it's unclear when Nwaba will be cleared to return.

Nwaba is really a good example of a kind of player you should be willing to drop: low-rostered wings who are dealing with injuries. It seems like the NBA is full of wings right now, and when one goes out, someone else seems to step in and give you production.

In the first Thunder game, Nwaba was out and Danuel House Jr. picked up the slack, scoring 13 points and draining four threes. In the next game, we saw some extra offensive looks from Sterling Brown.

Wings who are rostered under, like, 15 percent or so aren't really worth holding if they're hurt, no matter how much we personally enjoy their games. For that reason, Nwaba should be pretty high on your drop list, if you haven't already made that move, which more than half of his fantasy managers have done.

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