Thomas Bryant (C, DEN) - Fantasy Basketball Waiver Wire Pickups for Week 18

February 12, 2023

Thomas Bryant is worth considering as a fantasy basketball waiver wire pickup heading into Week 18 of the 2022-23 NBA season.

BALLER MOVE: Add in 14+ Team Leagues

ROSTERED IN: 14% of leagues

ANALYSIS: I think I would have been writing about Thomas Bryant whether he had stayed in Los Angeles or not, but after he got traded to the Denver Nuggets right before the deadline, I think it makes even more sense to do so now than then.

The writing was kind of on the wall for TB in LA. He started a whole bunch of games when Anthony Davis went down injured and got sidelined, but then Bryant returned to the pine and he had just played a grand total of 49 minutes in the past four games for an average of 12 MPG.

Things won't change that much for him in Denver in terms of his role, of course, because Nikola Jokic is a two-time MVP and he is going nowhere. But Bryant won't have a lot of competition for minutes barring DeAndre Jordan, and DAJ might actually be bought out soon considering 1) the Nugs traded for Bryant for a reason and 2) barring a couple of spot-starts in the past few weeks, he has played 100 minutes since the start of the 2023 calendar year, appearing in just six games.

Bryant is much more complete than Jordan these days. He can stretch the court a bit (enough to hit the odd three and keep defenses honest with an average of 0.5 3PM per game this season) but his mojo comes on the glass. The shooting percentages are very high with him operating inside and that also turns into quite high rebounding numbers when he gets to man the paint.

So far this season, Bryant is one of only 18 players contributing 12+ PPG and 6+ RPG while grabbing at least 15% of all available rebounds (REB%) when he's on the court. Among the players in that group, only Bryant and Jonas Valanciunas are keeping up those numbers on fewer than 25 MPG, and just seven of the 18 are doing so in fewer than 30.

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