Thomas Bryant (C, WAS) - Week 13 Waiver Wire Pickups

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ANALYSIS: Thomas Bryant hasn't seen the lion's share of floor-time out of the Washington Wizards front court this season, in fact, the 6-11 former Indiana Hoosier currently ranks just eleventh on the roster in terms of minutes per contest with 17.8 (though he technically ranks tenth with John Wall out for the rest of the year). However, with team megastar Wall out for the season and front court members Dwight Howard and Markieff Morris out still for extended time, the opportunity has come for Bryant's high level of offensive efficiency and solid level of defensive play to shine. Encouragingly for Bryant (yet extremely sad for the Wizards), he was tied for second on the Washington roster in blocked shots at only 0.8 per game while he was tied with Bradley Beal and trailing only Wall. In terms of production per 36 minutes of playing time, Bryant currently ranks fourth for the Wizards in rebounds at an average of 10.3 behind Howard, Devin Robinson, and Okaro White (who have played in just 14 games between them); while he ranks second on the team behind Robinson in blocked-shots within that time on the hardwood with 1.5.

In terms of offensive efficiency, few players in D.C. rival Bryant. Last season for the Lakers he shot just 55.6% from the free-throw stripe and sank only 0.1 three-pointers per 0.7 attempts per outing for a conversion rate of 10%. This season throughout 29 games (and 23 starting-lineup appearances) he has been draining free throws at a success rate of 85.7% while draining a much-improved 24% of shots from beyond the arc out of 0.9 attempts per game. Most impressively, his effective field goal percentage of 68.2% and his true shooting percentage of 72% are both team-leading figures. For all we know, Scott Brooks and the 15-24 Wizards may be done buying and ready to roll with this crew for the remainder of the 2018-2019 season. With such key members of the Washington front court injured, that makes Thomas Bryant a fantastic option for fantasy basketball managers due to his accurate scoring and game-changing rebounding and rim protection.