January 23, 2018

Week 15 fantasy basketball waiver wire adds for deeper leagues. Take a look at Three NBA players who are owned in less than 15% of fantasy basketball leagues.

The NBA trade deadline is fast approaching, and this means some more opportunity to be found for players on the wire. While you shouldn't give up too much to acquire a player on pure speculation for a potential trade, treating a pickup as a lottery ticket if you have the roster room can really end up being a strong play, and it's good to know who to target in case.

This column will feature only players owned 15% or fewer fantasy leagues.

Here are today's Week 15 deeper league waiver wire pickups for your fantasy basketball teams.

Deep League Adds for Week 15

Wesley Johnson, SG/SF, Los Angeles Clippers (11% Owned in Yahoo! Leagues)

Here's a guy who can serve as an interesting lottery ticket in case Deandre Jordan gets moved. Johnson may not be a great real life player but he is fantasy gold if given the minutes, providing that elusive triple-one (one steal, one block, one three) that very few low end guys can provide.

In the last 2 weeks, Johnson has averaged 2.2 3s, 1.2 steals and 1.0 blocks in just 25 minutes, and that is the kind of production he can give you if he is given a consistent role in the high 20s. This makes him an intriguing stash for deeper leagues, and he can be a top-75 guy if he ends up falling into a high-20s type role post all-star break.

Luc Richard Mbah a Moute, SF/PF, Houston Rockets (3% Owned in Yahoo! Leagues)

Three teams have the coveted 4-4-4 fantasy football schedule: The Raptors, Clippers and Rockets. Mbah a Moute provides enough in the 3 and steal categories to swing a week given a 4 game slate, and that's a good weapon to have in your back pocket for certain textures of match-ups you can see during the playoffs.

Houston's frenetic pace lends itself to turn role players into fantasy assets, and given the stacked schedule, guys like Luc are able to be valuable contributors as the density of the schedule could lead to more minutes for them as well.

Mbah a Moute can average something like 1.2 3s and 1.3 steals given 25+ minutes of playing time, and over 4 games, for each week of the playoffs, that's better than a last minute desperation add for sure.

Montrezl Harrell, PF/C, Los Angeles Clippers (13% Owned in Yahoo! Leagues)

Another guy that looks to benefit from a potential Deandre Jordan trade is "The Table" Montrezl Harrell. As mentioned before, the Clippers also have that perfect playoff schedule and Harrell can score, grab boards and provide some defense if given minutes in the high 20s.

Harrell's game is limited as he doesn't shoot 3s and is a poor free throw shooter who does get to the line enough to hurt, but there are certain builds and teams that will want some scoring punch and rebounds, and Harrell can provide that given a 4 game week.

I prefer to own Wesley Johnson over Harrell, but both are solid adds, and a Deandre trade would make both of these guys ownable in 14+ team leagues.

More Fantasy Basketball Analysis