Week 18 Fantasy Basketball Waiver Wire: NBA Deep Sleepers

In his Week 18 NBA Waiver Wire column, David Sass focuses on some deep-league sleepers for your fantasy basketball purposes.

Now in Week 18 of the 2014-15 NBA season, the waiver wire is a crucial part of the weekly/daily routine of fantasy basketball managers. The following group of players are not of the typical standard-league variety, but rather options for those participating in deeper formats.

Unless you have the roster space to stash one of these fringe contributors as a sleeper, there is little reason to own any of them outside of leagues with 12 or more teams.

Position Eligibility & Ownership Rate Based on Yahoo! Fantasy Basketball Leagues

Deep League Waiver Wire Options

Jae Crowder (BOS, SF/PF) - 11% Owned

When discussing deep league pick-ups, most of the time you are just looking to ride the hot hand. Right now, the hot hand is in Boston and it is Crowder. The former Marquette scorer, and that’s exactly what he has been doing. Scoring. In the last two weeks, Crowder has been shooting 44% from the floor, with 2 threes, 14.5 points, 6.3 rebounds and 2 assists per game. If you need a short term pick-up then go jump on Crowder immediately. He is also getting around 30 minutes per game during his hot streak.

Omri Casspi (SAC, SF) - 3% Owned

Two weeks ago, I wrote about how I have a hunch that Casspi is a player you should be keeping your eye on. I said I did not know why except the fact that he was a sharpshooter who was cold for way too long. I don’t know if I am very luck or not but since I wrote that article, I have inspired Casspi. In the last two weeks Casspi has averaged .7 threes, 8 points, 10.7 rebounds, and 2.3 assists per game. The Kings roster is actually set up very nicely now for Casspi to continue to get minutes and to continue to produce.

Mitch McGary (OKC, PF/C) - 5% Owned

With Oklahoma City finally making Kendrick Perkins someone else’s problem over the trade deadline, McGary is now slotted in for just under 20 minutes per game. McGary was at one point in his career at Michigan considered a top ten pick. After that he had off the court problems and back problems and slid very far down in draft. Knowing the talent was there we can only hope McGary puts it all together. It looks like he is finally starting to do that with the minutes he has been getting since the trade deadline. Since the trade deadline, McGary has been averaging 8 points, 7 rebounds, 1.5 steals and 1 block. If he continues to produce, his numbers and minutes will only go up.

Keeper League Pickup of the Week

Michael Kidd-Gilchrist (CHA, SF) - 22% Owned

The former second overall pick has been an overall disappointment in his NBA career so far. He was never a good shooter and “NBA people” thought that he could improve in that area and become a very solid NBA player. Unfortunately, that has not happened. Kidd-Gilchrist is not only a bad shooter but he is hard to watch shooting the ball. With that being said, he has made improvements since entering the league and has also learned how to play around his super athletic skill set. He is finally crashing the boards more and being more physical inside. If he continues to do this, you could see decent scoring numbers and larger rebounding numbers from Kidd-Gilchrist from here on out.