Basketball
Hello! Happy New Year! If you’re into resolutions, I wish you confidence and resilience.
The NBA decided to ring in the new year with a pretty flat waiver pool. There aren’t a ton of exciting options to lead us off, but the bottom of the “other recommendations” section is unusually strong. This even depth should have a strategic impact on how we approach pickups: because the dropoff from one player to the next is low, we should be willing to risk a “wasted” pick to prioritize upside. That consideration is reflected in this week’s top recommendation, a personal favorite of mine who has neither played much nor produced much so far this season but whose surrounding situation just changed dramatically.
As always, the players in this article must be rostered in less than two-thirds of CBS leagues. Players are listed in the order that I recommend adding them, assuming they are equally good fits for your team.
Basketball Adds for all leagues
Ausar Thompson, Pistons (37% rostered)
Jaden Ivey (leg) is out for a while. The next update will come in four weeks, but after his surgery on Thursday, it’s likely he’ll miss a minimum of two months, if not the rest of the season. That leaves a large hole in the Pistons’ rotation – a hole that is approximately the size of 29.9 minutes, four assists, and 13.8 FGA, give or take. Thompson is a positional weirdo and a poor floor spacer, the latter of which probably limits how many minutes he can share with franchise centerpiece Cade Cunningham. But the 21-year-old sophomore is also a focal point for the Pistons, and they’ll likely need him to take on a much larger role with Ivey out.
Thompson is off to a slow start this season, missing the first month of the season (and the last few of 2023-24) with a blood clotting disorder. His minutes were limited upon his return, but they called on him for 27 minutes on December 16 when they were without Ivey and Tobias Harris. That workload implied that he’s now capable of bigger minutes when needed. Over the last seven games, while Detroit has been mostly healthy, Thompson is up to 9-5-1 with 1.9 steals while playing just 20.6 minutes. He’s already an excellent steals specialist, and with the expected increase in minutes and playmaking responsibilities, his points, rebounds, and assists should meaningfully improve.
In a normal week, Thompson would show up much lower down in this column, as there’s more speculation than usual for a top add. But this is a dry week on the waiver wire. The opportunity cost is low, and I think the upside here is really high – I’m a huge Thompson booster, and I was holding him as a long-term speculative play even before the Ivey injury in most of my leagues. With such poor alternatives, it’s worth prioritizing Thompson’s potential.
Trayce Jackson-Davis, Warriors (66% rostered)
Jackson-Davis recently returned to the starting lineup, and his minutes and production have predictably jumped accordingly. In the first six games after the change, he got up to 14-10-3 with 1.8 blocks in 26.3 minutes (I’m ignoring Thursday night’s dud when he sat out the whole fourth quarter due to a blowout). Jackson has been in and out of the starting lineup since the end of last season, and he’s been fantasy viable for most of those starts. The Warriors are liable to continue tinkering with their lineups, and they are prime candidates to shake up their roster with another trade – Jackson-Davis could keep his starting role for the rest of the season, or he could be backing up Yves Missi in New Orleans next weekend. There’s the possibility this is a long-term add, but you’ll have to continue to monitor closely.
Spencer Dinwiddie, Mavericks (51% rostered)
Quentin Grimes, Mavericks (26% rostered)
If you’re looking for an injury replacement but don’t want the risk involved in Thompson, then this Mavs pair is for you. Luka Doncic (calf) is out at least a month. Dinwiddie and Grimes are the primary beneficiaries. Doncic has been out four games, and three of those have been impacted by suspensions to key rotation players, so the data from these games is probably misleading. That said, when Doncic missed five games in November, Dinwiddie averaged 13-3-7 with 2.2 3s and 1.2 steals in 28.8, while Grimes put up 16-5-2 with 2.8 3s in 28.5 minutes. Those splits are probably good indicators of what we can expect for the next month.
Donte DiVincenzo, Timberwolves (61% rostered)
Normally, when someone nearly doubles their scoring average over an eight-game run, I call it an unsustainable hot streak. However, in this case, I actually think DiVincenzo is finally breaking out of an unsustainable cold streak. Over his previous four seasons, DiVincenzo shot 39% from behind the arc – a massive sample size proving his chops as a deep threat. Yet, through the first 25 games of 2024-25, he was an icy 32%, and he was on track to set a career low in field goal percentage, too. Sure, there’s probably some overcorrection happening, and he’ll likely cool off a little from the 15.4 points and 48-47-90 shooting split he’s averaged since he got his powers back from the Monstars. Even factoring in some normalization, however, I think DiVincenzo has a good chance to remain rosterable the rest of the way.
Other recommendations: Andrew Nembhard, Pacers (46% rostered); Keon Johnson, Nets (12% rostered); Jordan Clarkson, Jazz (63% rostered); Dillon Brooks, Rockets (46% rostered); Scotty Pippen Jr., Grizzlies (62% rostered); Tristan da Silva, Magic (20% rostered); Malik Beasley, Pistons (65% rostered); Rui Hachimura, Lakers (58% rostered); Al Horford, Celtics (43% rostered); Guerschon Yabusele, 76ers (20% rostered); Duncan Robinson, Heat (16% rostered); Tim Hardaway Jr., Pistons (10% rostered)
Basketball Do you need 3s?
Noah Clowney, Nets (26% rostered)
Clowney has been one of the most added players this past week, so I don’t want to ignore him. His minutes have skyrocketed since Trendon Watford (hamstring) got hurt, and the Nets are doing that fun day-to-day-no-timeline thing even though Watford just missed his seventh straight game. There’s no reason to believe Watford will return soon (though, of course, he might! Thanks Nets!). In the meantime, Clowney’s court time has jumped to 28.2 minutes per game. The problem is, Clowney’s a very borderline Fantasy guy. If you need 3s, he’s a great start. Not only is he draining 2.8 per game, but he’s doing so from the power forward slot, not usually a roster’s biggest source of triples. The concern is that he’s below replacement level for a Fantasy big man in every other category. He’s doing enough that a deep league manager or someone desperate for 3s should consider him. But most managers should pass.
Basketball The Grizzlies
The Appalachian bears are cursed (scientists are still investigating whether it is the same curse that has struck the Pelicans). Their depth chart on RotoWire literally has more names with red than without. Their “Last 5 Games” board looks like a game of minesweeper. There is absolutely Fantasy value to be had in a chaotic situation like this. However, there are two problems:
- Do you even want to deal with this headache? Seriously, Fantasy is supposed to be fun, and parsing this injury report is a drag.
- There are so many injuries on varying timelines and so many fringe players getting hot and cold that a weekly article’s advice is likely to get outdated quickly (especially since the Grizz are, as just mentioned, cursed, and so another injury is inevitably coming soon).
That said, it’s my job to give you pickup advice. So, here are the Grizzlies you can currently consider adding in the order I’d “recommend” them if you’re into that kind of thing:
Luke Kennard (5% rostered)
Jaylen Wells (16% rostered)
Gregory Jackson (10% rostered) expected to make season debut later this month
John Konchar (3% rostered)
Scotty Pippen Jr. is the only Grizzled one valuable enough to rise above this section and get mentioned in the “other recommendation” section above.
Basketball Deep league special
Max Christie, Lakers (12% rostered)
It’s been 10 games since Christie got promoted into the starting lineup, and the third-year former second-round pick has performed admirably. He’s averaging 12-3-1 with two 3s and 1.3 steals in 29.7 minutes while shooting an impressive 47-44-93 split. Most importantly, his promotion has coincided with one of the Lakers’ best runs of the season – over the last 10 games, they are 7-3 with a net rating of +2.3; before that, they were 12-11 with a net rating of -4.5. Obviously, Christie isn’t the cause of their turnaround, but his improved Fantasy value coinciding with on-court success makes it more likely that he’ll get to continue in his current role. I’m a little concerned that Christie may eventually lose his starting spot to the recently acquired Dorian Finney-Smith, however, that can be a problem for future us. For now, Christie is easily rosterable in most deep leagues.
Other recommendations: Nikola Jovic, Heat (15% rostered); Bruce Brown, Raptors (8% rostered); Marcus Sasser, Pistons (2% rostered)
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