Fantasy Basketball Pickups - Week 9

Yahoo Fantasy analyst Dan Titus offers several waiver options midway through Week 9 of the fantasy basketball season.

Video Transcript

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DAN TITUS: We're in the midst of week 8, and I have four recommendations ahead of week 9 that I think you'll want to jump on right now in fantasy basketball. The first one, Walker Kessler, who's currently 34% rostered in Yahoo leagues. I'll grab him now, because his time under 50% rostered is not going to last much longer. He replaced Jared Vanderbilt in the starting lineup on Wednesday, and he's strung together three stellar performances, averaging 12.7 points, 10.3 boards, and 3.3 blocks. He's elite for blocks, but I think he could also be a cheap double-double similar to Jakob Poeltl. He's a must add in all shallow and deep leagues right now.

The second player I'm recommending is Mo Wagner of the Orlando Magic. He's currently 24% rostered in Yahoo leagues. Wagner's been filling in for the injured Wendell Carter Jr. and he's been a beast over his last four games. 15 points, 9 and 1/2 rebounds, two assists and 1 and 1/2 stocks, along with 54% shooting from the field.

And he's been playing a lot of minutes. He's played over 32 minutes in three of his last four games. But in his last two games, man, were they special. 20 points, 13 rebounds, along with two stocks. So the Magic, they played two more games in week 8, but they have three games heading into week 9. I think Mo Wagner is a person you'll want to add right now, because Wendell Carter Jr. has yet to start practicing yet.

The third player recommended is Grant Williams of the Boston Celtics. He's currently 29% rostered. Now Williams is slated for heavy minutes with Al Horford being out in health and safety protocols. His minutes were already trending up. I think his minutes have really turned into better production in December. He's averaging 12.3 points, 4.8 rebounds, 2.2 3-pointers made, and 70/60 in 100 shooting splits. I mean, he's been efficient all season, but this is another level. Boston plays four games in week 9, and two of those games come against the Orlando Magic. So fantasy friendly team. I think Grant Williams is going to be a really good add here for week 9.

And someone that I want to consider for watch list, Quentin Grimes of the New York Knicks. He's currently 7% rostered. Evan Fournier and Cam Reddish are both out of the rotation, and maybe you guys didn't notice because it's the Knicks, but Quentin Grimes started the last 10 games for the Knicks, and he's averaging 28.4 minutes over that span. But he went off on Wednesday night for 23 points, four rebounds, two assists, five 3-pointers, and two blocks.

Now he's really known as a steal specialist, but I think you'll see that he's going to continue to get significant minutes for this Knicks team. And he's only going to get better. So I think this is a player that you'll want to watch. But in deeper leagues, I would add him right now, because he's going to be very popular once he improves over the course of the season when he gets more minutes.