Fantasy Basketball: Waiver Wire pickups for Week 6
By Alex Rikleen, RotoWire
Special to Yahoo Sports
Gobble Gobble. Thanksgiving week is here, and if you play in daily lineup-leagues, the holiday has notable impact on the Week 6 schedule. No matter what type of league you play in though, it’s always important to stay vigilant on the waiver wire.
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The NBA takes Thanksgiving Day off, which leads to massive 13- and 14-game slates on Wednesday and Friday. With so many teams active, pretty much every Fantasy team will have completely full starting lineups on both of those days. As a result, waiver wire prospects who play on both days suffer a huge hit in value, as their production will be wasted on Fantasy benches. The Clippers, Heat, Magic, Wizards, Mavericks and Kings play on either Wednesday or Friday, but not both. Everyone else plays both days.
If you play in weekly lineup leagues, then the Week 6 schedule is pretty straightforward. 10 teams play three games, and 20 teams play four. It’s an even enough split, and there are no silly one-, two- or five-game weeks. Play your best guys, and when in doubt give the edge to the one playing more games.
The players below are listed in the order I’d recommend adding them.
As always, this article focuses on players available in at least 50 percent of leagues. That said, here are some good players who might still be available in your league, and are worth checking for:
Kris Dunn, Bulls (64 percent rostered)
Larry Nance, Cavaliers (63 percent rostered)
E’Twaun Moore, Pelicans (56 percent rostered)
Jonathan Isaac, Magic (55 percent rostered)
Bogdan Bogdanovic, Kings (59 percent rostered)
Jae Crowder, Jazz (61 percent rostered)
Bojan Bogdanovic, Pacers (62 percent rostered)
Jeremy Lamb, Hornets (55 percent rostered)
The top three of those are must-adds in almost all formats, if available, and I’d recommend all seven of them above the lesser-rostered players who I go into more depth on, below.
Kevin Knox, Knicks (33 percent owned)
Next week’s schedule: POR, at BOS, NO, at MEM
Knox made his way into the starting lineup Wednesday. While the promotion didn’t have much of an impact on his minutes — he played 29 minutes after averaging 25.0 minutes in the two previous games — it signifies an increased role and a higher production floor. He’s scored at least 10 points and one three in every game where he’s seen double-digit minutes. The Knicks have made several changes to their rotation so far this season, so this move isn’t so much “permanent” as it is “permanent for now”. He’s definitely an intriguing add, and someone with potential to stick on your roster for the rest of the season.
Quinn Cook, Warriors (41 percent rostered)
Next week’s schedule: OKC, POR, SAN
Cook isn’t worth rostering once Steph Curry (groin) returns, but Curry is slated to miss all of Week 6, and possibly longer. With Curry out, Cook is averaging 15.2 points, 3.3 assists, 3.2 rebounds and 2.7 threes while shooting 54.5 percent from the field in 24.7 minutes. That’s rosterable in all formats. And, even though the national media has been obsessed with the Kevin Durant-Draymond Green saga all week, on a fundamental level this team knows what it is, and it’s relatively stable. If those stats above match your team’s needs, Cook is likely to provide them. Desperate deep-league managers can also look at Shaun Livingston (1 percent rostered) during this window, but his floor is barely above ground-level.
Wilson Chandler, 76ers (13 percent rostered)
Next week’s schedule: PHO, NO, CLE, at BKN
Following last week’s blockbuster Jimmy Butler trade, Chandler is the waiver wire prospect I expect to be most impacted. The 76ers sent away two major starting rotation pieces and only got one player back. Chandler has only played 23 minutes per game since the trade, but they are still easing him back in following a preseason hamstring injury. He has started both games and his workload is likely to increase as he gets healthier. While he struggled in 2017-18, despite a large role in the Nuggets rotation, he was a top-90 player in 2016-17. Like most of the potential waiver adds this week, Chandler is flawed and risky, but his potential upside is very high.
James Ennis, Rockets (13 percent rostered)
Next week’s schedule: DET, at DET, at CLE
Strap in. This will probably be a bumpy ride. Let’s use the NBA’s standard scoring for fantasy points as a proxy to show Ennis’ wild extremes. He just posted back-to-back games of 29.5 and 30.3 fantasy points. In the three games prior, he averaged 6.6 fantasy points. He has as many games of at least 0.8 fantasy points per minute (very good) as he does games below 0.4 (very bad). But as inconsistent as he may be, he just got a big promotion with Carmelo Anthony now permanently removed from the Rockets rotation.
Anthony averaged 31.3 minutes per game before the Rockets started moving away from him, and he was not playing well. Ennis could easily see at least that much court time. When he’s good, he’s likely to provide some decent well-balance production — good threes, steals, field goal percentage and turnovers, OK points and rebounds, not-harmful assists and blocks. He’s been terrible from the free-throw line so far this season, but that will probably improve with time.
Terrence Ross, Magic (48 percent rostered)
Next week’s schedule: TOR, at DET, at LAL
Seven straight games of at least 12 points is hard to ignore, especially since he scored at least 15 with multiple threes all but one of those. He’s hit a three in 11 straight games, and his field goal efficiency during that stretch is almost Kyle Korver-esque. During that span, Ross is averaging 15.4 points and 2.8 threes while shooting 47.4 percent from the field and 43.1 percent from behind the arc. He’s only an OK free-throw shooter, averaging 79.9 percent for his career, which is an indication that his current hot streak is just that – a hot streak.
On the other hand, the Magic are pretty much fully healthy, and his role has stayed steady. If efficiency drops, he’s still likely to provide deep-league quality points and threes-numbers. For now, though, shallow league managers should ride him for as long as this lasts.
Other recommendations: Gary Clark, Rockets (2 percent rostered); Collin Sexton, Cavaliers (43 percent rostered); Jordan Clarkson, Cavaliers (37 percent rostered); Langston Galloway, Pistons (5 percent rostered); Jeff Green, Wizards (22 percent rostered); Cedi Osman, Cavaliers (22 percent rostered); Bryn Forbes, Spurs (14 percent rostered); Shelvin Mack, Grizzlies (19 percent rostered)
Speculative adds: Monte Morris, Nuggets (18 percent rostered); P.J. Tucker, Rockets (37 percent rostered); Juancho Hernangomez, Nuggets (5 percent rostered)
