Working the waiver wire is pivotal to succeeding in fantasy basketball. With so many games, injuries and endless shifts in rotations throughout the marathon campaign, we’ll need to source stats from free agency to maximize imaginary rosters.
A willingness to entertain competition for the last few spots on your fantasy hoops roster can prove rewarding. When curating this fluid collective of statistical contributors, it helps to consider your end-of-bench players in direct competition with the talent floating in free agency.
The goal of this weekly series is to identify players at each position widely available in free agency in ESPN leagues. Some nominations are specialists capable of helping in one or two categories, while others deliver more diverse and important statistical offerings. In the breakdowns below, I’ve ordered players at each position with the priority of acquisition in mind, rather than roster percentage in ESPN leagues.
Point guard
Cameron Payne, Phoenix Suns (Rostered in 23.9% of ESPN leagues): Chris Paul is working his way back from a lingering heel injury, but it doesn’t sound like his return is either imminent or likely to include heavy minutes and usage right away, signaling extended fantasy value for Payne as long as he’s starting for Phoenix.
De’Anthony Melton, Philadelphia 76ers (26.9%): Likely to continue to play heavy minutes even upon James Harden‘s return to the rotation given Tyrese Maxey is still weeks from a return, Melton brings one of the best steal rates in the league along with some helpful shooting and rebounding rates for a combo guard.
Killian Hayes, Detroit Pistons (19.6%): With at least six assists in eight of his last nine games, Hayes has established himself as one ofs the best widely-available sources of assists. A clutch performance against the Mavericks a few nights ago confirms that Hayes is making a leap of sorts in his third season.
Shooting guard
Tim Hardaway Jr., Dallas Mavericks (11.2%): Few players claim as much shooting confidence, irrational or otherwise, as Hardaway Jr. when he’s in the midst of a hot streak. Now is one of those times, as “THJ” has dropped at least 22 points in three straight exiting the weekend.
Malik Monk, Sacramento Kings (17.9%): There will be some quiet lines when Monk…
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