Fantasy basketball waiver wire pickups: Best players to add for steals

Jim McCormick, Special to ESPN.comDec 11, 2023, 12:00 PM ET

CloseJim McCormick is a fantasy football and fantasy basketball analyst for ESPN.com.

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.

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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 men’s basketball leagues.

Point Guard

Cole Anthony, Orlando Magic (Rostered in 43.0% of ESPN leagues): A recent injury to Jalen Suggs could mean even more minutes and touches for Anthony as the team’s lead guard in the coming games. With the team’s glaring lack of guard depth, Anthony should continue to sustain a major perimeter creation and scoring role for Orlando.

Killian Hayes, Detroit Pistons (12.4%): Second on the Pistons with 8.4 potential assists per game and with six rebounding chances per game, Hayes sees enough opportunity rates for the Pistons to support fantasy value. After all, Monty Williams keeps trusting Hayes with big minutes, driving a stable floor for the former lottery pick.

Dante Exum, Dallas Mavericks (1.2%): Speaking of former lottery selections, Exum is back in an NBA…

Source link : https://www.espn.com/fantasy/basketball/story/_/id/39090693/waiver-wire-pickups-nba-week-matisse-thybulle-bogdan-bogdanovic

Author : Jim McCormick

Publish date : 2023-12-11 17:15:04

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