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 our imaginary rosters.
A willingness to entertain competition for the final 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-the-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 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 listed players at each position in order of priority, rather than roster percentage, in ESPN men’s basketball leagues.
Point guard
Carlton Carrington, SG, Washington Wizards (Rostered in 18.3% of ESPN leagues): This savvy rookie playmaker goes by the moniker “Bub.” While we also have interest in the team’s top pick, as you’ll read below, it is a testament to the quality of Washington’s draft class that Carrington leads the week as our priority point guard addition. His scoring efficiency and output will likely prove volatile during his first run through the league, but we’re also witnessing steady creation for others and a stellar steal rate to help buffer those leaner shooting nights.
Stephon Castle, SG, San Antonio Spurs (26.2%): Rising rookies appears to be the unintentional theme of the week at this position; Castle joins Carrington with a recent spike in minutes and playmaking. Carrington simply has more freedom to create on his young roster, while San Antonio is balancing between proven veterans and the development of Castle and his peers. You’ll need to navigate some light nights with Castle, but recent spikes in playing time and touches reveal he’s becoming a more important part of the rotation.
Dalano Banton, SG/SF, Portland Trail Blazers (2.6%): Eligible at three positions in ESPN leagues thanks to his versatile bench role for Portland, Blanton is proving that last year’s fun finish wasn’t an aberration. This recent surge in scoring is tied to Anfernee Simons‘ injury issues, affording Blanton a rewarding spike in minutes and touches. While this isn’t an enduring role for Blanton, those in deep leagues should pay attention whenever this combo guard is elevated in the rotation.
Shooting guard
Shaedon Sharpe, SF, Portland Trail Blazers (28.6%): Young talents are establishing new tiers of production around the league, with Sharpe absolutely in this fun tier of players. After ramping up from a recent injury, Sharpe has scored 65 points in his past two games as we enter the new week of action. While I think the other names at shooting guard are more like interim additions to fantasy rosters this week, Sharpe is the one who has real staying power.
Brandon Boston Jr., SF, New Orleans Pelicans (21.0%): There are teams that are dealing with injuries, and then there are the Pelicans, a team entirely decimated by a series of impact injuries. Boston has taken advantage of a recent spike in minutes and offensive opportunities, delivering a fun mix of scoring, passing, rebounding and steals.
Jordan Clarkson, SF, Utah Jazz (33.6%): It appears that while the team is shuffling younger talent at point guard to find the right fit, they still know exactly what they have in Clarkson; a veteran bucket off the bench who, in the face of the team essentially demoting Keyonte George from lead creator duties, has become a more active and successful creator. Not only are you getting tons of points and 3-pointers from Clarkson in recent games, his spike in passing adds a new dimension to his profile.
Malik Beasley, Detroit Pistons (12.1%): The Pistons imported several veteran shooting specialists this offseason, chiefly Tim Hardaway Jr. and Beasley. With “THJ” ailing and Beasley enjoying a patented hot stretch from deep, it’s worth giving Beasley a look until he cools off.
Small forward
Bennedict Mathurin, SG, Indiana Pacers (56.8%): A true scoring force, Mathurin is beginning to find his way in Year 3. The Pacers toggled his role a bit when he was a rookie last season, but they now appear to trust Mathurin as a primary perimeter scorer. Since becoming a starter a few weeks back, Mathurin has become not just a real 20 PPG scorer, but also deft at cleaning the glass for a shooting guard.
Jaden McDaniels, Minnesota Timberwolves (10.9%): A recent spike in shooting success marries well with McDaniels’ elite defensive rates. It’s hard to buy McDaniels as a real two-way force, but this recent rise in offense is encouraging.
Power forward
Patrick Williams, Chicago Bulls (11.5%): A quiet showing against Houston over the weekend isn’t really representative of Williams’ growth this season; he has become a more dynamic scorer and even showed off some passing skills this past week with a career assist showing. You need to look past the scoring column to really appreciate what this player brings to your fantasy team(s).
Moussa Diabate, Charlotte Hornets (5.3%): Making his debut in this column, Diabate has flashed awesome rebounding skills in recent games for a team badly in need of glue guys to complement their young core of stars. A blowout loss to the Cavaliers saw his minutes vanish recently, so there is risk present in his profile, but we also should acknowledge Diabate is likely already the team’s best energy big.
Center
Alexandre Sarr, PF, Washington Wizards (32.1%): It’s youth week on the waiver wire, with Sarr rising as a rookie center right in front of our eyes. Sure, the scoring efficiency can be alarming at times, but we are also dealing with atypically awesome steal and block rates from this French phenom.
Donovan Clingan, Portland Trail Blazers (16.0%): We are already seeing the special rim protection skills surface for this rookie pivot. We are still waiting on more minutes and offensive work for Clingan to be more than a defensive specialist, but he does have league-changing swat potential if the team ever moves on from Deandre Ayton.
Special teams
This section focuses on specialists, players who flash in a singular category and can provide specific value to those in category and roto formats. Nominations are based on which category such players are helpful in and will rotate throughout the season.
3-pointers: Beasley sits seventh in the entire league in added value via 3-point volume the past two weeks. For deeper formats, we also find Payton Pritchard still firing from deep.
Steals: Dyson Daniels remains just ridiculous in this category, but he has been joined by the likes of Tari Eason, McDaniels and Carrington among the steals leaders the past two weeks.
Blocks: Sarr and Clingan are the rare rookies who have real rim protection potential.
Rebounds: Diabate is 16th overall in added value on the glass the past two weeks, while Detroit’s Isaiah Stewart is also proving helpful.
Assists: Carrington is becoming a real source of passing volume worthy of more attention.
