This article is part of our NBA Waiver Wire series.
I love this – it's a great week for waivers! No caveats, no clauses, not "unless". There are a lot of high impact adds who are widely available. For most standard leagues, managers will want to consider adding more than one of the guys listed below.
If there is a downside to this week's crop of waiver prospects, it's that there aren't a ton of attractive deep-league-only guys. That said, there are so many good options rostered in the 20-60 range that it's likely a few will be available in your league, even if there aren't many appeal options with a lower roster rate.
In terms of the schedule – it's a busy week. If you can stream, you probably should. That said, it's a relatively even week, with 20 teams playing four times and the remaining 10 three times, and with the games-by-day-of-the-week pretty uniformly distributed (except for Thursday's small four-game slate).
Guys you should have already rostered before reading this
Norman Powell, Raptors (53 percent rostered)
Inside the top-65 for the season, Powell returned from a month-long injury absence Friday to the tune of 22 points, four threes and three assists in 36 minutes. He is fully back. Needs to be at 100% roster rate yesterday. Stop reading, add him, and then come back to finish the article.
Other I don't even understand why he's available guys: Damion Lee, (48 percent rostered);
Adds for All Leagues
Harry Giles, Kings (39 percent)
The pending return of
I love this – it's a great week for waivers! No caveats, no clauses, not "unless". There are a lot of high impact adds who are widely available. For most standard leagues, managers will want to consider adding more than one of the guys listed below.
If there is a downside to this week's crop of waiver prospects, it's that there aren't a ton of attractive deep-league-only guys. That said, there are so many good options rostered in the 20-60 range that it's likely a few will be available in your league, even if there aren't many appeal options with a lower roster rate.
In terms of the schedule – it's a busy week. If you can stream, you probably should. That said, it's a relatively even week, with 20 teams playing four times and the remaining 10 three times, and with the games-by-day-of-the-week pretty uniformly distributed (except for Thursday's small four-game slate).
Guys you should have already rostered before reading this
Norman Powell, Raptors (53 percent rostered)
Inside the top-65 for the season, Powell returned from a month-long injury absence Friday to the tune of 22 points, four threes and three assists in 36 minutes. He is fully back. Needs to be at 100% roster rate yesterday. Stop reading, add him, and then come back to finish the article.
Other I don't even understand why he's available guys: Damion Lee, (48 percent rostered);
Adds for All Leagues
Harry Giles, Kings (39 percent)
The pending return of Richaun Holmes (shoulder; set to be reevaluated this week) and Marvin Bagley (foot, out at least another week and a half) dampens the appeal here, but Giles has been incredible the last four games. He has all the talent that comes with a player who was once projected as a potential No. 1 overall draft pick, and he's been a per-36 beast since the moment he stepped foot on an NBA court.
Now finally getting some meaningful run with Holmes and Bagley on the sidelines, and Dewayne Dedmon traded away, Giles is a must-start in all leagues for as long as his minutes hold up. Over the last four games, he's averaging 15.5 points, 8.5 rebounds and 2.3 assists in 27.5 minutes. His defensive abilities haven't really shown up during this short stretch so far, but he averages more than one steal and one block per-36 minutes, so I expect some modest improvement in those categories soon.
Shake Milton, 76ers (29 percent rostered)
Milton is looking like a longer-term add compared to Giles, though his ceiling is significantly lower. The 76ers have played three games since Ben Simmons (back) got the "out indefinitely tag" (amidst some ominous sounding tweets from reporters and family members). Milton has returned to the starting lineup and averaged 15.3 points, 4.7 assists, 4.0 rebounds and 3.3 threes in 31.7 minutes per game. Milton was also solid when he was starting in place Josh Richardson for a spell just before the All-Star break, implying that this three-game run is sustainable.
Seth Curry, Mavericks (36 percent rostered)
It's kind of weird that one of the guys seeing the biggest post-trade deadline surge is Curry – the Mavericks didn't make any trades! But Curry is averaging 18.9 points, 3.8 threes, and a small smattering of rebounds, assists and steals. Even more impressively, he's shooting 56-58-82 – that's not a typo, he's shooting better from beyond the arc than from the field overall! Multiple exclamation points in the same paragraph! He's been so effective from deep that he just moved into second place on the all-time ranks for three-point percentage (min. 250 career made threes). His fantasy value is buoyed by Jalen Brunson's (shoulder) injury, which is likely to keep Brunson sidelined for several weeks. I'd still rather roster teammate Tim Hardaway Jr (79 percent rostered) in most circumstances, but that gap has narrowed.
Otto Porter Jr., Bulls (59 percent rostered)
The Bulls said Porter (foot) would return by the end of February. Though he hasn't yet returned to action, they've been treating him as game-to-game since the All-Star break, and his return feels imminent. He's got an incredible history of top-end Fantasy production. It might take a few games to get back into the swing of things, but I expect him to be a major difference maker down the stretch.
Other recommendations: Daniel Theis, Celtics (62 percent rostered); De'Andre Hunter, Hawks (66 percent rostered); Terrence Ross, Magic (43 percent rostered); Jordan Clarkson, Jazz (61 percent rostered); Naz Reid, Timberwolves (47 percent rostered); Cam Reddish, Hawks (48 percent rostered); James Johnson, Timberwolves (25 percent rostered); Kevin Porter, Cavaliers (31 percent rostered); Gorgui Dieng, Grizzlies (34 percent rostered)
Deep-League Advice
There are no clear adds among the players rostered in less than 20 percent of leagues. Hopefully, one of the players listed above slipped through the cracks. But if not, my advice is to target one of the many players who are currently slumping but have shown some excellent Fantasy production earlier this season. The idea here is that some of these slumps will probably end soon, and you can get ahead of that. My favorite currently-slumping options rostered in less than 20 percent of leagues are Mo Wagner, Wizards (17 percent rostered) and Landry Shamet, Clippers (16 percent rostered).
