This article is part of our NBA Waiver Wire series.
As is traditionally the case, a decent crop of waiver pickups are emerging following the All-Star break. This, of course, coincides with entering the home stretch of the season – a mere six-and-a-half weeks remain before champions will be crowned.
As always, the players listed below are in the order I recommend picking them up. But as we get later into the season, you should pay less and less attention to that order. I'm recommending Mitchell Robinson ahead of Robin Lopez, but Lopez is the better pickup if you need points and already lead the league in blocks. How a player fits into your lineup gets even more important as we close in on the end of the season.
Though there are a bunch of appealing waiver options, there is a notable scarcity of guards worth picking up. If you're in need of guards, the best advice – frustrating as it may seem – is to pick up the best available and stay vigilant hoping a better option comes along soon.
Schedule-wise, it's a busy week, with no two-game teams and just 10 teams on a three-game week. With so many games, daily lineups rosters may be little more full than normal, so waiver pickups from the Knicks, Nuggets, Raptors, Celtics, Magic and Thunder may provide extra value – those are the teams in action on Tuesday's unusually light slate.
As was just mentioned, the usual framework applies. The players in this article must be rostered in less than
As is traditionally the case, a decent crop of waiver pickups are emerging following the All-Star break. This, of course, coincides with entering the home stretch of the season – a mere six-and-a-half weeks remain before champions will be crowned.
As always, the players listed below are in the order I recommend picking them up. But as we get later into the season, you should pay less and less attention to that order. I'm recommending Mitchell Robinson ahead of Robin Lopez, but Lopez is the better pickup if you need points and already lead the league in blocks. How a player fits into your lineup gets even more important as we close in on the end of the season.
Though there are a bunch of appealing waiver options, there is a notable scarcity of guards worth picking up. If you're in need of guards, the best advice – frustrating as it may seem – is to pick up the best available and stay vigilant hoping a better option comes along soon.
Schedule-wise, it's a busy week, with no two-game teams and just 10 teams on a three-game week. With so many games, daily lineups rosters may be little more full than normal, so waiver pickups from the Knicks, Nuggets, Raptors, Celtics, Magic and Thunder may provide extra value – those are the teams in action on Tuesday's unusually light slate.
As was just mentioned, the usual framework applies. The players in this article must be rostered in less than two-thirds of CBS leagues. Players are listed in the order I recommend adding them, assuming they are equally good fits for your team.
Adds for All Leagues
Mitchell Robinson, Knicks (56 percent rostered)Robinson should already be rostered in all leagues, and if you are a member of on of the negligent 46 percent in which he is still available, go fix that now. A minute ago, I implied that there was a circumstance in which a manager might not pick up Robinson, and instead pickup someone else in this article. A better plan would be to pick up Robinson and whoever else attracts you, because I can almost guarantee that you have several players less valuable than Robinson right now.
His games on either side of the All-Star break were disappointing, but even with those let-downs he's still averaging 10.5 points, 8.4 rebounds, and 3.3 blocks in 21.9 minutes since he last missed a game (an eight-game stretch). Despite playing only 17.1 minutes per game in 2018, he's risen to third in the league in blocks per game on the season, and he has a realistic chance to jump into second place soon. Perhaps even more importantly, he's still improving.
Robin Lopez, Bulls (25 percent rostered)
There may be an expiration date on Lopez's usefulness as a Fantasy option, but with Wendell Carter (thumb) not expected to return until late March, that date could still be a ways away. The probability of a late-March expiration date make Lopez a bad fit for head-to-head managers who are at the very top of their leagues, since his drop-off is likely to come at the end of the Fantasy playoffs. However, for a roto team, a H2H team still fighting just to make the playoffs, or a playoff-bound underdog, Lopez is worth a look.
Lopez has started all but two games since Carter's injury. He's scored in double-digits in seven straight, averaging 16.9 points, 10.6 field goal attempts and 1.4 blocks on excellent shooting efficiency. Lopez's current offensive role is unusually large given his history, but altogether outside of his normal abilities, so there is a decent chance he's able to keep this production going.
Jalen Brunson, Mavericks (11 percent rostered)
In most weeks, Brunson would be relegated either to the "other recommendations" list or to the streaming section below. However, since this week is particularly light on appealing guard options, Brunson gets the promotion. He saw extra play over the last two games while Luka Doncic (ankle) was out. Though Doncic is slated to return Monday, Brunson also started five of the last six that Doncic was healthy for. Brunson is a decent source of points and assists when he's getting minutes. You'll probably have to drop him soon, but that's OK.
Cheick Diallo, Pelicans (25 percent rostered)
Diallo has played more minutes than Jahlil Okafor (67 percent rostered) in both of the Pelicans' games since the All-Star break. I've held onto Okafor anywhere I've rostered him, but Diallo is potentially addable in case this trend continues. I still think Okafor has more upside than Diallo, but Diallo's back-to-back double-doubles demand attention.
Other recommendations: Damyean Dotson, Knicks (20 percent rostered); Cody Zeller, Hornets (40 percent rostered); Dion Waiters (29 percent rostered); Tyler Johnson, Suns (40 percent rostered)
Still Streaming
Boban Marjanovic, 76ers (18 percent rostered)As of the 76ers' most recent update, Joel Embiid (knee) will be out until Thursday at earliest, and possibly a little longer. Marjanovic has started both games without Embiid, producing dramatically different results. He posted a 19-and-12 double-double in the first game, before scoring just four points and grabbing only five rebounds in the second. That he remains inconsistent even when thrust into the starting role should re-emphasize that he's not a reliable Fantasy producer and that you should not give up anything substantial for him. However, as long as Embiid is out, Marjanovic is worth starting on the chance that he has another explosive performance. For all his flaws, Marjanovic is averaging 22.2 points, 14.1 rebounds and 1.6 blocks per-36 minutes this season.
Deep League Special
Joakim Noah, Grizzlies (17 percent rostered)Noah is 34, has a lengthy injury history (including mostly lower-body injuries), and is too inconsistent to be relied upon on standard-sized leagues. That said, the always-underappreciated big man could do a lot of work for some deep-league rosters, especially now that he'll see extra run in the wake of Jaren Jackson's thigh injury. The rookie has missed the last two games and is out "for the foreseeable future".
In Jackson's two missed games, Noah is averaging 19.0 points, 9.0 rebounds, 3.5 assists, 1.0 steals and 2.0 blocks – that's exceptional production for any league, I'm just skeptical of Noah's ability to maintain it.
For anyone who doesn't remember when Noah was a perennial top-20 Fantasy producer, a stuffed box score is completely consistent with his abilities. He's always been a defensive menace and one of the better passing big men in the league. The category most likely to drop off is points. Even during his heyday, Noah never averaged more than 12.6 points per game.
