Fantasy basketball: Waiver wire report (12/5/17)

Purpose:

The Waiver Wire Report aims to identify players who played minutes above and beyond their season average in yesterday’s contests. The picks in this article are aimed at deeper, more competitive leagues. Many similar articles will make recommendations for players at 20-50% owned, but those players aren’t available in a competitive league. I’ll aim around the 10% and under mark for players who are trending up. The list is filtered for players owned in less than 10% of Yahoo Leagues, and is sorted by minutes played per game this season. I’ve also included average minutes the last 5 games compared to the season average to provide context of whether a player’s minutes are trending up or down. Lastly, the Game Score and Usage% for yesterday’s performance is included to give the context of a player’s ability to produce with these extra minutes. As a reminder, per basketball reference:

Game Score; the formula is PTS + 0.4 * FG - 0.7 * FGA - 0.4*(FTA - FT) + 0.7 * ORB + 0.3 * DRB + STL + 0.7 * AST + 0.7 * BLK - 0.4 * PF - TOV. Game Score was created by John Hollinger to give a rough measure of a player's productivity for a single game. The scale is similar to that of points scored, (40 is an outstanding performance, 10 is an average performance, etc.).

Results:

Picks:

Here are my recommended adds based on today’s report

Stanley Johnson (DET - SG/SF) - 4% owned

Johnson moved to the bench on Monday and put up a double-double playing with the second unit. He still logged 30 minutes in a tight contest against the Spurs so the opportunity will still be there. A move to the bench, matching up with opponent’s backup groups, could be just what Johnson needs to boost his production. I’d pick up Johnson ASAP in standard formats and cut him loose in a few days if his production off the bench doesn’t continue.

Jeff Green (CLE - SF/PF) - 6% owned

A steady dose of 25+ minutes per game with Iman Shumpert out for two months puts Green firmly on the radar of standard league owners. He’ll throw up the occasional stinker, but 10 PPG, 6 RPG, 50% FG%, with a block and steal mixed in can be expected from Green for the next few weeks.

Garrett Temple (SAC - PG/SG/SF) - 5% owned

Temple has been seeing a ton of minutes to the detriment of George Hill and Buddy Hield. In the last week, Temple is averaging 3 3PTM, 14.3 PPG, 3.7 RPG, 1.0 SPG, and .519 FG%. Those are impressive numbers for someone with three-position eligibility to boot. At some point De’Aaron Fox, Buddy Hield, and Justin Jackson will dominate the minutes in the backcourt but ride Temple until he flames out.

Darius Miller (NO - SG/SF) - 7% owned

Miller still seems criminally under-owned for someone getting over 28 minutes per game over the last 5 games. He contributes across-the-board and is at no real risk of losing his share of minutes.

DeAndre Bembry (ATL - SF) - 1% owned

With John Collins, Dewayne Dedmon, and Mike Muscala all out Monday, Bembry stepped up at SF and played 27 minutes. Most encouraging were the 12 shots he put up (21.8% usage rate), which was second only to Dennis Schroeder. Again, this could be a short-term play but Atlanta plays 3 more times this week, and all three injured players mentioned earlier are out for a few more weeks.

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