Small Forward
Metta World Peace - Ron Artest probably doesn’t even belong in here, but he’s only owned in 63 percent of Yahoo! leagues. He went crazy in the four games with Mike D’Antoni taking over with 15.3 points, 1.3 steals and a whopping 3.3 3-pointers per game. He absolutely has to be owned across the board. The Lakers have three games this week.
Kawhi Leonard - A lot of fantasy owners ran for the hills once Kawhi Leonard was out for 10-14 days with tendinitis in his quad tendon. His ownership dipped below 50 percent in both Yahoo! And ESPN leagues, so owners should certainly take a peek at their waiver wire to see if he’s floating around out there. He has been very good this year with fantastic percentages of 49.3 from the field and 94.1 from the line while filling up the box scores with 10.6 points, 5.4 boards, 2.0 steals and 1.0 3-pointers. Owners should definitely stash him since his return could come as soon as December 1.
Harrison Barnes - The UNC rookie has settled in quite nicely to his role at small forward and logged 32.5 minutes over his last seven games. He didn’t shoot the ball like a rookie either by making 48.6 percent of his field goal attempts for 13.1 points. The Warriors have been playing him more in the paint to compensate for Andrew Bogut being out, so Barnes could see his numbers trend down. Although, his 1.0 3-pointers per game in that aforementioned span seem low, so adding Bogut may move Barnes to more of an outside presence. The Warriors have just two games this week.
Alonzo Gee - When a player like Kyrie Irving goes down, there will be a trickle down impact all over the team. Kyrie has the ball in his hands a ton and has a 30.5 usage rate, which ranks third behind Carmelo Anthony and Russell Westbrook. The Gee Funk Era has been in full effect over his last five outings with averages of 14.0 points, 4.8 boards, 1.2 blocks, 2.0 steals and 1.2 3-pointers in 34.2 minutes. He’s a mini-Batum. OK, a really, really mini- Batum. The Cavs have four games this week and Gee makes for a fantastic start.
Shawn Marion - The Matrix had been reloaded since returning from his MCL injury and logged 32.3 minutes per game in his last four outings. His numbers haven’t been spectacular with an average line of 8.5 points, 6.5 boards, 1.5 steals and 0.8 3-pointers in those four games. Marion brings a multi-faceted fantasy skill set to the table and he can put up some sneaky good numbers. The Mavericks have three games this week.
Martell Webster - Webster’s minutes have been on the rise lately by jumping from 10 minutes on Monday, to 20 minutes on Wednesday and 35 minutes on Saturday. He came up with a big night on Saturday with his 21 points, four boards, one block, two steals and three triples. The Wizards were a plus-22 in +/- on Saturday while Webster was on the floor, so he had plenty of positives. I’d feel a little bit better with another nice game out of Webster, but there could be something here. The Wizards play three games this week.
Power Forwards
Markieff Morris - Kieff has started in the last two games and exploded to the tune of 21.0 points, 5.0 boards and 1.5 3-pointers. Coach Alvin Gentry said after Saturday’s game that he likes to use Morris for spacing and it makes sense with the way Goran Dragic can penetrate and facilitate the offense. He’s basically a must-own until he falls off, which could certainly happen. The Suns have four games this week.
Patrick Patterson - Pat-Pat hasn’t exactly seen consistent minutes with two of his last three games coming in at less than 22 minutes per contest. However, the stats have been there in his last five with averages of 15.6 points on 54.7 percent from the field, 4.8 rebounds, and 0.6 across the board in steals, blocks and threes. The Rockets have been going with small lineups quite a bit this year and they really don’t have much depth behind him up front. The Rockets have three games this week.
Antawn Jamison - Mike D’Antoni has put Pau Gasol in the doghouse and Gasol is battling tendinitis in his knee, so things could be opening up at power forward for a couple different reasons. Jamison has played very well in his last two games averaging 17.5 points, 11.0 rebounds and 1.5 3-pointers, but some of it was due to garbage time. Gasol owners might want to handcuff their stud with the former Cav. The Lakers have three games this week.
Tyler Zeller - The Cavs are going to need some bodies and Zeller has been logging minutes since coming back from his facial fracture. In those five games, he played 25.2 minutes, but was quiet with 5.8 points and 5.2 boards. The minutes are the interesting aspect and they could be on the uptick since Tristan Thompson still hasn’t properly learned how to use a pump fake. Furthermore, there will always be the talk of Anderson Varejao getting traded. The Cavs have four games this week.
Tiago Splitter - Splitter has played well lately and even turned in an impressive 23-point gem in 26 minutes against Boston on Wednesday. That momentum did slow to a crawl with just 22 minutes that yielded five points and three boards. Coach Pop is another Skiles-esque coach and it’s going to be tough to roll with Splitter until he can string some games together. There’s a little upside here and he’s been much better at the line this year and surprisingly hit 19 of his last 21 attempts at the stripe. The Spurs have four games this week.
Centers
Jonas Valanciunas - J.V. fell off a cliff a week ago, but he’s back with a surge as Toronto’s main complement to Andrea Bargnani. He had a big night on Tuesday not only for the 11 points, 11 rebounds and three blocks in 25 minutes, but he didn’t commit a single foul against the Sixers. Of course, he fouled out on Wednesday and committed four fouls on Friday. Dwane Casey said he’ll play Jonas 30 minutes per game which should give him plenty of value. The Lithuanian is shooting 50 percent from the field and is a great shooter at the charity stripe by shooting 77.4 percent from the line. The Raptors have three games this week.
Larry Sanders - Scott Skiles is the Mike Shanahan of fantasy hoops. One day John Henson goes for 17 points and 17 boards, the next day Henson logs just one minute. On top of the Henson disappearing act, Samuel Dalembert logged a DNP-CD and Sanders looks like he has the inside track to the most minutes at center for the Bucks. He played 29 minutes on Saturday and had eight points, eight boards, four blocks and two steals in the loss to Chicago. The Larry Sanders Show has an eight-block game on his resume, so there’s some upside here. The Bucks have four games this week.
Robin Lopez - The Hornets are in some deep trouble in the paint with Anthony Davis sidelined by an ankle injury. They have been forced to play Robin “Sideshow Bob” Lopez a hefty amount of minutes with a whopping 37.5 minutes per game over his last two contests. He blocked four shots in both of those games and teams are going to attack the basket as much as they can. Consequently, Ro-Lo will be a risk to foul out. The stats should be there as long as he is playing over 30 minutes per game. The Hornets have three games this week.
Andre Drummond - A.D. logged a double-double on Friday with 13 points and 13 rebounds in 24 minutes. Beware of his free throw shooting as he hit just 29 percent of his attempts at UConn and shot 1-of-6 from the line on Friday. His minutes have been fluctuating, but the Pistons will likely give him more minutes once they go into tank mode. They’re 3-10 and have four games this week.
Andrew Bogut - The Aussie is expected to return to the lineup on Saturday from his injured ankle. If you’ve watched him play at all this year, you might have noticed he had no bounce in his step and was slow at rolling from the weak side to defend penetration. It’s hard to believe three weeks off will change much of that, but the miracles of modern science have done amazing things. He has averaged a double-double with 2.4 blocks in his three previous three seasons, so he has a high ceiling. Owner should think about adding him, then cutting him at the first sign of trouble.
Lavoy Allen - Allen has been thrust into the starting role at center, but he didn’t do much with it on Saturday by scoring eight points, adding four rebounds, three assists, one steal and two blocks. That said, he’s doing a much better job producing blocks and he has room for improvement especially with Andrew Bynum out indefinitely. The Sixers have three games this week.
First and foremost, I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. Personally, it’s one of my favorite days of the year even though there’s no basketball. While football got most of the attention over the holiday break, basketball’s fingerprints were all over it with a 14-game night on Wednesday to kick off the long weekend. Consequently, we have a lot to analyze on the waiver wire this week. I'm filling in for Steve Alexander this week, who was driving across the country instead of writing this column.
Looking at the schedule, the Hawks, Warriors and Heat play just two games. Yes, Miami has a two-game week for the second week in a row and LeBron owners should be hoping to just tread water for another scoring period. On the other hand, the Nets, Cavs, Pistons, Grizzlies, Bucks, Knicks, Thunder, Suns, Blazers, Spurs and Jazz get four games. Let’s check out which guys might be able to help your team off the waiver wire.
Point Guards
Ricky Rubio - Rubio is on the comeback trail and he is schedule to practice fully after the team’s upcoming road trip ends on November 28th. Last year, he had 8.2 assists per game while ranking second in the league with 2.2 steals per game. Plus, there was talk of him hoping to add to his 0.8 3-pointers per game. He is still targeting a mid-December return, but fantasy owners will definitely want to consider stashing the Spaniard ASAP.
Aaron Brooks - Brooks has taken over at the point guard spot and is beginning to run away with it. He played 32 minutes in back-to-back starts with averages of 15 points, 2.5 assists 2.0 steals and 3.0 threes in that span. It’s easy to forget that he was a fantasy stud back in ’09-’10 with 20 points per game and 2.6 3-pointers. Isaiah Thomas logged the dreaded DNP-CD on Friday and just seven minutes on Saturday. Brooks is worth adding in most leagues and IT2 should have a one-way ticket to Cut City. The Kings play four games this week.
Jason Kidd - J-Kidd is surprisingly owned in less than 65 percent of ESPN and Yahoo! leagues. He is returning fourth-round value right now with eye-popping averages of 1.8 threes and 2.0 steals while shooting an uncharacteristic 52.9 percent from the field. He also hasn’t missed a free throw this year. The Cal Bear won’t be this good all season, but he has to be owned until proven otherwise. The Knicks play four games this week.
Jeremy Pargo - Perhaps no player made a bigger out-of-nowhere splash than Jeremy Pargo this weekend. In his three games, he posted averages of 19.7 points, 4.0 assists, 0.7 steals and 2.3 3-pointers in 34.0 minutes. Daniel Gibson’s return doesn’t seem to be impacting his minutes and Pargo looks like the clear winner of the Kyrie Irving (finger) injury fallout. The Cavs have four games this week.
Side note: Daniel Gibson is worth an add in some formats since he took seven attempts from beyond the arc on Saturday.
Jamaal Tinsley - Mo Williams is battling a foot sprain and he missed Saturday’s game against the Kings. Tinsley has stepped in as the team’s point guard and excelled in his last two games with averages of 8.0 points, 9.5 assists, 1.5 steals and 2.0 3-pointers in 31 minutes. The Jazz have four games this week, so getting two games out of Tinsley as the starter on Monday (@ Toronto) and Wednesday (@ Boston) would make him a worthwhile spot start in some leagues.
Shooting Guards
Kyle Korver - Don’t look now but Kyle Korver has hit 3.1 3-pointers per game in his last 10 games. He also logged 32.3 minutes per game and 0.9 steals to give him second-round value over that span. The Hawks are one of the thinnest teams on the wing this year and Larry Drew looks like he’s made Korver his trigger man. He should be owned in just about every league where treys count. The Hawks have just two games this week.
Randy Foye - Foye saw some minutes at point guard with Mo Williams on the shelf. Foye’s last three games have been useful in fantasy leagues with 13.0 points thanks to his 3.3 3-pointers. He logged 31 minutes and he will be a must-start player as long as Mo Williams remains out of the lineup. The Jazz have four games this week.
Jordan Crawford - The Wizards are still winless and are well on their way to becoming the New York Jets of the NBA. Crawford has been busy in his last five games by playing 29.8 minutes and posting an average line of 14.0 points, 3.2 rebounds, 4.8 assists, 0.4 steals and 1.0 triples. He made all 19 of his free throw attempts in that span, but shot a paltry 35.9 percent from the field. The Xavier product picked up some of the point guard duties on Saturday night, but really squandered the chance with poor play. Who really knows what Randy Wittman is going to do? It might not even matter since he should be on thin ice. The Wizards have three games this week.
Beno Udrih - Brandon Jennings suffered a sprained ankle in the last minute of Saturday’s game and he couldn’t put any weight on it as he was carried to the locker room. However, Jennings downplayed the injury after the game and he expects to play on Monday. Udrih might not see a full load of minutes at point guard with Monta on the roster, but he can really do it all. Beno is playing just 17.6 minutes per game, so if Jennings does miss time and he picks up 12 more minutes, his current averages would extrapolate to 13.1 points, 6.0 assists, 1.7 steals and 0.9 3-pointers. Those would be must-own numbers. The Bucks have four games this week.
Nick Young - Swaggy P has been in Doug Collins’ good graces lately and has played 28.7 minutes per game in his last three contests. Although, his shot selection has been suspect at best in his last couple, so there’s good chance his minutes could be on the way down. Jason Richardson – a must-own player -- is dealing with an ankle injury, so there’s a chance Swaggy could get minutes that way, too. The Sixers play three games this week.
Jeff Taylor - Taylor has picked up a nice chunk of minutes in his last four games with 34.0 per contest. He’s made the most of it and has produced some nice numbers for fantasy owners with 12.3 points, 1.8 steals and 1.8 treys. He did commit an egregious foul at the end of Saturday’s game, so he might get some punishment. Gerald Henderson could be back in a couple weeks and the three-game week may be the last we’ve seen of Taylor.
Small Forward
Metta World Peace - Ron Artest probably doesn’t even belong in here, but he’s only owned in 63 percent of Yahoo! leagues. He went crazy in the four games with Mike D’Antoni taking over with 15.3 points, 1.3 steals and a whopping 3.3 3-pointers per game. He absolutely has to be owned across the board. The Lakers have three games this week.
Kawhi Leonard - A lot of fantasy owners ran for the hills once Kawhi Leonard was out for 10-14 days with tendinitis in his quad tendon. His ownership dipped below 50 percent in both Yahoo! And ESPN leagues, so owners should certainly take a peek at their waiver wire to see if he’s floating around out there. He has been very good this year with fantastic percentages of 49.3 from the field and 94.1 from the line while filling up the box scores with 10.6 points, 5.4 boards, 2.0 steals and 1.0 3-pointers. Owners should definitely stash him since his return could come as soon as December 1.
Harrison Barnes - The UNC rookie has settled in quite nicely to his role at small forward and logged 32.5 minutes over his last seven games. He didn’t shoot the ball like a rookie either by making 48.6 percent of his field goal attempts for 13.1 points. The Warriors have been playing him more in the paint to compensate for Andrew Bogut being out, so Barnes could see his numbers trend down. Although, his 1.0 3-pointers per game in that aforementioned span seem low, so adding Bogut may move Barnes to more of an outside presence. The Warriors have just two games this week.
Alonzo Gee - When a player like Kyrie Irving goes down, there will be a trickle down impact all over the team. Kyrie has the ball in his hands a ton and has a 30.5 usage rate, which ranks third behind Carmelo Anthony and Russell Westbrook. The Gee Funk Era has been in full effect over his last five outings with averages of 14.0 points, 4.8 boards, 1.2 blocks, 2.0 steals and 1.2 3-pointers in 34.2 minutes. He’s a mini-Batum. OK, a really, really mini- Batum. The Cavs have four games this week and Gee makes for a fantastic start.
Shawn Marion - The Matrix had been reloaded since returning from his MCL injury and logged 32.3 minutes per game in his last four outings. His numbers haven’t been spectacular with an average line of 8.5 points, 6.5 boards, 1.5 steals and 0.8 3-pointers in those four games. Marion brings a multi-faceted fantasy skill set to the table and he can put up some sneaky good numbers. The Mavericks have three games this week.
Martell Webster - Webster’s minutes have been on the rise lately by jumping from 10 minutes on Monday, to 20 minutes on Wednesday and 35 minutes on Saturday. He came up with a big night on Saturday with his 21 points, four boards, one block, two steals and three triples. The Wizards were a plus-22 in +/- on Saturday while Webster was on the floor, so he had plenty of positives. I’d feel a little bit better with another nice game out of Webster, but there could be something here. The Wizards play three games this week.
Power Forwards
Markieff Morris - Kieff has started in the last two games and exploded to the tune of 21.0 points, 5.0 boards and 1.5 3-pointers. Coach Alvin Gentry said after Saturday’s game that he likes to use Morris for spacing and it makes sense with the way Goran Dragic can penetrate and facilitate the offense. He’s basically a must-own until he falls off, which could certainly happen. The Suns have four games this week.
Patrick Patterson - Pat-Pat hasn’t exactly seen consistent minutes with two of his last three games coming in at less than 22 minutes per contest. However, the stats have been there in his last five with averages of 15.6 points on 54.7 percent from the field, 4.8 rebounds, and 0.6 across the board in steals, blocks and threes. The Rockets have been going with small lineups quite a bit this year and they really don’t have much depth behind him up front. The Rockets have three games this week.
Antawn Jamison - Mike D’Antoni has put Pau Gasol in the doghouse and Gasol is battling tendinitis in his knee, so things could be opening up at power forward for a couple different reasons. Jamison has played very well in his last two games averaging 17.5 points, 11.0 rebounds and 1.5 3-pointers, but some of it was due to garbage time. Gasol owners might want to handcuff their stud with the former Cav. The Lakers have three games this week.
Tyler Zeller - The Cavs are going to need some bodies and Zeller has been logging minutes since coming back from his facial fracture. In those five games, he played 25.2 minutes, but was quiet with 5.8 points and 5.2 boards. The minutes are the interesting aspect and they could be on the uptick since Tristan Thompson still hasn’t properly learned how to use a pump fake. Furthermore, there will always be the talk of Anderson Varejao getting traded. The Cavs have four games this week.
Tiago Splitter - Splitter has played well lately and even turned in an impressive 23-point gem in 26 minutes against Boston on Wednesday. That momentum did slow to a crawl with just 22 minutes that yielded five points and three boards. Coach Pop is another Skiles-esque coach and it’s going to be tough to roll with Splitter until he can string some games together. There’s a little upside here and he’s been much better at the line this year and surprisingly hit 19 of his last 21 attempts at the stripe. The Spurs have four games this week.
Centers
Jonas Valanciunas - J.V. fell off a cliff a week ago, but he’s back with a surge as Toronto’s main complement to Andrea Bargnani. He had a big night on Tuesday not only for the 11 points, 11 rebounds and three blocks in 25 minutes, but he didn’t commit a single foul against the Sixers. Of course, he fouled out on Wednesday and committed four fouls on Friday. Dwane Casey said he’ll play Jonas 30 minutes per game which should give him plenty of value. The Lithuanian is shooting 50 percent from the field and is a great shooter at the charity stripe by shooting 77.4 percent from the line. The Raptors have three games this week.
Larry Sanders - Scott Skiles is the Mike Shanahan of fantasy hoops. One day John Henson goes for 17 points and 17 boards, the next day Henson logs just one minute. On top of the Henson disappearing act, Samuel Dalembert logged a DNP-CD and Sanders looks like he has the inside track to the most minutes at center for the Bucks. He played 29 minutes on Saturday and had eight points, eight boards, four blocks and two steals in the loss to Chicago. The Larry Sanders Show has an eight-block game on his resume, so there’s some upside here. The Bucks have four games this week.
Robin Lopez - The Hornets are in some deep trouble in the paint with Anthony Davis sidelined by an ankle injury. They have been forced to play Robin “Sideshow Bob” Lopez a hefty amount of minutes with a whopping 37.5 minutes per game over his last two contests. He blocked four shots in both of those games and teams are going to attack the basket as much as they can. Consequently, Ro-Lo will be a risk to foul out. The stats should be there as long as he is playing over 30 minutes per game. The Hornets have three games this week.
Andre Drummond - A.D. logged a double-double on Friday with 13 points and 13 rebounds in 24 minutes. Beware of his free throw shooting as he hit just 29 percent of his attempts at UConn and shot 1-of-6 from the line on Friday. His minutes have been fluctuating, but the Pistons will likely give him more minutes once they go into tank mode. They’re 3-10 and have four games this week.
Andrew Bogut - The Aussie is expected to return to the lineup on Saturday from his injured ankle. If you’ve watched him play at all this year, you might have noticed he had no bounce in his step and was slow at rolling from the weak side to defend penetration. It’s hard to believe three weeks off will change much of that, but the miracles of modern science have done amazing things. He has averaged a double-double with 2.4 blocks in his three previous three seasons, so he has a high ceiling. Owner should think about adding him, then cutting him at the first sign of trouble.
Lavoy Allen - Allen has been thrust into the starting role at center, but he didn’t do much with it on Saturday by scoring eight points, adding four rebounds, three assists, one steal and two blocks. That said, he’s doing a much better job producing blocks and he has room for improvement especially with Andrew Bynum out indefinitely. The Sixers have three games this week.