NBA Waiver Wire: Week 5 Schedule Presents Opportunity

Pay attention to the schedule in Week 5, as there is a vast disparity between the most and least active teams. The Pistons play only one game, while the Warriors play five. It doesn't matter how good Andre Drummond is, he'll have a hard time outpacing the Warriors' bench units with 20% of their schedule. Both one- and five-game weeks are incredibly rare. Excluding the All-Star break and the end of the season, there are only nine total such weeks all season.

Four more teams play only two games: the Hornets, Cavaliers, Pacers and Bucks. Again, managers need to be wary of using players on those four teams. Obviously, Kemba Walker, Victor Oladipo, and Giannis Antetokounmpo are starts in any format, but a lot of leagues might have to simply pass on the entire Cavaliers' roster and many of the non-stars on the other teams.

On the flip side, 13 teams play four games this week. There is always an advantage in having a four-game week, but that advantage is magnified in a week when several teams are playing only one or two games. The teams with four games are the Nets, Bulls, Grizzlies, Heat, Timberwolves, Pelicans, Magic, 76ers, Spurs, Raptors, Jazz, Wizards and Warriors.

The players below are listed in the order I'd recommend adding them.

As always, we'll focus on players available in at least 50 percent of leagues. That said, here are some good players who might still be available in your league and are worth checking for:

Wesley Matthews, Mavericks (62 percent rostered)
Jae Crowder, Jazz (60 percent rostered)
Bojan Bogdanovic, Pacers (53 percent rostered)
Bogdan Bogdanovic, Kings (53 percent rostered)

T.J. Warren, Suns (48 percent owned)
Next week's schedule: at OKC, SAN, OKC
Warren missed a game-and-a-half last week, causing his roster numbers to dip below 50 percent. I'll admit, I'm not a big Warren advocate this season – the Suns have way too many wings – but even I'll concede that he should be rostered in almost all leagues. Excluding the two games where he saw less than 20 minutes, he is averaging 27.6 minutes and 18.5 points, and he is shooting 47.9 percent from the field.

Noah Vonleh, Knicks (28 percent rostered)
Next week's schedule: at OKC, at NO, at ORL
Nothing has changed since last week, when Vonleh was my second-most-recommended add of the week. Well, that's not completely true – now he is available in even more leagues, even though he posted back-to-back double-doubles in which he averaged 37 minutes, 10.5 points, 12.0 rebounds, 1.5 steals, and 1.5 blocks. He should be rostered in all leagues.

Quinn Cook, Warriors (11 percent rostered)
Next week's schedule: at LAC, ATL, at HOU, at DAL, at SAN
Steph Curry (groin) left Thursday night's game early, and Cook figures to be his primary replacement. Curry had two extended absences in 2017-18, and Cook wasn't all that relevant during the first one. However, at the end of the season, when Curry missed the Warriors' final 17 games of the regular season, Cook became one of the most important additions in fantasy. He averaged 34.3 minutes per game, putting up 15.6 points, 4.2 assists, 2.2 threes and shooting an impressively efficient 51-47-86. As long as Curry is out, Cook is a must-start in all formats. Further increasing Cook's appeal: the Warriors play five games this week. Including the Warriors in Week 5, there are only three remaining five-game weeks on the entire NBA schedule.

Allonzo Trier, Knicks (12 percent rostered)
Next week's schedule: at OKC, at NO, at ORL
There's a little bit of speculation in this, but I think the Knicks have flirted with Trier enough, and they're ready to ask him to go steady. He was one of their most exciting players during the preseason, but once the games started counting, they kept him under wraps for the first few weeks, limiting him to 20.2 minutes and 6.7 field goal attempts over their first six games.

His workload has been increasing since then, and he's responded by posting at least 12 points in five of six games. They bumped up his minutes even more over the last two games, getting him to 39.0 per game, enabling 18.5 points on 12.0 FGA. Trier doesn't yet provide much help outside of scoring, but it's difficult to find big-time scorers off of waivers. The Knicks keep tinkering with their rotations, but Trier has done enough to earn a solid share of the work moving forward. He won't work for every roster, but his upside and scoring are enough that he should be rostered in all leagues.

Justise Winslow, Heat (29 percent rostered)
Next week's schedule: PHI, at BKN, at IND, LAL
Winslow has averaged 33.3 minutes over his last four games, and he continues to provide production across a wide array of categories. His offensive game is a problem – he's bad at almost every shot, including the unguarded ones, so it logically follows that he doesn't score much. But 6.0 rebounds, 5.3 assists, 1.8 steals and 0.8 blocks per game has a ton of value in most settings. It awaits to be seen how his role will change as the Heat get healthier, as James Johnson (abdomen), Dion Waiters (ankle) and Derrick Jones Jr. (knee) are all out.

Wayne Ellington (14 percent rostered) is another Heat player to consider while half the team is in the recovery ward. Ellington is kind of an opposite-world Winslow_ almost all of his value comes from efficient shooting, enabling excellent three-point production and an acceptable scoring load.

Tristan Thompson, Cavaliers (41 percent rostered)
Next week's schedule: CHA, at WAS
This is dumb. Writing about Thompson makes me grumpy. This paragraph should be about Larry Nance, who had a top-25 ranking per-36 minutes in 2017-18, and who the Cavaliers just extended for three extra seasons at more than $10 million per year. Yet, for whatever reason, the reality is that Nance is stuck on the bench playing less than 20 minutes per game, even with Kevin Love (toe) out. And, as much as I may disagree with it, the Cavaliers seem pretty determined to give any extra big man minutes to Tristan Thompson, who has played 32.5 over the last two games. He double-doubled in both, averaging 15.5 rebounds. I'm not quite ready to drop Nance if you're still holding him, but Thompson is the Cavs big to add right now. He'd be listed ahead of Winslow if the Cavs played more than two games this week.

Trey Lyles, Nuggets (13 percent rostered)
Next week's schedule: HOU, ATL, at NO
Full disclosure, I'm effectively a Lyles fanboy. I'm a sucker for a big man capable of two-plus assists and two-plus threes, and Lyles hit both of those marks per-36 minutes last season. He started 2018-19 in a shooting slump and playing minimal minutes, making him unusable in most formats. However, his workload has steadily increased, and his field goal efficiency is beginning to tick upwards. His increased minutes have been partially impacted by injuries around him, first to Will Barton (groin, out since Game 2) and then to Paul Millsap (ankle, limited minutes over last four games). Lyles is better as a long-term investment than a source of immediate production, especially with Millsap likely to continue playing. That said, Lyles improved play makes it easier to hold onto him in leagues of at least 14 teams, and it makes him more attractive as a hold in 12-team leagues with weekly lineups.

Other recommendations:Bogdan Bogdanovic, Kings; D.J. Augustin, Magic (41 percent rostered); Langston Galloway, Pistons (3 percent rostered); Terrence Ross, Magic (15 percent rostered); Damyean Dotson, Knicks (19 percent rostered); Collin Sexton, Cavaliers (35 percent rostered); Gary Clark, Rockets (0 percent rostered); Tyson Chandler, Lakers (6 percent rostered); Omari Spellman, Hawks (4 percent rostered); Jordan Clarkson, Cavaliers (34 percent rostered)