This article is part of our NBA Waiver Wire series.
The NBA schedule demands some attention in Week 13, as the Nuggets play five games. There are only five such weeks over the entire season, and the advantage that they provide in most fantasy leagues is enormous. Thirteen teams play only three games this week – a pretty normal breakdown most weeks. But with the Nuggets playing 40 percent more games, that means a mediocre bench Nugget could easily outproduce most starters on almost half of the NBA's teams. If you can play a Nugget this week, you should.
The rest of the top adds this week are players impacted by the recent trades and injuries around the league. It's a familiar storyline, but that doesn't make these players any less valuable. The fact that all of the top-three players this week are likely to see their values plummet around or before the All-Star game could end up being a blessing in disguise – that's the time of the season when bigger trades occur, and when the bad teams start more aggressively tanking, both of which are frequent causes of late-season breakouts.
As always, the players in this article must be rostered in less than two-thirds of CBS leagues. Players are listed in the order that I recommend adding them, assuming they are equally good fits for your team.
Adds for All Leagues
Jeff Green, Wizards (42 percent rostered)The combination of the Kelly Oubre trade and Otto Porter missing 10 games with a knee injury allowed Green to
The NBA schedule demands some attention in Week 13, as the Nuggets play five games. There are only five such weeks over the entire season, and the advantage that they provide in most fantasy leagues is enormous. Thirteen teams play only three games this week – a pretty normal breakdown most weeks. But with the Nuggets playing 40 percent more games, that means a mediocre bench Nugget could easily outproduce most starters on almost half of the NBA's teams. If you can play a Nugget this week, you should.
The rest of the top adds this week are players impacted by the recent trades and injuries around the league. It's a familiar storyline, but that doesn't make these players any less valuable. The fact that all of the top-three players this week are likely to see their values plummet around or before the All-Star game could end up being a blessing in disguise – that's the time of the season when bigger trades occur, and when the bad teams start more aggressively tanking, both of which are frequent causes of late-season breakouts.
As always, the players in this article must be rostered in less than two-thirds of CBS leagues. Players are listed in the order that I recommend adding them, assuming they are equally good fits for your team.
Adds for All Leagues
Jeff Green, Wizards (42 percent rostered)The combination of the Kelly Oubre trade and Otto Porter missing 10 games with a knee injury allowed Green to step into the starting lineup. He's averaged 32.8 minutes per game in that role, including 35.0 per game over the last three when Porter was back in the lineup but coming off the bench and playing under a minutes cap. Porter is back, but Markieff Morris is out for at least the next five weeks, so Green should maintain a large share of court time even if Porter returns to the starting lineup. The primary argument for adding Green is the hefty workload, but it's always useful to point out that he's done a good job of converting those minutes into fantasy value lately. Since he entered the starting lineup, he's averaged 14.2 points, 5.6 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 1.6 threes.
Josh Hart, Lakers (49 percent rostered)
LeBron James (groin) is likely to miss at least the next week. In the six games he's missed so far, Hart started and averaged 34.2 minutes. He's been able to turn those minutes into solid scoring (12.2 PPG) and rebounding (6.8 TRB) production, but his biggest source of value has been in steals, where he's averaged 1.8 per game. Hart has shown some abilities as a ball-hawk earlier this season, and he has 13 games with multiple steals so far. He's shown rapid on-court development throughout his first season-and-a-half, so it's too soon to know whether his recent thievery is a new wrinkle to his game or more of a small-sample-size outlier. Regardless, Hart's all-around contributions are easily enough to warrant adding Hart and hoping for the former.
Austin Rivers, Rockets (25 percent rostered)
Rivers was on the move through December, landing in Houston when it was all said in done. He arrived just as Chris Paul (hamstring) was beginning a long-term absence, and just a few games after Rivers' arrival, Eric Gordon (knee) joined the ranks of the injured. Gordon may return soon, but Paul appears to still have several weeks on the sidelines ahead of him. Rivers is averaging an absurd 38.0 minutes per game as a Rocket, putting up 13.5 points, 2.8 assists and 2.8 threes.
Mason Plumlee, Nuggets (39 percent rostered)
Plumlee is only worth adding if your league does not have any kind of games max. While I strongly recommend playing in max-games leagues, the simple truth is that most people don't play in those. Therefore the overwhelming majority of managers can take advantage of the Nuggets five-game week by adding Plumlee, a mediocre scorer, rebounder and passer who can add roughly one steal and one block per game.
And hey, if you're getting 100 minutes out of him during the week (five games at 20 minutes per game), "mediocre" isn't bad. Assuming Plumlee comes off the bench for all five games – which, by the way, is not a fair assumption, since there is a good chance they rest the recently-injured Paul Millsap for at least one game of the team's two back-to-back sets – he'd still have a chance to outproduce several players you probably wouldn't hesitate to start. Players like Jarrett Allen (projects to play only 81 minutes), Domantas Sabonis (75 minutes) and Montrezl Harrell (75 minutes) all have to play more than 20 percent better on a per-minute basis to outproduce Plumlee this week.
After Week 13, feel free to dump Plumlee.
Other recommendations: DeMarre Carroll, Nets (36 percent rostered); Bobby Portis, Bulls (61 percent rostered); Derrick White, Spurs (58 percent rostered); Kyle Anderson, Grizzlies (56 percent rostered); DeAndre' Bembry, Hawks (16 percent rostered); Bryn Forbes, Spurs (31 percent rostered); Gerald Green, Rockets (5 percent rostered); Kevin Huerter, Hawks (22 percent rostered)
Coaching Change in Minnesota
Tom Thibodeau was fired over the weekend after two-and-a-half seasons as the Timberwolves head coach. Thibodeau was known for his extreme rotations, which demanded unusually large minutes from his starters.In his first season, three of his starters ranking in the top-six in the NBA for minutes, while a fourth player checked in at 46th.
In his second season, he had three players in the top-14 for minutes, and two more inside the top-42.
So far this season, he had three players in the top-34. Derrick Rose was usually the sixth man behind Jeff Teague, but when Rose has filled in as a starter, his minutes would also rank inside that top-34 threshold.
All coaching changes can impact the Fantasy landscape, but this one in particular is likely to cause a ripple effect, since a part of the reason Thibodeau was fired was for the way he managed his rotation. This coaching change is likely to lead to a significant redistribution of the workload in Minnesota. Karl-Anthony Towns, Andrew Wiggins and Robert Covington are all likely to see a decrease in minutes, and managers should consider trading them where possible. A few waiver wire players could also be impacted by the move.
Tyus Jones (14 percent rostered)
Jones' value probably increases as a result of the change, though there are a few caveats. First, the Timberwolves have been without Jeff Teague, Derrick Rose (ankle), or both since mid-December, and their absences meant more work for Jones. So while the coaching change helps Jones, Teague's return (last week) and the eventual return of Rose (no official timeline) take away from Jones.
If we take it as a given that the Timberwolves' starters see a drop in minutes, then Jones is the first candidate in line to inherit some of that court time. He's been a very solid player when given the opportunity, and the fact that Thibodeau buried him on the bench was a big source of criticism. He might only average minutes in the low 20s once the backcourt is healthy, but that would still be an improvement and enough to make him rosterable in many deep leagues as a source of steals and assists. It's possible Josh Okogie (7 percent rostered) sees an uptick in minutes due to the change, but it's hard to see him having value when Teague, Rose, Wiggins and Jones are all healthy.
Dario Saric (69 percent rostered)
Along with Teague, Saric is the player who might benefit the most from the coaching change. After averaging nearly 30 minutes per game last season as a 76er, Saric has averaged only 23.3 per game in Minnesota. Thirty-three-year-old Taj Gibson (53 percent rostered) has been effective, but he was an old favorite of Thibodeau, and a shift towards more minutes for the younger Saric would make sense.
Players to Drop/Avoid
Danuel House, RocketsHouse has been a popular add of late, buoyed by his 29.3 minutes per game as a starter over the last seven games. However, with James Ennis now back from an injury, House's minutes – and even his starting role – are in jeopardy. Ennis only played eight and 12 minutes in his first two games back, but he was starting before the hamstring injury sidelined him. When Ennis was a starter, he was not particularly valuable. In his 25.8 minutes per game, his best contributions were probably his 8.6 points, 0.9 steals and 50.4 percent field goal percentage on a low shot volume. Both players should only be considered in leagues with at least 16 teams, and even there they might be best suited to the waiver wire.
Terry Rozier, Celtics
Rozier is an auto-start when Kyrie Irving is out. He is not rosterable in most leagues when Irving is healthy. Irving is slated to return from the eye injury that cost him the last two games Monday. With Irving back, there is no reason to hold onto Rozier – while he's good enough to start with Irving out, Rozier's sans-Irving numbers are not good enough to hold while Irving is healthy.
Deep League Special
Willy Hernangomez, Hornets (23 percent rostered)Cody Zeller (hand) is officially out for another four to six weeks. So far, Hernangomez started the first game without Zeller, while Bismack Biyombo started the second and third. But while Biyombo has demonstrated time and again that he provides no fantasy value outside of rebounds and blocks, Hernangomez has considerably more upside. Furthermore, though Hernangomez came off the bench for the second two games, his production was at least as good as it was when he started, and his minutes were unaffected.
Because the Hornets are likely to continue to use Biyombo, Hernangomez is unlikely to achieve standard league viability. That said, in deep leagues he could be a solid source of points, rebounds and efficient shooting, with mediocre production in assists, threes, blocks and steals.
Other recommendation: Chandler Hutchison, Bulls (3 percent rostered)
