Season's greetings! The waiver wire has gotten into the season's spirit, giving us an overflowing pile of attractive pickups.
The holiday season brings another weird schedule, as the NBA takes Christmas Eve off. The total number of games in Week 9 is normal, but they're condensed into six days. Matchups will conclude with an overloaded 13-game Saturday slate. That means that, once again, managers will want to use all their weekly acquisitions early in the week – your Saturday lineup will probably be full before getting to any waiver pickups.
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.
Draymond Green fallout
By now, you've probably seen the videos of Draymond Green striking Jusuf Nurkic across the head. We don't know how long Green's indefinite suspension will be, but it's safe to assume five games (the length of his suspension following the Rudy Gobert chokehold last month) is the absolute minimum. The last time the NBA issued an indefinite suspension to a prominent star, following the first Ja Morant gun incident last March, it ended up lasting eight games. My personal guess – and it is just a guess – is that this Green suspension will end up closer to 15 to 20 games, if not more. A five-game suspension would have him returning for the Week 9 finale; an eight game suspension would have him returning for the Week 10 finale; 20 games would have him sidelined through Week 14.
Green's last suspension was effectively six games, as the Gobert attack came just two minutes into the Timberwolves matchup. Among the waiver-relevant Warriors, Podziemski saw the biggest minutes boost during that stretch. The rookie's production was inconsistent, with two great games, two terrible games, and two "meh" games. But that stretch earned him a much larger role – pre-chokehold, he averaged 8.5 minutes and had five DNPs, but he's up to 28.2 minutes since. He averaged 12-7-3 with 1.6 threes in the five games between the Green suspensions, and it was Podziemski who entered the starting lineup Thursday in the first game of Green's latest banishment.
Kuminga also entered the starting lineup Thursday, with Andrew Wiggins getting demoted to the bench after a run of brutally poor play. The best version of Kuminga is a Fantasy factor, capable of efficient scoring, decent hustle stats, and whose only real negative is poor free throw shooting. But the third-year pro remains mistake prone, which leads to inconsistent workloads. If the combination of Green's suspension and Wiggins' demotion means Kuminga will finally see a reliably large workload, then Kuminga should be a solid pickup moving forward.
Dario Saric (42% rostered) and Kevon Looney (43% rostered)
With Green out, Saric and Looney are the only remaining Warriors who can even pretend to play center. And all of Golden State's "power forwards" would play mostly small forward for roughly half the NBA. By necessity, the team will play a lot of small-ball while Green is out, but there are times when they'll simply have to play their bigs. I'm a huge Looney fan (he was one of my most-drafted players this season), but he's been awful lately, leading to a drop in his minutes. Saric is fine, but he's never been much of a Fantasy asset. Both of their minutes should shoot up while Green is out, but neither are exciting pickups. At his best, Looney is a great rebounder and an above-average passer for a big. Saric is more of an OK-everywhere-but-great-nowhere play.
You can see how all four of these players slot into my waiver priority list below.
Adds for all leagues
Trey Murphy III, Pelicans (64% rostered)
Fam. I thought we were past this. Why does Murphy still qualify for this article? 17-3-2 with 3.2 3-pointers over his first five games this season, and that's probably his floor. Those numbers include his minutes-limited debut. I've talked about him a lot in recent weeks, so I'll just re-up the key point: Murphy is an all-leagues must-add.
Brandin Podziemski, Warriors (26% rostered)
Covered above in "Draymond Green fallout" section.
Isaiah Hartenstein, Knicks (40% rostered)
Mitchell Robinson (ankle) just had surgery and will be re-evaluated in 8-to-10 weeks – and "re-evaluated" means he'll likely remain sidelined even longer than that. Hartenstein is a very good per-minute Fantasy producer who is now looking at two-plus months of extended action. So far, he's only topped 20 minutes six times this season, but his numbers across those games are great for any team who can afford a drop in scoring: 8-8-2 with one steal and one block in just 27 minutes. He's averaged 28 minutes in the first two games without Robinson. Jericho Sims has started over Hartenstein thus far, but Hartenstein has enjoyed a substantial minutes edge and Sims is not relevant for Fantasy.
Dante Exum, Mavericks (41% rostered)
Just like we all expected, after being out of the league for two years and then averaging just 10.6 minutes (not including one DNP-CD) across the first 17 games this season, Dante Exum has become an all-leagues must-add. The Mavericks have faced myriad small injuries, and the turmoil gave Exum his first start last week. But he really started to shine when Kyrie Irving (heel) went down. Exum is up to 20-5-5 with three 3s over the past four games while managing a massive 33 minutes per game. It's hard to believe it will stay this good for long, especially if the Mavericks can ever get healthy. But we don't have to worry about that now. For now, let's enjoy this wild ride.
Jonathan Kuminga, Warriors (44% rostered)
Covered above in "Draymond Green fallout" section.
Caleb Martin, Heat (55% rostered)
Martin was widely drafted during the preseason, but an opening night injury led to near universal dropping. Ever since he returned to a full workload, Martin has been pretty much what managers were expecting in October – a good scorer who plays a bunch of minutes and provides almost no defense. He's averaging 17-6-3 over the past eight games. As is true of so many hot waiver prospects, Martin's minutes will likely drop as the Heat get healthier, and that minutes drop will cut into his production across the board. In the short term, he's doing enough that every roster would benefit from streaming Martin. In the longer term, he's likely to remain on the low-end of rosterability – someone for whom the classic old trope of "he's not for everyone, but every league has someone who should roster him" applies.
Norman Powell, Clippers (27% rostered)
This article is going to get long, so I'll cut to the chase. After a slow start, Powell's minutes and scoring have improved. The Clippers appear to have made a conscious choice to make him a more prominent part of their rotation. Over the last six games, he's back to putting up the points and threes production that kept him on rosters all last season.
Nick Richards, Hornets (12% rostered)
Mark Williams (back) has missed three of the last four games. The team has described the injury as a "back contusion", which is a pretty nebulous phrase that could mean anything from "this is minor but our team is tanking so might as well give him a couple days off" to "this is serious and even though we're not giving you any useful updates he's going to miss a ton of time." If we knew Williams was out for a couple of weeks or more, Richards would be right behind Exum as a highly recommended pickup. Unfortunately, for all we know, Williams could play this weekend, thereby making Richards a wasted acquisition. As long as he's getting enough minutes, Richards is a pretty standard Fantasy big: borderline double-doubles, blocks, and good FG%. He also has the added benefit of being a pretty solid free throw shooter.
Other recommendations: Naz Reid, Timberwolves (45% rostered); Duncan Robinson, Heat (58% rostered); Bilal Coulibaly, Wizards (45% rostered); Julian Strawther, Nuggets (8% rostered); Josh Hart, Knicks (49% rostered); Tari Eason, Rockets (33% rostered); Goga Bitadze, Pacers (24% rostered); Dario Saric, Warriors; (42% rostered); Kevon Looney, Warriors (43% rostered); Grant Williams, Mavericks (25% rostered); Sam Houser, Celtics (13% rostered)
Deep league special
Take note, there are several players listed above - Richards, Strawther, and Hauser – who are rostered in 13% of leagues or less. Those players are rosterable even in standard leagues, and should be prioritized above our recommendation below.
Toumani Camara, Trail Blazers (8% rostered)
Camara got promoted into the starting lineup in mid-November, and he seems likely to retain that job all season. Since the promotion, the rookie is averaging 8-5-1 with 1.1 3-pointers, 0.9 steals, and 0.5 blocks across 26.7 minutes. If anything, the former second-round pick's minutes are likely to trend up over time, as veteran wings Jerami Grant and Matisse Thybulle are both considered potential mid-season trade candidates. He's a rookie on a tanking team, so we should expect inconsistent production, but the overall averages are solid.
