What’s more fun than the NBA trade deadline day? Many things but for the sake of livening up the fantasy league waiver wire action, it’s pretty good. As you may have noticed, many-a-team shuffled their roster around. In fact, there were only two teams that didn’t make a trade. With new roster and depth chart configurations come opportunities for players to prove their fantasy worth, which we all know is very important. So scroll down and take a look at the few select players that could, at this late stage, have an outsized impact on our fantasy teams.
Week 18 Fantasy Basketball Deep Waiver Wire Adds
Matisse Thybulle, SG/SF – Portland Trail Blazers (9% rostered)
Stat highlight: Ranked 80th in 9-cat leagues last season
Thybulle’s time in Philadelphia ended after averaging only 12 minutes per game this season and he now finds himself playing for Portland. The 12 minutes of playing time thing was caused by Thybulle being a complete liability on offense. He’ll be, obviously, having the same liability in Portland so playing time will not be guaranteed. But if they try to make it work with Thybulle, he could be a solid source of steals and blocks. For his NBA career, Thybulle has averaged 2.7 steals and 1.5 blocks per 36 minutes.
Devonte’ Graham, PG – San Antonio Spurs (22% rostered)
Stat highlight: Scored 31 points in Spurs debut
New San Antonio Spur Devonte’ Graham has already played twice for his new team since getting traded on deadline day. After the 31-point explosion (with 16 three-point attempts!), he scored a more realistic 9 points in the second game. But with 2 steals and 2 blocks. Graham should get a run-in at least until Tre Jones returns from his foot soreness, which won’t be on Monday. After that, it’s all up in the air as it tends to be with the Spurs. For the whole season, The Spurs only have one top-150 fantasy player in Tre Jones. So with the Spurs, you’d want to look for streaming options and general opportunism rather than solid players to keep.
James Wiseman, C – Detroit Pistons (40% rostered)
Stat highlight: Has played a total of 60 games in the first three seasons… hang on, this is supposed to be a highlight… 2nd pick in the 2020 draft!
Wiseman gets to restart – or, really, start – his career in Detroit after not fitting into the Warriors’ timeline at all. Wiseman is around the same age as all the other prospects on the Pistons. According to media reports, the Pistons, indeed, plan to start Wiseman to see what, if anything, they got. And what did they get from a fantasy perspective? Provided enough minutes, decent big man numbers – mid-teens in points, 7-8 rebounds, maybe a block, and a high field goal percentage.
Dennis Schroder, PG/SG – Los Angeles Lakers (33% rostered)
Stat highlight: Top 70 per game fantasy player when LeBron James isn’t playing
Whenever LeBron is injured, someone will have to end up taking the shots on the Lakers. In the last two games, Dennis Schroder has scored 25 and 26 points. With D’Angelo Russell joining the squad, the Laker backcourt for the foreseeable future seems to be Russell-Schroeder providing plenty on and off-ball opportunities for both players. And, according to something I read on Reddit (so you know it’s accurate), LeBron’s current injury might take longer than expected. For those reasons, Dennis Schroder is a good fantasy pick-up for now.