David Nwaba (SG/SF, HOU): Week 7 Waiver Wire Pickups

Rockets guard/forward David Nwaba is a worthy consideration as a fantasy basketball waiver wire pickup heading into Week 7 of the NBA season.

BALLER MOVE: Add in 14-Team Leagues

ROSTERED IN: 18% of leagues

ANALYSIS: I'm writing this just after Houston pulled off the upset against Portland on Thursday. This game has been the first in which David Nwaba has played fewer than 21 minutes since Jan. 14, and the first one all season long (16 GP) in which he logged a usage rate below 12% shooting just a couple of field goals and hitting none of them. That didn't look good, sure, but Nwaba has played really good ball prior to this match, and he should rebound back to his bench-role, 20-minute per game ways soon enough.

That is if Houston doesn't move him in a trade to a contender looking to get some depth. That's still just something that could happen, but there is not much solid information about it. Going back a couple of weeks, Nwaba has taken advantage of Wall/Dipo absences here and there and played 24+ MPG in that span. Nwaba never turned into a go-to option on offense, topping at 23.7% usage rate (once), but averaging a much lower 15.6% in his last seven games.

Even though Nwaba is a low-usage player, he's put up numbers. Nwaba has played above-average per-minute basketball in five of his last six games (0.90+ FP/min) putting up an average 12-5-2-2-1 stuffed line in those matches. That's no joke. Only 10 players have put up an average 10-4-2 line through the past 10 days, and Nwaba (20 MPG) is the lone player to do it in fewer than 27 MPG.

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