Theo Maledon (PG, OKC) - Week 14 Waiver Wire Pickups

Oklahoma City guard Theo Maledon is a worthy consideration as a fantasy basketball waiver wire pickup heading into Week 14 of the NBA season.

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ANALYSIS: When you think of a player capable of a quick transition to the NBA level, you don't typically think of a 19-year-old, second-round draft pick (34th overall) out of France; yet here we are 39 games into Theo Maledon's rookie season, and the future looks bright. Maledon (who I included in my preseason article profiling 2020 Second-Rounders who will be useful as rookies) came into the league as a 6'4 Euro player with the usual limited sample size of elite professional play, and was perceived more as a project for the Thunder who already had an established core of guards in Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, George Hill, and Hamidou Diallo. Now, Diallo was traded to Detroit, Hill was hurt and eventually shipped to Philly, and Shai has persistently battled injury, so much so that he has actually played in four fewer games than has Theo this year.

OKC has since brought in Ty Jerome as a backup combo guard after a fantastic G-League stint but Theo Maledon has been at the helm. In 21 games since the start of February, Maledon has averaged a beefy 31.9 minutes per game, and in that time has put up 9.6 points, 3.7 rebounds, 4.0 assists, and 1.29 steals while shooting 39 of 105 from three (37.1%) and 23 of 27 from the stripe (85.2%). Maledon ranks fifth on the Thunder in steal rate (1.7%) and fourth in assist rate (18.2%), and while his 18.7% turnover rate is last on the roster, he improved in this respect recently as well, producing 45 turnovers in 669 minutes since the start of February after turning it over 30 times in 382 minutes from December through January.

Even when SGA is healthy, Theo Maledon's role as the lead point guard has gone un-usurped, so in deeper leagues where he's somehow still available, he's an excellent choice as a five-category point guard with the keys to the kingdom for the remainder of 2021.

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