Hassan Whiteside (PF/C, UTA): Week 2 Waiver Wire Pickups

BALLER MOVE: Add in 14-team Leagues

ROSTERED IN: 19% of leagues

ANALYSIS: The Jazz have been one of--if not the--most continuist teams this offseason when it comes to changing things around its rotation. One of the very few changes of names (not roles, mind you) was that in which Utah flipped Derrick Favors for Hassan Whiteside. Favors didn't factor too much in Utah's equation with Rudy Gobert out there unleashed in the paint, and neither will Hassan. But even then, Whiteside is so solid of a fantasy performer that he merits a roster spot in deep leagues around the landscape.

Now, hear me out. Whiteside has been labeled an empty-calories player for his whole career. That's cool and all, but similar criticism has been dropped over the likes of, say, Andre Drummon more often than not and there is the man racking up double-doubles nightly. It's pretty much the same with Whiteside. Two games, an average of just 17.5 MPG, and still a near 7-10-1-1-1 line as a Jazzman. Nothing to hate about that given the availability.

Whiteside is a love/hate player for fantasy GMs. That won't change any time soon, and the role is as clear as they get in Utah for him this season. It'd be ridiculous to think of Hassan as a 36 MPG player, but per B-Ref.com projections he is expected to put up an 18-15-1 line per-36, or a more realistic 10-8-1  per-20 with massive upside on the blocks category--he already has three swats in his two games played this season. Whiteside won't stretch the floor just one bit either, so that will always have him getting high FG% (watch out for the FT%, though, as he's a career 60-percent shooter from the charity stripe).

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