Chuma Okeke (PF, ORL): Week 18 Waiver Wire Pickups

BALLER MOVE: Add in 14+ Team Leagues

ROSTERED IN: 37% of leagues

ANALYSIS: It's hard to properly assess Chuma Okeke--or any player, for that matter--if only because of the fact he's part of a completely broken team in the Orlando Magic's. That said, though, we have to acknowledge Okeke as a bona fide above-average player at least in the past three weeks of play getting back to Jan. 19 when he went back to the Magic bench and became part of the second unit once more and still to this day.

Okeke had a stretch spanning for a month in which he started 10 of his 12 games played for the Magic between mid-Dec. and mid-Jan. but has since gone back to the pine to run with the second unit. And, by the looks of it, that has helped him on all fronts as he's stayed on a very similar playing time average (from 28 MPG to just a bit lower 25 MPG) but his numbers have sky-rocketed while playing as a reserve. Okeke's averaging an above-average 1.03 FP/min in the past three weeks (12 games) compared to the early season's 0.75 figure. Not bad for a rook on a low 16% usage rate.

While the shooting has stayed a little bit bouncy for our liking, Okeke seems to have ditched a very troubling average of 33% from-the-field accuracy from the start of the season to Jan. 19, flipping for a much healthier 49% in the past 12 games. Again, there have been peaks and valleys, but the average has been good enough on his nearly 8 FGA, even more considering Okeke is launching 58% of his shots from beyond the arc (4.5 3PA per game), hitting 1.4 3PM a pop. The 1.4 SPG are very nice and pro-rate to a silly 2.1 thefts per 36 minutes--that's to say, Dejounte Murray and Gary Trent Jr. levels of thievery. Just for context.

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