Fantasy Basketball Waiver Wire Adds and Weekly Planner: Week 11 (1/1-1/7)

Happy New Year to all of you and let's hope that 2024 will bring us even more NBA excitement. It's been a pretty fun first third of the season with some young players emerging as elite fantasy players, the in-season tournament, and what I thought was a really solid slate of Christmas Day games this year. We roll right along into Week 11 with our first full week in a while -- yes, we get NBA games on all seven days this week!

I think it's become conventional wisdom to some extent, but I will restate this anyway. The key to winning fantasy basketball leagues is NOT about how you draft, but what you do afterward with waiver additions and trades. And while you might make a handful of trades during a season, you're most certainly going to make dozens of waiver adds and drops as you try to cope with injuries to players or just try to maximize your games played each week in H2H formats.

Working the wire is an incredibly important skill and being one step ahead of your fellow league managers means always planning and keeping tabs on players who starting to play better or earn more minutes. Every week, I will do my best to help you plan out your week and give you my top recommendations to add off waivers in both standard (10-12 team leagues) and deeper formats (more than 12 teams).

Week 11 Schedule Breakdown

Notes:

No two-game teams this week, huzzah!

Thursday is the lightest day of the week with just two games scheduled.

There are no Saturday-Sunday back-to-backs this week.

The best schedules for streamers are Houston, Indiana, Milwaukee, New York, and Utah as these teams all play tonight (Monday) and get four games in by Saturday. You can get four games from a player and still dump them on Sunday for a fifth game if you want to maximize games.

Standard League Adds For Week 11

Percentage owned numbers in parentheses are from Yahoo!

Josh Hart - SG/SF (43%)

Hart is an add for me after the OG Anunoby trade -- at least for now. He's boring and he's going to do much other than score and rebound with a handful of assists and threes, but I think we are going to see a pretty tight rotation from the Knicks going forward. Anunoby is going to slot in at the 3, but I am not sure we see much of Malachi Flynn. Instead, the Knicks are more likely to use Hart as a sixth man to pull Donte out early and then have him come back in to spell Brunson. Achiuwa is going to spell Hartenstein, but I think we could see a seven-man rotation until Quentin Grimes figures it out -- Coach Thibs has done it before.

Malik Beasley - SG/SF (42%)

Beasley has been on and off a few of my rosters several times already, but I have a hard time not recommending him this week as the Bucks have two games against the fast-paced Pacers, one against the basement-dwelling Spurs, and a fourth game against Houston on Saturday. Beasley is playing fourth fiddle on offense to Giannis, Lillard, and Middleton, but he has hit five threes in each of his last two games and is the kind of guy who can get hot for a stretch.

Alex Caruso - PG/SG (41%)

Caruso was featured in last week's article and had a great week for us, yet his rostership has only crept up four percent since last Monday. There's not too much more that needs to be said. As long as he's starting and playing 30 minutes, he's going to be an asset in threes, steals, assists, and even some blocks while shooting a solid percentage from the field. He's flirting with top-75 production right now and is such a nice fit for teams that want efficiency from their guards.

Trayce Jackson-Davis - PF/C (33%)

TJD was in last week's article and while he started slow, he finished the week with a couple of really nice lines and his first career start against Dallas. I see no reason not to roster this kid while Draymond is still out and he's easily the Warrior with the most upside on the wire between him, Looney, Kuminga, and Saric.

Aaron Nesmith - SF/PF (29%)

Nesmith started at SF in the Pacers' last game next to Jalen Smith and Myles Turner. They seem to want to get him on the court somehow as much as possible and he is winning the minutes game between the rest of the Pacers' peripheral players. He just dropped 25 points and hit seven threes in that game against the Knicks, his offensive game has been on full display of late.

Donte DiVincenzo - SG/SF (25%)

Donte is coming off a massive 38-point game in which he hit seven threes in a loss to the Pacers. That's not likely to happen again this season but serves as a good reminder that he can score in bunches in addition to racking up steals and some counting stats. He should continue to start at SG after the trade and as I mentioned earlier, I think he could end up leading the second unit and taking on some of Quickley's role now that he's off to Toronto.

Deep League Adds For Week 11

Matisse Thybulle - SG/SF (18%)

Thybulle is only a deep-league player based on his lack of scoring, but has been absolutely lighting it up in defensive stats with 2.6 blocks/steals per game. His playing time has leveled off in the mid to upper 20s and that's enough court time for him to keep it up. Right now, he's inside the top 100 even without contributing in many counting stats, that's how good he is in percentages and defensive stats.

Jalen Smith - PF/C (17%)

Smith is healthy and back to 20-25 minutes a night for the Pacers in the rotation, even starting next to Aaron Nesmith in their last game. The Pacers are trying to figure out how to get all their big men into the rotation, with Isaiah Jackson playing some backup minutes at the center position.

Larry Nance Jr. - PF/C (14%)

It didn't take long for Nance to make an impact for the Pelicans as he played 23 and 25 minutes in his first two games coming off an extended absence due to injury. The Pels absolutely love Nance and his ability to rebound and play defense, and his versatility allows them to play smaller if they want and send Jonas to the bench. Nance has an incredibly fantasy-friendly game and should be able to keep contributing regularly.

Jabari Walker - SF/PF (8%)

Walker is one of my favorite young prospects in the league to watch on a nightly basis and he happens to play for a team that has been willing to give him meaningful minutes. Deandre Ayton can't seem to stay healthy so Walker has had a chance to slide into the lineup occasionally or playing 20+ minutes off the bench. He's flashed some serious potential of late, including a 25-point, 9-rebound effort against the Spurs. I would add and HOLD him in deeper leagues, he's going to be incredibly valuable down the stretch.

Ayo Dosunmu - SG (6%)

With Zach LaVine continuing to miss games and perhaps being on his way out of Chicago, Dosunmu has picked up minutes off the bench and has been thriving as their sixth man, posting double-digit points in four of his last six games.  The scoring has been a nice surprise as he's known as more of a defensive player and pass-first guard. He's worth a look while he continues to have a major role with the Bulls.

That's it for this week, good luck in your leagues, and thanks for reading!

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