Fantasy Basketball Waiver Wire Adds and Weekly Planner: Week 13 (1/15 -1/21)

We kick off a huge week in the Association with the annual MLK slate - 11 games on a Monday! The NBA has long embraced MLK Day and has used it both to do community outreach and to promote its product. While I love the big Monday slate, it does create some inequity in the schedule as we get only three games tomorrow (Tuesday) and five games on Thursday. Wednesday is the other big day of games this week with 10 contests on the docket.

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 from waivers in both standard (10-12 team leagues) and deeper formats (more than 12 teams).

Week 13 Schedule Breakdown

Notes:

Teams with only two games - LA Clippers, Milwaukee Bucks, Sacramento Kings

Only one team (Washington Wizards) has the coveted Saturday-Sunday back-to-back.

Standard League Adds For Week 13

Percentage owned numbers in parentheses are from Yahoo! Note: We are digging deeper even for standard/shallow leagues so no player over 40% will be recommended this week.

Brandin Podziemski - SG (41%)

Okay so I lied, I am starting off here with B-Pod at 41% rostership. He had a chance to start and star for the Warriors this weekend when Steph sat out and he reminded all of us of his massive upside with 23 points, 10 boards, 3 threes, 3 rebounds, and 2 steals.

23-10-3-2, 7/9 2PT, 3/5 3PT for Brandin Podziemski Saturday in his home state pic.twitter.com/mgT9CQGx4W

— Brett Usher (@UsherNBA) January 14, 2024

He had been slumping a bit coming into that game, but the kid can play and stuff the stat sheet with peripheral stats (something not a lot of SGs will do). He's going to continue to be in the mix for major minutes on a nightly basis with the Warriors banged up and badly in need of a spark on offense.

Vince Williams Jr. - SG (38%)

Your window to grab Williams is closing quite quickly. He started at PG on Saturday and went 17-8-8 with two steals and a block against the Knicks and the minutes should be there for quite some time as Morant is done for the season, Bane is out for a month, and Marcus Smart for at least a month or longer.

obsessed with the way Vince williams jr is ALWAYS looking for the better shooter, even when he’s open pic.twitter.com/Rv8n3ATypQ

— Fastbreak Breakfast (@fastbreakbreak) January 14, 2024

The efficiency won't be there with Williams, he's not a good shooter, but he is going to put up counting stats and some nice defensive stats from the guard position. He's going to be 50% rostered or higher by next week, watch.

Luke Kennard - PG/SG (26%) 

As I mentioned with Williams Jr., Memphis is going to be a gold mine for fantasy value as their season is in shambles. Kennard has stepped in admirably and is putting up some nice numbers. You won't get defensive stats, but you are getting a reliable three-point shooter and some decent assists as Kennard has been forced to help initiate the offense with all of Memphis's actual point guards hurt. He's an uber-efficient shooter who will help you in points, threes, and assists while also contributing positively to your percentages without many turnovers.

Dario Saric - PF/C (25%)

D-D-D-ario is back in the starting lineup for the Warriors as they desperately look for some combination of players to start winning games consistently. While Dario has plenty of holes in his game, he still usually posts very fantasy-friendly lines with minutes as we've seen him do lately.

Draymond Green will be back in the lineup today against Memphis, but I expect Saric to maintain a major role off the bench and continue to earn minutes either at the 4 or the 5. He has the best offensive game of any of the other options behind Draymond (Looney, Kuminga, TJD) and Steve Kerr seems pretty fond of him.

Jabari Walker - SF/PF (23%) and Duop Reath - C (24%)

Let's lump these two Blazers together, shall we? Reath has been starting at center in the absence of Deandre Ayton. Who knows if Ayton is really injured or just uninterested in playing for the rebuilding Blazers, but Reath has looked good of late and was on this list last week at only 18% rostered. After a clunker in his first game last week, he came on strong and finished with 14-6 against Minnesota and 17-6 against Phoenix. He has range from deep, too, hitting 9 treys over his last six games.

DUOP 'THE GREAT BARRIER REATH' crushed it again with his sixth straight start for the #Blazers 🇦🇺🏀🤙

17 PTS (7-15 FGs, 2-6 3PT)
6 REBS
1 AST
2 STLS
1 BLK

Duop > Ayton 💪 pic.twitter.com/1fxG6yCGc4

— NBA Straya (@NbaStraya) January 15, 2024

Walker is a guy who I have been holding in all leagues and acquired in a dynasty league. I just love this kid's game. He came back from a week off due to injury and immediately put up 17-13. Jerami Grant is likely to be traded or rested down the stretch and it's really only a matter of time until Walker is a household name. Portland is going to be the land of opportunity down the stretch so start stocking up on young Blazers now (Kris Murray is another deep league target I'll be eyeing).

Deep League Adds For Week 13

Alec Burks - PG/SG/SF (22%)

I wouldn't waste a roster spot in a shallow league on Burks as we know that he's really just good for points, threes, and percentages, but in shallow leagues, he's certainly valuable enough to be rostered. With Cade Cunningham out, Detroit needs scoring and they've turned to Burks as both Jaden Ivey and Killian Hayes have struggled. Burks has scored in double-digits now in ten straight and can boost your FT% as he often gets to the line 4-5 times a night and shoots it well there.

Andrew Nembhard - PG/SG (17%)

It's been a real mixed bag of results for Nembhard since Haliburton went down. He has been starting in Tyrese's place as point guard but getting outplayed by T.J. McConnell, who is also the better fantasy player, too.

But his last two games give us some hope as he went 10-4-6 against Atlanta and then followed that up with an efficient 12-2-7. He's locked into around 25-28 minutes in this timeshare with TJ, but both guys can be productive and should be rostered in shallow leagues until TJ gets back.

David Roddy - SF/PF (9%)

Another Memphis player - of course! Roddy is the least sexy of the Memphis adds as he's mainly only good for points, rebounds, and threes but he's played 25, 27, and 35 minutes over his last three and could be in line to keep playing major minutes now that the entire Memphis starting lineup is hurt and out for a while (other than Jaren Jackson Jr. - who at some point, could just get shut down with this being a lost season).

Nikola Jovic - PF/C (6%)

I've long been a fan of the young European and Jovic is finally getting a chance to play some significant minutes lately with Miami suffering injuries to Butler, Martin, and others. While he's likely playing out of position at SF some nights and playing mainly a complimentary role as he's not really looking to score, the big man can still fill up the stat sheet with boards, assists (he's a fantastic passer), steals, and blocks. He's still a year away from being an impact player, but he's good enough now that he belongs on deep league rosters while he's playing 20-25 minutes or more per game.

Payton Pritchard - PG/SG (5%)

The Celtics run such a shallow rotation that when even one starter is out, their bench guys (Pritchard, Hauser, Kornet - mainly) can all see nice upticks in playing time. And while Boston is plowing their way through the Eastern Conference, they've rested guys like Porzingis and Horford quite often.

When a guard is out, we see Pritchard get major minutes and the backup guard can score in bunches. He has 21 and 19 points in his last two games. While he's not likely to keep up that pace, he is locked into around 15-25 minutes a night and can smash against weaker opponents. The Celtics see the Raptors and Spurs this week, two opponents who give up a ton of points.

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

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