Fantasy Basketball Waiver Wire Adds and Weekly Planner: Week 14 (1/22-1/28)

Most teams will hit the halfway point of their schedule at some point this week! We are officially into the meat of the schedule with the NBA trade deadline approaching in only a few weeks, too. If you have been slacking off or paying too much attention to football, it's time to get your rosters right and heading on a course for the playoffs in your fantasy basketball leagues!

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 14 Schedule Breakdown

Notes:

Every team has at least three games this week, no teams have more than four.

The schedule is very balanced between days with at least five games every day.

Saturday is the biggest slate with 10 games, while the usual big nights (Wed + Fri) have just 8 games this week.

Standard League Adds For Week 14

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.

Dillon Brooks - SG/SF (38%)

After missing several weeks with an injury, Dillon Brooks has played five games for Houston and has worked his way back into the starting rotation and heavy minutes. He's played 40 minutes in two of his last three starts and is a guy who can contribute in points, threes, and steals when given that much playing time.

Brooks went for 25 points against Boston last night, hitting five treys while piling up four steals. The schedule looks appealing this week with weak opponents in Portland, Charlotte, and Brooklyn.

Alec Burks - PG/SG/SF (35%)

Burks was on the deep league list last week and saw his rostership shoot up from 22% to now 35% due to two 30+ point outings last week. Burks can get buckets, we know that, but hitting 8 threes against Washington and 7 against Milwaukee are outlier performances, not the norm.

PISTONS WIN!!!

Alec Burks with 34 off the bench 🔥 pic.twitter.com/mILxIBs40K

— Ballislife.com (@Ballislife) January 15, 2024

Still, it's hard to argue against rostering him now while he's red hot and being given plenty of minutes. Cade Cunningham could still miss the rest of this week and the Pistons are desperate for scoring, which is why Burks has played as much as he has lately.

Luke Kennard - PG/SG (30%) 

Please, go add Luke Kennard! The numbers don't jump off the page, I know, but in terms of efficiency for 9-cat leagues, Kennard has been tremendous since taking on a larger role for the ailing Grizzlies. He's in the top 100 (89) in player value over the last two weeks with averages of 13.7 points, 3.5 rebounds, 4.2 assists, 3.2 threes, and 0.5 steals. And he's doing that while shooting 52% from the floor and 88% from the line while only committing 1.3 turnovers. He's a great fit for any team and an awesome value in roto leagues, too.

Jabari Walker - SF/PF (30%)

The good news for Walker is that he's continuing to get minutes for Portland even when both Jerami Grant and Deandre Ayton are in the lineup. He can play the 3 or the 4, while Duop Reath can really only play the 5 which is why he goes back to being a bench player when Ayton is healthy.

Jabari Walker in only 22 minutes:

12 PTS
7 REB
3 OREB
5/8 FGM
68% TS%

Tough matchup vs the King, but played GREAT defense against him! pic.twitter.com/WEZQg1tjhg

— Jabari Walker’s Revenge (@OSportsU) January 22, 2024

Walker has a very bright future in the NBA and should be rostered more widely across shallow leagues. He's a great lotto ticket to hold onto (I keep saying this) for when Jerami Grant and/or Ayton are eventually shut down or traded, too.

Dario Saric - PF/C (22%)

The Warriors played only one game last week due to the tragedy they suffered when an assistant coach passed away suddenly.  But they are set to resume action tonight against the Hawks at home. Saric is the one Warrior big man who I think can maintain value even with Draymond Green returning to the lineup. He's been solid over the last two weeks with averages of 10-6-4.5 with 1.5 threes and 1.0 steals. I would add him now or hold him if you already have him rostered to see how the minutes at C and PF get distributed over the next few games.

Deep League Adds For Week 14

Santi Aldama - PF/C (16%)

Aldama has been in and out of the rotation for Memphis this season, but right now he's being asked to play solid minutes again with Xavier Tillman Jr. missing his last game. Tillman Jr. is the preferred play of the two, as he has more upside in boards, blocks, and steals. But Aldama has range from outside and can contribute big man stats in addition to some threes. The Grizzlies are going to be a mess down the stretch and I wouldn't be surprised if we saw both Aldama and Tillman Jr. carry some value.

Amen Thompson - SG/SF (15%)

It was his brother, Ausar, who was a hot fantasy basketball asset earlier this season while he was getting major minutes in Detroit, but it just might be Amen's time to shine in Houston. Thompson got his first start of his career last night against Boston and put up an impressive 15 points, 14 rebounds, and 5 assists. He had been slowly getting more burn for the last week or so with some injuries opening up more playing time in the Houston rotation but it took Fred VanVleet resting to finally crack the starting lineup (Cam Whitmore also started for Jabari Smith Jr. but didn't fare quite so well).

Houston Rockets rookie Amen Thompson in his first career NBA start

— 15 points
— 14 rebounds
— 5 assists
— 1 steal
— 5/10 FG
— 0/2 3P
— 5/6 FT pic.twitter.com/tbsAZoulWz

— No Ceilings (@NoCeilingsNBA) January 22, 2024

It's hard to predict how the minutes will play out in Houston, but you have to think that the cream will eventually rise to the top and that Thompson is too toolsy to not earn minutes in the second half for the Rockets. I would stash him where you can, his upside is worth holding onto him for a while.

Kris Dunn - PG (9%)

Every time I go to cut Dunn from one of my teams, he has a game that makes me reconsider. This just happened again as Dunn played 27 minutes (his most in the last two weeks) and put up a solid 10-8-7 line. Even without scoring much, Dunn ranks 90th over the last two weeks based on his strong percentages and defensive stats and the veteran guard is worth rostering in deeper formats as long as Utah continues to keep him in the rotation for at least 20-25 minutes.

Georges Niang - PF (8%)

I'll be honest, as a Cavs fan I was not all that excited about the addition of Niang to my favorite team in free agency. The guy looks like he eats 3-4 cheeseburgers a night and yet somehow he can still move out there and keep up with some of the best athletes in the world, I don't get it.

But what he can do is shoot the freaking basketball and right now he's on an incredible heater (just like the Cavs as a team). He's drained three or more long balls in six of his last seven, posting double-digit points in all but one of those outings. He even went for 33 points in a blowout of Milwaukee last week. Over the last two weeks, he's been a top-75 player (I know, crazy!) based on his shooting efficiency. He should continue to play 20+ minutes for Cleveland for the foreseeable future as Evan Mobley is still not close to returning.

Sam Merrill - SG (7%)

Like Niang, Merrill has been cooking from behind the arc and is playing a big role in this recent Cavs win streak. He's seen his minutes stabilize in the mid-20s most nights and he's getting up enough shots to be worth adding for points and threes. He's hit double-digits in scoring in seven of his last eight and has the green light (like Strus and Niang) to keep firing away.

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

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