Fantasy Basketball Waiver Wire Pickups and Streamers for Week 20 (2024-25): March 17 - March 23

The fantasy basketball playoffs are in full swing for many leagues and even the late-starters are set to begin this week. Frustration with players resting and schedules being tough to predict is mounting and I was a victim of it myself just this week with Utah and the Walker Kessler drama. My best advice is just to take it all in stride and try to maintain as much flexibility as possible. And don't be afraid to cut a player you've held all year if you need immediate help to win your weekly H2H matchup.

Most leagues have a weekly moves cap, and some have season-long caps. Always check your league settings to plan how many moves you want to make each week. This week, I will include more names with shorter blurbs to give you many options!

I am a big advocate of being aggressive on the waiver wire! If your league has daily lineups, you should use that to your advantage and maximize your weekly games in H2H formats. I'll give you my top adds for standard leagues (20-40% rostered), deeper formats (less than 20% rostered) every week, and the schedule breakdown for all 30 teams. Let's see who we should be eyeing to add to our teams in Week 20!

Week 20 Schedule Breakdown (3/17 - 3/23)

• ONLY TWO GAMES = DAL, ORL
• Mon-Tues B2B: GSW
• Tue-Wed B2B: CLE
• Wed-Thurs B2B: CHI, IND, LAL, NYK, SAC
• Thurs-Fri B2B: CHA
• Fri-Sat B2B: WAS
• Sat-Sun B2B: ATL

Standard Leagues - Fantasy Basketball Waiver Wire for Week 20

Percent owned numbers for Yahoo! "Standard Leagues" refer to 10- or 12-team leagues.

Keldon Johnson - SG/SF/PF (36%)

Johnson and the Spurs have four games this week and no back-to-backs. He played nearly 30 minutes last night and scored 19 points with his usual five boards but added three steals. With Fox and Wemby out for the remainder of the year, the rest of these Spurs role players will put up some nice late-season numbers.

Scoot Henderson - PG (35%)

With four games this week, Scoot is another guy who shouldn't be floating around on waiver wires but is still inexplicably available in 65% of leagues. He just dropped 30 against the Knicks this week and you'd have to think he keeps getting any opportunity to play big minutes down the stretch as Portland wants to see which of their young core they want to build around going forward.

Kyle Filipowski - PF/C (33%)

Utah doesn't have any back-to-backs this week, but they have been resting players so often in their obvious tank job that they got reprimanded by the league for it. So the other night they dressed Walker Kessler but still didn't play him, allowing Filipowski to start and put up a solid line.

He's been so good (90 overall last two weeks) that he's worth an add even if he only makes 1-2 starts and plays the other games off the bench.

Donovan Clingan - C (30%)

After being cut by many frustrated managers, Clingan has played over 30 minutes in two straight games - racking up seven blocks in those contests.

Deandre Ayton isn't walking back on that floor this season (regardless of what anyone tells you) and Robert Williams III can't handle big minutes so the opportunity is going to continue to be there for the big rookie to make a fantasy impact.

The schedule is set up nicely this week, too. Clingan gets a bad Raptors team tonight then Washington (terrible vs. centers) on Monday, Memphis on Wednesday, and Denver (some of his biggest games have come against Jokic) on Friday.

Kyshawn George - SG/SF (27%)

George had his full game on display last night in the Wizards upset of the Nuggets, including a clutch corner three in the waning seconds to give Washington the lead. He stuffed the stat sheet across the board, including five stocks.

Kyshawn George continues to be excellent:

19 points
7 rebounds
5 assists
4 steals
1 block
74.5% TS

He will be a consistent rotation player for years to come.

— Wizards Film Room (@KevinFolliNBA) March 16, 2025

It's been a bumpy rookie campaign, but George has been coming into his own late in the year and is putting up some really solid fantasy value. With Bilal Coulibaly out, he should continue to play big minutes and have a major role on this team in the final month.

Miles McBride - PG/SG (29%)

The Knicks just announced Brunson could be out for a full month so Deuce McBridge is going to keep getting as many minutes as he can handle for the Knicks. He's played 38 minutes the last two games and has hit three or more triples in three straight.

The Knicks have no depth and need perimeter scoring badly so McBride should keep firing up shots. He's a FG% risk, but has shown some decent chops on defense lately with six steals and three blocks in his last three contests.

Dalton Knecht - SG/SF (25%)

With LeBron James and Luka Doncic both out against the Nuggets, Knecht went off for 32 points and five threes. We saw him do that a few times in the preseason, too, so it wasn't too much of a surprise - he can shoot the deep ball.

LeBron is going to be out awhile, so Knecht should keep getting minutes, just keep those expectations in check. When Luka is in the lineup, Knecht is just a catch-and-shoot role player who is only going to offer help in points, threes, and percentages. But the Lakers have four games and Knecht is one of the better pure scorers on the wire.

Orlando Robinson - C (24%)

O-Rob has been a double-double machine lately for Toronto, racking up three in a row and adding some impressive assists (five per game over those three games) from the center position.

Jakob Poeltl has been resting every other game, and Toronto has even started to limit his minutes in the games that he does play, giving Robinson 25 to 30 minutes off the bench. It's an odd week for the Raptors with a funky Monday-Thursday-Sunday schedule but all three matchups (PHX, GSW, SAS) are great spots for centers. This guy could help win you the week even with only three games.

Deeper Leagues - Fantasy Basketball Waiver Wire for Week 20

Percent owned numbers for Yahoo! "Deeper Leagues" refer to 14-team leagues or more.

Tre Jones - PG (20%)

Jones probably won't be under the 20% threshold to qualify as a "deep league add" by the end of the day as he had another very productive outing last night, pouring in 19 points on 61% shooting and adding six assists.

The Bulls have no reason to rush Josh Giddey back or Lonzo Ball and his balky knees. Jones could keep providing solid points, assists, and percentages the rest of the way if he can hang onto the starting job.

Justin Champagnie - SG/SF (19%)

Champagnie came up huge for me as a streamer yesterday against Denver with a double-double, 60% shooting from the field, 100% from the line, and only one turnover.

Justin Champagnie : 16 points (6-10 shooting, 2-5 from 3 & 2-2 from the FT line), career-high 13 rebounds & 2 steals in 39 minutes pic.twitter.com/2yp5F6fnWk

— Lee Harvey (@MusikFan4Life) March 16, 2025

He should keep starting with Coulibaly out and is arguably the best player that is most widely available. He was just 12% rostered yesterday and will probably be a hot pick-up today, so run - don't walk to pick him up now!

Scotty Pippen Jr. - PG/SG (16%)

Pippen Jr. is great when he gets minutes, we simply haven't had consistent playing time for him for more than a few weeks at a time this year. But right now he's back in the rotation in a big way, logging 27 or more minutes in four of his last five.

He's an elite assist and steals contributor on a per-minute basis, so snag him if you need help this those categories and hope that he doesn't hurt your FG% too much (which he usually doesn't when he's coming off the bench as he takes far fewer attempts).

Moses Moody - SG/SF (15%)

I have been banging the drum for Moody in this column for a few weeks and he's finally making good on my recommendation. It took an injury to Brandin Podziemski to get him some more shots on offense and more minutes overall, but he's come through in a big way with averages of 18-2-2, 1.7 steals, and 3.3 threes over the last week.

A.J. Lawson - SG/SF (13%)

The Raptors have been giving Immanuel Quickly some nights off as well as periodically resting R.J. Barrett and Scottie Barnes. Lawson is one of several young Toronto guards who has shown some promise and is only two games removed from scoring 32 points against Washington.

Toronto sent Jared Rhoden down to the G-League and Jamal Shead has been pretty disappointing lately. Lawson could emerge as the Raptors guard to roster down the stretch. He's scored a whopping 78 points in his last three games!

Kevin Huerter - SG/SF (12%)

The red-headed three-point assassin finally had a dud last night against Houston, finishing with only nine points and four assists, but he still played 33 minutes and had a four-game stretch of double-digit scoring going into that game.

We know what we are getting with Huerter - points, threes, and a handful of steals..and not much else. But with the Bulls banged up and with nothing to play for, we could see Huerter deployed for 30+ minutes this week and perhaps beyond.

The Single Digit Crowd (Super Deep Leagues)

• Jared Butler - PG/SG (8%)
• Jeff Dowtin Jr. - PG (7%)
• Georges Niang - SF/PF (6%)
• Julian Champagnie - SF/PF (6%)
• Kevin Porter Jr. - PG (5%)
• Nicolas Batum - SF/PF (3%)
• Colin Castleton - C (2%)
• Ricky Council IV - SG/SF (2%)

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