Fantasy Basketball Waiver Wire Pickups for Week 4 Include Bones Hyland, Cam Thomas, Larry Nance Jr., Max Strus

Welcome back to RotoBaller's weekly fantasy basketball waiver wire column and schedule breakdown. How's the start of this season treating your fantasy rosters? Do you already need some help? We have a bit of an odd week ahead, with no games on Tuesday, as it's Election Day.

These recommendations are mainly for 9-cat leagues, but if you play in another format, there's a good chance that the information here can still help you. We'll be looking at centers, forwards, and guards whose low rostership and upside make them ideal players to get onto your fantasy team.

Our staff at RotoBaller has great insight and daily columns on how to improve your squad and tips to make your team successful, so be sure to check them out! Now, let's get prepared for Week 4.

NBA Week 4 Schedule Guide

Let's take a look at some notable things on the schedule this week.

Teams with four games: Atlanta, Boston, Brooklyn, Charlotte, Cleveland, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Lakers, Memphis, Minnesota, New Orleans, New York, Oklahoma City, Philadelphia, Portland, Sacramento, Toronto, Utah, Washington

Teams with three games: Chicago, Golden State, Houston, Indiana, Clippers, Miami, Milwaukee, Orlando, Phoenix, San Antonio

Number of teams playing each day:

Monday: 30
Tuesday: 0
Wednesday: 26
Thursday: 7
Friday: 16
Saturday: 16
Sunday: 14

Back-to-Backs:

Sunday/Monday: Chicago, Cleveland, Clippers, Lakers, Memphis, Toronto, Utah, Washington
Monday/Tuesday: 0
Tuesday/Wednesday: 0
Wednesday/Thursday: Atlanta, Charlotte, Dallas, New Orleans, Portland
Thursday/Friday: 0
Friday/Saturday: Boston, Detroit, Toronto
Saturday/Sunday: Brooklyn, Philadelphia, Utah, Washington

9-Category Leagues - Waiver Wire Adds

This column is written based on H2H 9-category 12-team leagues. All players in this article are rostered at around 50 percent or less.

Bones Hyland, G - Denver Nuggets - 52% rostered 

I mentioned Hyland in this column last week and I'm mentioning him again this time because not enough of y'all went out and added the second-year Nuggets guard.

And the reason for that makes sense, as Hyland missed two games. But in his return on Saturday, he went right back to being a crucial part of this Denver team, going 9-for-17 for 24 points with five rebounds, seven assists and two steals. That's now two games in a row for Hyland with 20-plus points. And on Saturday, he ended up leading the team in scoring.

Cam Thomas, G/F - Brooklyn Nets - 35% rostered 

Kyrie Irving is currently suspended by the team for promoting antisemitism, and it's unclear how long he'll be out, as the team has given Irving a list of things he has to do before he can return to the franchise.

With Irving out, second-year guard Cam Thomas is getting a chance to shine. In the last two games, Thomas is playing 30.3 minutes per night, with averages of 19.0 points per game on 45.8% shooting with 4.0 rebounds, 5.0 assists and 1.5 threes. Thomas should continue to play a key role in this Nets offensive attack, so go ahead and add him everywhere.

Max Strus, G/F - Miami Heat - 48% rostered 

Good recent run for Max Strus, who is averaging 34.4 minutes per game over the last five games and has moved into the starting lineup for Miami's last two games.

In this five-game span, Strus is averaging 15.2 points per game, as well as 3.6 rebounds, 2.0 assists and, most importantly, 3.0 threes. I think there are definitely situations where Strus doesn't help you much, but if you're a fantasy manager whose biggest deficiency right now comes from behind the arc, take a long look at Strus, especially with his uptick in minutes and his recent move into the starting five.

Larry Nance Jr., F/C - New Orleans Pelicans - 37% rostered 

Nance has turned into a journeyman and this year that journey has him in New Orleans, who he played the final nine games last season for. And Nance is currently on fire at this stop in his journey.

The veteran forward is averaging 23.7 minutes per game on the season, averaging 9.7 points on 66.1% shooting, with 5.4 rebounds and 1.1 steals per game. And that's just improved lately: over the last three games, Nance is averaging 13.0 points, 6.7 rebounds, 2.7 assists and 2.3 steals per game. He's doing a little bit of everything and has seen a marked increase in his minutes lately.

Troy Brown Jr., F - Los Angeles Lakers - 16% rostered 

The Los Angeles Lakers are a pretty desperate team, which is why Troy Brown Jr., who averaged 16.0 minutes per game last year for the Bulls, is playing 26.6 per game this year with the Lakers.

Brown provides some needed shooting for the Lakers, though he's shooting just 32.1% from three in this young season. I'm concerned by that, but Brown was a 35.3% shooter from deep last year and should start to show a little more consistency as he gets used to a scaled-up volume from behind the arc. The Lakers have started Brown five times already and he should continue to see a good number of looks from deep.

Christian Koloko, C - Toronto Raptors - 17% rostered 

Rookie Christian Koloko, a second round pick in the 2022 NBA Draft, has made an impact in Toronto.

He's started the team's last four games, averaging 21.9 minutes per game over that span while putting up 6.0 points, 5.0 rebounds and 2.8 blocks per game. I, uhh...I think you can see why I'm mentioning him. This is a "I really need help in the block category" pick up. He played a career-high 31 minutes last game and he blocked an astounding six shots. He also had a career-high 11 points. Sunday's game might be the start of something big for Koloko, who should continue to get big minutes at least while Pascal Siakam is out.

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