Jalen McDaniels (PF, CHA) - Fantasy Basketball Waiver Wire Pickups for Week 8

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ROSTERED IN: 5% of leagues

ANALYSIS: It's been four starts in a row for Jalen McDaniels through Saturday's second leg of Charlotte's back-to-back against Washington and Milwaukee. The young forward and Kelly Oubre have been used as a downsized solution to make up for the absence of oft-injured Gordon Hayward and the returns have been good--at least on an individual basis.

McDaniels had started a game back at the start of November against Memphis but he only played 22 minutes and finished with a 4-1-2-1 line shooting 1-of-5 from the floor and connecting two freebies while turning the ball over twice. The plus/minus was atrocious, though, and marked a season-low at minus-33. Ugh.

After a 10-game rehab sting playing off the pine, JMD came made it back to the starting lineup on Nov. 25 and has not left it since. He's averaging 30 MPG and he's been producing fantastic stat lines nightly: 15-4-2 is the average line and he's had two days of 21+ points scored while reaching 8 and 9 pops in the other two.

McDaniels struggles a bit with fouling, which can lead to a limit on his playing time, and he's turning the ball over more than once per game. That said, the Hornets aren't going anywhere other than Wemby Station so it makes sense for them to run with the young guns to see what they have.

JMD is one of 41 players (min. 600 MP) averaging a 10-4-2 line on a per-game basis while also scoring 1+ 3PM per game. He's the only one doing it in fewer than 28.5 MPG over the full season, as he's just playing 26.1 MPG through Saturday night games.

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