Nicolas Batum (SG/SF, LAC): Week 17 Waiver Wire Pickups

BALLER MOVE: Add in 14+ Team Leagues

ROSTERED IN: 24% of leagues

ANALYSIS: For someone past his peak, Nicolas Batum keeps racking up starts on a nightly basis in this barren Clips squad. The Clippers might opt to make some moves and sell the house come trade-deadline day, and we'll see how that goes, but until then Nicolas Batum is sitting on a rather solid position and in possession of a role that should be going nowhere for at least one more week.

Batum has played 22+ minutes in all but one of his last 12 games going back to Jan. 9. He's averaging a good-not-great 25 MGP, but his per-minute production is good at around the league average of 0.90 FP/min. Can't complain as he's available for free in one of every four Yahoo leagues. Excluding his 8-minute tilt against Washington on Jan. 25, Batum has put up a 10-3-2-1 average line in the last couple of weeks (six games) including matches against Miami and Philly. Not bad, if you ask me.

The usage rate (around 14%) can get much higher but considering he's part of the starting unit I'm not sure that'd be the case. Even then, though, Batum is what he is these days: a spot-up shooter hitting his neat 2+ 3PM per game without mistake. Yes, he couldn't drop a bomb against the Lakers on Thursday, but prior to that, it had been seven games in a row with at least 1 triple and three 4+ performances topping at 7 treys made against the Pacers on Jan. 17. Gotta love the steals and blocks for what's worth, while the turnovers are as close to zero as they get and the shooting percentages are plenty great.

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