Week 14 Fantasy Basketball Waiver Wire: NBA Category Specialists

January 30, 2015

In his Week 14 NBA Category Specialist column, Trevor Crippen searches the fantasy basketball waiver wire for some sleepers that can help with specific statistics.

With February quickly approaching, it is time to dive back into the NBA waiver wire. Today, the focus is on fantasy basketball sleepers of the “Category Specialist” variety that can each help out in different areas during Week 14.

Position Eligibility & Ownership Rate Based on Yahoo! Fantasy Basketball Player List

Free-Throw Percentage Specialist

Brian Roberts (CHA, PG/SG) – 23% owned

Kemba Walker is out for at least six weeks after having knee surgery. His understudy, Roberts, a guy who has played guard for a team called the Hornets in two different cities, but who has not played second base for the Orioles, is due for heavy minutes in Walker's absence.

Roberts is not horrible in any one category. He is below average when it comes to shooting from the field and is not a great scorer even with volume. He also is not a big source of steals compared to other point guards. But he can add a couple threes, a few assists, and he does not turn the ball over. But best of all, he is a career .923 FT% shooter.

With the heavy minutes he is expected to receive, he should get close to 2.5 attempts a game, which will allow that golden percentage to play up really well. I would estimate a top 20 impact on FT%. Roberts is a borderline add in most standard leagues, but if you need help in FT% in particular I think that nudges him up to a definite add.

Steals Specialist

Joe Ingles (UTA, SG/SF) – 5% Owned

Ingles sounds like a fake name, but I assure you, he is a real player for the Utah Jazz. Ingles is a very poor offensive player. He is only scoring 6.2 points a game in 27.7 minutes since taking over as starter on January 3. That’s the bad news. The good news is that, if you can sacrifice a few points for some help elsewhere, he makes a nice streamer option because of everything else.

The steals are the big thing with him – 1.6/game as starter. But he also adds 1.2 three-pointers, 3.5 rebounds, 4.5 assists, only turns the ball over 1.6 times a game, and has shot 90% on free throws (albeit on less than 1 attempt per game). His .368 FG% is low impact due to the low number of attempts. Think of him as a steals streamer with a few perks, similar to Marcus Smart.

Three-Point Specialist

Anthony Tolliver (DET, SF/PF) – 2% Owned

It is sure nice for the Pistons to have someone who can actually shoot taking all those long range shots available from the forward positions, instead of Josh Smith. Tolliver has emerged as a quality sixth man off the Detroit bench over the past couple weeks. In eight games between 1/16 and 1/28, he has averaged 9.6 points, 1.6 threes, 5.0 rebounds, 1.5 assists, 0.8 steals, 0.3 blocks, and 1.3 turnovers, shooting .523 on FGs and .750 on FTs.

Tolliver is bound to have his ups (16 points, 3 threes vs. CLE) and downs (0 points on 0/3 shooting vs. PHI) and does not make for a strong standard league add, but he has turned into a reliable source of threes available in even the deepest of leagues.