Fantasy Basketball Waiver Wire: Key Adds for Week 22

Hello everyone! Welcome back. I hope you need good three-point shooting wings because those players dominate the waiver wire this week, though an impact point guard and center also round out our top picks.

Schedule wise, Week 22 is similar to Week 21 – slightly fewer games than usual, and very balanced day-to-day. There are only 12 teams with four-game weeks, while the Hornets and Mavericks play just twice. Tuesday has five games, Sunday has six, and every other day has seven or eight. Light and balanced schedules are the perfect combination for high-impact streaming if your league rules permit the practice.

As always, the players in this article must be rostered in less than two-thirds of CBS leagues. Players are listed in the order that I recommend adding them, assuming they are equally good fits for your team.

Adds for all leagues

Vasilije Micic, Hornets (42% rostered)

It took a few weeks, but we finally got here. Micic is the starting point guard for the Hornets, and he's a clear Fantasy add. Through six starts, he's up to 16-3-6 with 1.7 threes and 1.2 steals and an excellent 50-37-93 shooting split. He's playing 31.8 minutes per game, more than Tre Mann (46% rostered), and providing better Fantasy value (though Mann is also rosterable and listed in the other recommendations below).

Grayson Allen, Suns (67% rostered)

We're so close to getting him back over that Mendoza line. We can do it, folks! I believe in us! As I've stated in infinity columns in a row at this point, Allen is a top-75 player, as he's been all season. This doesn't require analysis. It just requires action.

Simone Fontecchio, Pistons (38% rostered)

I'm surprised by the collective lack of enthusiasm around Fontecchio, especially as he's someone the community was prematurely excited about back when he was still in Utah. Since getting traded to Detroit at the deadline, Fontecchio is averaging 15-4-2 with 2.6 threes and 0.9 steals. Maybe not the most exciting line in the world, but undeniably rosterable. He's been in and out of the starting lineup, but that hasn't hurt him. In fact, though he plays about four fewer minutes when he comes off Detroit's bench, his per-game numbers are slightly better across the board.

Jock Landale, Rockets (18% rostered)

Alperen Sengun (knee, ankle) is likely done for the season, leaving Landale as the closest thing to a true NBA caliber center still on the roster. Jabari Smith, who started at center for the first game of the post-Sengun era, and Jeff Green are power forwards. Boban Marjanovic is one of the most fun humans in the NBA, but he's not really rotation-worthy. Landale is an actual center, and sometimes a team needs to put one of those on the court. He played 26 minutes in their first Sengun-less game, posting a solid 11-4-5 with two steals, a block, and a three. That's probably representative of what we can expect from Landale moving forward, as he's always been a good per-minute defender, a willing (though inefficient) three-point shooter, and a low scorer.
Notably, Dillon Brooks (44% rostered) appeared to shift over to power forward in their first game with Sengun out and Smith at center. Though Brooks has been disappointing this season, especially over the last two months, it's possible he could be a beneficiary of this injury as well. He's listed in the other recommendations section, below.

Corey Kispert, Wizards (32% rostered)

His down games are brutal, but Kispert has been awesome much more often than not for nearly two months now. Over the last 19 games, he's averaging 16-3-3 with 2.7 threes. Which means that even including the rough nights, Kispert has remained rosterable. And if you'll forgive a little cherry-picking, his stats can quickly get pretty impressive. He's had two mini-slumps, first a two-game stretch before the All-Star break, then a three-game stretch at the start of March. He shot terribly in all five of those games, which led to fewer minutes and dreadful box scores. But when we overlook those five games, we start to see the true value Kispert is capable of. He's averaging 18.4 points and 3.4 threes across the other 14 games, including nine games of 20-plus points.

Toumani Camara, Trail Blazers (12% rostered)

Teammate Dalano Banton (42% rostered) has been the more popular pickup lately, but I'd rather snag Camara. Both players are seeing increased value as Jerami Grant ("hamstring") deals with his season-ending case of tankitis (note: Portland is claiming that Grant is "injured" and "day-to-day", but we should know better than that; his season is basically over, even if he does make another gratuitous appearance or two). Grant has missed five of the last seven games. Positionally, Banton is not an obvious replacement for Grant, but his first start coincides with Grant's first absence. Banton is on his third team in under a year, which is a huge part of why I'm hesitant to endorse him. He's been undeniably good lately, but he's had difficulty holding on to his flirtations with expanded roles in the past. There is no precedent in his first 2.5 seasons that would imply that Banton can maintain this production. Even now, after he averaged 22-7-5 across his first four starts, his minutes plummeted to 20.5 over the next two games. His minutes bounced back Thursday, up to 42, but in all that time he managed just 16-2-2. I expect we'll have difficulty trusting him going forward. Camara, on the other hand, feels like a more reliable answer. He's never going to be a big scorer, but he's a good rebounder who can get close to one steal, block, and three per game.

Matisse Thybulle, Trail Blazers (13% rostered) and other specialists
Just want to put in another reminder of what I wrote last week about the value of Fantasy specialists late in the season. Thybulle is a useful avatar for the concept, as he's so incredibly good at steals, and so depressingly average-or-worse everywhere else. Nonetheless, now that we're in the home stretch, there are a lot of managers who should be overlooking his faults to focus on his strength. With so little season remaining, Thybulle's (or any specialist's) long-term opportunity cost is mostly gone. It's now a fairly straightforward math problem, "will Thybulle's steals help more than his low scoring will hurt?"

Other recommendations: Tre Mann, Hornets (46% rostered); Delano Banton, Trail Blazers (42% rostered); Tim Hardaway Jr., Mavericks (65% rostered); Jontay Porter, Raptors (3% rostered); Gary Trent Jr., Raptors (46% rostered); Isaac Okoro, Cavaliers (30% rostered); Bilal Coulibaly, Wizards (34% rostered); Al Horford, Celtics (46% rostered); Kyle Anderson, Timberwolves (27% rostered); Dillon Brooks, Rockets (44% rostered); Grant Williams, Hornets (42% rostered); Norman Powell, Clippers (39% rostered); Aaron Nesmith, Pacers (46% rostered); Gregory Jackson, Grizzlies (46% rostered); Santi Aldama, Grizzlies (54% rostered); Jake LaRavia, Grizzlies (20% rostered);

Deep league special

Jontay Porter, Raptors (3% rostered)

Chris Boucher (knee) has now joined Jakob Poeltl (finger) on the sidelines, and both are likely done for the season. Their absences have created an opening for Porter, who has averaged 12-4-6 in 21.5 minutes since Boucher went down. More excitingly, Porter is averaging 2.0 blocks and 1.0 steals in those games. He's been a fantastic per-minute defensive producer throughout his short career, though that's on a tiny sample size. He's a must-add in deep leagues, and standard league managers should probably take a long look, too.

DeJon Jarreau, Grizzlies (2% rostered)

The Grizzlies were rationing Jordan Goodwin's active days, so they added another point guard to share the load. Jarreau only has a few days left on his 10-day hardship exemption, so his Fantasy value is dependent on Memphis figuring out a way to keep him around. If he sticks, he's a warm body at possibly the shallowest current depth chart position in the entire NBA. In his first three games, he's put up 6-7-5 with 1.7 steals in 22.0 minutes.

Other recommendations: Nickeil Alexander-Walker, Timberwolves (8% rostered); Peyton Watson, Nuggets (7% rostered)