Fantasy Basketball Waiver Wire: Adds for Week 13

Hello! Welcome back to the waiver wire, where injuries and a suspension has made for a much more exciting list than we had last week, even though several of the names are the same. 

Schedule-wise, managers should take note that the Hornets and Jazz both have only two games, and both are on the busiest nights of the week. That makes waiver pickups from those teams much less valuable. Otherwise, the schedule is of minimal concern this week – though, be warned, the schedule is going to be a big factor in managing Week 14.

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

Spencer Dinwiddie, Mavericks (51% rostered)

Quentin Grimes, Mavericks (51% rostered)

Kyrie Irving (back) is expected to miss out at least another week, and Luka Doncic (calf) remains sidelined until at least the end of the month. Irving's injury is new since last week, adding to the appeal of this pair – especially Dinwiddie, who is likely to take over as the primary distributor. Both are high-value pickups until Doncic returns, bordering on must-add territory while Irving is also out. Grimes typically scores more and is less of a drain on your FG%, while Dinwiddie should get more assists – and both are likely to score a lot while Irving is out. 

Naji Marshall (13% rostered), who just returned from suspension, is listed in the "other recommendations" section below. He's a decent consolation prize, if you missed out on Grimes and Dinwiddie, though Marshall is best suited for deeper rosters.

Ausar Thompson, Pistons (55% rostered)

I'll admit I was slightly scared after Thompson played just 14 minutes last Friday, hours after I'd led this column with a three paragraph blurb defending him my top pickup. But he followed that up with six steals and a double-double while playing 26 minutes the very next night. Phew. Then, after missing two games with an illness, he put up 9-2-3 with two steals, one block, and one three in a 17-minute start on Thursday. I'd still like to see more minutes, but the starts are a great development. Hopefully, part of Thursday's low total was that they were taking it easy with him after the illness.

Thompson is a bona fide steals specialist. Now that it looks like he's getting extra minutes following Jaden Ivey's (leg) injury, he's (hopefully) going to be able to contribute in rebounds and assists, too. In the six games where Thompson has played at least 19 minutes, he's averaging 10-6-2 with 3.0 (!) steals and 50% FG shooting in just 23.7 minutes. Most of those games were with Ivey still active, pushing Thompson to more of an off-ball role.

Donte DiVincenzo, Timberwolves (64% rostered)

Not much new to add since last week. We saw a few more games, during which DiVincenzo's minutes are up, and his production is strong, supporting my theory that the player we're seeing now is the "normal" DDV. The ineffective one from the first 25 games of the season was the outlier.

Jaime Jaquez, Heat (59% rostered)

Nikola Jovic, Heat (39% rostered)

Before Jimmy Butler's suspension, Jovic was a deep league "other recommendation", while Jaquez was one of those names I double-checked every week before ultimately excluding from this column entirely. When Butler was in his "quiet quitting" phase (is it really "quiet" quitting if it generates national media coverage and a well-publicized suspension?), both of these players were barely on the Fantasy fringes. I fear they'll quickly return there if/when Butler returns to action. Butler is suspended for three more games, and this pair should be viable for all three. Of course, Butler could fake an injury, get suspended again, or find some other reason to miss games, thereby extending Jovic's and Jaquez's Fantasy runs. While we're only guaranteed three more games from this pair, there remains at least a chance of some extended value.

During the suspension, Jaquez has stepped up to the tune of 17-7-6 with 2.0 steals while playing 36.3 minutes per game. Meanwhile, Jovic is putting up 15-4-3 with 2.0 stocks and 1.8 threes in 26.3 minutes, despite playing through a minor shooting slump. Even if it's just three more games, that's solid production.

Keon Ellis, Kings (14% rostered)

Ellis is getting a lot of hype in the nerdier corners of the basketball internet after Mike Brown's firing led to Ellis' promotion into the starting lineup. Ellis is much better at real basketball than Fantasy, but if he keeps playing 36.3 minutes per start, he'll be rosterable regardless. He's up to 13-4-3 with 3.0 steals, 1.0 blocks, and 2.3 threes since the promotion. While those defensive stats look like they're shouting "REGRESSION CANDIDATE" at you, they're actually only slightly above his season's per-minute rates – those combine for 3.9 stocks per 36 minutes, and he's averaging 3.6 stocks per 36 minutes on the season.

Toumani Camara, Trail Blazers (38% rostered)

This column has spilled a lot of pixels promoting Camara over the past year, so I've been trying to keep him in the "other recommendations" section lately to minimize redundancy. But I wanted to pull him back into the main section to highlight that one of our favorite defensive specialists is on a little scoring spree, topping 11 points in six straight games. He's still mostly a steals and threes specialist, but he becomes much more valuable if he can maintain this level of increased offensive output.

Brice Sensabaugh, Jazz (20% rostered)

In three of the Jazz's last seven games, Sensabaugh has played at least 25 minutes and scored at least 20 points. In those three, he averaged 27-5-1 with 5.0 threes in 26.3 minutes. The problem is that I can't figure out what made those three games special, while the other two he played in were so much worse (5-4-1, 0.5 threes; he also missed two with an illness). There were key starters missing from all five games, and different combinations were absent each night, so that doesn't really tell us anything useful. Nor do the matchups or game scripts. For now, I see Sensabaugh more as an upside streamer than someone to add and hold, but he's skyrocketing up the list of players I'm going to keep a close watch on moving forward. The Jazz have a weekend back-to-back, but only two games all next week – if he doesn't play well in both weekend games to increase our confidence, he might not be worth holding throughout Week 13's light schedule.

Other recommendations: Keon Johnson, Nets (28% rostered); Cole Anthony, Magic (29% rostered); Carlton Carrington, Wizards (47% rostered); Guershon Yabusele, 76ers (23% rostered); Naji Marshall, Mavericks (13% rostered); Lonzo Ball, Bulls (33% rostered)

Deep league special

Mason Plumlee, Suns (11% rostered)

Plumlee was recently promoted ahead of Jusuf Nurkic to become the Suns' starting center. It's been six games since the promotion, and he hasn't exactly lit the world aflame – he's scored four points or fewer in five of those. Ouch. But his minutes have increased meaningfully, up to 21.3, and his non-scoring numbers have been strong. He's averaged 8.7 rebounds, 3.0 assists, 0.8 steals, and 1.0 blocks in his new role. That tradeoff is easily worth it for points-punters, and good enough to be worth considering for everyone else. Unless another center is acquired via trade, I expect Plumlee to hold on to this role the rest of the way.

Other recommendations: Ryan Dunn, Suns (18% rostered); Cason Wallace, Thunder (18% rostered); Payton Watson, Nuggets (11% rostered); Dean Wade, Cavaliers (5% rostered)