Fantasy Basketball Waiver Wire: Adds Include Justin Edwards, Kevin Huerter

Hello! Welcome back. We're really nearing the end now – if you're in a head-to-head league, hopefully your championship is either wrapping up this weekend or during Week 24. But even if your league goes until the end of the season, most players have 10 games or fewer remaining.

At this point in the season, maximizing the schedule and your roster's specific needs should take priority. Justin Edwards is this week's "top pickup", but if your championship is going to be decided by assists then that distinction is worth less than a participation trophy. Depending on your format, the fact that Edwards only plays three games next week could also hurt (though all three are on the days with the smallest slates). 

In Week 24, eight teams play three games, while everyone else (22 teams) plays four times. For most formats, that puts teams with just three games at a meaningful disadvantage. Those teams are the Nets, Cavaliers, Pistons, Timberwolves, Pelicans, Magic, 76ers, and Suns. Depending on your format, different ones of those teams have different advantages:

The 76ers and Timberwolves have the advantage of only playing on the weeks' lightest days (essentially guaranteeing that a waiver pickup can fit into a daily lineup);

The Magic play all three games over the first four days (allowing for an easy drop heading into the weekend);

The Nets have the most rest between games (increasing the chances of health and good play throughout a weekly lineup)

While four games are almost always better than three, those scheduling nuances increase the attractiveness of those particular teams in certain settings. 

Good luck as we enter this final stretch. Let's go get some championships.

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

Justin Edwards, 76ers (47% rostered)

Ah, March. March Madness is a trademarked term for the NCAA basketball tournament, but if the name wasn't jealously guarded by a highly litigious bureaucracy, we might also apply it to bad NBA teams at the end of the season. Edwards, an undrafted rookie out of Kentucky who you wouldn't even remember from the official March Madness (he played poorly in UK's only tournament game of his one-season tenure), has been sensational for the bereft 76ers lately. Over his last six outings, he's averaged 20-4-2 with 3.2 threes and 1.7 steals while playing 36.3 minutes per game. For most of the season, I'd say "an undrafted rookie who didn't even start every game in college probably can't sustain that workload, let alone that production." But the 76ers are in a desperate battle with the Nets for the fifth-worst record (the teams are currently tied) with nine games to go, and the stakes are high – the 76ers lose their pick if it falls to seventh. If they "lose" the race for "fifth", then a single team jumping them in the lottery would cause Philadelphia to send their draft pick to Oklahoma City. In this situation, the 76ers have every reason to keep their better players on the sidelines and continue feeding Edwards as much as he can handle.

Kevin Huerter, Bulls (42% rostered)

Huerter has started the last eight games, coinciding with the Bulls' improved play of late. The Bulls are 6-2 in those games (a part of a 9-2 run), with Huerter putting up 16-5-4 with 2.8 threes and 1.8 stocks while playing 35.3 minutes. The Bulls' hot streak started before Huerter entered the starting lineup, but his minutes were trending up in those early games, too. At least as long as Lonzo Ball (wrist) remains sidelined, Huerter should continue to see tons of minutes with well-rounded production.

Gary Trent, Bucks (31% rostered)

Damian Lillard's (blood clot) official designation is "out indefinitely", but we can say with some confidence that his regular season is over. In the first four games without him, Trent's minutes and FGA have jumped to 32.0 and 12.0 – between the All-Star break and Lillard's absence, he was at 24.0 and 9.8. Predictably, those increases have led to more points (17.3), threes (4.3), and steals (1.5). Trent has never been able to help much outside of those categories, but he should be a reliable source of all three for the remainder of the season.

Kevin Porter, Bucks (25% rostered)

On the topic of Lillard's injury fallout – someone has to take over as the primary distributor in Milwaukee. Porter has always been talented, but trusting him is terrifying. He has a lengthy history of making horrible decisions on and off the court (to put it mildly). Though Lillard has been out for four games, Porter has only provided Fantasy value in the second and fourth of those. There's a ton of upside here – he averaged 15-5-7 in those two good games – but the floor is much lower than most of the other players names in this section. Intriguingly, he started for the Bucks on Wednesday. If that promotion becomes permanent, I'd start having more confidence relying on him. 

Dillon Brooks, Rockets (50% rostered)

Most of the names in this week's column are classic Silly Season flotsam – names Fantasy managers weren't considering all season (if they even knew what team they were on). It's normal for those players to start filling Fantasy lineups in late March and April, but they also carry more inherent risk. They are, almost by definition, worse players in less stable situations. Brooks is an alternative approach for managers. He's been on the Fantasy fringe all season, with a stable role and his numbers generally trending slightly up over time. He's averaging 16-3-3 with 2.6 threes and 1.0 steals over his last 10 games. The ride isn't always smooth with Brooks, either, but he's arguably the safest recommendation this week.

Guershon Yabusele, 76ers (48% rostered)

Adem Bona, 76ers (12% rostered)

Andre Drummond (toe) has been downgraded to "no timetable on a return", forcing the 76ers to turn once again to Yabusele for big minutes holding down the paint. He's undersized and inconsistent, but he's been solid since Drummond went down, averaging 14-8-3 with 1.7 threes and 0.9 steals. We're so late in the season that the downside risk of "what happens if Drummond comes back?" is basically irrelevant. Yabusele is a workable option, especially for teams who need a center but don't need blocks. Bona just returned from an ankle injury, and has averaged just 21.0 minutes in his first two games back. He's provided great defense and solid rebounding despite the limited minutes, but he'll need a larger role if he's going to add scoring to his list of Fantasy strengths. 

Kai Jones, Mavericks (18% rostered)

For most of the season, Jones' recent averages (13-9-2 with minimal contributions in steals, blocks, or threes) is the kind of production that lands someone in the "other recommendations" section. But it's championship time. Managers shouldn't be chasing the abstract notion of well-balanced "value". Managers need to identify their core needs and target them. In that sense, Jones might have some interesting appeal. While his statistical profile has noteworthy holes, he's been incredibly efficient from the field (81%) with good free-throw shooting (78%) on top of normal-waiver-quality-big-man points and rebounds. That combination is bound to hit a sweet spot for some managers. 

Note: those stats reflect Jones' averages from his four games before Thursday, when he left in the second quarter with an injury; it is not yet clear whether that injury will cause him to miss any games moving forward.

Peyton Watson, Nuggets (9% rostered)

For the first time in a couple of weeks, the Nuggets had all of their main rotation players available Wednesday. In that context, it's a great sign that Watson was able to maintain a healthy 34 minutes, since most of his improved play of late had come while key starters were out. Over his last six games, he's averaging 14-5-1, but what makes Watson special is his shot-blocking – 2.3 per game during that stretch. Getting that many blocks from a non-PF/C is a huge boost to a Fantasy lineup.

Other recommendations: Ziaire Williams, Nets (21% rostered); Brandin Podziemski, Warriors (66% rostered); Scotty Pippen Jr., Grizzlies (51% rostered); Davion Mitchell, Heat (16% rostered); Ryan Dunn, Suns (13% rostered); Ty Jerome, Cavaliers (37% rostered); Anthony Black, Magic (17% rostered); AJ Johnson, Wizards (10% rostered)

Deep league special

Tristan Vukcevic, Wizards (11% rostered)

Vukcevic is a fun player who has been on the radar of the way-too-deep-league Fantasy community since late last season. He looks promising, and it's been surprising that a tanking Wizards team hasn't made more effort to find minutes for him during this lost season – especially after trading away their big man depth at the deadline. He's on a two-way contract, and seems like the kind of player they would want to test now to determine how comfortable they are investing in him as a long-term backup. 

Their lack of commitment is why Vukcevic is down here in the deep league section. In five of his last six games, he played at least 21 minutes and averaged an impressive 16-6-2 with 1.0 steals, 1.5 blocks, and 2.0 threes. That's great numbers for a standard league. In the sixth game, however, he was on track for an inexplicable DNP-CD before getting subbed in for the last four minutes of garbage time during a blowout. While the down-side risk may be too high for many standard league managers, the potential reward is probably too significant for most deep league managers to pass up.

Other recommendation: Jeff Dowtin, 76ers (9% rostered)