Fantasy Basketball: Top Waiver-Wire Adds for Tuesday, April 8th
By Josh Lloyd
Isaiah J. Downing-USA TODAY Sports
We are in the dog days of April in terms of the NBA season, with injuries, real and embellished, taking a significant toll. One of those injuries has happened in Denver, with star point guard Ty Lawson out with an ankle injury and much travelled backup Aaron Brooks into the spotlight.
If you are still reading, congratulations, you are still alive in your fantasy league and battling for the championship. Hopefully, I can help you get the league up on your competition over these last nine days.
In today’s edition of “All Wired Up”, I’ll delve into the fantasy strengths of potential waiver wire gold like Brooks and the Phoenix Suns’ P.J. Tucker.
» Aaron Brooks, PG, Denver Nuggets (10.0 percent owned on ESPN.com)
24 points (11-24 FG, 0-0 FT), 2 three-pointers, 8 rebounds, 15 assists, 3 steals, 0 blocks vs Rockets.
Although not confirmed, Lawson is highly doubtful to play in the Nuggets next game or for the remainder of the season. When he injured his ankle on Friday — after being benched for disciplinary reasons — Ty said it was the worst sprain of his career. Ankle sprains can be a huge inconvenience at best and debilitating at worst. Now that the Nuggets have nothing to play for, they would be certifiable if they rushed Lawson back into the lineup in these last handful of games.
Enter Aaron Brooks.
Brooks had already been putting up borderline 12 team league value before the injury to Lawson and now he is a must-own player. The Nuggets have no other real point guard on their roster, so Brooks will be getting all the minutes he can handle. Randy Foye and perhaps Evan Fournier will get a few minutes handling the ball, but it’s going to be all Brooks.
In his last three starts, Brooks has averaged 20.7 points, 1.3 three-pointers, 6.0 rebounds, 11.3 assists and 1.0 steals. Those are incredible numbers and I’d expect more of the same in this last full week of the season.
Brooks has added motivation — he is an unrestricted free agent at season’s end. He’ll be looking to showcase his talents to prospective suitors in these remaining matchups and that will benefit fantasy owners.
Unless your team is super-stacked and not dealing with any injuries, I think all squads could benefit from the addition of Brooks.
Casey Sapio-USA TODAY Sports
» P.J. Tucker, SG/SF, Phoenix Suns (23.4 percent owned)
22 points (7-9 FG, 4-6 FT), 4 three-pointers, 7 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals, 2 blocks vs Thunder.
Fantasy owners have been very slow on the uptake in regard to P.J. Tucker. He’s been the 88th ranked player on Basketball Monster.com for the whole season and the 46th in the last month, yet is available in so many leagues.
I put a lot of that down to the fact that he scoring is so pedestrian. He’s averaging 10.7 points for the last month — numbers which hardly excite most people.
But I am different to most people. What excites me are Tucker’s other numbers. In this month, Tucker is chiming in 7.2 rebounds, 1.2 three-pointers and 1.9 steals. Those rebound numbers are great for a guy you can plug in at shooting guard and he is also giving you good guard numbers in terms of the three-pointers and steals. That’s a great and hard-to-find combination.
In additional to those counting stats, Tucker is also a very solid shooter. He is shooting 48.2 percent from the floor in the last month and 78.0 percent from the line in the same time frame. Team that with only 1.4 turnovers a game in 30 minutes of court time and you have yourself a fantasy contributor in all formats.
The Suns are going to be going all out to secure themselves a playoff spot, so Tucker will be playing and be playing hard. Make these circumstances work for you and your fantasy team and add Tucker to your championship squad.