Fantasy Basketball: Top Waiver-Wire Adds for Wednesday, April 9th
By Josh Lloyd
Jesse Johnson-USA TODAY Sports
There are some players that remain on tons of waiver-wires throughout the season for no good reason. The Minnesota Timberwolves’ Corey Brewer is one of the players.
In today’s edition of “All Wired Up”, I’ll delve into the fantasy strengths of potential waiver wire gold like Brewer and the Los Angeles Lakers’ Jordan Farmar.
» Corey Brewer, SF, Minnesota Timberwolves (33.2 percent owned on ESPN.com)
14 points (5-8 FG, 3-3 FT), 1 three-pointer, 3 rebounds, 2 assists, 4 steals, 0 blocks vs Spurs.
I don’t think I’ll ever be understand why fantasy owners haven’t woken up to the fact that Corey Brewer is actually a fantasy force this season.
For him to be owned in only 33 percent of leagues is laughable. For the season, Brewer is Basketball Monster.com’s 89th ranked player, definitely good enough to be owned in basically 100 percent of leagues.
It’s gotten better recently as well. He is the 64th ranked player in the last month and 35th over the past two weeks, yet people aren’t sitting up and taking notice. In his last eight games, Brewer is averaging 13.3 points, 2.6 rebounds, 2.3 assists and 2.6 steals, shooting 55.3 percent from the field and 79.2 percent from the line. I doubt there are many fantasy teams that wouldn’t benefit from that sort of production.
In the last two games alone, Brewer has accumulated nine steals with 29 points on over 60 percent shooting. Superb stuff.
Now, with the Wolves reeling from injuries to wing players Kevin Martin, J.J. Barea, Chase Budinger and Shabazz Muhammad, Brewer is basically left to go it alone, with a little help from Robbie Hummel and J.J. Barea.
Not only is his defense elite, but now he will become a bigger focus offensively and should be owned in every team that wants to win their championship.
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Isaiah J. Downing-USA TODAY Sports
» Jordan Farmar, PG, Los Angeles Lakers (3.8 percent owned)
15 points (5-10 FG, 3-3 FT), 2 three-pointers, 5 rebounds, 8 assists, 3 steals, 2 blocks vs Rockets.
Finally Farmar is back after suffering a groin strain a few weeks back and jumped straight back into the fray, posting up a big line. This spells doom for Kendall Marshall‘s value, with the former Tar Heel playing only 19 minutes. Marshall will likely continue to start, but it looks like Farmar is coach Mike D’Antoni’s guy.
The problem with Farmar this season hasn’t been production — it’s been health. On a per game basis, Farmar is the 152nd ranked player on Basketball Monster.com, averaging 10.5 points, 1.8 three-pointers and 4.8 assists.
If he is able to up his minutes closer to 26-28, he could easily shoot into the top 100 players for the season. Now that Steve Nash has likely played his final game for the season, the point guard position is going to be left to Farmar and Marshall. I’d imagine there’ll also be times when those two guys play together as well, with the Lakers missing Xavier Henry and Kent Bazemore.
If I owned Marshall, and I don’t, I’d drop him for Farmar for this, the season’s final week. You could be rewarded handsomely.