Feb. 28 Fantasy Basketball Takeaways: Top Rookies and Waiver Wire Options | P.J. Washington, Chris Duarte, Andre Drummond, Obi Toppin, GG Jackson II and More

Six NBA games took place on Wednesday night, providing more than enough talking points for fantasy basketball leagues.

As we do every weekday, we’ll discuss some of the top fantasy performances from waiver wire options and rookies.

Explore the best in-season tool to manage lineup/start decisions including waiver pickups, projections, trade suggestions, trade value charts, rest of season rankings, power rankings, and tons more with Fantasy Assistant. Use our fantasy basketball trade analyzer to break down trade scenarios.

Waiver Wire Options

We will kick off today’s conversation with Dallas Mavericks P.J. Washington, who is owned in 69% of fantasy leagues. Washington made 9-of-16 shots overall and half of his 10 3-pointers to finish with 23 points. He also had six rebounds and three blocks in the team’s win over the Toronto Raptors.

Washington has been a nice addition to the Mavs, but his scoring has been a bit streaky - he’s gone over 10 points in four of his seven games with the team, but only scored 14 points combined in the three games he failed to reach double digits. Even with the inconsistencies, he’s averaging 10.6 points, 5.1 rebounds, 1.4 assists, 1 steal and 0.9 blocks across 30.9 minutes in his seven games with the team.

He’s also averaging 30.9 minutes per game, so he’s getting plenty of game action to be a fantasy asset. Even though he’s turned in some nice outings, I’d try to look for a more consistent fantasy player. If Washington can continually score in double figures, we can revisit things, but his up-and-down performances are just too much of a risk for most standard leagues.

Chicago Bulls’ Ayo Dosunmu, rostered in 71% of leagues, totaled 21 points, four assists, three rebounds and one steal and block across 48 minutes played in the team’s double overtime win over the Cleveland Cavaliers.

It was a nice bounceback outing for Dosunmu, who was just 4-of-14 for eight points in his previous game. He shot just 6-of-14 on Wednesday, but hit four triples and five free throws. The previous game was his first time failing to reach double figures in the past seven games, and over the last eight, he’s averaging 16.8 points, 4.9 assists, 3.5 rebounds, 1.3 steals and 0.3 blocks.

That’s definitely enough fantasy production for deeper leagues, but it’s probably not enough for most standard leagues. It really comes down to your league’s roster size and other settings, but I’d think there’s a better fantasy option out there than Dosunmu.

Minnesota Timberwolves’ Naz Reid makes this article for a second straight day. He had 19 points, six rebounds and two assists and blocks across 26 minutes in the team’s win over the Memphis Grizzlies.

This time, Reid, owned in 64% of leagues, made a difference despite Karl-Anthony Towns and Rudy Gobert also being out there. So now Reid goes from only being a streaming option when one of those two are out, to a guy you could stream in any league until he cools off a bit. His ceiling is capped with the other two bigs around, but he still produces enough to make a fantasy difference.

Sacramento Kings’ Chris Duarte, rostered in 2% of leagues, went off for 18 points, three rebounds, two steals and blocks and one assist across 26 minutes off the bench in the team’s loss to the Denver Nuggets.

Duarte missed a good chunk of games this season and is starting to settle in a bit. Wednesday was his fifth straight game played, and he played his most minutes. He scored 13 points over the previous four contests, but took advantage of a few teammates being out, most notably De'Aaron Fox.

With those facts in mind, I see this as more of a one-game blip than a sign of things to come, but I would definitely keep a close eye on Duarte to see if he gets this amount of minutes going forward. He’d be a deep league option if he can keep up this level of play.

Chicago Bulls’ Andre Drummond, rostered in 53% of leagues, made 8-of-12 shots and tallied 17 points across 36 minutes played on Wednesday. He also pulled down 26 rebounds, with nine coming on the offensive end of the court. Drummond also had three blocks and one assist.

Drummond got the start with Alex Caruso inactive, and with the game going to double OT, Drummond was able to post some monster numbers. He’s certainly capable of these huge nights, but they aren’t super likely because he rarely plays that many minutes. 

Drummond has been a reliable fantasy option dating back a couple weeks, so I’d still be fine with streaming him for the time being - it might just not last for a really long time.

Indiana Pacers’ Obi Toppin, owned in 26% of leagues, recorded 16 points, six rebounds and two assists and blocks across 24 minutes off the bench in the team’s win over the New Orleans Pelicans.

Toppin has a pretty defined role (16-20 minutes) with the Pacers, but isn’t a very consistent scorer, which keeps him from being a bigger fantasy asset. He’s a fine asset in deeper leagues, but I’d still try to look elsewhere for fantasy production - his scoring (two games in double figures over the past 11 contests) is just too inconsistent for me.

Denver’s Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, rostered in 41% of leagues, had 16 points, four assists, three steals and two rebounds across 29 minutes in the team’s win.

That’s now two straight games in which KCP scored in double figures. He usually scores in double figures in streaks and he’s worth playing in deeper leagues until that ends. Caldwell-Pope doesn’t do enough else on the court most nights to continually play however.

Los Angeles Clippers’ Terance Mann, owned in 22% of leagues, totaled 16 points, six rebounds, two assists and one steal across 30 minutes in the team’s loss to the Los Angeles Lakers.

Mann now has scored in double figures in three straight games, combining for 53 points over that span. He’s a decent source of rebounds and assists each night too, so until he cools off, I’m OK streaming him in deep leagues and standard ones.

Memphis’ Ziaire Williams, rostered in 15% of leagues, had 16 points, eight rebounds and two assists across 36 minutes in the team’s loss.

He’s started the team’s past four games, averaging 14.8 points, 4.5 rebounds, 1.8 assists and 1.5 steals across 32 minutes per game. That’s definitely enough production to stream in deeper leagues for the time being. Things could change when the team’s closer to full health, but that might not happen many times over the rest of this season, so you might as well take advantage of Williams’ play now.

Cleveland’s Caris LeVert, rostered in 68% of leagues, totaled 14 points, 15 assists, seven rebounds and two steals and blocks across 39 minutes off the bench.

The double OT game helped LeVert get a ton of extra minutes, and he responded with a monster all-around showing. He’s a guy I encouraged fantasy owners to stream this week, and I’ll continue to say he should be streamed now.

Top Rookies

Memphis rookie GG Jackson II, owned in 36% of leagues, accumulated 14 points and three rebounds across 27 minutes off the bench.

Jackson plays anywhere from 23-30 minutes off the bench nowadays, which is plenty of time to provide some decent numbers. He’s scored in double figures in eight of the last nine games, and does enough else on the court to at least stream him in deeper leagues and some dynasties right now.

Indiana’s Ben Sheppard, owned in just 1% of leagues, tallied 11 points, two steals and one rebound, assist and block across 27 minutes off the bench on Wednesday.

Sheppard continues to take advantage of some extra minutes as Aaron Nesmith is inactive. He’s scored in double figures in three of the past five games, but doesn’t provide much else while on the court. If you are thinking about streaming Sheppard for a bit, I’d check out Team Defensive Rankings and play him against the weaker opponents - otherwise, I’d leave him on the waiver wire, especially when Nesmith returns.

Onuralp Bitim, owned in barely any leagues, tallied 10 points and six rebounds across 27 minutes in the team’s double OT win. 

Bitim has played in just three games now for the season, and had played just five minutes before Wednesday’s game. Cleveland played without several players, so it’s possible Bitim doesn’t get much run going forward, but after the strong showing, he’s worth monitoring in case he starts to carve out a role.

Chicago’s Julian Phillips played 14 minutes in the contest, tallying seven points, five rebounds, two assists and one steal. He’s owned in barely any leagues too.

He’s gotten some playing time of late, but his minutes have been inconsistent. He’s another player you can keep an eye on, but that probably won’t be a fantasy asset outside of games where several teammates are inactive.

The last player to mention here is Dallas’ Dereck Lively II. He’s owned in 60% of leagues and had nine points, five blocks, four rebounds, two steals and one assist across 23 minutes.

It was his second straight positive showing. He’s working his way back from a seven-game absence, but is getting less minutes than earlier in the season. Keep a close eye on him, but until his minutes get closer to 30 per game, his fantasy ceiling is limited.