More Week 12 Fantasy Basketball Drop Candidates: Herbert Jones, Justin Champagnie, Gradey Dick, Ziaire Williams and Brice Sensabaugh
Analyzing several fantasy basketball drop candidates during the 12th week of the season.
We’ve looked at several fantasy basketball waiver wire candidates over the course of the week (Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday), and are now back to identify a second batch of drop candidates.
We won’t cover anyone who was featured in the week’s first drop story. These players were all taken from the most dropped waiver trends section, which can be found on any FantasySP fantasy basketball page.
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 and the Trade Value Chart to break down trade scenarios.
Herbert Jones Fantasy Outlook
Jones had a recent 5.4% decrease in his own percentage, bringing his total mark down to 64%.
Jones re-injured his right shoulder on Wednesday, and will miss at least Friday’s game with that ailment. He’s played in just 20 games this season after dealing with a right shoulder sprain at the start of the season.
In his 20 games, Jones was averaging 10.3 points, 3.9 rebounds, 3.3 assists, 1.9 steals and 0.5 blocks across 32.4 minutes. He was shooting 43.6% overall and just 30.6% from 3-point land.
Jones doesn’t necessarily stuff the stat sheet, but he’s a pretty consistent performer and does enough to warrant a roster spot in every deep league and several standard leagues. If he’s not on the court though, he’s obviously not a good fantasy asset, so I agree with the fantasy owners dropping him.
However, I would only be dropping Jones if I didn’t have an IR spot to put him in. The only leagues I’d want to drop Jones in are standard leagues, as I think he’s just too valuable to outright drop in a deeper league. If you absolutely need his roster spot in a deeper league, I’d look into trading him, instead of just dropping him.
It’s been a frustrating year for the fantasy owners of Jones, and I think this injury is going to make him available in most standard leagues. I personally think fantasy owners could do better than Jones in those leagues, and would suggest you only roster Jones in deeper leagues going forward.
He’s a player to keep tabs on, but his averages (both this year and over his career) suggest he should only be rostered in deeper leagues, not standard leagues.
Justin Champagnie Fantasy Outlook
Champagnie is now rostered in 30% of leagues after a 5.2% decrease.
Washington got healthier recently, and it’s meant that Champagnie not only lost his starting role, but also is playing fewer minutes. For the season, Champagnie is averaging 9.9 points, 6.2 rebounds, 1.2 assists and steals and 0.8 blocks across 25.1 minutes in 18 games and 13 starts. In the last two games, he has just 12 points, seven rebounds, two blocks and one assist and steal across 38 combined minutes.
That’s not enough fantasy production to roster him in a lot of deeper leagues, so his drop in own percentage is spot on. That percentage will continue to drop if he keeps coming off the bench, isn’t producing a lot or isn’t playing a lot of minutes.
He’s still worth holding in some really deep leagues for now, and keeping an eye on in case his role changes again, but Champagnie’s fantasy value appears to be drying up.
Gradey Dick Fantasy Outlook
Dick was dropped in 3.7% of leagues and sits at 66% overall now.
He’s another player who has seen his playing time drop over the past couple games, although he continues to start for Toronto. Dick is averaging 16.6 points, 3.5 rebounds, 2.1 assists, 0.9 steals and 0.2 blocks across 31 minutes and 32 games and starts. Across the past two games, Dick has combined for just 14 points, five rebounds, three assists and no steals or blocks across 41 minutes played.
I still like the idea of rostering him in deeper leagues, but his time as a standard league option appears to be running out. Things could change back in his favor in a hurry, but right now, it looks like Dick is just a deep-league option.
He was mostly a scorer anyway, and with less playing time and production of late, I’d have to think there’s some better standard league options available to you. Keep rostering Dick in deeper leagues and dynasties, of course, but I wouldn’t be surprised if his own percentage falls below 50% in the next couple weeks, especially if his recent trend in playing time and production keeps up.
Dick is another player to keep tabs on in case he heats up again, or starts playing a bigger role, but until that happens, he either needs to be benched, and probably should be outright dropped in a bunch of other leagues.
Ziaire Williams Fantasy Outlook
Williams is owned in 20% of leagues after a 3.4% drop.
Williams has had decent numbers over the past three or four games, so I’m not exactly sure why his own percentage is dropping. Maybe by the end of this section, I’ll have a better understanding.
On the season, Williams is averaging 9.2 points, 4.6 rebounds, 1.4 assists, 0.9 steals and 0.4 blocks across 22.1 minutes in 25 games and 10 starts. After not playing from December 2-January 1, Williams has averaged 12 points, 5.5 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 0.8 steals and blocks across 23.4 minutes in the past four games.
Maybe the fantasy owners who added Williams in deeper leagues at the start of his four-game stretch haven’t been thrilled with the production from the young player so far? Brooklyn has been missing a handful of players of late, so maybe some are expecting his minutes and production to fall off starting on Friday?
Williams isn’t rostered in that many leagues anyways, so until I actually see his minutes and production fall off, I’d keep rostering Williams. If you are worried about his numbers falling off, I’d bench him instead of outright dropping him.
His numbers have been really solid of late, and that level of play might keep him in the rotation even when the Nets are closer to full health. I’d hold off on dropping Williams for just a bit longer.
Brice Sensabaugh Fantasy Outlook
Sensabaugh was dropped in 3.3% of leagues, bringing his overall mark down to 20%.
Sensabaugh was a major waiver wire addition at the beginning of the week. He saw his own percentage rise from less than a percent on January 4 to 28.73% on January 7. He hasn’t played the last two games because of an illness.
I get that you want to fill your roster with active players, but an illness isn’t likely to keep a player out for long. He combined for 61 points, 10 rebounds and two steals and assists over the past two games, so I’m not going to drop Sensabaugh just because he missed a couple games, especially in deeper leagues.
Just bench Sensabaugh for a couple days, and then enjoy his recent surge when he’s active again. It seems silly to even have to suggest this to fantasy owners after what he did in his past two games, but I’m only doing so because the numbers are saying he’s being dropped.
If Sensabaugh gets dropped in your deeper league, I’d absolutely scoop him up. He might not remain a long-term fantasy asset, but I’d at least roster him for a few more games to see if he starts to turn the corner as a legit fantasy asset.
