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The NBA All-Star break is going, and the week’s slate f games will be abbreviated.
But that doesn’t mean you can ignore your fantasy basketball rosters, and here are my waiver wire adds for the week.
Tyler Dorsey, PG/SG, Atlanta Hawks
Dorsey made his first career start last Wednesday night, with nine points, six assists and five rebounds against the Detroit Pistons. He has topped 23 minutes of action in five of his last six games, with at least nine field attempts in the same five contests.
After Marco Belinelli was gone via a buyout, Hawks’ head coach Mike Budenholzer singled out Dorsey as the primary playing time beneficiary. With the worst record in the Eastern Conference (18-41), Atlanta should be looking toward the future by giving young players more run, and that includes Dorsey.
Dorsey is a very speculative waiver wire addition right now. But he’s trending positively, and he has to be firmly on the radar in deep leagues.
Yahoo! Ownership: 1% ESPN Ownership: 0.6%
Rodney Hood, SG/SF, Cleveland Cavaliers
Hood is having a solid season overall, averaging 16.7 points, 2.8 rebounds and 1.6 assists per game. But the trade from the Jazz to the Cavaliers appears to agree with him, with 7.0 three-point attempts in two games alongside LeBron James to put him pretty much on par with what did with Utah (6.7 attempts from beyond the arc per game).
Hood’s overall usage rate will go down playing with James, as it already has in a two-game sample, and he probably still won’t be a great multi-category fantasy producer. But scoring and three-pointers carry value with a high-scoring offense in Cleveland, and that makes Hood worth looking at as a waiver wire add.
Yahoo! Ownership: 58% ESPN Ownership: 36.7%
Rudy Gay, SF/PF, San Antonio Spurs
Gay (right heel) has not played since late-December, but he is expected to be back just after the All-Star break.
Kawhi Leonard is out indefinitely, so Gay should step into a prominent role. He’s a proven scorer, so a high usage role is promising for Gay if he’s up to it physically.
Gay is at least a useful bench stash right away in all fantasy leagues, with upside that’s rare to find on the waiver wire at this point.
Yahoo! Ownership: 36% ESPN Ownership: 22.3%
Markieff Morris, PF, Washington Wizards
Morris missed a game recently with an illness, but he returned before the break without issue. Over his last nine games, he’s averaging 15.1 points, 6.1 rebounds, 2.9 assists and 1.4 steals per game while making a shade over 41 percent from beyond the arc.
Over those same nine games, with John Wall out, Morris is averaging 11 field goal attempts and 3.2 three-point attempts per game. Those are solid upticks over his season averages (8.9 and 2.6 per game), and sustainable for a little while with Wall expected to be out until mid-March.
Yahoo Ownership: 56% ESPN Ownership: 48.1%
Paul Millsap, PF, Denver Nuggets
Millsap has been out with a wrist injury since mid-November, but he is on track to return in early March. In the 16 games he played before being sidelined, he averaged 15.3 points, 6.2 rebounds and 3.1 assists per game.
There’s ample room to add Millsap, especially in ESPN leagues. Even if it means stashing him for a couple weeks, he’s a virtual must-add before your league has Millsap back on its radar.
Yahoo Ownership: 88% ESPN Ownership: 60.6%