Fantasy Basketball Waiver Wire Adds: Jazz Players, Richards and Others

Hello! Welcome back. We have a trade with obvious Fantasy impact!

Technically, this was the fourth trade of 2024-25, but as we're now less than three weeks from the trade deadline, it felt like this was the real kickoff of NBA trade season. And this deal is a good deadline table-setting reminder: Always know who your most droppable player is, act quickly, but don't overreact. Though this deal created an obvious waiver pickup, that player is not even the top recommendation in a dry week on the waiver wire. While most fantasy teams should be adding Nick Richards, he's probably not good enough for some playoff-bound teams!

Week 14 is a weird one, schedule-wise. Games start early on Monday (noon ET; Martin Luther King Jr. Day), Thursday (2pm ET; game in France), and Saturday (noon ET; game in France). Almost everyone (28 teams) play on Saturday, then Sunday has only one game (NBA afraid of the NFL). Make sure you are setting your lineups on time, and make sure you are prepared for matchups that effectively end on Saturday.

As always, the players in this article must be rostered in less than two-thirds of CBS leagues. Players are listed in the order that I recommend adding them, assuming they are equally good fits for your team.

Adds for all leagues

Isaiah Collier, Jazz (13% rostered)

Brice Sensabaugh, Jazz (24% rostered)

Most years, NBA tanking doesn't get aggressive until March. However, the Jazz are kicking off Silly Season early this year, not even waiting until the trade deadline. Walker Kessler, a 23-year-old with no major injury history, is set to miss a game for "rest" for the second time in three games Friday. John Collins ("hip") is going to miss his 12th game out of 13. Lauri Markkanen ("back") will miss his fourth out of seven. Keyonte George should play Friday, but he had missed nine of the previous 13. Collier and Sensabaugh are players who I'd been tracking as "add them at the All-Star break" guys, but if the Jazz are going to lean into the tank this hard this early, then the time to act has arrived much earlier.

Collier has started the last six games, averaging 8.2 assists in 29.7 minutes. His scoring has been inconsistent, though he flashed some potential there by putting up 23 and 11 in his last two outings. Sensabaugh is coming off the bench, but he's scoring in droves. He's up to 24-4-2 over his last four games, also draining 4.3 triples in his 27.0 minutes. Sensabaugh's profile is more balanced, but I listed Collier first because his assist volume is so rare on the waiver wire. They are so different, however, that managers should pick based on their roster's needs, not based on my in-a-vacuum notions of value. 

I also remain enthusiastic about the prospects of their teammate, Kyle Filipowski (11% rostered). Filipowski is not worth adding in standard leagues yet (he's listed in the deep league special, below), but I am keeping an eye on him.

Nick Richards, Suns (43% rostered)

Trade season kicked off with obvious Fantasy impact when the Suns acquired Richards from the Hornets on Wednesday. Richards is easily addable, a quality addition to almost any Fantasy roster. The Suns had already benched Jusuf Nurkic, and it took less than three weeks for them to determine that 74-year-old Mason Plumlee is not up to the challenge. While going from an Eastern Conference bottom-feeder to a Western conference playoff hopeful is a massive change in degree of difficulty, Richards proved last year that he could be a capable starting center. In 51 starts, he averaged 28.9 minutes, putting up 10-9-1 with 1.2 blocks while shooting 68% from the field. That stat line contains both the good and the bad news here – while Richards is likely to take over as the Suns starting center, and should be Fantasy viable for the rest of the season in that role, his ceiling is fairly low. 

To repeat the phrase I used last season, Richards is the Platonic ideal of the waiver wire big man. He'll get decent points, good rebounds, great FG%, some blocks, and almost nothing else. He is worth adding, just don't get too excited.

Cole Anthony, Magic (48% rostered)

Anthony has been excellent over the last six games, averaging 17-5-4 with 1.0 steals, 1.0 blocks, and 1.8 threes while playing 32.0 minutes. Paolo Banchero returned halfway through that stretch, and it had basically no impact on Anthony's production. The problem is that the impetus for this improved production was Jalen Suggs (back) getting hurt, and the Magic continue to treat Suggs as day-to-day. Anthony was completely unrosterable before Suggs' injury, and is likely to return to that status when Suggs returns. Anthony is as good a streamer as you're going to find, but it's hard to trust him as more than that as long as Orlando remains so optimistic about Suggs.

Jaime Jaquez, Heat (75% rostered)

Nikola Jovic, Heat (61% rostered)

Jimmy Butler is slated to return from his suspension Friday, and, as of now, there's no indication that either he or the team will engage in further chicanery. If that's the case, both of these players are probably droppable. However, Butler's feud with the Heat remains ongoing, so I'm leaving this pair at the end here in case this cold war once again turns hot. If Butler goes back to the sidelines, these two become desirable Fantasy options.

Other recommendations: Toumani Camara, Trail Blazers (46% rostered); Cason Wallace, Thunder (24% rostered); Peyton Watson, Nuggets (18% rostered); Keon Johnson, Nets (32% rostered); Andrew Nembhard, Pacers (46% rostered); Lonzo Ball, Bulls (42% rostered); Onyeka Okongwu, Hawks (56% rostered); Ben Simmons, Nets (62% rostered); Tim Hardaway Jr., Pistons (17% rostered); Harrison Barnes, Spurs (25% rostered); Ziaire Williams, Nets (16% rostered); Guerschon Yabusele, 76ers (31% rostered)

Deep league special

Tim Hardaway Jr., Pistons (17% rostered)

First, there are some players listed above (Collier, Watson) with similar roster rates who are clearly more valuable, so add them over Hardaway if you can.

Hardaway is listed as an "other recommendation" for standard league managers, but I'm also featuring him here because I want to talk about the veteran sharpshooter's recent surge. He was brought in last offseason to play a crucial role spacing the floor for Detroit's young franchise centerpieces, and was inserted into the starting lineup for that purpose. However, Hardaway began the season in a horrible slump, shooting a dismal 28% from three and 39% from the field over an 18-game span. Because of the dreadful shooting, he was (reasonably) limited to just 26.4 minutes per game, leading to a drop in his non-scoring numbers. Things finally started to turn around over the second half of December, and they further improved with the start of the new year. In eight January games, Hardaway is averaging 16-2-2 with 3.1 threes in 31.5 minutes, shooting 46% from the field and 45% from deep. This is the role the Pistons envisioned for him, and now that he's finally delivering, he should be able to maintain low-end Fantasy rosterability.

Other recommendations: Vit Krejci, Hawks (5% rostered); Naji Marshall, Mavericks (17% rostered); Kyle Filipowski, Jazz (11% rostered)