Fantasy Basketball Waiver Wire: The End is Here

Hello! Welcome back! One last dive into the waiver wire depths for the 2024-25 season. If you're still reading, then I can only assume you've had a pretty good season – congrats on making it this far. I hope I was able to provide some help along the way.

Week 25 schedule notes:

Almost all teams play four games, the only ones who don't are the Mavericks, Nuggets, Rockets, Trail Blazers, Raptors, and Jazz

Everyone plays Friday and Sunday, no one plays Saturday

That means that any streaming you do has to focus on the first four days, as streaming is ineffective over those last three

Programming note: while this is the last waiver wire column of the season, it is not my last Friday column. Next week I'll release my annual "way-too-early top-12" – a run-down of the first round for next season even though we'll still have two games remaining in this one.

As this is the last normal waivers column, however, I do want to issue a few thank yous: Thank you to you all for coming back and reading each week (or to the CBS crew for forgetting to check the metrics) – they (probably?) wouldn't let me keep doing this if you didn't keep coming back. Thank you to the editors for leaving in most of my let's-be-generous-and-call-them-jokes, and for tolerating four separate sections devoted to anti-Kelly Olynyk propaganda this season. And, most importantly, thank you to my wife (who will never read this) – I literally would not be able to have this job without your support and encouragement. 

Good luck as we enter this final stretch. Let's go get some championships.

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

Adem Bona, 76ers (30% rostered)

There's still no sign of Andre Drummond (toe), who just missed his 12th straight game without any real update on when he might play. The 76ers' center depth chart was already weak once Joel Embiid (knee) was done for the year, made worse with Drummond's absence. Bona missed five games himself, and then was limited for two games after returning. But he's been dynamite in the other five Drummond missed, starting each and averaging 31.6 minutes per game. In those starts, he's put up 17-8-1 with 1.6 steals and 3.0 (!) blocks. 

Kyle Filipowski, Jazz (66% rostered)

Barely qualifies for this article anymore and I've hammered the point home by now, but, one last time – add the tank commander. He's averaged 14-10-2 with 1.9 stocks and 1.7 threes over his last six games. (Do I get to claim credit for predicting that the defense would come eventually if it took almost the entire season to finally materialize?)

Matas Buzelis, Bulls (52% rostered)

One of my favorites this year, I don't want to miss my last opportunity to talk about the Bulls' rookie. He's been improving steadily through the season, and has really caught fire over his last six games. During that stretch, he's up to 17-5-2 with 2.8 threes, 1.2 steals, and 1.3 blocks. He's playing 29.5 minutes per game and shooting 52-50-79. Some amount of cooling off is probably inevitable, but Buzelis has arrived as a well-rounded Fantasy factor, and the Bulls are likely to keep relying on him heavily down the stretch.

Davion Mitchell, Heat (25% rostered)

It's weird that Mitchell's roster rate is so low. I know it's late in the season, but I've been auto-starting him in an only-slightly-deeper-than-standard league for weeks. He's played at least 32 minutes in each of his last nine games, averaging 12-3-6 with 1.8 steals and 1.7 threes. He may not be the reason your roster wins the championship, but championship rosters need guys like this to stay competitive through all the inevitable injuries, keeping you in contention for whatever the league-winning move ends up being.

Bub Carrington, Wizards (53% rostered)

The 19-year-old rookie has been in and out of Fantasy lineups all season, and it's looking like he's going to end the season on an "in" stretch. Even if we ignore his awesome 32-9-7 explosion Thursday night with Jordan Poole (elbow) on the sidelines, Carrington was already riding a hot streak before that. In his six games before Thursday, he was averaging 12-6-6 with 2.3 threes and playing 31.8 minutes per game. He doesn't provide much defense, and his FG% is very bad, but the rest of his volume stats are good enough that he'll be a worthwhile addition to most rosters.

Jared Butler, 76ers (38% rostered)

The 76ers are short on players, and Jared Butler exists. As with Justin Edwards (54% rostered), who got more attention in last week's column, Butler does not fit the prototype of a player you'd typically want your Fantasy championship to depend on. Butler, a former second-round pick, is on his fourth team in four seasons. Over the last two seasons, 21 of his 22-highest-minute games have come after the trade deadline when his teams were aggressively tanking. On the other hand, Butler – and Edwards – are likely to continue playing tons of minutes. Butler is putting those minutes to good use lately, especially when it comes to compiling assists and threes. Over his last six games, he's averaging 14-2-6 with 3.0 threes and 1.3 steals. If you extend the sample size, his assists improve slightly while his scoring, steals, and threes take a small drop – but the overall picture looks pretty similar whether you're focusing on the last week or the last month. He's had a few bad games, as you'd expect of a fringe NBA talent, but the overall production has been surprisingly stable.

Peyton Watson, Nuggets (20% rostered)

Watson is a stand-in for all specialists at this point in the season. Chase the categories you need! Need blocks? Get Watson! Don't need blocks? Don't get Watson! There is no season after this week. There is no "what if he comes back healthy and plays great" anymore, nor is there any "what I really need are rebounds, but So-And-So is probably a better overall value". Those concepts don't matter once you've made it to the last week of the season. Watson occasionally helps elsewhere, but he is unreliable everywhere except blocks – but he gets a lot of blocks. He's averaged 3.2 per game over his last five outings.

Daniel Gafford, Mavericks (52% rostered)

Gafford has only averaged 19.5 minutes per game in his first two appearances after missing a month and a half. Dereck Lively also made his first appearance after a lengthy injury in Dallas' last game. Gafford only needs 20-23 minutes per game to make a Fantasy impact, but obviously the more minutes the better. The concern here is that we don't know how careful or how experimental the Mavericks will be over the final week as their two centers work their way back into action. If you could promise me 20 minutes a night, I'd bump him up a few spots.

Other recommendations: Yves Missi, Pelicans (54% rostered); Bruce Brown, Pelicans (13% rostered); Brice Sensabaugh, Jazz (14% rostered); Justin Edwards, 76ers (54% rostered); Jamal Shead, Raptors (13% rostered); Ja'Kobe Walter, Raptors (10% rostered)

Keep an eye out

Andrew Nembhard, Pacers (45% rostered)

Nembhard is not worth adding in most formats right now. However, with six games to go, the Pacers are threes games behind the three-seed and ahead of the five-seed. That means that they're not quite mathematically locked into the four-seed yet, but they are overwhelmingly likely to end there, and could get officially locked into place before the weekend is over. Given Tyrese Haliburton's injury history, Indianapolis should prioritize resting Haliburton at least twice next week once their seed is locked in, and more times if they can get away with it. If Haliburton is out then Nembhard becomes a highly attractive pickup for assists – Nembhard averaged 6.7 assists per game during the Haliburton's absences in March, including two games with double-digit assists.

Deep league special

Note: Several players listed above have roster rates of 20% or lower and may be available in deep formats; in most cases, I would recommend those players above the players listed below

Ryan Rollins, Bucks (14% rostered)

There's plenty of opportunity here with Damian Lillard's (blood clot) regular season effectively over. Rollins has started seven games in Lillard's stead. The good news and the bad news is the same – he had two really good Fantasy outings in that new role. The minutes and the potential are there, but he's had more "meh" games than good ones, with a colossal stinker thrown in for good measure. If you're looking for the optimistic take here, it is this: both great games came in the last week, and the worst game was back in his second start. It's a bumpy ride, but he is trending upwards.

Other recommendations: KJ Simpson, Hornets (7% rostered)