
The NBA season has kicked off and knowing lots of fantasy owners, you’ll all be eager to action your trigger fingers and make a grab at free agents on your waiver wire from the get-go. In these “All Wired Up” posts, which I’ll endeavour to have up daily, I’ll look at the best performances from players who are on the waiver wire in most standard leagues.
Iman Shumpert – Knicks (ESPN 70 percent, Yahoo 47 percent)
Iman Shumpert has already been the subject of an All Wired Up earlier this season, but with his recent hip injury, it appears that quite a few owners had no patience. Which is unfortunate for them, but could be your gain.
Shumpert missed just one game with the injury, not counting the game in which the injury occurred and he played just 55 seconds, and as straight back into the starting lineup and straight back to work. Shumpert had 21 points (9-14 FG, 2-4 3Pt, 1-1 FT), eight rebounds, eight assists, and three steals in 36 minutes, in his best performance of the season.
Excluding the injury game, Shumpert has failed to reach double digit in scoring in only the season opener, has twice has eight rebound games, and has now had games of eight and seven dimes. Throw in the steals, which is where his fantasy value was coming from in the past couple of seasons and you have yourself a top 70 player currently. Shumpert is also one of a handful of players with triple position eligibility on ESPN — point guard, shooting guard, and small forward, a key to your roster flexibility.
Shumpert should be owned in pretty much every league, but that’s not being reflected just yet. Get in now and ride it out.
Zaza Pachulia – Bucks (ESPN 0 percent, Yahoo 1 percent)
Thanks to Larry Drew last season and now, Jason Kidd, we are living in a world where Zaza Pachulia still needs to be talked about. The big Georgian has been seemingly inexplicably been getting minutes over young gun John Henson and the trend doesn’t seem to be abating. When Larry Sanders was ruled out Tuesday with a thigh bruise, a thought emerged that perhaps we might see Henson unleashed, but instead we were treated to 35 minutes of Pachulia. Because of KIdd’s reticence to use Henson, Pachulia is a fantasy relevant player, in some leagues.
In the win over the Knicks, Pachulia had 14 points (6-11 FG, 2-2 FT), 13 rebounds, four assists, and two steals and has actually been a serviceable guy all season. Pachulia is close to being ranked in the top 150 for the season, meaning that in 14 team leagues and deeper, you need to look at getting this guy on your roster. Henson is a non-factor and Sanders is not exactly a beacon of health, meaning Pachulia has value in those sort of formats.
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