It’s Friday. You know what that means.
We’ll be looking at players who are widely available and rostered in fewer than 60 percent of fantasy leagues on Yahoo. We’ll be focusing on 8-cat leagues because turnovers are a waste of a category, to be honest.
But if you find the turnovers helpful, let me know. I’m happy to include them if enough of you play in 9-cat leagues.
We’ll be looking at players who can help you in each of the eight categories who you can get before your league-mates catch on.
The eight categories we’ll focus on each week are:
- Points
- Rebounds
- Assists
- Steals
- Blocks
- Threes
- Field-goal percentage
- Free-throw percentage
Let’s get to it.
View the best player prop bets for tonight’s slate with our NBA Prop Bet Cheat Sheet 
Points
Lonnie Walker IV (SG/SF – LAL) 46%
With the questions surrounding Anthony Davis‘ latest injury, the Lakers need someone to step up and score. Of late, that’s been Walker, who is averaging 18.6 points per game over his last three. Thomas Bryant is a guy I like with the Lakers, but if you want to zig while everyone else zags, Walker can put together solid stretches of high-output scoring for your team. The Lakers need someone to step up, right?
Rebounds
Over the last 14 days, Domantas Sabonis has had 117 rebounds. That’s … a ton. But he’s the only player in that stretch that has more than Duren does. I had him here last week, too, and he did go up in rostership by 15 percent, but he needs to be universally rostered. He’s been a monster on the glass and should continue getting big minutes for the Pistons.
Assists
Nickeil Alexander-Walker (SG/SF – UTA) 10%
NAW’s standard league value has fluctuated over the last couple of weeks, as he isn’t consistently topping 20 minutes per night. But even still, he’s making the most of his time on the court as a distributor in those minutes, averaging nearly 4 dimes per game. If he gets just a little bit more run, you could see that tick up to 5.5.
Steals
Victor Oladipo (SG/SF – MIA) 27%
Well, if this isn’t a blast from the past. We’ll always have that two-year stretch where ‘Dipo looked like the second coming. It’s great to not only see him healthy but playing a big role for the Heat. Oladipo has played more than 30 minutes in his last three games, and he’s averaging 3 steals per game during that stretch. He’s worth a look.
Blocks
It’s me, hi. I’m the problem, it’s me. I’ll write about Okongwu as often as I watch the Pitch Perfect movies (or until my editor says to stop). In his last game out – sans Clint Capela – Okongwu had five blocks. That’s what we are looking for from the third-year big man out of USC. The window to acquire him in dynasty leagues is still slightly open.
Threes
Tim Hardaway Jr. (SG/SF – DAL) 51%
He cooled off a bit after his tear a few weeks ago, but it’s THJ, so that’s what we expect. But he’s still shooting lights out from behind the arc for the Mavericks, who lead the league in three-point shooting (45.2% on non-heave threes per Cleaning the Glass).
Field-goal percentage
Brandon Clarke (PF/C – MEM) 56%
It’s hard to invest in anyone outside of the big three in Memphis since they run SO deep off their bench. But Clarke continues to just provide backend value for 12-team leagues. He’s a menace inside, and he’s shooting 83.3% from the field over the last two weeks.
Free-throw percentage
Jaden McDaniels (SF/PF – MIN) 60%
With this category, we typically highlight a player who doesn’t fit in the other areas but can be a sneak deep-league pickup. This week, it’s McDaniels. McDaniels is putting up seventh-round value over the last two weeks and is starting to show the consistency that we were hoping to see from him when we drafted him just after that point in our drafts. He’s now hit double-digits in scoring in four straight games.
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Michael Waterloo is a featured writer at FantasyPros. For more from Michael, check out his archive and follow him @MichaelWaterloo.
