This was my original bit, one where I took an actual league and analyzed a bit who was picked up and dropped then gave my opinion on it. Since I haven’t been fired yet, here we go!
Real Life Pickups From a Real League
Cam Reddish: I actually picked him up in two 12 team leagues. LeBron James loves the guy. So he shall receive the minutes, right? He’s averaging 1.8 steals per game in just 22 minutes to go with a three pointer. I would expect that to rise if he keeps getting minutes. Crack analysis, I know. More minutes mean more stats. Cam is a defensive stalwart on a team that desperately needs that skill set, so I think he’s fine to take the flier on right now.
Derrick Jones, Jr. has been receiving starter’s minutes on his new team. He was picked up and dropped like two days later. Jones will have some explosions against teams like the Bulls who don’t pay attention to trivial things like defensive rotations and boxing out. That’s going to be Jones’ MO this year. Some big games followed by a week of duds. I’m probably just going to look somewhere for more upside unless flashy putback dunks are a category.
When I saw Marvin Bagley was picked up I was like, oh, good, here comes his 13 points and 5 rebounds along with 0 assists. I’m ashamed to admit I was wrong about this. It was a 14-5-1 line. I missed by one, darn it all. If you need this exact stat line, Bagley is a decent temporary guy until Jalen Duren comes back. Then drop him again.
Every once in a while I forget that checking the daily transactions is an important thing to do. If I had done this simple daily task, I would have realized Benedict Mathurin was dropped and tried to get him. Obviously he shouldn’t be dropped, even if his minutes are only 25 per game there’s just too much upside there. Mainly this is a reminder to check this like at least every other day in case someone like this was dropped. People get more frustrated more quickly than me waiting in the CVS drive through line with five cars in front of me. Lesson learned and relearned and then remembered.
Sam Hauser was picked up. If you need a guy who shoots threes and nothing else, Hauser is a good pickup. Last four games he shot 8, 6, 10, 6 of these dandy shots. Of course he made 3 or more every game. Hauser is the three point specialist to own this year. He’s also one of those guys who is going to be picked up and dropped like 34 times during the season so if you really really like him, be patient. He’ll be back on the wire soon.
Real Life Drops From a Real League
Andrew Wiggins: I hate to put the effort tag on a guy but Andrew Wiggins has had his motor questions since he came in the league. Then he had a really good season which seemingly coincided with a contract drive. He now has the contract and his numbers are tanked. Like 26 minutes only, 10 points and 3.5 boards tanked. I can see why he was dropped. If my team is struggling, I could see picking him up to see if it turns around (I do think he’ll turn it around a bit). If you have him, though, and are flying high and can upgrade, go right on ahead! Do your thang!
Goga Bitazde: I am the guy who picked up the Goganator. I regret that. The thought was that with Wendell Carter out, the Gogster would do well. The rebounds are there at over 8 per game. Trouble is, he’s scoring less points than he has rebounds. So Goga has to go the way of the dinosaurs. Which he kinda plays like, right?
Side note: Big guys in the league have sure changed, haven’t they? You really need an athletic big guy to keep up. Not good for the value of the older, slower, more ground bound guys. I’m probably never drafting a guy like Nikola Vucevic again; I think their time has passed.
My early nominees for Most Dropped will be Grant Williams and Bobby Portis. Good enough to be useful, but not good enough to keep when something flashy comes along.
Thanks for reading, keep pounding on those waiver wires!
