Fantasy Basketball 2021: Lineup Advice for NBA Week 4
Every fantasy basketball season begins with a feeling-out process.
With three weeks of the 2021-22 NBA campaign in the books, though, team assessments are starting to crystallize. Strengths and weaknesses are becoming more apparent, as are the helpful waiver-wire finds and the dead weights dragging down your rosters.
We're here to help either get your team pointed the right direction or keep its momentum going by identifying two adds—available in 50-plus percent of Yahoo leagues, per FantasyPros—and one drop for Week 4.
Add: LaMarcus Aldridge, PF/C, Brooklyn Nets (50 Percent Rostered)
Admittedly, the feast-or-famine phenomenon playing out with LaMarcus Aldridge's stat lines makes this a somewhat risky recommendation. Case in point: He just spent his Sunday snapping a four-game double-digit scoring streak by misfiring on all three of his field-goal attempts and finishing with just two points.
Having said that, it's probably smart to put more stock into the four outings that preceded Sunday's stinker than the dud itself. During that stretch, he was good for 15.8 points per night, which he tallied on a blistering 65.9 percent shooting clip.
His mid-range jumper is cotton-soft, and his rebounding numbers are adequate (5.0 in 19.6 minutes per game).
The Nets face a four-game slate this week, and the only above-average defense they face belongs to the Chicago Bulls (seventh in efficiency, per NBA.com). The scheduling gods should have the big fella positioned to get his uber-efficient scoring back on track.
Drop: Franz Wagner, SG/SF, Orlando Magic (66 Percent Rostered)
Most NBA rookies will encounter the inevitable ebbs and flows in their production, and Franz Wagner is on the wrong side of that trend.
After scoring double figures in each of his first eight outings as a pro, he has managed only 26 points on 31 field goals in the three games since. He's shooting just 35.5 percent from the field and only has two free-throw attempts during that stretch, and the 6'9" forward isn't quite helpful enough in the other categories to compensate for that dry spell.
Not to mention, the Magic suit up just two times this entire week—Wednesday against the Nets, Saturday versus the Wizards—so even if Wagner snaps out of this minifunk, he can only be so valuable this week.
He'll be valuable at some point again this season, maybe as soon as next week, when Orlando has four games. For fantasy managers in shallow leagues, though, that potential isn't worth the wait.
Add: Nicolas Batum, SF/PF, Los Angeles Clippers (47 Percent Rostered)
Nicolas Batum is hurriedly putting his slow start to this season behind him.
Fantasy managers would be wise to roster him now before it's too late.
Those with the foresight to add him ahead of last week were rewarded with four strong efforts. He scored at least a dozen points in every contest, averaging 15.5 points on 60.5 percent shooting over the week. He also splashed 16 triples at a 55.2 percent clip, averaged 6.8 rebounds, had seven steals and even a block in three of his four outings.
L.A. has another four-game slate this week, and while all the defenses are statistically strong, it's probably too early to anoint the Blazers, Timberwolves and Bulls as lockdown teams. With Batum's minutes and shots trending up, he should have chances to keep the good times rolling in Hollywood.