Last week, I thought it would be fun trying my hand at some waiver wire prognostication by predicting which waiver-wire fodder would have productive weeks. To be eligible for endorsement, each player had to be owned in less than 40% of all Yahoo Fantasy Basketball Leagues. They also had to play in the NBA. To be considered a successful endorsement, a player had to meet one of two criteria; one, they had to produce a competitive contribution to the category I had recommended them for, which would be 1/10th of the competitive medians detailed in the Yahoo Competitive Standards Page, and/or two, they had to finish the week ranked 156 or higher. Why 156, you ask? Well in the standard Yahoo Fantasy League, there should 156 players on owners’ rosters, since there are 12 teams to a league, and each team has 13 roster positions. 12 X 13 = 156. Anything above 156? DROPABLE OFFENSE. To the results!!
3PTM
| Players Recommended | Players w/ 3+ 3PTMs | Players w/ weekly rank 156 or better |
| 10 | 7 | 6 |
Good week for 3PTM prognostication, but in all honesty, there are more dependable 3PTM producers on the waiver wire then there are in any other category. Here are the results of each player:
| Player | Total 3PTM Last Week | Weekly Rank |
| Khris Middleton | 12 | 12 |
| Randy Foye | 9 | 21 |
| Jordan Hamilton | 8 | 89 |
| Francisco Garcia | 5 | 79 |
| Richard Jefferson | 4 | 155 |
| Patrick Beverly | 4 | 101 |
| Gary Neal | 3 | 218 |
| Nate Robinson | 2 | 209 |
| Marvin Williams | 2 | 235 |
As you can see, Khris Middleton and Randy Foye both had big weeks, and Jordan Hamilton was also an elite contributor in 3PTMs.
PTS
There are very few players that produce competitive contributions in PTS from week to week. To be competitive in the standard Yahoo League, a team should produce 480 PTS; if you are a set N’ forget owner, you will need at least 48 points from each player started to make 480. Only 67 players scored 48 points or more in the past seven days. By comparison, to be competitive in 3PTM, a team should produce 30 per week. Therefore a competitive contributor would produce 3 or more 3PTM per week (30/10). Last week, 117 players splashed 3 or more 3PTM. Long story short, competitive contributors of PTS are much harder to find on the waiver wire, which is somewhat contrary to popular belief. Here are the players I recommended for potential PTS production:
| Player | Total PTS Last Week | Weekly Rank |
| Alec Burks | 67 | 44 |
| Khris Middleton | 66 | 12 |
| Glen Davis | 57 | 222 |
| Reggie Jackson | 55 | 38 |
| Nate Robinson | 54 | 209 |
| Randy Foye | 52 | 21 |
| Michael Beasley | 38 | 110 |
| Jordan Hamilton | 36 | 89 |
| Richard Jefferson | 23 | 155 |
| Gary Neal | 22 | 318 |
| Marvin Williams | 10 | 235 |
| Caron Butler | 0 | 411 |
As you can see, only 6 of the 12 players I recommended made a competitive contribution in PTS but 7 of 12 were ranked 156 or higher, or above replacement level. Alec Burks should be a consistent contributor of PTS for the remainder of the season. Reggie Jackson is a must own in my opinion; he’s been producing for weeks now and looks like he can’t stop, won’t stop, Miley Cyrus.
REB
Big men are also hard to come by on the waiver wire. There were limited options for REB this week, so I only recommended 5 players as potential sources. Here they are:
| Player | Total REB Last Week | Weekly Rank |
| Timofey Mozgov | 36 | 94 |
| Glen Davis | 20 | 222 |
| Andrew Nicholson | 16 | 105 |
| Marvin Williams | 5 | 235 |
| Zaza Pachulia | 6 | 205 |
Mozgov had a monster week, and along with Kosta Koufos, qualify as Europeans that should be rostered in all leagues. Marvin Williams and Zaza Pachulia both missed time during the week and kind of torpedoed my hit-rate. Only 2 players made a competitive contribution of 19 or more. Just 2 were ranked 156 or higher too.
AST
Assists are the scarcest stat available during the season. Draft or die. I only found two players available that I thought could make a competitive contribution of 10 or more:
| Player | AST Total Last Week | Weekly Rank |
| Norris Cole | 16 | 145 |
| Mo Williams | 14 | 179 |
Cashed in on both for competitive contributions, but went 1/2 for beating replacement level. Mo Williams should be rostered in more leagues; he’s the first man off the bench for the Fantasy All-Star Blazers. Seriously, each player in their starting line-up can be expected to show up in the top 50 week after week.
STL
Making a competitive contribution in STL does not appear hard, since a player needs only to make 3 STL to be a competitive contributor. I recommended 4 players to be good sources of STL last week. Here they are:
| Player | STL Total Last Week | Weekly Rank |
| Patrick Beverly | 6 | 101 |
| Mo Harkless | 4 | 104 |
| Thabo Sefolosha | 3 | 143 |
| Shane Battier | 2 | 185 |
3/4 recommendations cashed in STL last week. Patrick Beverly should be owned in more leagues for his ability to produce STL alone. If Jeremy Lin continues to have injury issues, his ownability will increase. Pounce now. I love Thabo Sefolosha in weeks that the Thunder play 4 weeks. He is a consistent contributor across multiple categories.
BLK
Like REB, BLK are hard to find because good big men are so scarce on the waiver wire. I only recommended Timofey Mozgov as a good source of BLK last week.
| Player | BLK Total Last Week | Weekly Rank |
| Timofey Mozgov | 4 | 37 |
A team should try to produce 22 BLK per week to be competitive. Therefore, a player would be considered a competitive contributor if they produce 2 or more BLK per week. Mozgov produced 4 and ranked 37 for the week so I’m batting 1.000 in BLK baby. Putting it all together, here’s how I did for the week:
| Category Specialists Recommended | Players that made a competitive contribution | Recommendation Success Rate | Players that ranked 156 or better | Recommendation Success Rate |
| 34 | 21 | 62% | 20 | 59% |
Seven Head to Heads and a Roto 