Week 1 is typically the most fruitful time to grab players off the waiver wire. It is not the week to panic sell studs you drafted.

A lot of murky rotation situations become clearer once the games actually count but remember to exercise caution on stars that have come out of the gate slow. The fantasy season is over 20 weeks long; a 1-8 start might not be ideal but don’t fret. The waiver wire typically gets thinner as the year goes on, so don’t be irrational with your initial reads.

In this article, I go over some of the notable underperformers from Week 1, evaluate what went wrong and give a panic rating on their rest of season outlook from one (chill out) to five (fire off trades to everyone).

PG: Russell Westbrook, LAL

Week 1 Averages: 34.9 FG, 41.7 FT, 0.3 3PTM, 12.0 PTS, 7.7 REB, 8.7 AST, 2.0 STL, 0.3 BLK, 5.7 TO (3 Games)

Lakers Nation should’ve known there’d be growing pains integrating a unique player like Westbrook while also adding huge personalities in Dwight Howard, Carmelo Anthony, and Rajon Rondo. Westbrook’s fit will always come under fire playing alongside LeBron James but he’s such a dynamic playmaker that his lack of perimeter shooting won’t hurt his fantasy production. The biggest takeaway from watching film? He’s been excellent at finding his open teammates. This team is so offensively talented, Westy should be able to average double digit assists again this season. The scoring efficiency will improve but there are too many mouths to feed for him to get above 20 points per game. Just like last season with Washington, he’ll be a slow starter with eye-popping stat lines post All-Star Weekend. He’s best suited for teams punting free-throw percentage and turnovers.

Panic Level: 3/5

 

PG: Damian Lillard, POR

Week 1 Averages: 36.0 FG, 92.9 FT, 0.7 3PTM, 17.0 PTS, 3.3 REB, 7.3 AST, 0.3 STL, 0.0 BLK, 2.3 TO (3 Games)

Dame Time has opened the year 2-for-24 from three-point range and some of the misses are straight bricks you rarely see from him. You can argue all the trade rumours and coaching changes are influencing his performance but judging on how effective he’s been at everything else excluding the threes, I’d call this the best buy-low opportunity of the season for Lillard. He hasn’t been forcing shots or playing outside of Portland’s offence. The only noticeable concern is his lack of chemistry with Jusuf Nurkic. They’re not in sync through three games, but as they get more integrated in Head Coach Chauncey Billups’ offence, I’m confident they’ll garner less turnovers in the pick-and-roll. Shooters have off nights and Dame Time will be back before you know it.

Panic Level:  1/5

 

PG, SG: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, OKC

Week 1 Averages: 43.1 FG, 76.5 FT, 1.0 3PTM, 20.0 PTS, 4.7 REB, 4.0 AST, 0.3 STL, 0.3 BLK, 2.7 TO (3 Games)

Currently ranked outside the Top-100, I think SGA will have a tough time returning value on his 29.3 ADP. While his usage is up through three games, I think having Josh Giddey as his backcourt partner will take some of the pressure off him as a playmaker. The Toronto-native is extremely quick and possesses above average shooting touch, but I worry he’s not enough of a ball hog to meet the lofty expectations fantasy managers have for him. He probably needs to average above 25 points per game to match his ADP but even with the lack of talent surrounding him, SGA still sits outside the top-30 in field-goal attempts and usage rate.

Panic Level:  2/5

 

PF, C: Draymond Green, GSW

Week 1 Averages: 54.5 FG, 33.3 FT, 0.3 3PTM, 10.0 PTS, 6.7 REB, 6.3 AST, 0.7 STL, 0.0 BLK, 2.3 TO (3 Games)

There are two areas of concern to monitor for Draymond. The first is his free-throw shooting. After finishing with a career-high 79.5 rate last season, he’s opened 5-for-15 from the line. Considering he only missed 18 free-throws all of last season, I will flag this as a problem until he proves me wrong. The second issue is his defensive production. You don’t draft Draymond for his offensive output, you grab him because he’s a former Defensive Player of the Year. Outside of last season, he doesn’t have a history of slow starts. Give him another two weeks of slack but if his defensive output remains flat, that’s when you really slam the panic button.

Panic Level:  3/5

 

PF, C: Chris Boucher, TOR

Week 1 Averages: 27.6 FG, 100.0 FT, 0.8 3PTM, 5.3 PTS, 4.3 REB, 0.3 AST, 0.8 STL, 1.3 BLK, 0.8 TO (4 Games)

Boucher is coming off surgery for a dislocated left middle finger so it’s fair to cut him some slack as he gets up to game speed. What fantasy managers should be concerned about is the upgraded competition he has for frontcourt minutes. Precious Achiuwa has started all four games at centre and Coach Nick Nurse clearly trusts him over Boucher. Achiuwa gives the Raptors a much-needed physical presence in the post and has been consistently getting open for alley-oops (though he’s not finishing them). Khem Birch hasn’t been all that effective himself but he’s still taking away minutes (20.8 MPG) from Boucher. Mix in Pascal Siakam’s return next month and I’m officially selling for any player projected for top-120 value.

Panic Level:  5/5

 

SF, PF: Kyle Anderson, MEM

Week 1 Averages: 20.8 FG, 100.0 FT, 0.7 3PTM, 5.3 PTS, 5.3 REB, 1.7 AST, 1.0 STL, 0.7 BLK, 0.0 TO (3 Games)

After a breakout fantasy performance last season finishing in the top-70, Anderson has reverted to the bench with Jaren Jackson Jr. fully healthy and Desmond Bane sliding into the three spot. JJJ is the future alongside Ja Morant while Bane is the exact 3-and-D kind of player thriving in today’s NBA. With Dillon Brooks still shelved, it was De’Anthony Melton who slid into the starting five instead of Anderson and judging from Coach Taylor Jenkins’ rotations, ‘Slo-Mo’ likely won’t have a large enough role to be fantasy relevant. Just like Boucher above, I’d be trading for anyone of value before finding a replacement off the wire.

Panic Level:   5/5