Domino Effect

Sometimes waiver wire transactions are obvious. When the “Dwyane Wade: out for the year” story hit the Internet, fantasy players everywhere put in claims on Ricky Davis. That’s a no-brainer.

But Ricky Davis was already owned in a lot of leagues – the savvy owner knows to dig a bit deeper. Davis had value coming off the bench, right? That means if Davis moves into the starting rotation, the guy who replaces him as bench scorer will have value too.

Call it the transitive property of fantasy NBA rosters.

Watching for these chain reactions becomes far more valuable at this time of year, when players like Wade start shutting things down for the season due to nagging injuries or opt for early surgery in the hopes of being fully rehabbed for the start of the 2008-09 campaign.

Here’s a look at the two examples (with percent-owned stats from Ultimate Fantasy Commissioner in parentheses):

The injured player: Dwyane Wade
The obvious fill-in: Ricky Davis (94.1%)
Secondary options: Marcus Banks (0%), Daequan Cook (0.7%)

The injured player: Eddy Curry
The obvious fill-in: David Lee (90.8%)
Secondary options: Malik Rose (0%), Randolph Morris (0%)

Obviously, some of the secondary fill-ins come with a really big “approach with caution” label. We’re not suggesting you put in a waiver claim on Malik Rose – just outlining a strategy to use in digging for help on the wire when the next frontline player packs it in for this year.

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