Last Updated on January 19, 2026 3:17 pm by Aaron Bruski | Published: January 19, 2026

We are starting to close in on the halfway point of the fantasy basketball season and the Bruski 150 Waiver Wire plays for Week 12 are here!

Every week outside of the paywall, I give you FIVE PLAYERS from my TOP TEN WAIVER WIRE pickups and then NBA FantasyPass subscribers get the rest (30 TOTAL PICKUPS)

I also rank stashes, provide streamers and also list out players that I’m staying away from, plucking this data from the high stakes leagues that I compete in as well as SportsEthos leagues.

This week I’m giving you guys FIVE of the TOP-10 FREE and then NBA FantasyPass subscribers get the rest including targets for Miami’s 5-game week!

*Waiver Wire Rank in Parenthesis

Cam Spencer

SG, Memphis Grizzlies

(1) Spencer has been at the top of this list for a while, and he would have graduated if not for a slower than usual week, which also happened to see Ja Morant return while Ty Jerome seems very close. This might be the worst of things for a week or two here, with Morant professing his love for Memphis, which could easily be spin. Perhaps he can sense the market isn’t great, and that he might want to stick around.

Still, it seems like Morant’s chances of playing in Memphis past the trade deadline are 25-40% at best. Regardless, at worst Spencer seems likely to keep a role in the low 20-minute range, which has happened to yield top 85 value on the season by totals and late-round value on a per game basis. Even in the worst of times, the combination of late-round value in low minutes and potential to have a substantial role with or without the Grizzlies getting healthy continues to keep him at the top of this list

Ty Jerome

PG, Memphis Grizzlies

(2) Jerome has been ramping up, and it wouldn’t be surprising to start seeing very positive reports once the team returns from Europe. The simplest way to put this is that Coach Tuomas Iisalo truly believes in his role as an offensive engine, or at least that’s what he’s been saying.

When we look at the overall situation, there’s a potential top 50 player in here that we’ve never truly seen cut loose. All of his value in Cleveland came in 22-25 minute spurts for the most part, and Memphis brought him in to be something more.

There is injury risk, and there’s a chance that Memphis doesn’t push him up into the high 20s for minutes. But there’s also a potential he gets in there and has some sort of dominance of the role. While I wouldn’t bet on 29-31 mpg, we don’t know what we don’t know with him in his new location just quite yet, at least until the team comes out and says something.

Justin Champagnie

SG, Washington Wizards

(4) Champagnie has been at the top of these lists for over a month and chugged along inside of the top 100 this week because of his great stat set, averaging just 26.5 MPG but still returning 12 points, eight rebounds and 2.0 cash counters to go with solid efficiency.

This has been the story for a couple of weeks now and we’ve officially entered the next phase of Washington basketball and now it’s just a matter of attrition around him as he is clearly a constant, providing winning basketball plays on a bad team just waiting for his low-end contract status to stop working against him. Giving you this kind of value now in limited minutes with a restricted role, we are going to cruise with the serviceable low-end production and hopefully see him steadily rise to the solid mid round production he is capable of.

Moussa Cisse

C, Dallas Mavericks

(5) I spent a nice little chunk of Sunday afternoon for my high-stakes FAAB runs deep diving on the value of Cisse (acquiring him in 9-of-11 leagues). Basically, it looks like this – he is a blocks monster in the waiting, and sported a block rate in college that got as high as 11% and was 9.8% in his final season at Memphis. He’s not bad with the steals either and of course the field goal percentage is there for the big man. Physically, he looks like a superhero and has high-end athletic ability that might border on elite.

Where we run into the biggest issue is with the foul shooting as he could easily get up into the 3-4 attempt range, and it’s not clear whether he can clear the 50% mark. I’ll cut to the chase and say that if Dallas cuts him loose for 25 minutes or more per game he has top 50-125 probable production that comes down to how many foul shots he truly takes and also whether or not you care about foul shooting.

Basically, he might be this season’s Adem Bona and I wouldn’t summarily rule him out for early round value if everything breaks the right direction.

The next big issue is that he has run through 36 of his 50 games on his two-way deal, and currently Dallas doesn’t have a roster spot for him. That said, his teammates Anthony Davis and maybe even Daniel Gafford are available for a trade. While Dallas has a long history with Dwight Powell, they could also decide to cut him and move on.

The bottom line with this is that Dallas can both develop a player who is showing incredible promise in a league that covets bigs who can move both laterally and vertically on defense – and also lose games because he’s extremely raw on offense. His teammates that might steal his minutes, including Powell and possibly even 10-day signee Jeremiah Robinson Earl, are more shooter and connector than defensive presence so he has his own distinct lane. Gafford might have a chronic ankle issue that could theoretically end his career at this point since we are well beyond reasonable return schedules.

Dallas will need to make a move to get rid of Anthony Davis and/or add a roster slot to make this work but after that everything lines up for a breakout.

Jalen Smith

PF, Chicago Bulls

(8) Smith has jumped on the scene with a four-game flurry in the top 90 range with 13 points, two triples, 10.5 rebounds, 2.3 assists and 1.8 combined defensive stats with low percentages and low turnovers. The most notable thing is that he is playing 30 minutes per-game right now with Nikola Vucevic also averaging 32 MPG.

Yes, Zach Collins and also Josh Giddey are out, but this is a classic Billy Donovan flipping the switch maneuver and the same question remains – is this a temporary full-time assignment and if it is then the next question with Smith always comes down to whether or not he can continue to produce and or stay healthy.

Efficiencies and recent seasons with lower defensive stats create a situation where there are questions about his high-end upside. That said, he had an outlier season shooting free throws at 80.9% on about 100 free throws taken last year and if he could get that particular number under control at least one of the four trouble areas for him might be less weighty.

The bottom line for Smith is that he has a nice, probably one third chance to take the ball and run into a top 100 rest of season and if it goes well in the next few weeks the role might not be the question, just the injury risk because when Donovan makes a move he makes a move for the most part.

Must Roster Graduates from Past Columns: Kevin Porter, Collin Gillespie (Not a Waiver Wire POY Candidate b/c SportsEthos members drafted him), Derrick Queen, Peyton Watson, Jay Huff, Jaylen Tyson (if he was somehow dropped he’s a run don’t walk in 125 player or greater formats and that might also be true for 100 player very shallow formats), Aaron Gordon, Ajay Mitchell, Grayson Allen, Russell Westbrook

NOW, THE TOP REMAINING BRUSKI 150 WAIVER WIRE PICKUPS ARE …

Want full access to the Bruski 150 Waiver Wire Report? You’ll need to have an Ethos 360, All-Sport or NBA FantasyPass membership. Click here to learn more and sign up! Premium Access Required

  Join our Discord:  Click Here to Join!

• About the Author
• Latest Posts

Aaron Bruski

I’m a father, husband and friend. Also, a high stakes fantasy basketball player and I’ve been working in fantasy sports since the turn of the century. Before founding SportsEthos, I spent nearly a decade at Rotoworld building their NBA operation, where we won the FSGA award for Best News and Analysis Site regularly. I cut my teeth in the reporting world at ProBasketballTalk.com on the Kings relocation story, developing sources in Sacramento and throughout the NBA. I’ve won two FSWA Basketball Writer of the Year awards and been nominated four times. I started SportsEthos to help this industry evolve so content producers can have some long-term security and customers can get a better product.

• Fantasy Basketball Bruski 150 Waiver Wire Report: Week 13
• Fantasy Basketball Bruski 150 Waiver Wire Report: Week 12
• Fantasy Basketball Bruski 150 Waiver Wire Report: Week 11