Welcome to the Christmas edition of Deep League Relevant. This week Blake Griffin has decided to put his Santa hat on (by taking the next 3-6 weeks to recover from surgery), and put presents under everybody's tree in the form of Speights, Rivers and a guy whose surname I can only spell correctly when I copy and paste it from his Yahoo profile.

Jokes aside, I hope we see Blake back on the court soon.

This week we’re going to take a look at the waiver wire for some players owned in 8% or less of Yahoo leagues.

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Marquese Chriss (Phoenix Suns, PF)

Owned in 8% of Yahoo leagues.
3 games scheduled between Monday 19th December and Sunday 25th December.

Why is Marquese worth adding?
It’s time to start taking notice of Chriss before somebody else claims him from the waiver-wire. The Suns aren’t going anywhere (currently 8W 19L), so it makes sense to put extra minutes into Marquese, now that he has shown he’s capable of producing. In the past 7 days, he has averaged 10.7 PTS, 7.3 REB, 1.3 3PM ,and 1 BLK in just under 29 minutes of playing time. If you can take the hit on his shooting percentages, and the bad “because I’m a rookie” games, he’s worth adding to your team, before it’s too late.

Marreese Speights (Los Angeles Clippers, PF/C)

Owned in 7% of Yahoo leagues.
4 games scheduled between Monday 19th December and Sunday 25th December.

Why is Marreese worth adding?
One thing we know about Mo, is that if he’s on the floor, he’s going to be near the ball. His usage rate this season is huge for a reserve, at 24.8% (in comparison, Blake Griffin’s is 28.9%). One thing to keep in mind is in the 2 games Griffin was out, Pierce and Rivers were the starters, but it’s safe to assume that Speights is in line for a bump in minutes.

Austin Rivers (Los Angeles Clippers, PG/SG)

Owned in 5% of Yahoo leagues.
4 games scheduled between Monday 19th December and Sunday 25th December.

Why is Austin worth adding?
As we’ve mention, Austin started in a game that Blake was out for, and only just returned to the bench while Mbah a Moute was injured. If we see the Clippers go small and start Mbah a Moute move at PF, we could see Austin starting again, in a 3-guard line-up. And we don’t have to look far to see the numbers Austin has produced as a starter, having averaged 15 PTS, 3.3 3PM, and 1 STL in 32 minutes, over his past 3 games.

Luc Richard Mbah a Moute (Los Angeles Clippers, SF/PF)

Owned in 1% of Yahoo leagues.
4 games scheduled between Monday 19th December and Sunday 25th December.

Why is Luc worth adding?
The last of the viable options (I don’t see Pierce as a viable option unless you’re in a really, really deep league) is Mbah a Moute. While he’s already part of their starting line-up, he’s also in line for a few extra minutes at PF, which means extra minutes on the court to collect some defensive stats.

Dewayne Dedmon (San Antonio Spurs, C)

Owned in 2% of Yahoo leagues.
4 games scheduled between Monday 19th December and Sunday 25th December.

Why is Dewayne worth adding?
Talking about defensive stats, Dedmon looks to be getting minutes again, and with a B2B on the 23rd-24th, as part of a 3-games-in-4-days schedule, it could mean some extra minutes as Pau or LaMarcus get managed through the week.

Late News

Suggestions based on news posted after this article went live.

Nene Hilario (Houston Rockets, PF/C)

Owned in 2% of Yahoo leagues.
3 games scheduled between Monday 19th December and Sunday 25th December.

Why is Nene worth adding?
25 minutes a game are up for grabs with Capela sidelined for several weeks. If Nene starts, and gets at least 10 of them he'll be a viable deep league candidate.