Fantasy Basketball 2020: Players to Target Before Trade Deadline Ends

Save for some waiver-wire neglect by your fellow fantasy league managers, there may not be another post-draft avenue to elite talent than the trade market.

If you're planning to travel that road in search of the missing piece of your championship puzzle, the clock is ticking. In Yahoo leagues, the standard trade deadline is set for 11:59 p.m. PT on Wednesday.

The time to trigger that league-winning blockbuster is now, and we have identified three players to target before the deadline passes.

John Collins, Atlanta Hawks

What if we told you that you might be able to snag a 22-year-old, double-double machine at a discount? Never in a million years, right?

Well, John Collins could prove us right—if people are still worried about the reshuffled frontcourt in Atlanta. After the Hawks landed both Clint Capela and Dewayne Dedmon at the real-life trade deadline, some feared Collins couldn't be the same.

"Collins is the biggest [trade deadline] loser," FantasyPros' Michael Waterloo wrote. "He still has fantasy value but gets bumped down a tier or two in overall rankings."

If you can get Collins a tier or two below his normal going rate, then feel free to put us on pause so you can push that transaction through. He has suited up six times since the deadline, averaging 25.7 points, 10.3 rebounds, 2.0 assists and 1.5 blocks in 37.2 minutes.

Granted, Capela has yet to play for the Hawks, but he's down for at least two more weeks, and Atlanta should be ultracautious with him.

This team doesn't have a playoff berth to pursue, and with Capela locked up for the long term, he shouldn't sniff the floor until he's clearly 100 percent. Who knows, maybe he'll even prove a nice fit with Collins when he does.

If anyone has questions on Collins, this is the time to try getting him for cheap.

Christian Wood, Detroit Pistons

Christian Wood has scratched and clawed for the respect of Pistons coach Dwane Casey, and while the veteran skipper can be stingy with opportunities, he has extended enough of them for him to engineer his breakout.

An intriguing part-timer in past seasons, the bouncy big man is finally showing what we can do with a regular rotation role. His stat line is littered with career highs (including 11.3 points, 5.8 rebounds and 0.9 blocks in 19.3 minutes per game), and those numbers may not even scratch the surface of his stretch-run production.

With Andre Drummond and Markieff Morris both out of the picture, the Pistons have essentially cleared the runway for Wood to take flight.

Entering Sunday's slate, Detroit was five games into the post-Drummond era. Wood's averages for those contests included: 19.6 points on 51.6 percent shooting, 10.8 rebounds, 2.0 assists, 1.8 threes and 1.0 blocks.

Still just 24 years old, Wood has a chance to play his way into the Pistons' future plans. They should showcase him to see if he's worth keeping around, and he can be a fantasy asset when he gets consistent floor time.

Malik Beasley, Minnesota Timberwolves

Malik Beasley was struggling to maintain a fantasy pulse before the Minnesota Timberwolves snagged him away from the overcrowded Denver Nuggets and plugged him into their own overhauled rotation.

Just like that, the fourth-year swingman has transformed from afterthought to featured contributor.

Entering Sunday, Beasley had nearly doubled his minutes since the trade (33.5, up from 18.2), while his usage rate jumped six points (26.6 percent, up from 20.6). His scoring had almost tripled (23.3, from 7.9), and his three-point tally did more than that (4.5, from 1.4).

Is all of this sustainable? Probably not. The 23-year-old has never produced like this before, and he's seen a usage bump since Karl-Anthony Towns went down.

But remember, Beasley is playing for his next contract, and Minnesota is months away from deciding whether it wants to foot that bill. In other words, he has incentive to play his absolute best, and the team has motivation to extend maximum minutes to see how he handles them.

He should be a much better fantasy player than he was in Denver, and if his fantasy owners haven't paid close enough attention to his post-trade eruption, there is major bargain potential here.