TJ

Leaf

Leaf will provide the Portland bigs with some emergency depth, but we don’t anticipate him making any impact in fantasy hoops.

Neither transaction comes as a surprise, as both Leaf and Schofield were viewed as long shots to carve out spots for themselves on the final roster.

Leaf never made a reliable impression in the Pacers’ rotation, averaging 8.7 minutes in his first three seasons. He’ll have a much better chance to earn playing time for the rebuilding Thunder, who currently have Mike Muscala as their primary PF on the depth chart.

Bitadze’s absence leaves the Pacers extra thin in the middle. They’re already without Domantas Sabonis (foot), and will likely use JaKarr Sampson as emergency depth behind Myles Turner. It sounds like we could see Bitadze before too long.

“I don’t expect him to be doing anything for at least the next couple of days,” coach Nate McMillan said of Bitazde prior to Sunday’s scrimmage against the Mavericks. Indiana is currently down two big men in its rotation, as All-Star Domantas Sabonis is dealing with plantar fasciitis and has left the Orlando bubble. The absences free up more minutes off the bench for T.J. Leaf, but not enough to make him a player worth considering in DFS.

While Sabonis is hopeful to rejoin his teammates in Orlando at some point, that’s starting to feel quite unlikely, as the only remedy for plantar fasciitis being prolonged rest. Myles Turner, T.J. Leaf, Justin Holiday and Doug McDermott will need to pick up the slack while he’s out, and T.J. Warren is going to get all the run he can handle.

He handed out two assists while he was out there and connected on both of his free throws, but he also went 1-of-9 from the field, so there’s certainly room for improvement here. Myles Turner (calf) should be ready for the restart, but if both Goga Bitadze (knee) and Domantas Sabonis (foot) can’t give it a go, Leaf could be forced into meaningful minutes. Let’s see what he can do once Turner is activated.

Leaf was sick last week but that didn’t impact any fantasy lineups, since he’s played a total of three minutes since Dec. 31. The former No. 18 pick does have a guaranteed $4.3 million coming to him for the 2020-21 season, but there’s no reason to think he’ll be worth owning in any fantasy format.

Whether he’s available or not is completely meaningless in fantasy hoops, as he’s not even a regular part of the rotation for the Pacers.

Leaf isn’t a regular part of Indy’s rotation, and didn’t even play even though Myles Turner (illness) was still out of commission. The waiver wire is his permanent residence.