Recent RotoWire Articles Featuring Wes Iwundu
See More
Iwundu departed from his original NBA home in Orlando this offseason and headed west, where he inked a deal with the Mavericks. The 25-year-old generated career-best averages of 5.8 points and 1.2 assists last season while also pulling down 2.5 rebounds across a career-high 18.3 minutes over 52 games. Iwundu also continued to demonstrate some ability from three-point range, posting a respectable 34.1 percent success rate on an average of 1.6 attempts from behind the arc per contest. Iwundu drained more than 80.0 percent of his free throws for the second straight campaign during the 2019-20 season as well, but he could certainly have a difficult time boosting his numbers up another notch in the coming season. Iwundu projects to be deeper down the depth chart in Dallas than he was in Orlando at both wing spots and power forward, making his fantasy outlook relatively bleak to start the new season.
Iwundu saw a slightly larger role in his second NBA season with the Magic, averaging 5.0 points, 2.7 rebounds and 1.1 assists across 18.1 minutes per game -- improvements from his rookie season. With Orlando dealing with a number of injuries in the frontcourt last year, Iwundu was thrust into a larger role than he likely expected, and he ended up seeing a big improvement in his jump shot, shooting 36.7 percent from three. The Magic's personnel has remained relatively unchanged compared to last season outside of the signing of Al-Farouq Aminu to a three-year contract this offseason, which will likely have a direct impact on Iwundu's playing time to start this season. As a result, Iwundu's value heading into his third NBA season remains rather limited, as Aminu, in addition to Terrence Ross, Jonathan Isaac and Evan Fournier, will all take precedence over the 24-year-old. Iwundu's numbers compared to last season will likely remain fairly static.
The 33rd overall pick in the 2017 NBA Draft, Iwundu appeared in 62 games for the Magic last season, including 12 starts. However, he gained most of his playing time through the myriad of injuries Orlando’s roster endured, plus some tanking efforts. Assuming the team is healthier in 2018-19, Iwundu may struggle to reach the 16.5 minutes per game he saw during his rookie campaign, especially since he didn't shine much during his playing time. He averaged 3.7 points and 2.2 rebounds while shooting 42.7 percent from the field, 19.6 percent from three and 72.3 percent from the charity stripe. It seems safe to avoid Iwundu in Fantasy this season, even in most deep formats.