Long-time baseball guru Bill James always stressed how important watching the waiver wire can be. Teams looking to flesh out their rosters can sometimes find talent cheaply, simply by waiting for someone else to decide so-and-so isn’t who they are looking for.
In the NBA context, players often get waived for reasons beyond their perceived lack of ability. With the salary cap looming so large over every personnel decision, a useful rotation guy might be dumped because his team needs his cap space to sign a coveted free agent.
I check the wire frequently, and was recently bemused to note how many former Raptors have not been able to keep their jobs.