Early-Week Fantasy Basketball Category Streamers for Week 2

Thunder Dan Palyo looks at some early-week waiver wire options for fantasy basketball leagues. These players may be free agents to target on waivers in Week 2.

In some of my very first fantasy basketball leagues, we used to call it "churning and burning" and it refers to the process of keeping one or more roster spots available to stream players throughout the week.

Most leagues, however, limit how many player adds you can make each week in daily leagues. If your league only allows three moves per week, you need to be very efficient with your moves and grab players who will help you maximize your games played and help you win an extra category or two of counting stats.

The goal of this article each Monday morning will be to help you plan out your roster moves for the first half of the week. Planning ahead is important and I always include which teams play on optimal days for streaming in the very first section so you can look for additional players that I don't mention as well. All the rostered percentages used in this article are from Yahoo! Let's see who can help us finish the week strong.

Weekly Schedule: Monday to Thursday

Teams that play only one game (AVOID): Boston, Washington, Sacramento, Phoenix, New Orleans, LA Lakers, Cleveland

Teams that play three games (TARGET): Miami, Brooklyn

Teams that play TUES/THURS (TARGET): Oklahoma City, LA Clippers, Golden State, Dallas

Teams that play MON/TUES or TUES/WED (TARGET): Detroit

Shallow League Streaming Options

Jalen Duren - PF/C (47%)

The Pistons play a back-to-back early in the week and that Tuesday game is a coveted one as the NBA schedule is always the most loaded on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. He's playing off the bench right now but has been putting up solid numbers in 21 minutes. Nine points and seven boards are fine by me on 58% shooting and he's adding 1.7 blocks too. He might even be a guy you scoop up and hold on to as a stash in the hopes that he eventually starts for the Pistons and gets close to 30 minutes per night.

Dennis Smith Jr. - PG (30%)

He picked up his first start of the year and promptly delivered 18 points and six assists with three steals and a block. He had been playing well off the bench too in the first two games of the season for Charlotte. LaMelo Ball is still out for a while and it's unclear when Terry Rozier will return, so Smith has a small window here but could be incredibly productive this week before getting sent back to the bench when the starting guards are healthy.

Royce O'Neale - SG/SF (33%)

Brooklyn plays Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday, so you could always add Royce here and then dump him for someone that plays twice from Friday to Sunday and get five games from your roster spot. He's the classic "jack of all trades" but master of none" type player and should be an invaluable glue guy for Brooklyn this year. He's averaging 1.5 threes right now with a crazy 2.5 steals and 2.0 blocks per game. He's not going to score much, but that is some elite Robert Covington-like production and you'll happily take anything close to that from him this week.

Deep Leagues Streaming Options

Nick Richards - C (23%)

The Charlotte big man has been on a tear to start the year and is putting up serious numbers off the bench. He's working his way into a timeshare at center with Mason Plumlee at this point and you simply can't ignore 15 points and nine rebounds on 69% shooting from the field. Now, he doesn't block shots or do much of anything else, but he's shooting 75% from the free throw line, so he can help you in points, rebounds, and both percentages at this point. I'd pick him up and even hold onto him a bit if you can to see how those minutes in Charlotte flesh out.

Usman Garuba - PF/C (5%)

Garuba started for Houston this weekend with Bruno Fernando out as they continue to bring Alperen Sengun off the bench and are adamant about continuing to do that for some reason. Anyway, Garuba was productive in 25 minutes, posting six points, eight boards, two assists, and four steals. Houston plays Utah twice here at the beginning of the week and those should be some up-tempo, high-scoring games with a lot of fantasy stats. As long as Fernando is out, Garuba has solid streamer appeal.

Max Strus - SG/SF (23%)

Strus was one of our specialists last week and with Miami playing three times in the first four days this week, Strus is one of my favorite options for deeper leagues. I am a little surprised he's available in so many leagues, but I suppose he's still not a household name. He's a great fantasy player, even if you haven't heard much about him. Right now, he's giving you 14 points per game and 2.7 three-pointers while still shooting 57% from the floor. He doesn't provide many peripheral stats, but he's someone you should have on your team in 12-team leagues or larger.

Terrence Ross - SG/SF (27%)

Ross should continue to be firmly on our fantasy radar as long as he has the starting gig in Orlando and with Jalen Suggs injured and Markelle Fultz still not ready to return, it looks like he's going to continue to keep getting those minutes. He's averaging 17 points per game with an elite 3.0 made threes and a solid 1.3 steals per contest. Go pick him up and ride him as long as you can. Ross is a solid veteran in this league and should be more widely owned across all leagues by the end of the week.

Specialist Streaming Options

THREES

Gabe Vincent - PG/SG (3%)

Vincent plays three times in four days, otherwise, I probably wouldn't be recommending him here. He's playing 21 minutes off the bench for Miami and doing his usual thing with nine points, two boards, and three assists per game. He is firing up a bunch of three-pointers and is averaging 1.3 made threes per game so far. He can get hot and deliver 2-3 made threes per game without breaking a sweat and could help you win that category this week.

STEALS

Justise Winslow - SF/PF (4%)

Winslow is a very unique fantasy player who profiles very similarly to someone like James Johnson, as he can help in boards, assists, and defensive stats but doesn't score much or hit threes. He has a solid 25-minute role off the bench for Portland right now and as a result, has averaged 1.7 steals per game so far this year. He also can block some shots (.7 per game so far) and doesn't shoot enough from the field (only eight attempts per game) to really drag down your FG%.

BLOCKS

Walker Kessler - PF/C (43%)

If you're in a shallow league, he's probably not on the wire, but if he is, then grab him and stash him. But in deeper leagues, Kessler can be streamed when you need him. He's blocking 2.0 shots per game in only 21 minutes per night right now and the only bad part of his game is his 45% shooting from the charity stripe, which we knew was going to be a struggle. The blocks are elite and he's going to lead the league in blocks one day if he can ever crack the rotation and become a 30-minute per-game player.

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