Early-Week Fantasy Basketball Category Streamers for Week 15

January 23, 2023

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 15.

Week 15 looks pretty front-loaded as we get seven games tonight and tomorrow, 10 on Wednesday, and six on Thursday. It will be a relatively lightly scheduled weekend as we have a very strange five games on Friday and then 11 on Saturday and of course just four on Sunday as the NFL Conference Championships will be taking center stage.

Most leagues limit how many players you can stream 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 start the week strong!

Weekly Schedule: Monday to Thursday

Teams that play only one game (AVOID): Golden State, OKC, Philadelphia, Toronto

Teams that play three games (TARGET): Charlotte, Boston, Chicago, Houston, San Antonio

Shallow League Streaming Options

Dennis Schroder - PG (31%)

Just when you thought his run might be done, Schroder comes back with two strong outings over the weekend. The Lakers are a bit of an enigma right now, they came back and won a game last night in Portland they had no business winning and they've actually weathered the storm without Anthony Davis better than most thought they would. Davis's impending return will likely kill D-Scho's standard league value, but he's worth a look this week until we get a firm return date for AD.

Josh Richardson - SG/SF (32%)

With three games in the first four days this week, you should really be considering J-Rich wherever he's available. He continues to produce some pretty solid fantasy value for the Spurs as their sixth man and has posted 14-3-4 with 1.6 blocks/steals over his last 10 games. He's doing that on 54% shooting from the field and 87% shooting from the line, too. He's a legit 9-cat player in his current role for this team.

Kenyon Martin Jr. - SF/PF (24%)

K-Mart Jr. has really stepped his game up since Kevin Porter Jr. went down and he entered the starting lineup for Houston.

He's posting 14-7 with 1.4 threes on 49% shooting from the field in five games without KPJ and Houston has three games in four nights starting with a nice matchup against the T-Wolves tonight.

Jericho Sims - C (16%)

With Mitch-Rob out for at least three weeks, the Knicks need help at the center position and so far, it's been Sims and not Isaiah Hartenstein getting the first crack at filling that void.

Sims started on Friday and Sunday, logging 28 and 33 minutes as the starter while posting some decent numbers (an average of 11-7.5-1.5 between those two games). Julius Randle is hogging the boards, but Sims is a very low-risk add who is going to take a bunch of high-percentage shots while grabbing some boards and blocking a few shots. He's shooting 80% from the floor this season (on only 2.3 attempts per game) and 80% from the line (on a very small number of attempts).

This is his chance to shine and Hartenstein's lack of defense gives Sims the upper hand here to retain the starting gig.

Larry Nance Jr. - PF/C (16%)

Nance is finally working his way back up to the 25-minute role that he had for New Orleans before an injury set him back for the first week of January.

He reminded us of his multi-category presence against Miami yesterday when he cobbled together a 12-7-4 line with four steals and a block on 71% shooting. As long as Zion is out (and more recently it's been Naji Marshall out, too), Nance should continue to see plenty of minutes at PF or small-ball center.

Deep Leagues Streaming Options

Tari Eason - SF/PF (17%)

It's quite a Rockets theme today in the column, isn't it? Eason got his first NBA start on Saturday night and produced 14 points and nine boards. He didn't grab any steals or block any shots, but he has been doing that all season in his bench role with some solid steal and block rates so they should be coming. His status in the lineup is probably still uncertain with Jae'Sean Tate also getting minutes and KPJ coming back at some point, but this is a guy you can still buy low on now or stash for the stretch run.

Eric Gordon - SG/SF (12%)

I already mentioned Houston's solid schedule this week and the increased production of the rest of their lineup without KPJ and Gordon is not an exception. He's played 30+ minutes now in four straight games and has turned up his production in scoring (and a small tick-up in assists, too) to help offset the lack of their true point guard, Porter Jr., in the lineup.

Mark Williams - C (12%)

The Hornets' backup big man has a nice draw here to start the week as Charlotte gets Utah tonight (they allow a lot of production to opposing centers) and then Phoenix tomorrow (Ayton has been out, they also are weak on the interior). He's been playing around 18 minutes per night, and that's been enough for him to produce some solid points, boards, and blocks.

Pat Connaughton - SG/SF (10%)

I have been banging the drum for Connaughton now for the last few weeks and he is coming off perhaps his best game in the last month on Saturday against Cleveland when he scored 15 points and added seven boards, four assists, and three treys. The minutes are there and Patty C is always going to board and hit threes as he continues to be undervalued in fantasy.

Reggie Bullock - SF/PF (10%)

Coming off a scoreless game yesterday, am I really going to recommend Bullock? I mean, he still played 32 minutes and had double-digit points in four straight before that, including eight made threes in a performance against Portland last week. You know what you're getting here - a total dice roll as Bullock is about as streaky as they come but gets a nice matchup with Washington tomorrow night.

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