Early-Week Fantasy Basketball Category Streamers for Week 18

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 18.

The NBA All-Star break splits Week 18 right down the middle. We have a ton of action tonight and Wednesday in the association and a fairly light schedule on Tuesday and Thursday. Then we get an entire week off (what will we do with ourselves?) until the following Thursday, February 22nd when games resume. All of the leagues I am in have combined these two short weeks into one, but if your league treats them as separate weeks for some reason make sure you take that into account.

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): Sacramento, Memphis, Detroit

Teams that play three games (TARGET): Washington, Chicago

Teams that play a B2B set (TARGET): Portland (M-Tues), Orlando (M-Tues), GSW (M-Tues), Boston (Tues-Wed)

Shallow League Streaming Options

Josh Green - SG/SF (36%)

Green has continued to play a ton of minutes and has been productive for Dallas even after Kyrie Irving's arrival. He's now filling in the Finney-Smith role and is living up to the preseason hype. His scoring will likely be inconsistent, but he's a dynamic athlete who can contribute across the board. Give him a look for this week, but honestly, he's more of a ROS add, too.

Larry Nance Jr. - PF/C (30%)

If you love boring fantasy players, then Nance is your guy. And I do love boring players a lot when they're elite FG% guys and multi-cat contributors like Nance. He continues to play a lot of minutes as the Pelicans' small-ball center and as long as Zion is out, he should continue to see anywhere from 20-28 minutes a night.

Isaiah Hartenstein - C (28%)

Hartenstein has been winning the minutes battle at center against Jericho Sims lately and while he doesn't score much, he certainly can pile up boards in good spots as evidenced by his 14 rebounds against Utah on Saturday. He does enough on defense to make him a decent streamer, too, especially with Brooklyn and Atlanta on the schedule here before the break.

Tari Eason - SF/PF (26%)

Can we please free Tori Eason? Eric Gordon is gone, Kevin Porter Jr. is hurt and Eason still only played 19 minutes last game while the Rockets started Jae'Sean Tate ahead of him. If you're banking on talent winning out in the end, buy low on Eason and hope that at some point they finally commit to playing him at least 25 minutes a night.

Jalen Suggs - PG/SG (24%)

The timeshare in Orlando's backcourt is messy, but Suggs has still managed to hold onto some value in 12-team leagues due to some elite steals numbers (3 games with 3 or more swipes in his last 5). He's definitely worth a look if you need assists and steals.

Devonte' Graham - PG/SG (24%)

Graham went nuts in his first game as a Spur with 31 points, but even after Tre Jones returned to the lineup on Saturday, he still played 24 minutes off the bench and provided 3 treys, 4 assists, 2 steals, and 2 blocks. He was buried on the bench in New Orleans, but he might find some life here on the tanking Spurs. He won't do much other than score usually, but he can score in bunches when given the opportunity.

Deep Leagues Streaming Options

Malaki Branham - SG/SF (17%)

I rushed to pick up Branham in several leagues after his 27-point outburst and was disappointed in his 10-6-1 line on Saturday. But if you're willing to wait out Tre Jones (he'll likely be shut down at some point as the Spurs tank), then Branham has a lot of appeal down the stretch.

Jaylen Nowell - PG/SG (16%)

Nowell is coming off two solid games in a row and might be finding his groove as the main scorer on the second unit. He's a hollow player, but if you need points and threes with some occasional assists he's definitely in play as a streamer.

Drew Eubanks - PF/C (13%)

Eubanks is doing just enough to warrant being picked up and streamed in shallow leagues, but not quite enough to be a standard league add. With Nurkic out through the break, he will have two more opportunities to pile up points, boards, and blocks against the Lakers and Wizards this week.

Josh Okogie - SG/SF (10%)

The Suns simply don't have many healthy bodies to use on the wing right now until KD returns and Okogie has made the most of his opportunity so far, scoring 25 and 17 points in two games since the trade. He offers some nice upside in threes and steals as well (six each over that two-game span)

Kenrich Williams - SF/PF (5%)

Good ol' Kenny is back as my last guy in the article this week. I think I have said something pretty similar about him each week - "not very exciting, but useable numbers in points, boards, assists." He continues to get minutes whether he's starting or coming off the bench so stream him this week if you are in the deepest of leagues and need some counting stats.

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