Early-Week Fantasy Basketball Category Streamers for Week 4

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 4.

Week 4 of the fantasy basketball season kicks off with a monster 15-game slate tonight in which every NBA team is in action. We rarely see this happen, but then we get a dead day tomorrow where there are no games as a result. Most of the league is back in action on Wednesday and then we have four games on Thursday.

Most leagues limit how many 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 start the week strong!

Weekly Schedule: Monday to Thursday

Teams that play only one game (AVOID): Golden State

Teams that play three games (TARGET): Atlanta, Charlotte, Dallas, New Orleans, Portland

Teams that play TUES/THURS (TARGET): NONE, NO GAMES TUESDAY

Shallow League Streaming Options

Precious Achiuwa - C (44%)

The Raptors are going to have to battle for a few weeks without their star big man Pascal Siakam. They picked up a nice win last night against the Bulls behind some strong play on the interior of Christian Koloko. Precious played only 14 minutes, but he and Chris Boucher are going to have to help fill those Siakam minutes and Koloko hadn't played more than 21 minutes until yesterday. Achiwura is a very capable two-way player who should earn plenty of PT during this stretch without Siakam.

Patrick Williams - PF (35%)

Williams is prone to stretches of inconsistency, but he's beginning to emerge for Chicago as an important piece of their rotation and he's locked up the starting gig at PF. He can contribute across the board with threes, points, boards, steals, and blocks (.8 STL and .8 BLK per game this year).

Cam Thomas - SG/SF (33%)

Thomas has emerged from relative obscurity to become one of the most added players over the last week. He wasn't even in the Nets' rotation, but the suspension of Kyrie Irving led to Brooklyn shaking things up and needing more guards. Thomas has played 29 and 32 minutes in their last two games and has been outstanding, posting an average of 19-4-5 with 1.5 threes and 1.0 steals. Add him for this week, he should have at least three more games of a major run before Kyrie returns (IF he does return after five games, that isn't guaranteed to happen).

Grant Williams - SF/PF (31%)

You have probably seen me mention Williams in this space before, he's been absolutely awesome for Boston this year in an expanded role since Robert Williams III has been out and old Al Horford has already missed a few games. Williams isn't flashy by any means but continues to be a solid source of points, threes, boards, and a handful of defensive stats while helping your FG% with his 62.5% mark from the floor.

Deep Leagues Streaming Options

Malik Monk - SG (16%)

Monk has emerged (as we thought he might) as one of the main scorers on the Kings' second unit. He's currently outplaying Davion Mitchell and Terence Davis and isn't just scoring, he's racking up some big assist totals and has raised his season average to 4.4 dimes per game. Good luck finding 4+ assists on the waiver wire most weeks!

Troy Brown Jr. - SF/PF (16%)

TBJ continues to get minutes for the Lakers and while his 10-rebound game last week was fluky for sure, he has been able to hit double-digit points in three straight games and has been adding some threes and steals as well.

Obi Toppin - PF (13%)

Toppin is still playing off the bench but has been firing up shots like crazy with the second unit. He's averaging over 10 points per game (and 1.7 made threes) in only 16 minutes per contest. The Knicks have a dream stretch of matchups here this week (MIN, BKN, DET, OKC) and Toppin is worth a look if you need points, threes, and boards without hurting your FG% (he's shooting over 50% on the season).

Kyle Anderson - SF/PF (8%)

The player so many of us affectionately know as "Slo-Mo" finally got his chance to shine in a spot start for Rudy Gobert and he didn't disappoint, posting 16-3-6 with two threes and three steals in 31 minutes on Saturday. Gobert is out at least one more game (tonight) and Anderson may have earned more minutes going forward now that he's healthy and showing off his multi-cat skill set.

Specialist Streaming Options

THREES

Grayson Allen - SG/SF (10%)

Allen is a deadly marksman from deep and had his range on full display with five made threes this weekend against the Thunder. He's now averaging 2.0 made threes per game and while he doesn't give you much else, he's a reliable source of points and threes just about every night in his 25-minute role with the Bucks.

STEALS

Chuma Okeke - PF (9%)

Okeke randomly popped off for a huge game last week against the Warriors, hitting three long balls and finishing with a 16-9-3 line that night as the Magic shocked Golden State. His output is inconsistent on a nightly basis, but his production in steals and blocks (two each last game against Sacto) is something that is usually there when he gets minutes. He faces Houston tonight, a team that has allowed the most steals + blocks to opponents of any team in the league.

BLOCKS

Christian Koloko - C (13%)

I mentioned him earlier when talking about Precious and how the Raptors need to fill the void left behind by Siakam. He blocked six shots last night, raising his season average to 1.5 per game. He won't do much besides grab some boards and block shots, but he could single-handedly win you the blocks category this week with a few more big games.

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