Early-Week Fantasy Basketball Category Streamers for Week 7

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 7.

We are already in Week 7 of the fantasy basketball season as we prepare to flip the calendar from November to December here by mid-week. Whether you've been aggressive on the waiver wire this year so far or you've been sitting back and not making many moves, understand that winning matchups early on in the season is just as important as it is later in the year. The last thing you want to do is find yourself buried in the standings by Christmas and then be forced into making sub-optimal trades or roster moves down the stretch out of desperation. My advice is to work the wire early and often!

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): Charlotte, Golden State, Memphis, Miami, Milwaukee, San Antonio

Teams that play three games (TARGET): NONE

Only teams that play TUES (TARGET): LA Clippers, Detroit, Portland, NY Knicks, Dallas, and Golden State (1 game though)

Only teams that play THURS (TARGET): Dallas, Detroit

Shallow League Streaming Options

Killian Hayes - PG/SG (43%)

A lot of Pistons have been occupying this space lately as they continue to be incredibly banged up with multiple starters (now Jaden Ivey, too) hurt and out of the lineup. Hayes put together two impressive games over the weekend, going 17-8-9 against Phoenix and 16-3-8 against the Cavs with a combined five steals in those games. There's no reason he should be floating around on wires in the short term, add him ASAP in shallower formats!

John Konchar - SG/SF (38%)

I know Memphis only plays once, but it's a good spot against Minnesota on Wednesday night. Konchar continues to put up very useable numbers while remaining in the starting lineup. He's going to have value as long as Desmond Bane remains out and then even some deep league value after that. You're getting excellent rebounding from a guy here who is SG-eligible as Konchar has grabbed over six boards per game and he'll never hurt your FG% while chipping in a few threes and some defensive stats, too.

Deni Avdija - SF/PF (38%)

I feel compelled to continue to bang the drum for Deni each and every week. He started last night as Morris returned to the lineup but Kuzma sat and I firmly believe that he's carved out at worst a sixth-man role for Washington even once they're entirely healthy. Rui Hachimura continues to sit out and Deni could have at least a few more games in the starting lineup. The early-week matchups against Minnesota and Brooklyn are ideal.

Patrick Williams - PF (32%)

P-Will is another guy I have featured in this column before and who like Deni continues to feel too lightly rostered for what he's been doing now for a few weeks. He had another solid week of production last week and could be a real boon to your team's peripheral stats as he's making threes while also piling up blocks and steals.

Deep Leagues Streaming Options

Jose Alvarado - PG (10%)

With CJ McCollum out again tonight and Brandon Ingram looking doubtful, Alvarado should end up as the starting point guard and could end up being the main distributor on offense for New Orleans. His last game was dud as the Pelicans got blown out, but they should be able to hang with OKC tonight in a game that could end up high-scoring.

Dennis Schroder - PG (17%)

Schroder is a solid add in any format, but in a deeper league, there's less risk attached to picking him up as you likely have some dead weight worth cutting. He had his best game of the season on Saturday when he posted 21 points and six assists while hitting three long balls. Pat Beverley has one more game to serve on his suspension and it's quite possible that Schroder has earned more minutes going forward with his strong play as he adds more offense to this team than the defensive specialist Beverley.

Cedi Osman - SG/SF (8%)

The Cavs are incredibly short-handed right now with a bunch of guys like Kevin Love, Jarrett Allen, and others all hurt and on the shelf. Osman has been playing minutes in the high 20s or low 30s most nights and can pop off for 20+ if he gets hot shooting along with a few boards, and assists.

Devonte' Graham - PG/SG (5%)

Graham is the guy who could get really get a boost if Ingram sits tonight as he's a scorer/shooter and the Pelicans badly need some offense with CJM and Ingram out. He had two games in the last week where he sank six threes each. All he needs is minutes really and it looks like he should have more floor time coming tonight.

Specialist Streaming Options

THREES

Sam Hauser - SF/PF (2%)

Sam is a repeat from last week, but he's playing really well and could continue to see a few extra minutes in the short term if Jayson Tatum is forced to miss some more time. He just drained three long balls in each of his last two games and continues to be incredibly efficient, averaging 2.2 threes per game in only 17 minutes per contest while shooting 52% overall from the field!

STEALS

Dorian Finney-Smith - SF/PF (42%)

A shallow league option only here, but Smith and the Mavericks have an ideal schedule for streaming as they play on Tuesday and Thursday - opposite most of the rest of the league. He's been really solid over his last three games, playing big minutes and producing double-digit points while hitting 2+ threes in each game and piling up six steals and three blocks total.

BLOCKS

Walker Kessler - C (17%)

Kessler has seen a slight bump in minutes lately as he played 21, 21, and 17 in his last three games. He blocked a total of eight shots in that stretch and continues to be an elite shot-blocker on a per-minute basis so far this season. He's worth a look if you need help in that category.

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