Fantasy Basketball Mid-Week Streamers: Week 18

Thunder Dan Palyo looks at some mid-week waiver wire options for fantasy basketball leagues. These players may be free agents to target on waivers in Week 18.

It feels like forever ago that I wrote the companion piece to this one, the early week streamers for Week 18. A full week off from games is hopefully going to leave the players refreshed and gave us an opportunity, as managers, to re-evaluate our rosters as well. With the fantasy basketball playoffs being right around the corner, there has never been a better time to stream players and make sure you lock up a spot in the postseason or clinch that top seed that you've been after.

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 Thursday morning will be to help you plan out your roster moves for the remainder of the week. By this point of the week, you should start to get an idea of what categories you may need help with and where your weekly opponent is the strongest and weakest (in H2H formats). If you're playing roto, you don't have to gameplan quite as much, but you'll still want to maximize the stats your team can accumulate during the week. All the rostered percentages used in this article are from Yahoo.

Weekly Schedule: Thursday to Sunday

Teams that play only one game (AVOID): NONE

Teams that play three games (TARGET): Cleveland, Denver, Golden State, Oklahoma City, Sacramento, Toronto

Shallow League Streaming Options

Luguentz Dort - SG/SF (44%)

Lu Dort is still rolling around on waivers in quite a few leagues, despite having returned from his injury and he played well in three games before the break. His minutes were in the low 20s, but it's reasonable to think that he will ramp back up closer to 30 soon and he can offer a steady source of threes, points, and steals if you're willing to stomach the FG%.

Malaki Branham - SG/SF (30%)

Branham finished out last week strong with a 23-6-3 line and perhaps proved that he's more than just a points producer. With Devin Vassell and Tre Jones' statuses still very much up in the air, Branham is worth a stash until we see how things play out in San Antonio.

Talen Horton-Tucker - SG/SF (29%)

THT has had some solid value lately as Utah has been dealing with some injuries and the departure of Mike Conley to Minnesota. He can stuff the stat sheet with counting stats, just be prepared for some poor shooting nights.

Max Strus - SG/SF (28%)

Max is playing as many minutes as the Heat can get out of him right now and producing some solid threes, points, and boards in the process. At some point, the Heat will get healthier but until then we should expect Strus to have a big role in Miami.

Shaedon Sharpe - SG/SF/PF (26%)

Sharpe is my favorite add in Portland right now. With Simons out for 2-3 weeks, Sharpe should get an opportunity to fill in at shooting guard and the Blazers really need someone other than Dame or Jerami Grant to score. He's already been earning 25 minutes off the bench over the last few weeks and is playing well. That eligibility at all three wing slots on Yahoo is awesome and maybe we see him take a big leap here with starters' minutes.

Jalen Suggs - PG/SG (25%)

Suggs runs hot and cold and his most recent hot streak had a lot to do with Cole Anthony being out. However, he still has a solid 25+ minute role secured and has played well enough to warrant adding if you need points, threes and steals with a few assists in there.

Deep Leagues Streaming Options

Matisse Thybulle - SG/SF (25%)

I like Thybulle more in deeper formats, simply because he's basically a specialist with his lack of offensive ability. The minutes seem to be there so far in Portland, but he's simply not going to score that much and is going to be reliant on defensive stats for his value.

Drew Eubanks - PF/C (13%)

There's still no concrete return date for Jusuf Nurkic, meaning we should get a few more games from Eubanks at center. He hasn't scored well, but he has been hitting the boards and blocking shots and is so widely available. The Blazers have the Kings and Rockets this week, too.

T.J. McConnell - PG (13%)

McConnell isn't anything special, but he can produce assists and steals even in limited playing time, usually without killing your percentages, too.

Cam Reddish - SG/SF (12%)

Reddish had his best game as a Blazer before the break, scoring 18 points while dropping four treys. He won't help out much elsewhere, but he should continue to get a chance to play big minutes as the Blazers need guards in a bad way right now.

Nick Richards - C (8%)

Richards has stepped in Mark Williams' backup role and is producing some solid boards and blocks, including a five-block game against the Spurs his last time out.

Charles Bassey - PF/C (3%)

Bassey is back in the mix for the Spurs as Zack Collins' backup at center. We know he's a very solid player on a per-minute basis and he's probably worth a look in really deep formats even in only 14-16 minutes a night.

Joe Ingles - SF/PF (3%)

Jingles is a speculative add in deeper formats since Giannis could miss some time coming out of the break. We know he has a very fantasy-friendly skill set and he could have a few solid games here if he's asked to help facilitate on offense either as a starter or off the bench.

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