Fantasy Basketball Mid-Week Streamers: Week 20

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 20.

Okay, so this week has been filled with even more carnage than I had expected. We are seeing players rested like crazy and the loss of star players to injury or rest is making it all the more difficult to navigate your way into the next round. You're simply going to have to buckle down and make some crucial moves here in the next few days to give your team a chance to win. Don't be afraid to make some tough calls because you can't win a championship if you don't make it through the first round!

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): BOS, CHI, DAL, LAC, MIN, PHX, TOR

Teams that play three games (TARGET): BKN, CHA, NYK

Teams that play Back-to-Backs (TARGET): ATL (Fri/Sat), MIA (Fri/Sat), NOP (Sat/Sun), OKC (Sat/Sun)

Shallow League Streaming Options

James Wiseman - C (46%)

I won't include too many highly-rostered guys here, but Wiseman stands out to me as a really solid play for his two remaining games this week. He'll face Charlotte tonight and Indiana on Saturday, both teams who struggle against big men on the interior. Now, it sounds like Jalen Duren is set to return to action, but with Isaiah Stewart and Bojan Bogdanovic out we could even see the two of them on the floor together if Detroit wants to experiment with a twin-towers lineup. If not, then I would expect a pretty equal platoon with each guy getting around 24 minutes, which is plenty for both of them to be productive.

Dennis Smith Jr. - PG (39%)

I keep touting him and he has yet to completely take off. He had a poor offensive showing on Tuesday night, but he continues to pump out around 5 boards and 6 assists per night with a handful of steals. Detroit is a smash matchup for steal artists and then Charlotte plays Utah in what should be another high-scoring, sloppy game on Saturday.

Xavier Tillman - PF/C (34%)

With the news that Steven Adams won't return this week, Tillman is about one of the safest adds you could make. I had him in this piece on Monday and he promptly double-doubled against the Lakers with 4 steals and a block. Memphis has the Warriors and then an undersized Dallas team this weekend, make sure he's not floating on waivers in your league, please!

Kris Dunn - PG/SG (31%)

People are finally catching on! We have Dunn over 30% rostered for the first time and he's about to crush two soft matchups here against Orlando (tonight) and Charlotte on Saturday. He shouldn't be available on the wire but if he is scoop him up ASAP.

Austin Reaves - SG/SF (27%)

Finally, we are seeing Reaves get some respect, too, as I mentioned on Monday I was amazed he was rostered in under 20% of leagues and that is changing fast. He has 8 and 7 assists in his last two games and it's quite clear that he's picking up more of LeBron's slack than any other Laker not named Anthony Davis.

Moritz Wagner - PF/C (22%)

A couple of spot starts for Mo and now he's up over 20% rostered as he put together another awesome line on Tuesday against the Bucks. It looks like Wendell Carter will remain out tonight so we should see another start here for Moe and another chance to put up really solid stats.

Deep Leagues Streaming Options

Charles Bassey - C (9%)

Now we are going DEEP-DIVING with guys under 10%. Bassey and the Spurs have been off all week and don't play until tomorrow, but we've seen him carve out a substantial role for the Spurs down the stretch and it's possible we see Zach Collins rested in at least one of those games, too.

Isaiah Livers - SG/SF (6%)

Detroit is getting down to the bottom of the barrel with what remaining healthy players they have. Diallo is likely out for the year and so Livers should step in and start at either the three or the four again tonight (he started on Tuesday) once again. He's hit three treys in consecutive games and has flashed some ability in the past. Remember, Detroit's schedule is awesome here with Charlotte and Indiana the rest of the week.

Jordan Nwora - SF/PF (5%)

Nwora made a surprise start for the Pacers against the Sixers on Monday, but he played 20 minutes, which is about what he had been playing off the bench. Either way, he's being productive as he scored 16 points on 58% shooting from the field with a couple of treys. He's in double figures now in five straight games and it seems the Pacers want to keep him in the rotation to finish the year. With Houston and Detroit to finish out the week, he's well worth a look based on those matchups and his ability.

Cory Joseph - PG/SG (3%)

CoJo has played 30+ minutes now in two straight games and put up some very useable numbers, including some efficiency from the field which is always nice from your guards. He's widely available and might be the best add in this entire article if he can replicate what he's done the last two games tonight and on Saturday for Detroit!

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