Fantasy Basketball Mid-Week Streamers: Week 22

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 22.

We did it, we made it to the final week of the fantasy basketball playoffs. And the next couple of days are going to determine whether or not you take home your league championship. This will be my final streamers column of the season and I want to thank you for following along and reading all season long!

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): DEN, DET, MIA, MIN, NYK

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

Teams that play Back-to-Backs (TARGET): ATL (Sat + Sun), IND (Fri + Sat), MIL (Fri +Sat), PHI (Fri +Sat), PHX (Fri +Sat), SAC (Fri +Sat), UTA (Fri +Sat)

Shallow League Streaming Options

Nick Richards - C (42%)

With three games to close out the week, Richards is looking like one of the best sub-50% adds out there. Mark Williams is out tonight and looking doubtful for tomorrow, too, meaning Richards should remain the starting center for Charlotte for at least a few more games. He bounced back from his worst outing in a while by posting 14 points and 17 boards against Indiana and he has three smash matchups coming up against the Pelicans and then Dallas twice. I'm unfortunately going up against him in my championship contest and I'm just hoping he doesn't go nuts in all three games.

Kris Dunn - PG/SG (33%)

The Dunn experience has been a lot of fun the last month and he's been putting in work already this week by posting two really nice lines against Sacramento and Portland. The Jazz have a B2B set against Milwaukee and Sacto on Friday-Saturday and I would expect Dunn to continue to see anywhere from 24-30 minutes off the bench and to put up some more solid numbers.

Jonathan Kuminga - PF/C (32%)

The young big man continues to force his coach to get him on the floor with his impressive play. He scored 22 points in 30 minutes last night and has helped the Warriors fill the void left behind by Andrew Wiggins who continues to be away from the team. With two more games this week, he looks like a solid add for points and boards and has some fantastic percentages from the floor and the line, too.

Dennis Smith Jr. - PG (30%)

He's been pretty underwhelming lately, I know, and the FG% will absolutely kill you. But if you're just hunting counting stats then Smith Jr. is still very much in play here with three games to close out the week. His role as the sixth man is secure and he can pile up assists and steals in a hurry.

Deni Avdija - SF/PF (21%)

It's very fitting that Deni is in the last column of the year after appearing here quite often throughout the season. The Wizards are pretty much toast right now and a long shot to even get into the play-in game, so I don't see them rushing Bradley Beal or Kyle Kuzma back to action. That should mean that Deni continues to get starter's minutes and usage and the kid simply gets it done when he's on the floor. He went 16-8-6 last night against Denver and had a double-double in Orlando on Tuesday night. I love his game and he has a great matchup coming up tomorrow night against the Spurs.

Deep Leagues Streaming Options

Marcus Morris Sr. - PF/C (18%)

I'll just mention all the Clippers in this spot since Paul George is out for a few weeks now. Morris is the safest add but doesn't offer much beyond points, rebounds, and threes. Terance Mann is a guy you could target for boards, steals, and low-volume scoring. Eric Gordon should see an increase in shots but is a very hollow fantasy player with points and threes being his only real contributions. None of the Clippers are very reliable adds, but someone has to pick up the PG13 slack besides Kawhi and Westy, right?

Sandro Mamukelashvili - PF/C (10%)

Mamu stays on the list again as he played 28 minutes last night even with Zach Collins active. The Spurs don't care about winning any of these games and should continue to play all their active guys as many minutes as Coach Pop feels on any given night, whether they are up 10 or down 30. Mamu is getting it done when on the floor and is well worth an add in deeper formats.

Shaedon Sharpe - SG/SF/PF (7%)

We've been here before, I know! Sharpe finally gets big minutes and puts up big numbers (24-9-3 with 4 steals) and we get wildly excited about the youngster. But there's reason to believe he sticks in the lineup going forward. The Blazers are now 3.5 games out of the play-in series even after winning last night and I would expect them to pull the plug on Lillard (and not rush back Simons from injury) any day now.

Joe Ingles - SF/PF (7%)

Joe had another efficient game last night against the Spurs, scoring 14 points and hitting 4 threes while shooting 71% from the floor. He's the perfect glue guy for this Milwaukee team. The Bucks play a B2B tomorrow and Saturday and something makes me think that perhaps Giannis or other starters could be rested against Utah Friday night so that they can be ready for a huge matchup with Denver on Saturday.

Luke Kennard - SG/SF (6%)

Kennard has five straight games in double-digits for Memphis and has been the most consistent guy off the bench for them. Even with Morant back last night (and Ja is going to be eased into the rotation slowly), Kennard still saw 25 minutes and did pretty much exactly what he has been doing by hitting three treys and scoring 13 points. It's just a points and threes play, but probably the safest one you can make with a guy this widely available.

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