Mid-Week Fantasy Basketball Category Streamers for Week 1

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 1.

We used to call it "churning and burning" and it refers to the process of keeping one or more roster spots available to stream players throughout the week.

Most leagues, however, limit how many player 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 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. Let's see who can help us finish the week strong.

Weekly Schedule: Thursday to Sunday

Teams that play only one game (AVOID): New York Knicks, Dallas Mavericks

Teams that play three games (TARGET): LA Clippers

Only teams playing Thursday: Milwaukee Bucks, Philadelphia 76ers, LA Clippers, and LA Lakers

Teams that play Saturday AND Sunday: LA Clippers, Sacramento Kings, OKC Thunder, Cleveland Cavaliers

Shallow League Streaming Options

Reggie Jackson - PG (46%)

The Clippers have the best schedule for the remainder of the week as they play Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday. We don't know yet if R-Jax will start at point guard or if he will come off the bench behind John Wall. Either way, though, he should be locked into 25+ minutes and he is a solid source of points, threes, assists, and steals. I am kind of hoping he comes off the bench as that would likely to lead to a higher-usage role, but I wouldn't be surprised if they keep Wall in that role. They are going to manage Wall's minutes to keep him healthy, so R-Jax should continue to see solid minutes and maintain a significant role on this team. And we know that Kawhi Leonard could definitely be rested in the second half of back-to-backs, which the Clippers have on Sat-Sun.

Kevin Huerter - SG/SF (36%)

Huerter is the starting shooting guard for Sacto and made a big splash in his debut as he dropped 23 points against Portland with six three-pointers. He won't give you much else, but he's shown that the three-point shooting isn't fluky as he shot 39% from beyond the arc last year. With the Kings having the Clippers and Warriors on Saturday and Sunday, you can add Huerter and get two games over the weekend and you likely already have enough guys playing Friday on the busiest day of the schedule.

Kevin Love - PF/C (36%)

K-Love played only 21 minutes in the Cavs opener, but he will push up to 25 minutes on some nights and he is usually very productive with his minutes. He went 8-7-2 with one three against Toronto but has the green light to fire from deep as often as he wants with the second unit. He is a great FT% shooter and will never hurt your percentages. With the Cavs playing Saturday and Sunday, you can stash Love for boards, points, and threes over the weekend.

Patrick Beverley - PG/SG (24%)

I am a little baffled that Pat Bev is still only 24% rostered in Yahoo leagues. Yes, he's a part-time player who is going to split minutes in the Lakers' backcourt, but he does so many things that can help your fantasy team. Scoring isn't one of them, so if you need points then grab some shooters, but Pat Bev showed off his defensive skill set with four steals and two blocks on opening night. He's going to do a little of everything most nights and doesn't shoot enough volume to hurt your FG%. The Lakers play Thursday night, then again on Sunday which is nice as those are days when the schedule is lighter.

Deep Leagues Streaming Options

Davion Mitchell - PG/SG (19%)

Mitchell played 25 minutes off the bench in the opener and finished with just two points, but did contribute three boards and four assists. He shot just 1-8 from the floor, which is pretty fluky and most nights I would expect him to contribute 8-12 points as one of the primary scorers and facilitators on the second unit for the Kings.

Terrence Davis - SG/SF (1%)

Davis is the other guard off the bench with Mitchell and Malik Monk. There won't be enough minutes for all three of them to go around once Keegan Murray is back, but Davis had the best game of the three in the opener (14-5-1, two steals, one block, 2 threes) and played 25 minutes like Mitchell.

Marcus Morris Sr. - PF/C (14%)

Morris is the starter at the four for the Clippers, but his minutes are going to take a pretty big hit this year with Kawhi and PG13 both healthy and Robert Covington in town, too. He can still give you some points, boards, threes, and occasionally some defensive stats in 22-25 minutes, though, and I already mentioned that the Clippers play three times to close out the week.

Kendrick Nunn - PG/SG (17%)

Nunn came off the bench for the Lakers in their opener, but who knows what they end up doing with him, Westbrook, Beverley, and Lonnie Walker as their roles could all change at any point. Nunn can score, though, and they need guards who can do that so I think he emerges we saw him go for 13 points in the opener and hit three long balls. He's a great streamer this week or just a stash in the hopes that he wins the minutes battle among all those guards in the long run.

Trey Murphy III - SF/PF - (11%)

I wish I had more open roster spots on teams because I would be grabbing Murphy everywhere. He had an incredibly strong preseason this year and played well for the Pelicans down the stretch in the playoffs last season. His only issue is minutes, but he got 24 minutes off the bench in the Pelicans opener and put up 16-9-2 with a block and four three-pointers. He won't be that good every night, but he is one of the best adds in any deep league right now in my opinion, go get him!

Specialist Streaming Options

THREES

Max Strus - SG/SF (12%)

The German assassin hit five threes in the Heat's opener and finished with 22 points and 7 boards. The Miami rotation is going to be a bit messy, but he played 31 minutes and is going to get up plenty of shots when he is in there.

Terrence Ross - SG/SF (2%)

Ross was a bit of a surprise starter for Orlando and he finished their first game on Wednesday night with 32 minutes played. That could change as their backcourt situation is a bit fluid, but they certainly need shooters out there and that's what Ross does best. He's been a bench guy for most of his career, but he has never met a shot he didn't like and has a scorer's mentality. He had 13 points in the opener and drained three long balls on eight attempts.

STEALS

Caleb Martin - SF/PF (8%)

Another Heat guy here as Martin is now the starter at PF for Miami. The fourth-year player didn't get much opportunity in Charlotte but worked his way into the rotation last year for Miami and finished with 1.0 steals on the year in only 22 minutes per game. He played 28 minutes in the first game for Miami had promptly had two steals. He's a solid defender who can also chip in with some boards, assists, and threes.

Delon Wright - PG/SG (2%)

Minutes are everything in fantasy basketball and you don't see a 2% rostered guy playing 27 minutes per game all that often. Wright has never been a scorer, but has settled in as a nice rotational player over the years and can rack up assists and steals quickly. He had two steals and two blocks in his first game and while he has bounced around the league a lot, he has always managed to keep those steal numbers high as he has a career average of 1.2 per game and has 1.0 or more per game in five straight seasons.

BLOCKS

Day'Ron Sharpe - C (2%)

The Nets are using Sharpe with Nic Claxton as a platoon at the center position and both of these guys are young, athletic big men who can rebound and block shots. Sharpe played a surprising 23 minutes in the opener with Claxton at 24 and he may have picked up a few extra minutes as the Nets were down big and pulled the starters with around 4 minutes to play. But his stat line was impressive regardless as he finished with 4 points, 8 boards, 2 steals, and 2 blocks. He's a great add in deep leagues as I think his role is pretty secure and he's ultra-productive in his time on the floor.

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