RADIO
It's Thursday and it's time to start planning a road map to a winning week in your H2H or Roto Fantasy Basketball leagues. A big thanks to John Brubaker who filled in on Monday for me with his early week streamers, but I am back today and hopefully won't have to miss too many more pieces the rest of the season.
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.
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Weekly Schedule: Thursday to Sunday
Teams that play only one game (AVOID): ATL, BOS, CHI, MIN, NOP, TOR
Teams that play three games (TARGET): DET, SAS
Only teams that play Thursday (TARGET): BKN, SAS, SAC, DET, LAC, POR
Teams that play Saturday AND Sunday (TARGET): SAS
Shallow League Streaming Options
Reggie Jackson - PG/SG (35%)
R-Jax has been anything but consistent, but his recent game log looks slightly more like what we would expect from him going forward. He has a "revenge game" against the Pistons tonight and then another solid matchup against the Spurs on Saturday. He's usually most productive on nights when John Wall rests, but the Clippers don't have any back-to-backs for a while. Still, he's worth a stream here if you need points, threes, assists, and/or steals.
Seth Curry - PG/SG (41%)
The Nets play tonight and Cutty has shown some flashes recently of what we know he can do offensively as he has 20+ points in two of his last three games. The Nets need someone else other than KD to score in the worst way, so we can expect Curry to continue to fire up shots. He has 11 made threes in those last three games and he can always chip in a few dimes and steals, too.
Marvin Bagley III - PF/C (36%)
Bagley is officially back for Detroit and was fairly productive in his first start, putting up 16 points and 5 boards to go along with one steal and one three in 29 minutes. With Isaiah Stewart now out, Bagley should slide over to the center position and potentially pick up a few more rebounds per game. He will face the Clippers and Lakers on back-to-back nights, both teams that can be victimized on the interior, and then Detroit plays Sacramento on Sunday, too.
Killian Hayes - PG/SG (31%)
Hayes has played his way into a starting gig (at least for now) as Cade Cunningham is out for a bit. He had a really nice run of production for three straight games and then didn't do much scoring against Toronto on Monday (though he did have three steals and a block). The minutes should be there for him and Detroit has one of the best schedules for the remainder of the week, so grab him where you can.
Deep Leagues Streaming Options
Alec Burks - PG/SG/SF (12%)
Burks is a guy who I got a lot of inquiries about from followers when he debuted with 17 points in 25 minutes against the Knicks last week. My words then were not that different than they are now. I am not at all that excited to add Alec Burks and please don't cut someone good for him. He promptly sat out the next game on a B2B before returning for another "hollow" 15 points against Toronto on Monday. Sure, the points are nice, but Burks has never been a guy to offer much beyond scoring. So only add him in the deepest formats where you can afford to stream and be prepared for him to possibly sit out Friday night, giving you just a game tonight and then a second one on Sunday.
Jeremy Sochan - PF (19%)
The Spurs' remaining schedule this week demands that we take a hard look at their fringe players. Sochan continues to have an uneven start to his rookie campaign but has been trending up recently. The only issue for him is that when the Spurs have everyone healthy, he becomes the fifth option on the floor offensively and simply doesn't get up many shots. His value really comes from rebounding and defensive stats right now as he's adding 4.0 rebounds per game, 0.9 steals, and 0.6 blocks. San Antonio has some nice matchups this weekend, and you never know when they could rest some starters either, so he's definitely worth considering.
Drew Eubanks - PF/C (5%)
Nurkic did return to the lineup in Portland's last game, but played only 15 minutes, allowing Eubanks another game with 30+ minutes and he put up another solid 9-7-1-1-1 performance. Nurk's status for tonight is unclear, but if he is out or limited again then Drew could continue to play a much bigger role for Portland than he had earlier in the year. He's a risk-free add because even in the worst-case scenario that he goes back to playing 15 minutes tonight, he won't hurt you in any categories and could still help out in FG%, boards, and blocks a little bit.
John Konchar - SG/SF (11%)
The unsung hero of the Memphis Grizzlies, himself - Mr. John Konchar, everyone! This guy is such a good, fundamental player and therefore no one really pays attention to him, but he's a guy that everyone would want on their team. Anyways, he has some fantasy value in the short term with Desmone Bane going on the shelf and has played 37 minutes in two straight starts. Yes, Jaren Jackson Jr. is back, but he's going to kill Santi Aldama's minutes, not Konchar who plays out on the wing. He won't score much but can add boards, assists, and a handful of threes, steals, and blocks.
Specialist Streaming Options
THREES
Tim Hardaway Jr. - SG/SF (29%)
THJ hit five triples last night against Houston and finished with 28 points in Luka's absence but the Mavericks couldn't hold off the Rockets. Luka should be back by tomorrow, but Hardaway should continue to see heavy minutes as the main gunner off the bench for a Dallas team that badly needs offense from other players besides Luka and Spencer Dinwiddie. He had one bad clunker against the Clippers on Tuesday, but has three games now (out of his last four) with three or more made threes.
Anthony Lamb - SF/PF (1%)
Lamb is a super deep sleeper here and I am not sure how many have noticed just how many minutes he's playing for the Warriors right now - even while they are fully healthy! Over their last six games, Lamb has entered the rotation and played 24 or more minutes four times, nailing 13 triples in that stretch. He's firmly on my radar and while things in Golden State will always be in flux with their peripheral players, Lamb has certainly done something right in the eyes of Steve Kerr and is being rewarded with a bunch of minutes in the short term.
STEALS
Kyle Anderson - SF/PF (9%)
The guy we affectionately know as "Slo-Mo" is going to be on and off of Waiver Wires a lot this year, probably as his role is going to fluctuate in Minnesota based on how healthy their frontcourt stays. We've seen what he can do as a starter and with a lot of minutes, but even since he's returned to the bench he's remained productive in assists and steals. He has 9 steals in his last six games along with 22 assists! There are not many guys like him in the league as he's a true point-forward who can help out with a little bit of everything but will rarely score double-digit points.
BLOCKS
Charles Bassey - C (33%)
If you haven't heard yet, the Spurs have a five-game week and three more games in the next four days! Bassey has predictably come back down to Earth a bit after his monster 14-rebound, 4-block game last week against the Bucks. But he's still posting decent numbers in 16-20 minutes off the bench, including 1.8 blocks now on the season. You rarely find someone who's blocking more than a shot per game on the wire, grab Bassey at least for the rest of this week if nothing else, and you'll likely be rewarded with 5-8 blocks.
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