Fantasy Basketball Early-Week Streamers: Week 5

John Brubaker looks at some early-week waiver wire options for fantasy basketball leagues. These players may be free agents to target on waivers in Week 5.

Week 5 of the fantasy basketball season kicks off with a seven-game slate tonight, followed by a five-game slate on Tuesday. While we shouldn't have the ups-and-downs of last week, with 15 games on Monday followed by none on Tuesday. We're actually very thin this week from Monday-Thursday, with eight teams playing only one (or no) games and only two teams playing thrice over the next four days.

Most leagues limit how many 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 Monday morning will be to help you plan out your roster moves for the first half of the week. Planning ahead is important and I always include which teams play on optimal days for streaming in the very first section so you can look for additional players that I don't mention as well. All the rostered percentages used in this article are from ESPN. Let's see who can help us start the week strong!

Weekly Schedule: Monday to Thursday

Teams that play only one game (AVOID): Philadelphia (no games), Cleveland, Washington, Indiana, Chicago, Denver, Utah, Memphis, Minnesota, LA Lakers (no games)

Teams that play three games (TARGET): San Antonio, LA Clippers

Teams that play TUES/THURS (TARGET): Brooklyn, Portland, LA Clippers, Sacramento,

Shallow League Streaming Options

Derrick White - PG/SG (37.1%)

I'll start off this week by mentioning Derrick White. While White isn't getting the run that he's gotten over the years in San Antonio, he's still been a fruitful fantasy option in his tenure with Boston thus far, averaging 8.4 points, 3.4 rebounds, and 2.9 assists across 25 minutes per game. So long as Malcolm Brogdon remains sidelined, White should see enough run and claim enough usage with the second unit to be a potential streaming option.

Kevin Love - PF/C (22.1%)

I'll have to ignore the avoidance rule here simply due to the fact that Kevin Love is more available in leagues than he should be. While stashed behind the likes of Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen in the "big man" depth chart for Cleveland, he's still averaging 12.2 points and 7.5 rebounds in just 21.2 minutes of work. He's yet to really find his shooting stroke on the season, but all he needs is a game or two to get hot.

Isaiah Hartenstein - C/PF (12%)

The fluctuation of minutes is the only thing that somewhat draws me back on Hartenstein, who is averaging 7.8 points and 8.3 rebounds as well as 1.2 blocks per game on the season. While he's played up to 38 minutes in a game across the last 10 days, he's also plated as little as 15 minutes. He's a riskier option, but if he gets his run, he'd be super helpful in the rebounds and blocks categories.

Deep Leagues Streaming Options

Charles Bassey - C (2.2%)

After leaving the Sixers, it's nice to see a player as talented as Charles Bassey go and play for Gregg Popovich and earn some playing time. He's only played 15.5 minutes on average across four games on the season but is averaging 6.8 points, eight rebounds, and two blocks in that span.

Grant Williams - PF (7%)

Williams is a hot and cold player, but so long as 'Time Lord" Robert Williams III and Danilo Gallinari remain out of the Celtics rotation, Williams is going to get minutes. He's coming off a 19-point, 10-rebound performance against Detroit Saturday night, and has seen a nice uptick in minutes over the last week.

Tyus Jones - PG (6.3%)

With Ja Morant dealing with an ankle injury, Tyus Jones went ahead and logged 17 points, five assists, three rebounds, and three steals against Washington on Sunday. Ja was listed as doubtful before ultimately being ruled out on Sunday, so it may be an injury where Memphis treads with caution over the next week or so. Should Morant be held out another game or two, Jones should be a nice fill-in.

Specialist Streaming Options

THREES

Alec Burks - SG (1.3%)

Burks finally played his first game of the 2022 campaign against the Knicks on Friday and was then held out on Saturday due to conditioning. He has no injury designation for tonight's game against Toronto and should be good to go. Burks played just 25 minutes in his first game with Detroit Friday night and made just one of his five three-point attempts. However, I like seeing that kind of volume, and with Cade Cunningham ruled out already, I'll look to toss Burks into my lineup.

STEALS

Otto Porter Jr. - SF (1.5%)

While Porter hasn't seen that much of a minute increase following the injury to Pascal Siakam, he's had no issues logging steals. Porter is averaging 1.6 steals per game this season, and 1.5 over his last six games. It's not an easy task filling in the steal category in most leagues, but Porter is low-owned and should be able to fill (or steal) the bucket if you need him to.

BLOCKS

Christian Koloko - C (0.8%)

Since Siakam has been injured, Koloko's minutes have been a roller coaster. He's played just 30 minutes across his last two games, including just six minutes Saturday night against Indiana, but should continue to see at least 15 minutes of action for the foreseeable future. He hasn't logged a block in two games but is always viable to explode for a six-block night as he did against Chicago last Sunday.

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