Week 19 is winding down and so is the fantasy basketball season as most leagues will start playoffs soon (or maybe you have even already started). Working the wire and streaming is even more important down the stretch and I can't emphasize that enough. If you want to win your league, you're going to need to make some timely adds and navigate the tanking, resting, and injuries that are going to be commonplace in the NBA over the final weeks of the season.
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): Cleveland, Denver, Detroit, New Orleans
Teams that play three games (TARGET): GSW, LA Clippers, San Antonio, Toronto
Teams that play Back-to-Backs (TARGET): Atlanta, Houston, Miami, Milwaukee, Minnesota, Sacramento
Shallow League Streaming Options
Dennis Schroder - PG (44%)
Schroder should continue to see a bump in usage in the post-LeBron era for the Lakers and if they end up throwing in the towel and sitting AD, too, then the Lakers are going to be a team with a lot of streaming options late in the year.
Dennis Smith Jr. - PG (39%)
I'm still surprised he's not 50% owned or greater and it's really only a matter of time until that happens I think. If he's still available in your league, go grab him as he could have tremendous value for Charlotte as they finish out their season without LaMelo Ball. Even off the bench right now he's playing 25+ minutes and is putting solid numbers is assists and steals.
Talen Horton-Tucker - SG/SF (32%)
THT continues to be an important piece for Utah as they've been without their main guards now for a while. Clarkson should be back soon, but Collin Sexton might miss another week and Mike Conley departed via trade. Utah has a crappy playoff schedule, so don't get too excited about THT, just churn and burn him this week if you need help with counting stats.
Delon Wright - PG/SG (27%)
Wright is the kind of player that fantasy basketball players appreciate much more than the casual NBA fan. He's actually been an elite per-minute producer this year when on the floor when it comes to steals and he's likely to maintain a major role for Washington down the stretch as Monte Morris has been hurt. Whether he's off the bench or starting, he doesn't need to score much to bring value with boards, assists, and elite steals.
Matisse Thybulle - SG/SF (27%)
Thybulle's minutes in Portland feel very secure as he's logged 25 or more in every game since becoming a Blazer. While he's not known for offense, he has double-digit points now in two straight games and he's been given the green light to shoot from deep. Those threes are going to make him a very useable asset when paired with his defensive stats.
Deep Leagues Streaming Options
Austin Reaves - SG/SF (19%)
Reaves is one of my favorite pickups in deeper formats. Since LBJ went down, he's posted 17 and 19 points off the bench and is a guy who can add some counting stats while also helping out your percentages.
Jonathan Kuminga - PF/C (17%)
The Warriors play three games to close out the week and Andrew Wiggins is still away from the team with a personal issue. He's mainly a points/rebounds guy but he's seeing consistent playing time for GSW and won't hurt your FG% (or even your FT% much since he doesn't take many attempts).
Patrick Beverley- PG/SG (8%)
The Bulls didn't acquire him for no reason and apparently feel pairing him with Caruso in the backcourt makes them a lot better defensively (and it actually has). He's starting and playing around 30 minutes for Chicago. Last night he had a classic Pat Bev line of 5-10-10 with 4 steals and a block. He's certainly a guy you should add in deep formats with his multi-cat game.
Jordan Nwora - SF/PF (4%)
Don't look now but Nwora has carved out a nice little role with Indiana since coming over from Milwaukee. They needed a solid wing guy off the bench and Nwora has always been a guy who really just needed an opportunity. He's posted 18 and 16 points in his last two games with some decent peripherals, too.
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