We are officially at the point where there’s no more gray area with streaming. It’s now or never. If you think you need to cut someone to get stats in the now, you need to. My only words of caution for streaming in the playoffs is to not use up all your adds right away, and also to wait as long as possible before committing to the non-obvious streams. Like, if Grayson Allen is out there and you have a spot, by all means. But if we’re making the decision to cut someone who may or may not play and is good vs. someone who will definitely play and is less good, hopefully you can wait as long as possible.

Obligatory volleyball update… through pure grit, determination and love for the game, we did not get embarrassed despite half our team bailing. I’m still reeling from finding out this is going to occupy me for the next 14 weeks, which means it’ll basically be snowing by the time we’re done. The reality is that I would probably play volleyball every weekend like that anyway, I just don’t like having to definitely be committed. What if I have a game night or I want to watch four hours of pointless Youtube instead? My goal is to not finish below 7th out of 10.

MLS is back and fantasy hockey postseason is in full swing, so I spent yesterday (Saturday) flipping between soccer and hockey and obsessively refreshing to see if my fantasy hockey boys blocked a shot. We’re going into the last day of one of my hockey matchups and I’m up by one goal and one block and down by three defenseman points and two special teams points. The anxiety is NOT LOW. I’m coping by watching a woman slice and serve different kinds of cheese for 42 minutes on the internet.

Week 17 Stream Table

In the stream table, home games are in orange because basketballs are orange. Road games are in blue because blue is not orange. As always, check back for cancellations.

Back to Backs

Brought to you by Drake*

*not actually

Sun/Mon (of Week 16): HOU, IND, MIA, OKC
Mon/Tues: none
Tues/Weds: ATL, BKN, LAC, MIN, NYK, POR, SAC
Weds/Thurs: CHI, DAL, DET, PHI, PHX, SAS
Thurs/Fri: BOS, CHA
Fri/Sat: DEN, HOU, MIA
Sat/Sun: IND, MIL
Sun/Mon (of Week 18): ATL, CLE, MEM, ORL, PHX, SAC, WAS

Working The Wire

We’re at the point in the season where we just have to full send some of these decisions. The reality is that if you have to win today, you might have to break up with some guys that got you there. I told someone that dropping LeBron James was absolutely in the question now if they needed the roster spot. What’s the point of waiting three weeks for someone if they can’t even make it three weeks from now?

Point Guards

Facundo Campazzo: The role hasn’t changed too greatly with a season-ending injury to Jamal Murray. Still, opportunities abound and Facu is a pretty steady source of sleepy roto numbers with a chance to play 30 minutes on any given night for a desperate Nuggets team.

Monte Morris: The Nuggets corner is here. They have to play both their point guards in tandem to make some approximation of Jamal Murray (not actually possible). Morris left Friday’s game with hamstring soreness but he should be fine going forward. He’s a very consistent top-125 type roto compiler.

On the Radar
Alex Caruso: It’s hard to get super amped about a borderline top-175 player over the last two weeks, but 21.8 minutes has been enough for that and the Lakers are obligated to ask for more out of their point guard.

Tyus Jones: I’m not saying Tyus is an add because he’s only getting 15 minutes a night with Ja in the rotation, I’m just saying that if you’re in a really bad pinch for assists and steals without much downside on a Saturday afternoon, I’m not saying Tyus isn’t an add.

Shooting Guards

Talen Horton-Tucker: I guess I’ll let this happen again. THT is playing 25.8 minutes per game over the last two weeks and has put together top-150 production on 1.6 steals and 4.4 assists per game. I’m convinced of two things. Firstly, if he wasn’t playing in Los Angeles no one would know about him and secondly, if he wasn’t playing in Los Angeles he would actually be a borderline relevant fantasy player because he wouldn’t be stuck behind LeBron and AD while they chewed up all the usage. The fact that he’s barely top-150 with all the opportunity in the world says all I need to know.

Jeremy Lamb: Doug McDermott and Myles Turner being out has been critical to the Lamb resurgence over the past couple of games. Both of those guys are out with ankle injuries, which has shifted everyone down the rotation a spot and opened up 25-30 minutes for Lamb. He’s been a low-usage 9-cat guy in the top-100 before. It CAN happen but I’m not expecting that. We’re getting 62^nd overall value in just 20.8 minutes per game and realistically he should be getting more looks than Edmond Sumner, but we’ll take this for now. It’s low-usage rotisserie value.

Grayson Allen: Here’s a little bonus action with Grayson Allen, who is rostered in 24% of Yahoo! leagues. He’s become a must-start player over the past few weeks and has been very consistently inside the top-120 over that span. He popped off for 26 points, seven triples and two steals against the Bucks on Saturday.

On the Radar
Furkan Korkmaz: I want to be officially on record as a Furkan Korkmaz fan. He plays within himself and doesn’t do a lot wrong. He’s doing tons of things right lately and a 3-and-D guy. Scoring 13.4 points over the last seven games is great, but we’re really more interested in three triples and two steals a night over that stretch.

Small Forwards

The Warriors Wings: This is an easier way to get a discussion going about the wings in the Bay area. Kelly Oubre is still out and we’re not sure when he returns. Kent Bazemore is starting, he’s a 3-and-D option. I like him, don’t trust what we’ve gotten. He’s a late round streamer. Juan Toscano-Anderson is more boring but steadier. He’s a late-round streamer with less upside but also less downside. I think he’s solid across the board as a popcorn compiler. Jordan Poole is the best scorer of the group but also might go 3-of-15 and ruin your life. JTA>Baze>Poole.

Isaac Okoro: I expected more out of Okoro this year. I know he’s a rookie, I just thought we would get this borderline top-100 value as a 3-and-D wing 25 games ago. He’s gotten all the time he needs and right now he feels very Snellian. This is finally the time to consider a stream.

On the Radar
Naji Marshall: It’s time to get a little intrigued by Marshall who has broken the 30-minute barrier three times in four games. Those three games in question have resulted in an average of 15 points and 8.7 rebounds AND some bonus cash counters.

Power Forwards

Dorian Finney-Smith: This is a straight repeat because I can’t live with this slander. DFS rostered in 25% of Yahoo! leagues is an insult that I’m now taking personally.

Markieff Morris: It’s been a good run for Markieff of late with a starting gig and 30 minutes per game. We’re getting two or three triples and the percentages have been much improved. For a team that needs scoring by committee without their two best guys, Markieff is getting it done as a low-teens scorer and a high single-digit rebounder.

On the Radar
Taurean Prince: Taurean Prince doesn’t have the upside that defensive dynamokoro has because… he doesn’t really defend. The Cavs rotation is messy with Larry Nance working his way back, so be wary of this ending very quickly. Saturday’s 18 minutes were already disheartening and also dishartensteining as a sly bonus call to dump him too.

Drew Eubanks: This is what fantasy sports is all about. Almost no one knows who Drew Eubanks is, yet he’s now making a second appearance in a waiver wire article this season. In just 16.2 minutes per game over the last eight he is a standard-league option. Over the last five games he’s in the top-75 because of 2.6 defensive counters a night.

Center

Daniel Gafford: I’ve been a singer of Gafford’s praises in the past. He only needs 20 minutes to be relevant and when he’s getting that recently (18.5 minutes per contest over the last five).

Isaiah Stewart: I am officially fully invested. All I needed to see was a couple games over 30 minutes played. I think Stewart is an add in all leagues for a double-double and two or three cash counters nightly in 25 minutes. The Pistons are playing for nothing and Mason Plumlee is only helping put us to sleep if we made the mistake of watching Pistons basketball.

On the Radar
Kevon Looney: I don’t really like Looney’s profile as a standard-league fantasy guy but if you need the numbers, the starter minutes are there right now. Rebounds will be available.

Tristan Thompson: Thompson is a deep-league rebounds play while we wait for Robert Williams to come back at some point. Basically when that happens we’re totally done. Until then, TT has shown to be an efficient low-end double-double threat.

The Stream Team

PG: Jevon Carter – Is Jevon Carter interesting? Probably not, but he’s averaging close to 20 minutes a game lately and is coming off a pretty good scoring outing with 17 points in an embarrassing loss to the Spurs.

SG:.Josh Okogie – Dealing with Okogie is such a process. There are games where he gets four steals in 18 after forgetting to participate two days prior. Top-100 over the last six games.

SF: Solomon Hill – Might be worth a short stream after a nice performance against the Bucks and a 34-minute average over the past three contests. With limited confidence.

PF: Yuta Watanabe – Yuta! We’re already getting weird here and Watanabe has had four serviceable games in his last five. This time on a Friday night he did it with scoring, but we’re getting some nice defensive counters and a few boards involved as well.

C: Xavier Tillman – Deceptively productive in limited usage despite not having any standout categories. Energy guy who doesn’t take many shots but the shots fall when they go up.

Miscellaneous Musings

A fond farewell to LaMarcus Aldridge, whose jersey is one of four NBA jerseys that I own. I’m one of those jersey collectors that gets very hyped for very short amounts of time and then stops looking for them for months. I’m also a completionist for all things like this. I don’t want one jersey of my favorite player, I want one jersey from every team just to have it. Not to wear, just to… have. I also want a name on the back of every jersey, hopefully a player that means something to me or I specifically enjoyed. Because I’m not a true fan, but also because the jerseys are very expensive, I don’t have any Bucks jerseys but I’m committed to a Jrue Holiday jersey at some point during this contract. My current jersey stash is… eclectic. I have an Aldridge Blazers, a Deron Williams Nets (because it was cheaper than Jazz and he went to a great school), a Gallinari Nuggets (I just like their old powder blues) and a Nash Suns orange (which is just my favorite jersey of my favorite player ever). Someday I’ll continue that collection when I’m inspired.

The Jazz and Lakers played a game on Saturday that is such a weird shade of what the game is supposed to be. No Conley, Gobert or Mitchell for the Jazz and no LeBron and Davis obviously for the Lakers. The rash of injuries and the attrition are really hitting hard right now with Jamal Murray also sitting out and it’s hard not to blame this crazy schedule for all the hullaballoo. At this point, my team is just punting every other game it seems like and we’re going to start getting into silly season really early.

Thanks for checking into another week of wire working, good luck in the playoffs! Let me know how it’s going on Twitter here.