If you’re not on some weird setup, this should definitely be the last week of your fantasy basketball season. If it isn’t, please cancel your season and pretend. It’s been a wild and crazy season with much heavier game schedules and increased injuries. There becomes more of a case each year to push the fantasy regular season back even another week and this could definitely make that case. There’s no reason for the Bucks to force Giannis Antetokounmpo to play through a sprained ankle when they’re basically locked into the three seed.

There’s going to be quite a few day-of decisions for the next couple weeks that will make players like Alize Johnson (spoiler: not featured) a very interesting DFS punt play hoping he can put together an unprecedented 20-20 outing. We’ll look for some more lasting guys over the next few words here.

 Week 19 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

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*not actually

Sun/Mon (of Week 18): LAL, NYK, PHI, POR, SAS
Mon/Tues: DET, GSW, NOP
Tues/Weds: CLE, MIL, PHX, SAC
Weds/Thurs: ATL, IND, MEM, WAS
Thurs/Fri: CHA, CHI, DAL, LAL
Fri/Sat: DEN, HOU, PHI, POR, SAS, UTA
Sat/Sun: DET, OKC
Sun/Mon (of Week 20): CLE, NOP

Working The Wire

We’re getting to the end of the road and definitely not the cream of the crop, but more players will pop up because of the silly season starting up. Let’s see where we’re headed today.

Point Guards

Facundo Campazzo: Facu is back to being a strong fantasy option in 32 minutes per game. He’s ranked at 104^th overall in the last eight games and inside the top-75 in the last four because of his high-level passing and steals contributions. The shooting percentage is unsustainable at this rate, but he should be a solid top-100 player for the last couple weeks.

Malachi Flynn: Flynn returns to prominence with the Raptors once again dealing with the injury bug. Kyle Lowry being out and the Raptors standing pretty much puts the pin in their need to compete, so Flynn should be at worst a late-round value the rest of the way.

On the Radar
Shake Milton: We’ll see how much run the 76ers stars get the rest of the way here and if they’re rested, Milton will be scoring a lot of points and facilitating the offense.

Shooting Guards

Lonnie Walker IV: Derrick White’s injury opens the door for Lonnie Walker to score a bunch of points off the bench like he did in the overtime loss to the Celtics on Friday. He’s definitely more of a points-league streamer without a lot of categorical appeal, but volume is volume at this stage and he should be a cheap source of points and threes.

Matisse Thybulle: Y’all know it. I’m obsessed with Matisse Thybulle, overcommitted in a contract league and rolling in defensive counters. This man is averaging 3.6 defensive counters per game in the last two weeks and that alone is enough for top-75 value.

On the Radar
Bryn Forbes: Forbes had two very odd games in a row last week, one where he scored 30 points and hit six triples and did basically nothing else, and then one where he

Small Forwards

Kent Bazemore: Bazemore returned on Thursday after missing three games due to the COVID-19 protocols. He seems to have sorted out a reliable 30+ minute role so he should be a good 3-and-D option the rest of the way.

Royce O’Neale: We can’t leave this season without taking another look at my best friend Royce. If everything goes as expected, he will finish as a top-75 overall player in total value because he just plays every night and doesn’t do anything too silly.

On the Radar
Trevor Ariza: Ariza remains on my radar perpetually. Steady, solid, dependable 3-and-D guy. A little less three and a little less D than we’ve seen before, but still plugging along.

Power Forwards  

Isaiah Roby: It seems like a mistake to take Roby off the wire list with Roby maintaining value in 23 minutes a night on rebounds and steals. He could still see expanded time down the stretch for a young Thunder squad.

Doug McDermott: Dougie McBucks is coming off a huge 31 point game and is a regular deep points-league streamer. The shot has been falling at a crazy clip north of 60% and that’s gotten Doug to almost 20 points per game with more than two triples.

On the Radar
Jeff Green: Uncle Jeff keeps plugging along with boring roto lines that are good enough to be a top-70 player in fantasy. He’s worth rostering in pretty much all leagues but definitely in leagues with 12+ teams.

Center

Willy Hernangomez: Steven Adams is injured and a veteran that’s eating minutes for no reason. Hernangomez should continue to get double-double numbers with good efficiency, He lacks defensively but should at least be a good source for percentages and counting numbers.

Khem Birch: I picked up Khem Birch in one of my semifinal matchups and promptly left him on the bench because I’m the worst. He’s rebounding very well and is a top-35 player over the last four games with close to three defensive counters a night.

On the Radar
Taj Gibson: It’s mindboggling that six points and six boards is enough to be a top-135 player in the last two weeks but that’s what Taj is doing. He’s the prototypical sleepy roto center in a deep league.

The Stream Team

PG: Mike James – Pretty useful during the absence of Bruce Brown with some double-digit scoring nights. Not sure how much run he gets with Brown back as of Sunday

SG: Cody Martin – I’ve always liked Cody Martin because he brings a defensive edge and hustle to the game. In starter-level minutes he’s a useful 3-and-D type guy.

SF: Aaron Nesmith – Secretly a borderline top-100 player over the last week because of this shooting bender he’s on and some defensive counters.

PF: D.J. Wilson – If the Rockets keep sitting their core pieces like Christian Wood, Wilson could be a nice deep-league streamer for the last couple weeks.

C: Jaxson Hayes – Just as we’re looking at Willy Hernangomez, we should also keep an eye on Jaxson Hayes, who managed 25 minutes in the Pelicans last game and put together a pretty solid 13 points and six boards with a block.

Miscellaneous Musings

I want to take this platform today to talk a little bit about mental health because it’s not addressed nearly enough. Even in 2021 after a very challenging pandemic year for almost everyone, access to mental health and depression treatment remains stigmatized and makes people uncomfortable. Every 40 seconds, someone around the world dies by suicide. Every 19 minutes, someone dies of a prescription drug overdose in the United States, whether that’s for depression, anxiety, pain, whatever. The numbers are staggering but depression is a big scary “d” word that tells everyone you’re batshit insane. I’m just like many of the readers here. I love sports, I play fantasy sports as a distraction and a hobby, I go to school or work like many of you. I also suffer from depression. I’ve battled this illness my whole life without a lot of access or openness about that and it’s time for that to change. I’m making it a point to be more accountable, to be more aware and to be more of a vocal advocate of mental health. I would recommend everybody do the same. No problem is too small, no pain is insignificant, nothing should have to be ignored. I would challenge people who bottle up their mental health problems to tell someone today about what affects them. It can be just one small anxious tic or it can be their entire history with substance abuse. I challenge people to be more receptive and aware that people are going through things that don’t make them weak. Someone who can openly share their battles with brain chemistry are stronger than those that can’t. We need to take this seriously as a country here in America (which we just don’t yet) and around the world in our society. I will always listen to people who are struggling with mental health and you can find me on Twitter here or if things are really serious, there’s no substitute for professional help either with the national helpline in an emergency or finding a therapist at an affordable rate.