Hello and welcome to another edition of The Week Ahead. Can you believe we’ve done this 20 times already? This fantasy season is nearly over and it feels like we’re just getting started. In a sense, that could be true if your playoffs just started. When only a few stats or games played stand between you and your opponent, I hope this will prove to be a resource for you.

A couple of veteran point guards are proving to be necessary resources for a Sixers squad that is continuing to struggle with health. De’Anthony Melton and Tyrese Maxey are both on the shelf right now and a pair of fantasy has-beens have been stepping up in their place. In their place, Cam Payne and Kyle Lowry have become productive fantasy players once again even if that’s not translating to winning basketball. I’m probably only trusting Lowry when the Sixers get a bit healthier but for now I think they’re both reasonable streamers in standard leagues. The Sixers only play three games in Week 20 but they’re just spaced a day apart for those that are fine with two games in three days. 

Some managers will have to be fine with only two games from some players in Week 20. The Lakers had three top-25 players in the past week and that group was led by D’Angelo Russell. You can probably guess the other two. They’re still outside of the playoff picture but they’re beating some really competitive teams lately and proving they do actually belong. Let’s show them some love before they fade for a week. Ditto for the Wolves, who just lost Karl-Anthony Towns and created a vacuum in the frontcourt. Naz Reid stepped up and filled that vacancy but most were hoping to see a bit more from Jaden McDaniels and Kyle Anderson. They weren’t bad but they weren’t as good as they needed to be for serious standard league consideration. Of the three, only Reid might prove to be a hold through a two-game week and even then, it’s arguable that he should go despite Friday’s monster game against the Cavs.

The Cavs had it rough last week. They started off with Donovan Mitchell on the sidelines and before long, he was joined by both Evan Mobley and Max Strus. That created some great opportunities for Dean Wade, Georges Niang and Isaac Okoro to steal some of the spotlight. Each in their own way provided some solid fantasy value over the past three games but I’m probably only sticking with Okoro as a potential option moving forward. Mitchell is expected back shortly and Strus could follow, so it’s time to drop the Cavs rotation players that were trending up this week. Only Okoro should retain the playing time to off-set a drop in usage and that shouldn’t hurt the defensive specialist too much anyway. The Cavs only play three games this week so at most I would hold the rotation guys for the Monday-Wednesday stretch before dropping but there’s nothing stopping you from moving early on this one.

That Cavs squad kicks off their week against a Suns team that has been experiencing some similar troubles. Like the Cavs, their star guard, Devin Booker, has also been sidelined for the week. Like Mitchell, he could be back as soon as Monday. The Suns aren’t as high in the rankings as they would have expected at the start of the season, so every win still counts and their minutes distribution suggests they know that. Against the Eastern Conference, those wins are typically more plentiful. They’re not as good against Western Conference rivals though, so it’s really important that their four game road trip out east yields as many wins as possible. Bradley Beal, Grayson Allen, Kevin Durant and Royce O’Neale are all currently playing more than 35 minutes per game to make that a reality. Swap Booker in for O’Neale once he returns but otherwise I expect no change. That’s why I’m struggling to recommend the Suns as a valuable team to stream from despite having four games scheduled in Week 20 including a Thursday-Friday back-to-back. Aside from O’Neale and in spite of his anticipated drop in playing time, there’s just not enough upside here. Wait for Eric Gordon to get at least a single good game under his belt post-injury before you argue that I’ve forgotten him.

Injuries have made things complicated around the league and that’s plainly evident when you look at the sort of injury report the Grizzlies are routinely putting out now. It would be much quicker to tell you who isn’t on the list than who is. That’s both a blessing and a curse to fantasy managers. In particular, it’s a real double-edged sword for streamers. On any given day, you can probably find five Grizzlies players on your waiver wire that you can make a good-to-great argument in favor of streaming simply due to no other options on the team. The tradeoff? Well, if they were any good or very consistent, they wouldn’t be the sort of player you can grab off any waiver wire! From game to game, your guess is as good as mine as to who will have the hot hand and what that will translate to in fantasy value. That’s a fun game to play when you’re not in the final stretch of the fantasy season. It’s less fun when you need to make every move count. Right now it’s Jake LaRavia, Lamar Stevens and Santi Aldama leading the way. Next week it could be GG Jackson, John Konchar, Jordan Goodwin or Luke Kennard. I could make a reasonable argument for you to stream any of them right now but I’m focused on their week-long stretch of three games. Past their back-to-back starting Tuesday, I’m going to be placing increasingly less trust in Grizzlies players. 

Last week, I placed my trust in five players and encouraged you all to do the same. I can call a mulligan on a few of them but overall, my latest group of Quick Adds stunk. We can start with Jordan Goodwin since he was topical only a few sentences ago. I am glad to know that he is in good health but I’m very frustrated to say that he missed two games this week simply because his coach chose not to play him. Personally, I think it sets a bad precedent to play someone as a starter for 30-plus minutes in back-to-back-to-back games and then completely discard them, but that’s what happened. Goodwin resurfaced with solid playing time and another starting nod this past Friday but the production just wasn’t there and managers definitely bailed on him already.

Since we’re sticking with injuries, I’m throwing up a white flag and saying that we’re not holding anything against Day’Ron Sharpe for missing out on that juicy five-game slate the Nets had. He’s back now, so I might try him again for a Tuesday-Wednesday back-to-back. I will probably hold off on Corey Kispert and Moses Moody in the near future though. Kispert hasn’t had the consistency I need from a shooting specialist like him and I’d say the same of Moody minus the specialist tag. The Steph Curry injury gives me pause but Brandin Podziemski is healthy now so I’m not forced to look to the next-best player in the backcourt as I did last week. Lastly, there is Terance Mann: the scoring specialist that didn’t score. It’s hard to blame him when there are obviously better options on the team but that’s the only thing you roster him for. Keep an eye on the injury status of the Clippers Big Three because they’re heading towards a four-game week which could offer some redemption for Mann.

Looking for some insight into this week’s schedule? The best parts of that are for subscribers only but I won’t leave the non-subs hanging. You’ve got another week that practically demands daily streaming since there are no double-digit game days. There won’t be many teams with their lineups full on any given day but that’s most likely to happen on Wednesday or Saturday. That can work to your advantage if you’re shopping for your next streamer on those days, so try to work out a streaming path like this that will give you the widest selection of players. There are back-to-backs that can be exploited to stretch one roster spot into a full seven-day stream this week, so feel free to go for it. Connecting moves on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday will allow you to cover every day with a streamer even if you’re limited to four per week. All paths start with the Celtics and Spurs but there are several ways to the finish line from there, and anyone who starts on Tuesday will want to focus on the Clippers. None of them have the best schedule of the week, if you ask me. Want to know who I picked? That’s further below.

Schedule Breakdown

Two Games: Lakers, Wolves

Three Games: Hawks, Nets, Cavs, Warriors, Rockets, Pacers, Grizzlies, Heat, Bucks, Pelicans, Knicks, Thunder, Magic, Sixers, Kings, Jazz

Four Games: Celtics, Hornets, Bulls, Mavs, Nuggets, Pistons, Clippers, Suns, Blazers, Spurs, Raptors, Wizards

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