Wednesday Fantasy Basketball Streaming: Players from Three Teams
Streaming players from three NBA teams with good matchups on Wednesday.
Somehow, I missed that yesterday was St. Patrick's Day until getting over halfway through the Irish holiday. With a lot going on, from the NBA and NHL seasons to the World Baseball Classic final and even the beginning First Four games in the NCAA tournament, it's easy for other things to slip by. The real world can get lost when sports are in season.
Moving to fantasy basketball, let's look at streaming players from three NBA teams with good matchups on Wednesday. We'll focus on the guys who get on the court and are widely available in fantasy leagues. Most stats are from NBA.com.
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Denver Nuggets @ Memphis Grizzlies
Since the All-Star break, Memphis ranks 10th in pace and has the fourth-worst defensive rating. The Grizzlies were in the play-in picture until recently, but they have bottomed out at the wrong time, losing eight straight games, 11 of the past 13, and 15 of 18.
The Nuggets still have plenty to figure out with their playoff seeding, sitting 1.5 games back of the third seed and three games above the play-in. The team is mostly healthy after dealing with injuries to stars all season, and with a full group, they are as big a threat as anyone to knock off the Thunder in the West.
Guard
Hardaway shoots and scores, averaging 13.9 points and 2.8 3-pointers per game on the season. He doesn't add much else, but he can offer a little fantasy value if you need points and threes.
Brown isn't much of a statistical player, offering more in real basketball than in fantasy.
Forward
Johnson is owned in around 50% of leagues, partly a product of missing over a month from Christmas to early February. He is averaging 11.5 points and 1.8 3-pointers per game, but like Hardaway, he doesn't add much else, and he is buried in Denver's hierarchy with everyone healthy.
Jones is another guy who doesn't put up enough numbers to be on our radar, though he has had a few scoring outbursts.
Center
Valanciunas plays behind Nikola Jokic; that's a recipe for getting buried on the bench. That leaves the backup big man below the level of a fantasy asset.
Minnesota Timberwolves vs. Utah Jazz
Utah plays at the third-fastest pace and has the second-worst defensive rating. Our other two targets today have been worse in the second half, but the Jazz just look like a run-of-the-mill bad team rather than our favorite target in that smaller sample; we're still going after them.
The Timberwolves are tied with Denver for fifth in the West and just percentage points behind Houston for No. 4, set to be part of the wild finish in the middle of the conference. Anthony Edwards is out for at least the next week or two, hurting their chances of climbing, but Minnesota is essentially locked into a postseason spot, even if they were to slip into the play-in.
Guard
Dosunmu has averaged about 12 points per game since the beginning of February, but he is set to play starter minutes without Edwards, including 34 minutes and 19 points against the Suns yesterday. He is an intriguing player given the current opportunity.
Hyland has been limited for much of the season, but he also got an extended run last night, playing 29 minutes and finishing with 22 points, five assists, and four 3-pointers. Hyland has low-level intrigue while Edwards is out.
Forward
Anderson is playing reserve minutes in a short Minnesota rotation and hasn't put up numbers since returning to Minnesota at the beginning of this month.
Center
- None
Rudy Gobert and Naz Reid handle the center minutes, and both are owned in a majority of fantasy leagues.
Portland Trail Blazers @ Indiana Pacers
Indiana is in the top 10 in pace and bottom 10 in defensive rating both over the full season and since the All-Star break. In the latter sample, they have by far the worst defensive rating in the league, offering a juicy matchup for opponents.
The Blazers have been essentially trading wins and losses since the beginning of February. That might not sound exciting, but it's enough to have them in great position to make the play-in. That's a feat for a team that looked like it could be among the worse at points during the offseason.
Guard
Henderson is the player of note here, particularly over the past five games: Scoot averaged 19.4 points, 3.2 assists, 2.6 rebounds, and 3.4 3-pointers in that stretch. He's a decent streamer here if you need points from your guards (though he has had stretches of poor production as well).
Neither Krejci nor Cissoko does enough to be on our fantasy radar, and Krejci is questionable for this game on top of that. Skip these deeper reserves.
Forward
Forward is where we find the most streaming value in Portland. Grant simply scores the ball, averaging 18.7 points and 2.4 3-pointers, numbers he has matched over the past few months. He doesn't do much else, but this is a great place to look if you need points.
Camara scores less while adding more rebounds. While that trade-off can keep him relevant, Camara is a lesser fantasy player than Grant. Both players are owned in just under 50% of fantasy leagues, so availability might decide who you pick up for forward help.
Center
Williams has missed two of the past three games and is questionable here with a knee injury. He is just a backup, usually leaving him as nothing more than a low-level streamer, so with the injury risk, it's probably better to skip Williams even if he does play.
