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Desperately trying to steal steals from your opponent?
Below are my Week Eight defensive category streamers for fantasy basketball - rebounds, steals, and blocks for the weekend of 12/16 - 12/18. All position eligibility and ownership percentages are based on Yahoo! fantasy leagues.
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Rebounds Streamers
Patrick Patterson, PF/C, TOR, Fri vs. ATL, Sun @ ORL (owned in 22% of Yahoo leagues)
Patterson has been racking up rebounds in recent games, with a top 40 caliber 7.4 per game over the last 15 days. Tack that onto multiple treys per game, and you've got yourself a combo streamer in those two categories (it's not like he does anything else). If you want an extremely poor man's version of the same thing, you could also try Kelly Olynyk this weekend. If you need better FG% with your rebounds, try Larry Nance. If you need blocks, try Salah Mejri. Really, there's a options for whatever you need with your rebounding -- it's simply the easiest category to stream.
Other options: Larry Nance Jr., PF, LAL (25% owned); Dwight Powell, PF/C, DAL (22% owned); Salah Mejri, C, DAL (1% owned); Andre Roberson, SG/SF, OKC (14% owned)
Steals Streamers
Thabo Sefolosha, SG/SF, ATL, Fri @ TOR, Sat vs. CHA (owned in 21% of Yahoo leagues)
Sefolosha has been so great lately, especially when it comes to steals, that he probably deserves to be owned on a permanent basis in standard leagues. He's been racking up a Tony Allen-esque 2.0 steals per game on the season, alongside reasonable rebounds for a wing and good efficiency when it comes to decent percentages and low turnovers.
At the very least, he's as plum a candidate for a weekend pickup that you'll find. Add him for a back-to-back on Friday and Saturday, then have the ability to drop him for another streamer (like the usual suspect, Tony Allen) if you're still needing steals for Sunday.
Other options: Tony Allen, SG/SF, MEM (27% owned); Rondae Hollis-Jefferson (49% owned -- including him here to say that this is really all he's good for anymore: he's a desperation streamer for steals if Sefolosha and Tony Allen are already owned, not someone worth hanging onto at this point)
Blocks Streamers
Salah Mejri, C, DAL, Fri @ Uta, Sun vs SAC (owned in 1% of Yahoo leagues)
With Dallas's frontcourt decimated by injuries, Mejri is getting a chance at some regular (for him) playing time. He periodic good games last year in good matchups, sandwiched between DNP-CDs when the Mavs played small ball, and of late he's entered into the same pattern, except he's still getting 10 minutes even in the bad matchups. This is good news if you are desperate for steals. After averaging 3.1 blocks per 36 minutes last year, he's swatting 2.5 per 36 in 2016-17. When Mejri gets playing time he blocks shots at an elite level. Look no further than Monday nights game against the Nuggets where he racked up 4 in 22 minutes.
This weekend's opponents are actually not the best matchups for him, so I'm not betting on him in DFS leagues or anything, but as a pure blocks play in H2H leagues, it's hard to find a guy so widely available with such a good track record of blocking shots.
Other options: Lucas Noguiera, C, TOR (12% owned); Roy Hibbert, C, CHA (7% owned)
By popular demand, RotoBaller has aggregated all of our fantasy basketball NBA waiver wire pickups into a running list of NBA waiver options, so bookmark the page and check back often for updates.
