RADIO
This week's streamers will be a little different. Since nearly all NBA teams play on Friday, you'll have no trouble filling your lineup with existing rostered players. Meanwhile, there are no games on Christmas Eve Saturday. That means 100% of the streaming value comes from who's playing in a good Christmas Day matchup. So that's all I'll be looking at!
Below are my Week Nine defensive category streamers for fantasy basketball - rebounds, steals, and blocks for Christmas Day! All position eligibility and ownership percentages are based on Yahoo! fantasy leagues. Merry Christmas, RotoBallers.
Editor's Note: New users that sign up on FantasyAces, make a $20 deposit, and enter any game will receive our full season NBA (or NFL) Premium Pass for free (includes DFS Cheat Sheets). Just email info@rotoballer.com with your new FantasyAces username - and boom, that's it! We will email you with your Premium Pass.
Rebounds Streamers
Marreese Speights, PF/C, LAC, Sun @ LAL (owned in 25% of Yahoo leagues)
With all the actual good NBA teams playing on Christmas Day, we gravitate toward the Lakers as the ideal opponent for streaming, with Speights filling in for Blake Griffin as the ideal streaming candidate. Speights is averaging 11.8 rebounds per 36 minutes on the season, so if he can play in the min-20s against the Lakers, he should get a shot to go for a double-double -- because you know the points will be there. He is averaging over 20 points per 36 for the third straight year, and has in fact been more efficient scoring this year by cutting his two point attempts in half and moving most of those shots across the arc. He is in fact scoring more points per 36 despite fewer field goal attempts per 36 than notable stars including Marc Gasol, Kristaps Porzingis, Devin Booker, and Dennis Schroder. Mo Buckets is an ideal rebounds streamer if you don't want to sacrifice scoring or treys, and don't particularly care about FG%.
Other options: Larry Nance Jr., PF, LAL (23% owned); Joakim Noah, PF/C, NYK (40% owned)
Steals Streamers
Andre Roberson, SG/SF, OKC, Sun vs. MIN (owned in 12% of Yahoo leagues)
Roberson is the only elite steals specialists active on Christmas, and has a nice matchup against the Wolves. There's not much to say about that. I'd also plug Austin Rivers here. He'll have a nice matchup in all respects against the Lakers, for both playing time and scoring opportunities. Meanwhile the Lakers young roster turns over the ball a ton, giving even a guy not known for steals like Rivers the chance to luck into a few. He makes for a nice add for Sunday in a lot of ways.
Other options: Austin Rivers, PG/SG, LAL (2% owned); Justin Holiday, SG/SF, NYK (1% owned)
Blocks Streamers
Kyle O'Quinn, PF/C, NYK, Sun vs. BOS (owned in 12% of Yahoo leagues)
Boston's opponents are averaging 5.4 blocks per game. Only eight teams get more of their shots blocked than that on a nightly basis, and none of those teams are allowed to play on Christmas Day (the only team with a winning record to see more opposing blocks is Memphis). This makes it as good a day as any to fire up O'Quinn as a blocks streamer. The other usual suspects either aren't playing (Hibbert) or have tough matchups for blocks and playing time (Dewayne Dedmon). If you're looking to stream only partially for blocks and partially for other stats, you're probably better off grabbing a wing who blocks shots here and there like Roberson or a big who isn't known for blocks like Speights and hoping for the best.
Other options: Dewayne Dedmon, C, SAS (2% owned); Andre Roberson, SG/SF, OKC (12% 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.
