Welcome to your midweek guidance for Week 17! In this post, I identify widely-available players who can help you win your head-to-head matchup. Rather than publish this before the trading bonanza, I opted to delay the post by a day to account for all of the movement across the league.
Hopefully you were able to benefit from holding Mark Williams, Zach Collins, and/or Kenyon Martin Jr. through the lean times. It’s not often that most of the guys we think will get traded actually get traded, and it will be interesting see if these players can justify the hype surround their new roles.
Undoubtedly, you’re dealing with some degree of roster churn due to players being in transit, undergoing physicals, etc. The next couple of days figure to be somewhat chaotic as several teams reach deep into their bench mobs to field a viable roster.
Against that backdrop, this week’s recommendations are by no means exhaustive, because a lot of random players will get the chance to perform tonight before never being heard from again. At the end of the day, I want to help you win this week and weeks to follow, especially with the playoffs on deck in many leagues. I believe the players below have the potential to assist in both regards.
Schedule Notes: The Warriors, Rockets, Clippers, Wolves, Pelicans, Thunder, Blazers, and Wizards play one more game. Streaming options will be limited on Sunday with only four teams on – Celtics, Pistons, Grizzlies, and Raptors.
Here are the players I’m watching and adding to close out the week.
Four Category Contributor
- Dwight Powell (Rebounds, Steals, Blocks, FG%): Two straight sub-20 minute outings for Christian Wood… Injury related, or time to worry? Either way, if you could use two games of big man stats with a side of steals, Powell is excelling in his starting role and putting up streaming-quality numbers (Plays Fri, Sat).
Three Category Contributors
- Daniel Gafford (Rebounds, Blocks, FG%): 45% ownership in Yahoo leagues, 11% ownership in ESPN leagues. Top-40 category league value over his last 5 contests thanks to 12.8 points, 8.2 rebounds, and 2.6 blocks per game. Favorable schedule for week 18. Add him! (Plays Sat).
- Donte DiVincenzo (Threes, Assists, Steals): Sitting at 48% ownership across Yahoo leagues, DiVincenzo is apparently still the source of a lot of skepticism. The numbers tell a compelling story, however, as he’s a top-60 category league player over the past two weeks on averages of 12.3 points, 3 treys, 4.4 assists, and 1.7 steals. The two main watch items are his torrid 53% shooting over that period, and the Warriors’ acquisition of Gary Payton II (Plays Sat).
- Josh Green (Points, Steals, FG%): Luka Doncic is questionable for tonight’s game, and with recent history as my guide, I believe he’ll miss one of the Mavs’ games on this back-to-back. If Green can draw another start, he’ll look to build upon the 18.3 points, 1.3 threes, 4 rebounds, and 1 steal that he’s averaged in three consecutive starts (Plays Fri, Sat).
- Gabe Vincent (Threes, Assists, Steals): Bad production and worse health have turned Kyle Lowry into a fantasy liability, while Gabe Vincent continues to in his place and play minutes in the mid-30s. He is set for a back-to-back this weekend and will look to replicate or improve upon the 17 points, 3 triples, 4 rebounds, 3 assists, and 1 steals that he posted in 37 minutes on Wednesday (Plays Fri, Sat).
- Nick Richards (Rebounds, Blocks, FG%): The big prize is Mark Williams, but he’s likely on a roster by now (hopefully yours). Richards should slide back into the backup center role that he held in the first few weeks of the season. In the 33 games before he fell out of the rotation, Richards averaged 9 points (62% from the field), 6.4 rebounds, and 0.8 blocks in 18.8 MPG (Plays Fri, Sat).
Two Category Contributors
- Reggie Bullock (Threes, Steals): Reggie was a three and D streamer in the 2020-21 season, and he seems to have recaptured that value in the past two weeks. With Dallas short handed, he posted 11.3 points, 3.2 threes, an 1.3 steals in his last 6 outings. I was cautious to recommend him after the lackluster season he’s had so far, but the recent production is too good to ignore (Plays Fri, Sat).
- Malik Beasley (Points, Threes): Beasley’s likely insertion in the Lakers’ starting lineup is one of the less glamorous fantasy storylines of the trade deadline activity. There is potential for him to play a few more minutes in his new role and jack up a lot of spot up three pointers while playing alongside scorers who demand attention. There’s also potential for him to get lost in the offensive shuffle. I’m adding him to find out which direction it goes (Plays Sat).
- James Wiseman (Rebounds, FG%): Could it happen in Detroit? I’m more optimistic about Wiseman’s future than I was 48 hours ago. I don’t recommend adding him outright, but I’ll be keeping a close eye on his role and output in the days to come (Plays Fri, Sun).
Hit me up in the comments with any questions or feedback. Good luck!
