Midweek Guidance – The Marshall Plan

Welcome to your midweek guidance for Week 12!  In this post, I identify widely-available players who can help your head-to-head matchup.  I’m writing this from Barcelona, Spain, where from 1936-1939, General Francisco Franco received material support from Germany’s government to aid his side of the Spanish Civil War.  The conflict served as a precursor to World War Two, in which much of Germany was razed, setting the stage for the comprehensive infrastructure restoration effort known as the Marshall Plan.  Does this way-too-broad history lesson have a point?  Well, I could try to tie it in to the Pelicans’ injury woes and the need to introduce a Marshall Plan of their own, but that would be a stretch!

Schedule Notes: The Warriors, Bucks, Knicks, Kings, and Wizards have just one game remaining this week, while the Mavericks, Clippers, and Jazz play three more before Monday.  My reaction when I see that the Mavericks are one of the precious few teams that play a favorable streaming schedule:

I know NBA On TNT needs to feature Luka Doncic throughout the season, but it’s crampin’ my fantasy style.  The Mavs have three 12-team category league players before the quality drops off a cliff.  Good luck figuring out who their reliable streamers are from week to week!  The Celtics and Magic also have schedules that are worth targeting.  Their two remaining games occur on Thursday and Saturday (four and five games across the league respectively).

Here are the players I’m watching and adding to close out the week.

Four Category Contributor

• Patrick Beverley (Threes, Assists, Steals, Blocks): Guess who’s back, back again.  Pat B’s back, tell your friends.  It’s official: Beverley is the perennial streamer with the most mentions in this post.  Until mid-December, I was dismayed at the Lakers’ inability to harness his fantasy powers.  At the same time, he wasn’t exactly doing himself any favors by shooting sub-40 percent. Even when he started to turn things around, the return of Dennis Schroder cast doubt on his ability to remain in the starting lineup.  Not only has he remained there, he’s putting up top-90 numbers over the last two weeks (8.7 points, 2 triples, 4 rebounds, 2.9 assists, and 1 block) (Plays Fri, Sat).

Three Category Contributors

• Naji Marshall (Points, Threes, Rebounds): Brandon Ingram continues to miss games with a toe injury, and Zion Williamson is now expected to miss multiple weeks with a hamstring strain.  This clears the way for Naji Marshall to rejoin the starting lineup, where he’s posted 13.2 points, 1.5 threes and 6,3 rebounds in his 6 most recent opportunities in the first unit (Plays Fri, Sat).

• Nicolas Batum (Threes, Steals, Blocks): An ankle sprain killed some of Batum’s momentum late last week, but he’s back in action and could prove very useful with a three game slate.  With Kawhi Leonard and Paul George both questionable for tonight – and Kawhi all but certain to miss at least one game this week – Batum should garner enough playing time to move the fantasy needle (Plays Thurs, Fri, Sun).

• Kyle Anderson (Assists, Steals, Blocks): Anderson is still available in a lot of leagues.  His case was not helped by a recent five-game absence, but he’s back now and putting up top-100 value (Plays Fri, Sun).

• Jalen McDaniels (Threes, Rebounds, Steals): Kelly Oubre – out for weeks.  Cody Martin – working his way back from an extended absence. Gordon Hayward – iffy with hamstring soreness.  In other words, McDaniels has a big opportunity to fill a void in the Hornets’ wing rotation (Plays Fri, Sun).

• Victor Oladipo (Threes, Assists, Steals): Dipo is showing signs of fantasy productivity in recent games.  He always excels in steals, but he’s also flashing the scoring and three point shooting ability that eluded him over previous injury-riddled campaigns.  Only time will tell if this streak is for real, but with Duncan Robinson sidelined for more than a month, Oladipo’s path to minutes is a lot more clear cut (Plays Fri, Sun).

• Jalen Williams (Points, Rebounds, FG%): Though he’s been featured in this post as a streaming candidate in past weeks, he’s now crossed the threshold into long-term hold territory – assuming your build needs efficient scoring and rebounding.  His averages over the OKC’s last 5 games demonstrated his skill set: 14.4 points (53 FG%) and 4.6 rebounds in 29 MPG (Plays Fri, Sun).

Two Category Contributor

• Jaxson Hayes (Blocks, FG%): A darkhorse candidate to benefit from Zion’s absence, Hayes tends to thrive when the Pelicans’ star is out.  Including Wednesday’s game against the Rockets, Hayes posted averages of 13.3 points (79% from the field), 7.3 rebounds, and 1.6 blocks in the last 3 Williamson absences (Plays Fri, Sat).

Hit me up in the comments with any questions or feedback.  Good luck!