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Read below for the fantasy basketball Forecaster
In weekly transaction leagues, the schedule is one of the most important factors in determining how to fill out your fantasy basketball lineups. All fantasy teams have a hierarchy of player calibers, with a set of "best players" surrounded by a cast of lesser but still productive players from which to draw your weekly starting lineup.
All things being equal, a manager would start their best players every week and fill out the rest of their lineup based on things such as matchups. However, all things aren't equal.
The schedule changes the bottom line, because teams can play a different number of games, against a different caliber of opponents, with different breakdowns of home vs. road, back-to-backs, rest nights, etc. All of these things matter, and as I've seen this season, they often matter more than a player's caliber.
For example, would you rather get two games of a great player at 35 minutes per night against tough competition, or four games of a lesser player at 30 minutes per night against high-paced, weak competition? When looking at it quantitatively, it's surprising (to me) how often the correct answer is actually the lesser player -- yes, based on schedules, sometimes even star players should sit for a week.
Thus, below, we have the Forecaster, which provides a scheduling and matchup tool to help you make better-informed lineup decisions for the upcoming week.
We also take your weekly prep to another level with my weekly projection rankings. Here, you'll find my top-150 weekly rankings, based on ESPN standard points-league scoring, so you can compare players to determine which players to start, sit, stream or drop for the week ahead. I also provide several typical starters whom you might want to sit, and several bench/free agents whom you might want to stream.
Without further ado, let's check out the Forecaster.
As of this writing, there are no known cancellations of games for the next week due to COVID-19. This Forecaster operates on the currently scheduled games, and it's still worth it to check the latest information on schedules on Monday before the leagues lock for the week just in case.
Game on! The NBA is back, and we're about to embark on the first full week of the season. Players have started knocking the rust off their games, but legs are still fresh and the grind of injuries hasn't started taking much of a toll yet. Not much, if any, load management yet. So, we should start getting some quality basketball this week, and there are some really cool matchups to tune in for. And, of course, we've got to make our first real decisions on whom to start and whom to sit for the week. So, let's take a look at our Forecaster to see which teams are more set up for fantasy success vs. those that might have more challenging schedules to overcome.
There are 17 teams with four games scheduled, so a bit more than half the league. The Milwaukee Bucks are one of those teams, and scored the only perfect 10 of the week with games against three squads that didn't make the playoffs last season. The Brooklyn Nets, Los Angeles Lakers and Utah Jazz all scored 9s, and the Denver Nuggets, Indiana Pacers and New Orleans Pelicans notched 8s, with all six squads playing four games each.
At the other end of the spectrum, the Houston Rockets and Oklahoma City Thunder tied for the lowest score with a 1 in three games each, as both are weaker teams playing tough competition. The San Antonio Spurs and Chicago Bulls turned their three games into scores of 2, while the Cleveland Cavaliers had the same score despite four games. The Phoenix Suns were the only team this week with only two scheduled games, and thus scored only a 3. The Sacramento Kings and New York Knicks matched that 3 with three games, while the Orlando Magic had four games but still only scored a 3 as an overmatched squad against tougher competition.
As always, we recommend you check out those weekly projection rankings to see our take on which players might be worth starting or sitting due to the combination of the schedule and injuries.