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          Fantasy hoops: Start or sit rankings

          We can watch Thaddeus Young rise up the ranks of Startable players this week. Allen Berezovsky/Getty Images
          • André SnellingsDec 3, 2021, 06:00 PM ET
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              Dr. André Snellings is a senior writer for men's and women's fantasy basketball and sports betting at ESPN. André has a Ph.D. in biomedical engineering from Michigan. He joined ESPN in 2017 after a 16-year career as a neural engineer, during which time he was also a writer and analyst for Rotowire.

          Click here for the fantasy basketball Forecaster

          Read below for weekly rankings and start/sit recommendations

          These rankings are based on the assumption that all teams play their games as over the next week. Please stay plugged in to potential schedule changes due to COVID-19 up until rosters lock on Monday, and adjust your lineups accordingly. With that said ...

          ... So, you're in a weekly transaction league, and you need to decide by Monday evening who your starting lineup will be for the week. Should you consider sitting a usual impact starter like Trae Young or Fred VanVleet? Or perhaps starting someone like Devin Vassell, who might generally be on your bench, perhaps even your waiver wire?

          The schedule for this week is very unusual, with the Spurs playing five games but the Raptors, Suns and Hawks playing only twice. In addition, 13 other teams play four games, while another 13 play three. As such, there is a real chance that stars such as Young, VanVleet, Chris Paul and any of the other impact players on those teams might need to sit for the sake of pure games scheduled. Take it on a case-by-case basis, and check whether you have any other players available projected to score more, but if you do, you shouldn't be afraid to sit a star.

          Check out the overall rankings to get a more in depth look at how we think things might go next week, but we do make it easy to get the high points at a glance with the Startable and Sittable lists below.

          Methodology

          The "potentially startable" list is generally comprised of players ranked below 80th in the season-long points rankings who ended up among the top-100 projected players for this week utilizing the Forecaster. Conversely, the "potentially sittable" list is generally comprised of players ranked in the top 100 of the season-long points rankings who ended up outside of the top-120 projected players for this week utilizing the Forecaster (or who are in the 120 range but projected much lower for the week). There is also some correction for injury, so a player with injury question marks may have his value lowered enough to end up on the sittable list even if he's not officially out. Similarly, an understudy would get a boost in value if he is expected to play, and that could land him in the startable category. Finally, I have the license to add players to either list even if they don't fit the exact criteria, but if I feel that it is close enough to be of interest.