Fantasy hoops: Start or sit rankings

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Read below for weekly rankings and start/sit recommendations

[Editors's note: Since this column was published on December 17, the NBA announced a number of postponed games due to COVID-19. Brooklyn's home games Sunday against the Denver Nuggets and Tuesday against the Washington Wizards were postponed. The Cavaliers and Hawks had their Sunday game postponed, and the Pelicans' game Sunday against the 76ers and the Magic's game Monday against the Raptors also were postponed. The Forecaster chart below is up to date to account for all postponements. As always, stay tuned to ESPN for updates on postponements, player statuses, and more.]

As mentioned in the note above, this is an unusual scheduling week due to the holidays and the rise of COVID-19 cases, so there is a lot of volatility in the rankings with the potential for more every day. Here are some of the notables who have been most impacted by scheduling changes since this column was originally posted on Friday, Dec. 17.

• Russell Westbrook was the biggest winner. He'd entered the protocol on Thursday and was expected to miss the week at the time the rankings were calculated, but he returned to the court on Friday and has jumped from 294th (e.g. not projected to play) all the way up to 14th.

• LaMelo Ball also made a big leap, from 120th up to 70th as his health situation has gotten clearer and he's returned to game action.

• Meanwhile, many of the players on the teams that lost a game would now appear on the Potentially Sittable list, including: Cole Anthony (dropped from 52nd to 109th ), Franz Wagner (dropped from 54th to 111th), OG Anunoby (63rd to 121st), Montrezl Harrell (49th to 134th), Spencer Dinwiddie (91st to 143rd), Scottie Barnes (59th to 145th), Ricky Rubio (should've already been on list, but if not he's there now) and Kyle Kuzma (83rd to 165th).

• Star players that have either gotten injured or entered the protocol since Friday's rankings: Kevin Durant (was 4th in weekly rankings as of Friday), Anthony Davis (18th), De'Aaron Fox (41st), Trae Young (10th), Pascal Siakam (23rd) and Andrew Wiggins (53rd).

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.