Fantasy hoops: Start or sit rankings

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Read below for weekly rankings and start/sit recommendations

These rankings are based on the assumption that all players and teams play their games as scheduled over the next week...yeah, I know. But it's the best we've got. I'm positive that you'll stay plugged in to potential absences and 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 half of your line-up is unavailable. 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 De'Aaron Fox? Or perhaps starting someone like Otto Porter Jr., who might generally be on your bench, perhaps even your waiver wire? And what's the weekly update on guys like Klay Thompson and Kyrie Irving?

The Sacramento Kings, Houston Rockets and New Orleans Pelicans all have only two games scheduled this week. Since 23 teams have four games on tap, that's an almost unrecoverable difference in games in weekly line-up leagues. It'd be hard to sit someone like Fox, but make sure you look at all your options, because this might be the week to do so if you have a viable alternative.

Porter and Jordan Poole are both listed among potentially startable players, in part because the Golden State Warriors have four games this week, but also because they currently play behind Thompson and Draymond Green who could each miss time. Green is dealing with a calf injury, and his return date is unknown at the moment. Thompson sat one-half of the only back-to-back in his first week back, and this week the Warriors have another back-to-back, so the assumption is he'll sit again.

Irving, on the other hand, is facing a rare four-game week with no back-to-backs with all four games outside of New York...which means there's a chance he plays in all four. The only reason he's so far down the season rankings, of course, is his inability to play in half the games. If he's available for an entire week, he suddenly resumes his rightful place as one of the better producers in the league.

Check out the overall rankings to get a more in depth look at how we think things might go next week among the 300+ players in the main database, and check out 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.