We are entering the final week of the regular season in standard ESPN head-to-head leagues. With any luck -- and presumably a lot of hardcore fantasy hoops effort throughout the season -- you are in position to hit the playoffs beginning next week.
As a reminder, the semis in standard leagues run from March 14-27 and the finals run from March 28-April 13. Note that the finals include the annual abbreviated final week of the NBA season.
What should you be doing in this final week of the regular season to prep for a successful postseason run?
Know your strengths and weaknesses in roto leagues
By now you should know whether you have any categories in which you have struggled to perform well or in which you have dominated. Ideally, you already addressed any of those weaknesses directly prior to the trade deadline.
Regardless, punting more than one category can make things dicey in the postseason, because you should be battling other strong teams. So if you still have shortcomings in a category or two, don't be shy about cutting players who help you in categories in which you have been dominating in order to add players who can help you overcome your weaknesses.
Weekly NBA schedules
Examine your roster in the context of our weekly schedule grid to see if you have any glaring issues ahead of you. I recently broke down some of the better and least-promising schedules from a fantasy perspective in my Twitter mailbag, so you can get a quick glance at where you may have some issues.
You should have addressed any scheduling weaknesses regarding your stars before the trade deadline, so at this point of the season you should be focused primarily on players who are borderline options.
If such a player has a shaky schedule down the stretch, you may want to add a similar player now, if he has a better schedule now -- especially if your league locks rosters on Mondays. Consider how much an extra game or two from a waiver addition may earn you over a player who has a light schedule during the fantasy playoffs.
Consider cutting injured players
You'll have to assess the value of the player, but there is little sense in holding on to, say, Danilo Gallinari on the outside chance he returns to action for the final five or six games of the season. That is especially true in leagues with daily roster moves; any waiver addition will get you more stats than the bagel box scores Gallo will be posting the next few weeks.
A player like Brandon Knight, who I have in a head-to-head roto league, is right on the borderline. I think whether I cut or hold on to Knight -- it sounds like he is nearing a return from his groin injury, as he hopes to practice Tuesday, but it may take a while to get up to speed -- will depend on how well I think my roster will hold up against my opponent in the semis.
That's what you should ask yourself if you are in a similar scenario.
Assess your opponents' roster
For now you probably can only speculate on who your opponent in the next round will be, but once you nail it down, you can assess how your teams match up.
If you are in a points league, consider how strong your opponent has been lately, how his or her schedule looks and whether you think it will be a close battle or a blowout one way or the other. That should help determine how you should approach the waiver wire -- with desperation (cutting good players with light schedules just to add games played) or relatively cautiously (sticking with your good players for the long haul; cutting only your weaker options).
In roto systems, you should look at whether your opponent has any glaring category holes that you can exploit and whether he has any strengths you may not be able to handle. Once you are down to the top handful of teams, your battles likely will come down to just one or two close categories, so attack those on waivers.
Hit your waiver wire
As noted above, you can get ahead of the curve right now in all formats by targeting players who have plus schedules down the stretch, so you can max out your games played each week.
Once the playoffs are underway in daily-move leagues, you should be sure to use every game possible, stacking your lineups as full as you can each day. Some leagues have a limit on how many players you can add of waivers. In those systems, you should use every one if necessary. In leagues with no limit, you should look ahead at the rest of your weekly team schedule and plan ahead to get in as many games as a possible.
After all, streaming four or five games from a middling player is as good as getting one or two games from an impact fantasy player -- and that can be the difference between winning and losing.
You should also take advantage of players who are benefiting on a given night from an injured teammate or a plus-matchup. Even if you don't take part in DFS games, you should pay close attention to our daily DFS content to find short-term impact players you can add off the wire.
Be relentless
Don't be afraid to block your opponent from adding difference-making free agents. That can include adding a player simply to keep a team in the other semifinal from getting him. Even if you don't need him now, keeping such a player off of your future opponent's roster could make a huge difference.
Finally, never think things are wrapped up until the final whistle blows on the last game of the NBA's regular season. If you have a lead -- run up the score as high as possible. If you are behind, keep rolling players into your lineup. You never know how things may roll until it's all said and done.