<
>

Fantasy hoops: Start or sit rankings

Tim Hardaway Jr. is primed for a big week, thanks to the Dallas Mavericks' schedule. Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports

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.

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 LeBron James or Russell Westbrook? Or perhaps starting someone like Alperen Sengun, who might generally be on your bench, perhaps even your waiver wire?

For the second week in a row, some inner circle most valuable candidates are on the potentially sittable list because their team only has two games. Last week, the Nuggets and Mavericks only played twice which brought Nikola Jokic and Luka Doncic into question, and this week the Lakers (and Pistons) only play twice which gets LeBron and Westbrook in the conversation. Again, unless I'm in a shallow league with either a star option with three games or a really strong starter with four games, I'm unlikely to sit my most valuable players even if they only play twice. But, with that said, it's at least worth putting some thought into this week.

There are only eight teams with four games this week, so the potentially startable list is almost universally from those eight teams. And there are some decent values among that list, even among guys likely on your free agency wire. This could be a good week for streaming, so take a look at your team and wire and see if it's worth it for your team.

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.