Before this playoff roster post gets too out of control I have a few things to say that will hopefully help to put things into perspective. Like how this is based off of daily roster changes, 9-cat, H2H, you know, like the RCLs. First off, everyone’s playoff needs are entirely dependent on the makeup of their roster. It should be noted that this isn’t just about maximizing games, it’s also about helping to make up for our deficiencies. For example, If I had Chris Paul on my team then I’m only going to get 2 games in the first round. If I want to win let’s say assists, then I need to stream accordingly. Second, I’m going to use the saying, “heavy day”. While trying my hardest to avoid the feminine hygiene jokes I will be referring to whether or not that days NBA schedule has a lot of teams playing or just a few. This is important because on most heavy days you usually won’t need to stream a player or you may have a player you won’t get much from. For instance Boston plays Mon, Wed, Fri next week and Wed, Fri, Sun the following week. Wed and Fri are always heavy days and depending on the rest of your roster you may only get 1 game each week from say… Jerryd Bayless. That would make him just about useless. Third, I’m going to use 3-letter abbreviations for teams and days of the week. Otherwise this would get far too unwieldy to read and I would have to learn how to spell all of those cities. That’s not going to happen, isn’t learning the names of players enough?
Round 1 – March 17th – 23rd
2-game week – LAC
3-game week – SAS, Por, LAL, OKC, NYK, Min, NOP, Mem, Hou, Mil, GSW, Det, Uta, Bos, Sac, Cha
4-game week – Was, Cle, Tor, Mia, Orl, Atl, Dal, Ind, Brk, Phi, Phx, Chi, Den
As alluded to earlier, the first thing I notice about the first round is that the LAC only play twice and secondly no one plays 5 games. Wed and Fri each have 10 games, while these are considered heavy days there’s still a good chance you will have an open active roster spot. Going into this week Atl is the only team that plays Mon and Tue. DeMarre Carroll should be universally owned while Pero Antic should make for a nice 2-game start too. No one plays 3 games in the first 4 days while Was does play 3 in 4 days starting on Tue. Unfortunately I don’t know if there’s anyone widely available that can be trusted. Tor, Mia, and Orl are the only Tue, Wed teams. Mia makes for a nice play with 4 games in 5 days but Mario Chalmers may be the only player who’s available that’s worth trying. Tor plays 3 games in 4 days and I fully endorse Terrence Ross in that time. Only Min plays Wed and Thur and Corey Brewer could be a solid follow up to those who started with a player from Atl. Was and OKC play Thur, Fri. I can’t suggest to you anyone who’s under 50% owned from either of these teams right now but there’s a good chance Caron Butler will be playing 30 minutes by then.
For Fri, Sat, Sun, the teams that only play one game are LAC, Por, OKC, Min, Hou, Mil, GSW, Uta, Bos, Cha. 7 teams play Fri and Sat: Mia, SAS, Ind, NOH, Mem, Phi, and Det. Only Cle and Orl play Sat, Sun. I will give more on streaming out the win next Thursday March 20th.
Round 2 – March 24th – 30th
2-game week – GSW
3-game week – Was, Orl, Dal, Hou, Phi, Mil, Bos, Chi, Sac, Den, Cha
4-game week – Cle, Tor, Mia, Atl, LAC, SAS, LAL, OKC, Ind, Brk, NYK, Min, NOP, Mem, Det, Uta, Phx
5-game week – Por
Before I made my rankings at the start of the year I was mapping out the playoff schedules. Where I would then ranked players would go up and down somewhat based on those schedules. GSW plays only 2 times this week and because of that I don’t own a single one anywhere. Por gets a 5-game week in what I’m considering the semifinals and I have 1 or 2 from that team on every one of my teams. Mon, Wed, and Fri are heavy days with 10, 10, and 12 games respectively. Mon and Tue games are only played by Por and OKC. Outside of the starting 5, I can’t endorse anyone on Por. Caron Butler would be my goto guy then for the start of the semis. Atl, LAC, and of course Por all play 3 games in the first 4 days of the week. That’s the second mention for Atl and I think they have one of the better overall schedules. I don’t think Darren Collison will be reliable by now but if Jamal Crawford has another setback then Collison would make a good play. Matt Barnes may also be available because of the LAC 2-game 1st round. Tue, Wed are occupied by Cle, Tor, and the NYK. Once again Terrence Ross is a good play, maybe Raymond Felton or Dion Waiters if they’re available. That’s the second mention for Tor, they are another team with a good playoff schedule. Those 3 teams along with Por and LAL play 3 games in 4 days starting on Tue. There’s 4 or 5 Lakers to choose from but I’m kind of banking on Ryan Kelly given the way he’s played recently but who knows? If you think you will need assists then maybe Kendall Marshall is for you. Wed and Thurs are only played by Atl and LAC while Thur and Fri are only played by Por and LAL.
For this Fri, Sat, Sun it looks like Atl, LAC, Dal, Hou, Phi, Mil, Den, and Cha play only once. Fri, Sat are played by Was, Mia, SAS, NOP, and Det. Sadly no one plays Sat, Sun. More on this Thursday March 27th.
Round 3 – March 31st – April 6th
3-game week – Cle, Orl, Por, OKC, Uta, Phx
4-game week – Was, Tor, Mia, Atl, LAC, SAS, Dal, LAL, Ind, Brk, NYK, Min, NOP, Mem, Hou, Phi, Mil, GSW, Det, Bos, Chi, Den, Cha
It’s difficult to know who will still be helpful by now or if someone better has stepped up so I don’t have much to say just yet. Don’t worry, I will. However with so many teams playing 4 games the options should be plentiful. My Jerry Springer style final thought is this, “You can’t win 1st place if can’t first get through the early rounds. If a guy isn’t going to help you right now then honey, you need to kick him to the curb!” I done hearrrrd that! I give that final thought 2-snaps with a twirl. Hallelujah it’s finally time to go out there and win us a championship and by golly that’s right, it’s raining men.
