November 19 Fantasy Basketball Streamers: Scotty Pippen Jr., P.J. Washington, Dalton Knecht and More
Four NBA teams with good matchups on Tuesday and their rotation players who are widely available in fantasy leagues.
The Cleveland Cavaliers still haven’t lost a game. They are 15-0 and outscoring opponents by 12.3 points per game, the best number in the league. The Cavs have maybe the toughest test of their young season today, as they play the Celtics in Boston.
No team will ever go undefeated; not even NFL teams can do it in just 17 games. To win 82 games in a row would be on par with Joe DiMaggio’s 56-game hit streak. Cleveland will lose, maybe as soon as tonight, and it won’t matter, because the Cavs have built up a nice bank of early wins that will position them to fight for the top seed in the conference.
Focusing on fantasy basketball, let’s look at four NBA teams with good matchups on Tuesday and the rotation players on those teams who are widely available in fantasy leagues. Most guys below won’t be daily options; many will be worth dropping after one day. They are the best bets to fill open spots if you get desperate, though.
Process
I like to use NBA’s measure of pace and defensive rating:
Pace is an estimate of the number of possessions per 48 minutes that a team records. As the name suggests, it measures how fast a team plays. A faster pace means more possessions and more opportunities for fantasy points.
A team’s defensive rating is the number of points they allow per 100 possessions. Defensive rating is not affected by pace because the speed of the possessions doesn’t matter.
By finding teams that rank high in pace and low in defensive rating, we are going after those who allow opponents to score often and play really fast while doing it. More possessions against worse defenses usually results in more fantasy points.
The defensive stats against positions that are listed below are from both our FantasySP defensive fantasy rankings and FantasyPros.
Utah Jazz @ Los Angeles Lakers
We’ll start with the one game in which we can target both teams, as these Western Conference foes are both right at the edge of the top 10 in pace and have poor defenses.
Utah ranks 10th in pace, and they have the second-worst defense behind the Wizards (a friend of the program). The Lakers are 15th in pace, but they are less than one possession per game behind the Jazz for the top 10: It’s close enough. Throw in the fact that LA has the sixth-worst defense, and this is a team to target in fantasy basketball.
The Jazz are a bottom-five fantasy defense against guards and centers, while forwards are generally a little quieter. The Lakers have been most vulnerable to small forwards, while point guards are struggling the most against LA.
Utah’s Streaming Players
Guard
Forward
Center
Los Angeles’ Streaming Players
Guard
Forward
Center
- None
Dallas Mavericks vs. New Orleans Pelicans
New Orleans isn’t a daily target because they play at a snail’s pace: The Pelicans play at the third-slowest speed in the league. It’s a light day for matchups today, though, so we will target New Orleans because of their ranking as the fourth-worst defense.
The Pelicans have been most vulnerable to shooting guards, power forwards, and centers. New Orleans has given up over 100 points in all but one game this season, so the slower pace hasn’t held down scores too much.
Dallas’ Streaming Players
Guard
Forward
- P.J. Washington – Washington is available in about 40% of leagues and worth a roster spot.
- Naji Marshall
Center
- Dereck Lively II – Lively is owned in a lot of leagues, but he’s still available enough to make it worth looking. He is a keeper.
- Maxi Kleber
Memphis Grizzlies vs. Denver Nuggets
I really didn’t think we’d even be close to going after the Nuggets at any time this season, but he we are, with the recent champs sitting on the outskirts of our teams to target. Denver is playing at the ninth-fastest pace and has a defensive rating just a little below average.
We wouldn’t target the Nuggets on a regular day, but they make the cut today because we’re a little short on options. Guards and centers have done the best in fantasy basketball against Denver, while forwards have been held down better (power forwards have been a little better than small forwards).
Memphis’ Streaming Players
Guard
- Scotty Pippen Jr. – Ja Morant will probably miss this game, meaning Pippen will get an extended run. Pippen is second on the team in assists behind his superstar teammate.
- Luke Kennard
Forward
Center
- Santi Aldama – Aldama is available in about half of leagues; he is second on the team in minutes and first in rebounds.
