Welcome back! Happy Thanksgiving, and I hope you all enjoyed a day off from having to set your lineups.
If you're in a weekly lineups league, take note of the "Schedule Notes" section added to the bottom this week, as the NBA Cup Tournament starts changing the Fantasy schedule this week. Daily lineups managers don't have to worry about this yet.
We've got a lot of names to choose from this week, though I have to acknowledge that the options aren't as exciting as they were a few weeks ago. But there are still several players with the potential to stick on your rosters throughout the rest of the season, in addition to the usual injury fill-ins or hot streaks.
One odd phenomenon from the past few days: a bunch of the players posted wacky-good stat lines seemingly out of nowhere. Guys like the Jazz's Micah Potter (0% rostered) and the Nets' Tyrese Martin (1% rostered). It's OK to try your luck with streaming these guys, but I have no expectation that they can repeat anything like their magical Wednesday night box scores. There were enough of these weirdo performances this week that I wanted to highlight them in the intro – it's not that I didn't see those breakouts, it's that I'm purposefully excluding them.
As always, the players in this article must be rostered in less than two-thirds of CBS leagues. Players are listed in the order that I recommend adding them, assuming they are equally good fits for your team.
Adds for all leagues
Cody Martin, Hornets (16% rostered)
He's not scoring much, but he's doing a ton everywhere else. Over the last six games, Martin is averaging 5.5 rebounds, 2.3 assists, two steals, and 1.7 blocks. The Hornets are dealing with a bunch of injuries, especially to their frontcourt, and Martin's viability may not survive everyone getting healthy – but that's a problem for future us.
Elfrid Payton, Pelicans (20% rostered)
Brandon Boston Jr., Pelicans (58% rostered)
Speaking of injuries, the Pelicans. Even their mascot is walking around on crutches (I assume). They brought in Payton to bolster their depleted backcourt, and he was shockingly effective right away. Through his first four games, Payton averaged 10-5-9 with 1.8 steals. Now that Dejounte Murray has returned, Payton's numbers should start to fall – though he was still solid in Murray's first game back. Boston has been the Pelicans' multi-tool, filling in wherever he's most needed. His production has been inconsistent as a result, but much of the inconsistency has been between different kinds of good. Both Payton and Boston are worth rostering until a lot more Pelicans are playing consistently.
Ausar Thompson, Pistons (45% rostered)
Finally made his season debut last week. He's still operating under a minutes restriction, but his per-minute production is already showing why I keep mentioning him. We're dealing with a tiny sample size, so take this with plenty of salt, but he's currently averaging seven rebounds and eight assists per-36 minutes. Not bad for the first time on an NBA court after missing eight months due to a blood clotting issue.
Jaden McDaniels, Timberwolves (45% rostered)
McDaniels' roster rate may drop some after two awful games, but I'm still interested. He'd shown steady improvement before that halted during the Tuesday-Wednesday back-to-back (and the end of a 3-in-4 in which they lost all four). He's still averaging career-highs in steals and assists without sacrificing his rebounds, blocks, or 3s. I like his trajectory, and I still want to be adding or holding.
Naji Marshall, Mavericks (16% rostered)
Klay Thompson (foot) has missed the last two games with plantar fasciitis. Plantar fasciitis can often cause either a long absence or lead to reinjury, so while the team is treating Thompson as game-to-game, Marshall could be worth holding for a while. Marshall has started the last two games, but his hot streak extends beyond that – he's averaged 23-4-1 with 2.5 3s over the past four games.
Mark Williams, Hornets (54% rostered)
The Hornets have started pretending that Williams will return soon. If I believed it, Williams would be listed higher. I'm a huge Williams fan, but he has difficulty staying healthy, and Charlotte has an even harder time providing honest updates about him. Williams has played just 62 total games across his first two seasons, though he showed a ton of promise as a Robert-Williams-light efficient double-double & defense guy. He's worth adding on the chance that he actually does play soon; just don't be surprised if he's still out this time next week. While we're waiting, Moussa Diabate (22% rostered) is a solid streaming option.
Robert Williams, Trail Blazers (31% rostered)
Malcolm Brogdon, Wizards (61% rostered)
They are very good players who can never stay healthy for long. Both are currently healthy (well, Williams is out with a concussion, but the NBA's concussion protocol is a joke, so he'll likely return fast), so both are rosterable. Williams excels at defense, Brogdon at assists and efficiency.
Other recommendations: Harrison Barnes, Spurs (45% rostered); Spencer Dinwiddie, Mavericks (9% rostered); Ty Jerome, Cavaliers (38% rostered); Isaiah Stewart, Pistons (29% rostered); Jaylen Wells, Grizzlies (19% rostered); Anthony Black, Magic (26% rostered) Moussa Diabate, Hornets (22% rostered); Gary Trent Jr, Bucks (31% rostered)
Weekly Lineups Schedule Notes – Managing NBA Cup
The tournament stage of the NBA Cup begins on Tuesday, December 10, and it wreaks havoc on Fantasy. To manage the fact that NBA Cup games count as regular season games, the entire NBA schedule from December 10-16 is TBD. Because the NBA apparently doesn't like people who play in weekly lineups leagues, that period runs Tuesday-Monday, impacting two different Fantasy matchups.
What we do know, however, is that nearly every team will play four total games between Monday, December 9, and Sunday, December 22 – Weeks 8 and 9. (This article is coming out just before the start of Week 7, I'm about to get into why we're already talking about this)
Since those weeks are so light, and part of the schedule is TBD, some host sites and/or league managers combined two weeks into one double-long matchup (the default on CBS was to leave all the matchups as normal, seven days each). If a host site/league is going to do this, they should combine Weeks 8 & 9. However, at least one major platform made the incredibly bizarre choice to combine Weeks 7 & 8 instead.
Step one is to check your league's schedule.
If your league is sticking with seven-day matchups or combined Week 8 & 9, then come back next week for schedule advice. For you, Week 7 is a totally normal week, and stuff only starts to get interesting next week.
If your league has a 14-day "Week 7", that's weird; I don't know why they did this, but we can work through it. When you are setting your Week 7 lineups Monday, we still won't know the schedule for those NBA Cup TBD days. Most teams will get two games added to their "Week 7" schedule, but some will only get one game.
It will help you to check the NBA Cup standings before setting your lineup. We already know that the eight teams who advance to the knockout round will get both of their new games inside of Week 7. As of publication, that only includes the Rockets and Warriors, but we could get more clarity after Friday's games.
The corollary to that is that you may want to be wary of Nets, Clippers, Trail Blazers, and Jazz. Among that group, the Jazz are the only team officially eliminated from the NBA Cup, but the others have no realistic chance of advancing. All of these teams already have a disadvantage in "Week 7" – while 22 teams come in with four games already scheduled, these are among the eight that have just three. Since they won't advance to the NBA Cup playoff, they all have a roughly 50% chance of getting their TBD games split between "Week 7" and "Week 8."