With two days essentially off from NBA action, I thought it might be a good idea to take a step back and remember one of the more big-picture fantasy numbers, maximum games played. Most rotisserie leagues (and possibly H2H leagues) have a maximum amount of games that you can play at each position. Obviously the idea here is to play 82 games at each position, but this ends up being much tougher than you’d think. Inevitably you’ll end up running out of games at a position while chasing to fill unused games at another, during the last week of the season. With injuries abounding right now in the NBA, let’s go over some “do’s” and “don’ts” for handling your maximum games played:
DON’T save up unused games for the last few weeks of the season, hoping for a late surge in the standings. Here’s a friendly reminder of what happens over the last few weeks of the season: everyone stops playing basketball. Here’s a random sampling of games from April 19 of last year:
LA Clippers 85, Dallas 71 - Among the missing players were Elton Brand, Sam Cassell, Vladamir Radmanovic, Dirk Nowitzki, Marquis Daniels, and Devin Harris.
Memphis 102, Minnesota 92 - A double-OT thriller that didn’t feature Pau Gasol, Eddie Jones, Kevin Garnett, Ricky Davis or Marko Jaric.
San Antonio 89, Houston 87 - Not to be outdone by Houston, who was missing Yao Ming and Tracy McGrady (sound familiar?), San Antonio decided to sit Tim Duncan and Tony Parker so they could rest for the playoffs.
The point is, it’s impossible to make up games over the last week or two because every time you turn around, someone else is sitting out for no real reason (or, in some cases, a legitimate reason). While it might feel good to look at the standings and know that you’ve got an extra few games to play than the other guys, the reality is the longer you wait to use those games, the less likely it is that they’ll be used at all - much less used well.
DO try to keep your unused games at your Utility spots. This one is pretty obvious - if you’re going to miss a game here or there (and it’s inevitable that you will), try and fiddle with your roster so that the unused games end up in the utility spots. This way you’ll have more flexibility to use them with category-stuffers that you need at the end of the season.
DON’T play guys with no value just to fill those games. I talked about how to go about manning your bench a few weeks ago and one of the things that I said you needed was a guy who could fill in for an injured player if necessary. But you don’t always have that guy, and just because you have Yao Ming or Nenad Krstic go down doesn’t mean that you should just play a guy like Johan Petro just because he’s all you can get your hands on. Don’t panic - have a little patience.
Now, I know what you’re saying: On the one hand, I’m telling you not to stash away unused games, but on the other I’m saying not to panic and play sub-standard guys just to fill space. Don’t worry - I’ve got just the rule of thumb for ya:
DO keep your games below maximum lower than the number of months left in the season. This is a nice rule of thumb to make sure you’re not falling so far back that you won’t be able to catch up at the end of the year, but you also won’t be struggling to play someone, anyone, just because you have a short-term injury like Joe Johnson or Ron Artest. So right now, there are about 4 months left in the year. So keep your maximum games played no more than 4 games behind pace. That’s my theory, at least, after having being burned one way or the other over the past few years. If any of you have better ideas, though, I’d be happy to hear them.
