NBA Fantasy: Week 2 Start/Sit Picks

We are excited to present our first Start/Sit column of the season, especially with many teams playing full four-game schedules this week. While the sample sizes are still small in the new season, we are beginning to see some players take on new roles and emerge as breakout candidates that the larger fantasy community may not have noticed yet.

Each week we’ll aim to highlight a pair of Start candidates for your fantasy rosters that may shape up as some of the tougher calls of the week to make, with the focus usually being on players with a start or roster rate of 50% or less in Yahoo leagues. We’ll also typically hone in on players with four-game weeks in an attempt to maximize opportunities for production.

Likewise, we’ll spotlight one Sit candidate at each position that would normally not be a consideration for a spot on your bench, often focusing on players with fewer game opportunities during the coming week.

TEAMS WITH FOUR GAMES

: Atlanta Hawks, Boston Celtics, Brooklyn Nets, Cleveland Cavaliers, Dallas Mavericks, Denver Nuggets, Detroit Pistons, Memphis Grizzlies, New Orleans Pelicans, Orlando Magic, Portland Trail Blazers, Sacramento Kings, San Antonio Spurs, Toronto Raptors, Utah Jazz

TEAMS WITH THREE GAMES:

Charlotte Hornets, Chicago Bulls, Golden State Warriors, Houston Rockets, Indiana Pacers, Los Angeles Clippers, Los Angeles Lakers, Miami Heat, Milwaukee Bucks, Minnesota Timberwolves, New York Knicks, Oklahoma City Thunder, Phoenix Suns, Washington Wizards

TEAMS WITH TWO GAMES

: Philadelphia 76ers

Without further ado, let’s examine some of the tougher start/sit decisions for Week 2:

Guards      

Start: Scoot Henderson, Trail Blazers

41%  start rate

Henderson has opened the season coming off the bench, and despite some of the shooting efficiencies that have followed him into his sophomore campaign, he’s still managed to average a solid 15.3 points across 29 minutes per game over his first three contests. Henderson’s 41.0% shooting is worrisome, but he’s contributed 5.7 assists and 1.0 steals per game thus far as well. Given his robust second-unit role on a team that’s going to give its young pieces plenty of run, Henderson should have a safe fantasy floor on a four-game week.

Start

:

Dennis Schröder, Nets

14% start rate 

Schröder shapes up as an even surer proposition on another team not expected to contend this season, the Nets. The veteran guard has opened the season in impressive fashion, racing out to averages of 20.7 points (on 55.6% 3-point shooting), 6.3 assists, 2.7 rebounds and 1.0 steals per contest. Schröder has clocked a robust 33.7 minutes per game as well, and he’s encouragingly taken 14.3 shots per game after averaging just 11.6 a season ago. Backcourt mate Cam Thomas is stealing a lot of the headlines with some of his signature lights-out offensive efforts already, but don’t underestimate the reliability and production Schröder can offer on a four-game week.

ALSO CONSIDER

:

(17% start rate)

;

(3% roster rate)

Sit: Tyrese Maxey, 76ers

62% start rate

As is often the case with our Sit candidates, they may be counterintuitive at first due to their name value and recent performances. Such is the case with Maxey, who just went off for 45 points on Sunday against the Pacers in an overtime victory. Nevertheless, the standout guard will only have two games to work with this week, and before Sunday’s breakout, he’d opened the season with a more subdued 24.5 points, 4.0 rebounds, 3.5 assists and 1.0 steals per game over his first two contests. That’s still impressive production that nevertheless could be matched or exceeded by a similarly talented three- or four-game option on your roster.

Forwards        

Start

:

Christian Braun, Nuggets

32% roster rate 

Braun has been learning his craft behind some outstanding veteran wings over his first two seasons, but this year could be the 2022 first-round pick’s time to shine. With Kentavious Caldwell-Pope now in Orlando, Braun has taken over the starting two-guard role and averaged 13.5 points (on 57.1% shooting), 7.0 rebounds, 1.5 steals and 1.0 assists across his first two games. The sample size is naturally tiny, but Braun has already proven himself an above-average shooter at the NBA level and is now seeing a big bump in minutes over that of his first two seasons, so expect solid numbers across the board on a four-game schedule that starts with two very favorable matchups in the Raptors and Nets.

Start: John Collins, Jazz

49% start rate

Collins is opening his second Jazz season on the second unit, but he’s been able to deliver noteworthy results early on with averages of 12.5 points, 6.0 rebounds, 2.0 assists, 1.0 steals and 1.0 blocks across a modest 21 minutes per game over his first pair of contests. Collins has accomplished that scoring total despite shooting an atypically low 40.9%, and given he boasts a career 54.8% success rate from the field, that figure is undoubtedly going to rise eventually. The big man has taken double-digit shot attempts in each of his first two games despite the condensed playing time as well, another encouraging sign for what he could do in a full week.

ALSO CONSIDER

:

(21% start rate)

;

(20% roster rate)

Sit: Draymond Green, Warriors

54% start rate

A potential absence or two on the part of Stephen Curry this coming week due to an ankle injury could certainly bump up Green’s usage some, but the veteran forward hasn’t exactly been a bountiful source of fantasy goodness thus far. Over his first three games, Green is averaging just 4.3 points, 4.3 rebounds, 3.0 assists and 1.3 steals while shooting a subpar 44.4%. Green is certainly capable of more, but it appears he’s at the phase of his career where he’s starting to fade a bit into the background more often than not. The fact he’ll have just three games this week seals the case for him as a Sit candidate in my view.

Centers    

Start

:

Wendell Carter Jr., Magic

39% roster rate 

Carter was a frequent inclusion in this column last season, and the underappreciated big man is back to open the new campaign. Carter continues to hold down the starting center job on an Orlando club with big aspirations this season, and he’s opened the new season with three straight double-digit rebounding efforts. Carter fell just a basket short of a double-double in each of his first two games, but he scored double-digit points on 31 occasions last season and came into the season with a career average of 12.3 points per contest. Carter isn’t averse to taking the occasional 3-point attempt, either, and he drained a career-best 37.4% of those tries last season while averaging over 3.0 shots from behind the arc for the third consecutive campaign.

Start: Daniel Gafford, Mavericks

46% start rate 

Carter’s one-time Bulls teammate, Gafford, has opened the season as the starting center in Dallas over Dereck Lively. The veteran does most of his work near the basket and therefore can’t help your 3-point categories, but he’s an above-average source of rebounds and blocks once he settles into a rhythm. In the early going, Gafford is pulling down 7.0 rebounds per contest, and he’s also averaged between 1.3 and 2.1 rejections per game in every season heading into the current campaign.

ALSO CONSIDER

:

(

28% start rate) 

Sit: Zach Edey, Grizzlies

63% start rate 

Edey is a rare four-game player that I’ll relegate to Sit status. The rookie is getting a starting opportunity to open the season, but he’s predictably still getting his feet wet at the pro level and has averaged 8.3 points and 5.0 rebounds over his first three games. My biggest concern with Edey early on, as is often the case with many rookie big men, is foul trouble – he’s been limited to 17.0 minutes per contest thus far in large part because he fouled out of his NBA debut and then accrued four fouls apiece over the next two games. Edey played just 13 minutes against Orlando on Saturday as a result, and he still profiles as too unreliable an option for me until some of those kinks get worked out.