For default Yahoo! fantasy leagues, Week 17 consists of two actual weeks because of the All-Star break. Add in teams working new additions into their rotations on the heels of the trade deadline, and there’s a lot for fantasy managers to sift through ahead of the mad dash for the playoffs. Below is a look at the Week 17 schedule and some key storylines.
Week 17 Games Played
5 Games: ATL, BKN, CHA, CHI, CLE, DEN, IND, LAC, LAL, MIL, NYK, OKC, ORL, PHI, PHX, POR
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4 Games: DAL, DET, GSW, HOU, MEM, MIA, MIN, NOR, SAC, SAS, UTA, WAS
3 Games: BOS, TOR
Week 17 Back-to-backs
Sunday (Week 16)-Monday: MIA, MIN
Monday-Tuesday: LAL
Tuesday-Wednesday: HOU, IND, LAL, NYK, PHX, SAS
Wednesday-Thursday: MIL, OKC, POR, UTA
Thursday (February 20)-Friday: ATL, BKN, CHA, CLE, DEN, IND, LAC, WAS
Friday-Saturday: MEM, MIA
Saturday-Sunday: CHI, NYK, ORL, PHI, PHX
Sunday-Monday (Week 18): None
Week 17 Storylines of Note
– Celtics, Raptors players won’t help you much to begin Week 17.
Boston and Toronto are the only teams limited to three games during Week 17. The good news is that both play two of their games after the All-Star break, so fantasy managers are really only “sacrificing” the first half of the week. Boston’s first game of Week 17 will provide another data point on how Joe Mazzulla will handle the center position. Neemias Queta remained in the starting lineup for Friday’s win over the Heat, but he played 22 minutes while Nikola Vučević played 28 off the bench in his Celtics debut.
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As for Toronto, they’ll also go into Week 17 with questions to answer at the center position. At the time of publishing, Jakob Poeltl was questionable for the team’s final Week 16 game, as he continues to deal with a back injury that first became an issue during training camp. Collin Murray-Boyles and Sandro Mamukelashvili have helped fill the void admirably, but both stand to see their minutes decrease once Poeltl returns. Also, the Raptors acquired Trayce Jackson-Davis at the deadline, and he may also be in the mix for rotation minutes.
– Lakers, Bucks, Thunder, Trail Blazers and Jazz each play three games during the first “half” of Week 17.
For those who don’t have a games-played limit to deal with and are looking to take full advantage of team schedules, these four are the ones to target in the first half of Week 17. Each will have a back-to-back to navigate, which could be an issue for the Lakers (Austin Reaves and Luka Dončić, if he’s able to return from his hamstring injury), the Thunder (Isaiah Hartenstein, among others) and the Trail Blazers (Scoot Henderson, Deni Avdija, and Robert Williams). While the Lakers have their back-to-back at the beginning of the week, the Bucks, Thunder, Trail Blazers and Jazz each play their back-to-back on Wednesday and Thursday.
Of these five teams, Utah will likely be the most infuriating for fantasy managers to deal with. While they started their best frontcourt in Saturday’s loss to the Magic, Lauri Markkanen, Jaren Jackson Jr. and Jusuf Nurkić did not play at all in the fourth quarter. Orlando completed a rally from 17 points down to win by three; mission accomplished for the Jazz, who are clearly focused on doing all that they can to hold onto their first-round pick. For the sake of fantasy managers, the back-to-back may be better, as it should (in theory) lead to the team ruling players out immediately rather than engaging in shenanigans that do enough to avoid an investigation into tanking.
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– Thirteen teams play three games during the second “half” of Week 17.
Having to deal with a back-to-back right out of the All-Star break is suboptimal, especially if it’s on Thursday and Friday. Brooklyn, Cleveland, Denver, Indiana, the Clippers and Washington will have to deal with a Thursday/Friday back-to-back out of the break. Cleveland and Denver should be pretty straightforward since those teams have title ambitions, and the Clippers don’t gain much from tanking since their first-round pick is going to the Thunder no matter what.
But the Nets, Pacers and Wizards? Be prepared for some interesting rotations, whether it’s starters not playing at all or having their minutes cut during a game. Players like Egor Dëmin and Day’Ron Sharpe (Brooklyn), Jarace Walker (Indiana) and Will Riley (Washington) will likely have increased fantasy value the rest of the way due to the assumption that they should be safe from losing out on playing time.
As for the teams that will end Week 17 with a Saturday/Sunday back-to-back, New York (Mitchell Robinson), Philadelphia (Joel Embiid) and Phoenix (Devin Booker, Jalen Green) are the ones to watch in terms of availability. Obviously, none of these teams are tanking. However, playing a back-to-back that soon out of the break may lead to some of the more injury-prone players getting a night off.
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– Tuesday and Thursday are the light game days of Week 17.
There are four games on Tuesday and three on Thursday, with at least six games scheduled for the other six days during Week 17. As noted above, the Jazz ends the first half of Week 17 with a Wednesday/Thursday back-to-back, so home games against the Kings and Trail Blazers could be “fun” for fantasy managers. The Kings may also look to prioritize their younger players, as they did in Saturday’s loss to the Cavaliers.
While Russell Westbrook played 32 minutes and DeMar DeRozan 30, Nique Clifford played 40 minutes and Daeqwon Plowden logged 39 as a spot starter. Add in reserves Dylan Cardwell and Devin Carter, and those are the guys whose opportunities should only increase as the 12-42 Kings look to the future. Hopefully, Sacramento will be straightforward in handling its veteran players, and fantasy managers would likely appreciate that approach.