Week 6 Matchup Rankings

This weekly ranking is based on opponents’ points given up per possession based on pace.

4 Games	3 Games	2 Games
Detroit Dallas Houston Washington Phoenix LA Lakers Sacramento Denver San Antonio Portland Golden State Milwaukee	New York Philadelphia Memphis Cleveland Atlanta Brooklyn New Orleans Toronto Oklahoma City Indiana Orlando Miami LA Clippers Chicago Utah Boston	Minnesota Charlotte

What we learned last week

This is an impressive rookie class

Towns and Porzingis have been outstanding so far this year ranked 21th and 27th respectively overall on nine-category standings for the year so far. But we also have Okafor, McConnell, Russell, Rondae Hollis-Jefferson and Mudiay contributing to standard fantasy teams, some of which need to punt categories for them to reach full value.

There is also guys like Justise Winslow, Stanley Johnson, Big Willie Stein, Mario Hezonja and Devin Booker waiting in the wings for an opportunity to show their potential. If there was ever a year to start a dynasty league, this would be the one.

20% sample-size is big enough

Now is the time to start making decisions. Cutting your losses on players who aren’t panning out, and trading players you like for players you love. Don’t get complacent if you are in first, and don’t get desperate if you are in last. There is a long season ahead and anything can and will happen.

Keep hitting the waiver wire for flyers, keep probing buy low guys on other teams. But most importantly, go to your statistical overall standings and find your strengths and weaknesses. This should be the guide for your trading needs.

Golden State still hasn’t lost

And Philly still hasn't won.

What to Watch This Week

Monday

Warriors vs Utah. Might be one of the few chances to watch the Warriors struggle against a very good defensive team with big men good enough to tip the balance against the small ball lineup of death the Warriors can throw at them. Favors and Gobert better have the game of their lives. Fantasy-wise we still haven’t seen Utah figure out their backcourt, so you’d hope that in a big like this one of those guys steps up to regular minutes.

Tuesday

Memphis vs New Orleans – Looks like this could be the return of Tyreke Evans, if not this game then the next. Tyreke will bring stability to the backcourt for New Orleans and instability to all of the other fantasy-relevant guards on the Pelicans. Evans is a ball heavy guard, he will take possessions away from Gordon and Ish Smith.

Not to mention we don’t really have a large sample-size of Holiday/Evans/Gordon to know how that will shape up with Anthony Davis on the floor. This threesome of guards seem to harm all three in the few times they played together. It also leaves very little room for Ish Smith. Tyreke could be exactly what the Pelicans need, and exactly what you don’t.

Wednesday

Toronto vs Atlanta – A high-end Eastern conference matchup used to bring a lot of chuckle around the league, but the Eastern conference is better this year. Toronto has had to make some adjustments with the loss of Jonas, but at least that means their defense will be better down the stretch.

Bigger leagues have liked the emergence of Cory Joseph and Luis Scola is turning back the clock enough in Jonas’s absence to become standard fantasy relevant. Kyle Lowry is still out of his mind, but it is pretty standard for Lowry to fall off in the second half. Can Korver ever get it going? Can Bazemore stay healthy? Why has Al Horford fallen off of the last few weeks? A usually stable team, Atlanta is starting to be full of questions.

Thursday

Indiana vs Portland – Indiana’s small-ball three-point barrage of George/Miles/Hill, with Monta always creating is actually working. George is a pure talent, but Miles and Hill can get streaky. Streaky guys are frustrating but can still provide good value as long as you don’t watch their stock-market-like performances. Either deal with the instability or sell high.

Plumlee played very well over the last few weeks with Leonard out, no they don’t play the same position but they do end up effecting each other on the court. With Leonard on his way back from injury can Plumlee keep his value? What happened to Al-Farouq Aminu?

Friday

Brooklyn vs Knicks – Who knew that the battle for New York would actually have the potential to be entertaining this year. Thanks to the emergence of Porzingis and the occasional flashes of competence from Brooklyn, we might have a game with actual emotion.

If you took a chance with Brook Lopez, you should be pretty happy, but in the back of your mind you got to wonder when he is going to get injured. Good luck getting through each week without strongly debating on trading him away. Rondae Hollis-Jefferson is now a standard league value in nine-category leagues and has a very interesting skill set.

Weekend

Cleveland vs Miami – It’s about time to give up on Goran Dragic while he might still pull his game back together, it doesn’t look like he’ll be able to pull it back to a top 60 value. Winslow has been getting more minutes and while he is getting a lot of interest in NBA circles, fantasy-wise he is bringing very little to the table.

Deng might have lost a few minutes to Winslow after his injury, but it won’t be many and Deng actual does enough of everything to stay fantasy relevant. Mo Williams hasn’t looked the same since coming back from injury and with JR taking threes next to him. He should come back into form but by that time Kyrie will more than likely be back to take his minutes.

If you have any fantasy basketball questions or comments follow me on twitter at @WatchTheBoxes.