RADIO
Welcome to Rotation Watch, Rotoballers! Each week, this article will highlight the players gaining minutes in their team's rotation. Fantasy managers want to roster the players that accumulate stats and rack up the playing time. They want to avoid the players falling out of favor and watching the action from the sidelines.
With the new season here, Rotation Watch is well... back in the rotation. With new rotations and players bouncing around from season to season, it's important to take note of who's "in" and who's "out". I've been consistently updating my data model to account for minutes over the 2022-2023 regular season, as well as each player's last four games, and their stats based on who's on and who's off the floor (accounting for injury, etc.).
So without further ado, let's start searching those box scores and look for those hidden gems that grabbed minutes to help your fantasy basketball team achieve the ultimate prize: a championship. Of course, these suggestions are the cream of the crop, and if you ever need an extra slice of advice, feel free to reach out to me on Twitter @LucidMediaDFS.
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NBA Playing Time Changes
Quentin Grimes - SG, New York Knicks
ESPN: 6.2% rostered
Week 9: 41:00 Minutes per Game
I'll start off this week with Quentin Grimes, who's surprisingly extremely under-owned in ESPN leagues. Grimes played a whopping 41 minutes per game last week, playing no less than 36 minutes in the Knicks' three games since last Thursday.
In that span, Grimes averaged 17 points, four rebounds, and 3.67 assists. Now with RJ Barrett likely sidelined for the next week while dealing with a finger injury, I love picking up Grimes in leagues of all formats, especially considering how much Thibs loves to play his starters 35+ minutes per game.
Thomas Bryant - C, Los Angeles Lakers
ESPN: 17.5% rostered
Week 9: 27:40 Minutes per Game
I'll take a minute to talk about Thomas Bryant next, who is a bit more rostered than Grimes but still has relatively low ownership across ESPN leagues, considering his 27.4 minutes per game over the three games played last week.
He doesn't do much on the scoring front, though he did have a "ceiling" game in terms of scoring against the Bulls on Tuesday night, scoring 21 points in 31 minutes. With that said, though, he did have games of 13 and 10 rebounds when playing more than 30 minutes over the last week and should see more minutes with Anthony Davis dealing with a foot injury and is not expected to be back before the second week of January.
Naji Marshall. - SF, New Orleans Pelicans
ESPN: 1.9% rostered
Week 9: 29:20 Minutes per Game
I'll finish things up with someone who is likely no more than a streamer, Pelicans forward Naji Marshall. Marshall has seen a solid increase in minutes over the last three games, going from a 22:36 season average to 29:20 over the last two weeks.
However, Marshall has only seen this increase due to Herbert Jones, E.J. Liddell, and Brandon Ingram all sidelined due to injuries. There is a chance that Ingram and Jones return this weekend, while Liddell remains out for quite some time. Marshall has logged back-to-back games of 17 and 22 points, respectively, but I can't imagine I'll be holding onto him for too long with the cavalry on its way.
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