How will the NBA In-Season tournament affect fantasy basketball?
Yahoo Sports’ Dan Titus and Justin Henry look ahead to the tournament - which tips off on Friday - and break down what effects, if any, it could have for fantasy basketball managers.
Video Transcript
DAN TITUS: We got an exciting announcement coming up. The In-Season Tournament is about to begin. November 3, that's when Group C kicks off for this In-Season Tournament. It's the first time the NBA is going to be doing this.
I'm guessing it was a point to add not only more revenue, but to get more eyes on basketball in general. But what are your early thoughts on how this will impact fantasy basketball?
JUSTIN HENRY: I think it doesn't really impact fantasy basketball a whole lot, because the games all count anyways, right? They're regular season games. But I do think we might see a little bit elevated level of play from some guys as they stack these wins up. You know, I think there's some teams out there that really want to get this mid-season tournament trophy, and there's others that probably are just going to treat it like a normal game.
But it does seem like there's going to be a heightened sense of competitiveness, especially as this thing goes on. They're all grouped up kind of categorically. And I think that once we get to those final games where they have deciding who's going to be playing on and who's not, we might see some players step up. So kind of curious to see how that works out for our fantasy lineups.
DAN TITUS: Yeah, me too. I'm hoping that this makes the NBA little bit more competitive in the regular season. Maybe we see less rest games and this load management that's happening in the beginning of the season, perhaps that's something that teams are doing to prepare for this opportunity to win an award, but then also get paid.
Like, there's a lot of back end bench guys that could use that monetization and that bag that could be coming with a championship here. So what are your early predictions? Who do you think is going to be the MVP of this In-Season Tournament, assuming all things are equal, people are healthy-- who do you got?
JUSTIN HENRY: Well, I got to go to my team in LA. And I kind think this trophy is going to mean a lot to one LeBron James. The very first mid-season tournament. Now, I know there's the Eastern side too, and I'll probably talk about them in a second here. But when I look at this, this is one of those legacy things.
When you start to add to the accolades, this is just one more thing you could put on the shelf-- the inaugural, very first trophy. I think there's a little bit behind that. So my guy LeBron, I know they said this is AD's team, but I think LeBron is going to be playing out of his mind come those last games of the In-Season Tournament. What about you?
DAN TITUS: Bro, LeBron does not care about no In-Season Tournament. This man needs chips. This man needs rings. He's still chasing Kobe, in my opinion.
So at this point, I got to give this to James Harden, man. I talked about it with Vinny Goodwill in the offseason at Summer League-- this is just a Clippers award, if anything. James Harden never wins and does anything in the playoffs.
This is the exact award that would bring him the honor and respect that he deserves as being a regular season guy. No one cares about the In-Season Tournament, but James Harden will come to play. And he will take home that MVP. I could definitely see it happening.
JUSTIN HENRY: Yo. I was thinking the exact same thing for the Eastern side-- one Joel Embiid might be taking this serious.
DAN TITUS: Oh, now we're throwing shade at the Sixers.
JUSTIN HENRY: [INAUDIBLE] if he doesn't win it.
DAN TITUS: OK, OK, OK.
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