Get to the Points: Which injury replacement has the best fantasy playoff outlook?
Yahoo Fantasy basketball analyst Dan Titus and contributor Justin Henry play a round of “Start, Stash, Cut” for several elevated players before the fantasy postseason begins
Video Transcript
DAN TITUS: We just saw that Kawhi Leonard left Tuesday's game with back spasms. Don't know how long he's going to be out or potentially miss, but Ty Lue did say that he may not even be able to travel on this road trip. He doesn't know yet. So what are you doing with Norman Powell, Aaron Nesmith, and Vasilije Micic?
JUSTIN HENRY: I think with Aaron Nesmith, he's a start. He came back from injury. He's looking better now. I think I'm going to go with the opportunity in Norman Powell, just because, like you said, Kawhi's out. Russ is out. There's more opportunity there. And then Big Meech--
DAN TITUS: Big Meech.
JUSTIN HENRY: Big Meech, he's going to be my cut, even though he's playing well right now.
DAN TITUS: OK. We agree. Aaron Nesmith is the start. I like where his opportunity lies with Ben Mathurin now out for the season, where I'm going to flip with you, though, I'm going to bench Norman Powell, and I'm going to stash Vasilije Micic. Big Meech, to me, has that league winning potential.
And now week 21, especially if you have a bye week, I'm looking to week 22 and week 23, where Micic, he's going to have a lot of opportunity. LaMelo Ball is probably not coming back. Tre Mann's been injured. He has been upgraded to questionable, but I'm not worried about it. This guy is going to continue to start as long as Cody Martin is out.
And if you look at the Big Meech's numbers, he's distributing a lot more than just what meets the eye here. He doesn't have the efficiency, but rebounds, scoring, assists, steals. Big Meech is a guy that you're going to want to hold on to for the rest of the fantasy playoffs.
JUSTIN HENRY: Especially points leagues. I think points leagues over cats leagues. You mentioned it, not the great efficiency. The defensive numbers really ain't there. But I'm not mad if you say point leagues.
But I'm going Norman Powell. And I think just with this opportunity, especially with Kawhi, they play with Kawhi with baby hands, man. It's like even though he's the claw, they give him a lot of chance to get healthy and get right.
So you saw him leave the game in the middle of the game in street clothes. It could potentially be an absence that keeps Kawhi out for a while. So with Norman Powell already taking a little bit more of a role here with Russ out, and now Kawhi potentially out, I think Norman Powell is the pick up here.
DAN TITUS: Yeah. I like Powell for points leagues, for sure. He doesn't really do much outside of scoring 3's. Maybe he'll give you a couple steals. But hey, that's all you need. You know what I'm saying? If you have, again, a quality games advantage here, I'm not mad at starting Norman Powell. I just prefer Big Meech, the Serbian Big Meech, down the stretch here.