2025 Fantasy Basketball Playoffs Schedule: Players and Teams to Target or Avoid

February 17, 2025

Thunder Dan Palyo gives a preview of the 2025 fantasy basketball playoffs and provides a list of players that might help win you a championship this season.

NBA All-Star Weekend has wrapped up, and we have a few days before games begin again. It's never a bad idea to take stock of your players' schedules for the playoff weeks and see if you could still make a few moves to maximize games now or down the road.

Depending on your league's settings, playoffs could start as early as Week 18 (March 3) or as late as Week 21 (March 24). But in most Yahoo H2H leagues, playoffs begin in either Week 19 (March 10-16) or Week 20 (March 17-23), as many commissioners decide to forego the late-season shenanigans of the final week(s) of the regular season.

Whether you are thinking about trades or just adding players off the waiver wire, planning ahead and knowing the schedule for your league's fantasy playoffs is incredibly important to give your team the best chance at competing for a league championship.

Fantasy Basketball Playoff Grid: Weeks 19-23

Chart Updated 2/19 - There were a few incorrect game totals that are now fixed.

There are only three outliers in the final five weeks with the Nets having a five-game week in Week 19 and both Dallas and Orlando having a two-game week in Week 20. The Nets could be a nice source of streaming value if your playoffs start Week 19, but their rotation has been anything but predictable this season and it's tough to know who's actually still getting minutes from them until we get to get to that week.

Orlando and Dallas have four-game weeks on either side of that two-gamer, so there's no need to panic. If your playoffs start in Week 20, there's certainly some incentive to secure a first-round bye if you're heavy on Mavericks and/or Magic.

Seeing what you could get for Kyrie Irving, Paolo Banchero, or Franz Wagner never hurts either - putting a player on the block to see how other managers value them is a sharp move and doesn't mean you have to actually trade them!

Teams To Target: Favorable Playoff Schedules

Indiana Pacers

All four teams in this section have the ideal schedule, with four games in each of the final five weeks. So, no matter when your playoffs start, you're going to get 12 games from these players (barring injuries, of course).

In a perfect world, the guy I want here is Pascal Siakam, but he's going to be tough to acquire without paying a premium. He's been a top-15 player over the last month and is now creeping up towards the top 30 for the season.

Tyrese Haliburton could be a potential buy-low option. Even though his assists have dipped to 8.5 per game this year, he's still an elite contributor in that category and has the sixth-most per game in the NBA. I rarely punt assists in H2H formats, and adding Haliburton would be one way to lock down one of the scarcest categories in fantasy hoops.

The real buy-low, however, is Myles Turner. The big man has been hurt and sat around the last week and a half before the break. He's supposed to be ready to return this week. His numbers have been rough lately as he's shooting just 39% from the field over the last month and has not been rebounding or blocking shots as we expect. But if he can get right for the stretch run, we know what he's capable of doing.

Los Angeles Lakers

The Lakers are going to be such an interesting team to watch down the stretch. The addition of Luka Doncic is going to make them hard to stop on offense, but we know that defensively they're going to struggle without a true rim-protector and no one to guard the opposing team's best guard or wing players either.

You're not likely to pry Luka off another manager, but perhaps floating an offer for LeBron James or Austin Reaves could work if you sell the idea that their stats will suffer once Luka gets going full throttle.

I think the angle that LeBron is going to rest down the stretch could be used, too, because I don't think that he does or that the Lakers will be in a position to rest anyone. They're going to need to win as many games as possible to try and avoid the play-in tournament in a very competitive Western Conference.

San Antonio Spurs

Congrats if you have Victor Wembanyama or De'Aaron Fox on your roster(s), those two should be awesome for the Spurs down the stretch.

I would normally say go after Chris Paul for his assists, but he's not doing quite enough everywhere else to pay the price that other managers are likely to ask for based on his name alone. With the Spurs 4.5 games out of the play-in tourney, we could see CP3 get some nights off if San Antonio gets mathematically eliminated.

Stephon Castle downhill scoring pic.twitter.com/fNf28nKZe1

— Brett Usher (@UsherNBA) February 16, 2025

The guy I still want, despite having his role reduced with the acquisition of Fox is Stephon Castle. He's just 36% rostered in Yahoo leagues and doing enough to be worthy of a roster spot in standard leagues. I'm holding him in leagues where I can afford to based on this great schedule and the chance that he has a late-season surge.

Washington Wizards

This is the one team you can actively target without even having to make trades! The one guy who could be a trade target is Jordan Poole. I'm not really a Poole fan, but he has played better recently. Even the best version of Poole is still going to be a drag on your FG% and turnovers, so plan accordingly.

I'm not at all interested in veterans Khris Middleton or Malcolm Brogdon. Middleton hasn't even played yet since being acquired at the deadline and he's supposed to be taking on a mentor role for the younger players according to Washington. That sounds to me like 25 minutes a night when he does play and plenty of rest days mixed in.

Brogdon hasn't played 25 minutes in a game in two months and can't stay healthy. He's there for the same reasons as Middleton.

The guys I'm prioritizing here are Bub Carrington and Kyshawn George. Both are available in 80% of Yahoo leagues and are going to get as much run as they can handle down the stretch.

Bilal Coulibaly is probably already on someone else's roster and has some major flaws in his game. Alex Sarr is more heavily rostered, too, and simply cannot shoot, which is a tough thing to accept from a big man on your roster, even if he has some upside in blocks.

Guys like Corey Kispert and Justin Champagnie are streamer options for when Washington rests others, while my guy Tristan Vukcevic is a deep sleeper to add if he ever gets a chance at significant minutes late in the year.

Also consider: New York Knicks, Sacramento Kings

Teams to Avoid: Worst Playoff Schedules

Minnesota Timberwolves

The T-Wolves stand out with the absolute worst playoff schedule of any team in the league. No matter what week your playoffs start, you're getting 3-3-3 from any Wolves players so you should do your due diligence and at least see what you could get by dealing Anthony Edwards.

This might be a great sell-high window on Edwards as he's averaging 31 points over the last month and he's had to hoist up 23 shots per game with Julius Randle out of the lineup.

If you're looking to sell high on other Wolves players, then Naz Reid is an obvious choice, though other managers are probably not dumb enough to think he's a top-30 player for the rest of the season.

Jaden McDaniels has been a top-30 guy over the last month, too, so why not see if someone else overvalues him?

The point is that at some point, Minnesota is going to get healthier, and these three players (and Rudy Gobert, too) are going to regress. If you can get a player of relatively equal value with a better playoff schedule, then why not pull the trigger?

Atlanta Hawks

The rest of these teams have just ten games during the crucial stretch of Weeks 20 through 22.

I touted Dyson Daniels as much as anyone in the preseason and he's been one of the best values at ADP all year. But is he going to be a top-25 player down the stretch?

His value is so reliant on steals and FG% that a dip in shooting or even a small drop in steals is going to drop him considerably. Those steals are incredibly precious, but I think it's worth seeing how other managers value him, and I'd swap him for a more balanced top-50 player.

Dyson Daniels this season:

13.9 PPG
5.4 RPG
4.0 APG
3.0 SPG

The first player to average those numbers in a season since Scottie Pippen. pic.twitter.com/LwXvhZZvb2

— StatMuse (@statmuse) February 13, 2025

Trae Young and Onyeka Okongwu are the other potential players to trade here but aim high! The Hawks are a bubble playoff team so they're not going to pack it in entirely in the final month by any means.

Boston Celtics

I wouldn't trade away Jayson Tatum to Jaylen Brown because you are worried about losing a game here or there, but Kristaps Porzingis fits the bill as a sell-high. He's 16th overall over the last month and you know he's going to rest some down the stretch as the Celtics prepare for what they hope is a deep playoff run.

Payton Pritchard screams sell-high, too, since he's been doing work with Jrue Holiday hurt, and we've seen how far he can drop when Boston is fully healthy.

Los Angeles Clippers

Ivica Zubac has been borderline top-10 over the last month so I am okay with attempting to sell high on him. But he, James Harden, and Norman Powell are all so good at what they do that I'd only be parting with them for really good players with either fantastic playoff schedules or players who fit your team build better.

I'd be shopping Kawhi Leonard for any type of decent player in return now that he's played 30+ minutes in a handful of games. Try to convince another manager he could still put up old-school Kawhi numbers down the stretch (spoiler alert - he won't).

Memphis Grizzlies

As if you needed another reason to try and trade Ja Morant. Memphis goes 3-3-3 from Weeks 20 to 22, and if he continues to miss games as he has been, you're certainly not guaranteed nine games from him in the playoffs.

The Grizzlies, in general, are maddening for fantasy - the only guys I want to hang onto are Desmond Bane and Jaren Jackson Jr. If you can rid yourself of other Grizzlies players before the playoffs - do it, who knows which of them play down the stretch and how many minutes.

Also consider: Detroit Pistons, New Orleans Pelicans

Once I fixed my chart, I realized that the Pistons have the second-worst schedule after the Wolves as they finish with just 10 games in any of the three playoff periods.

I hope this information was helpful and good luck on your quest to win a fantasy basketball championship this season!

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