Fantasy Basketball Starting Lineup Changes - Week 13

January 12, 2023

John looks at fantasy basketball starting lineup changes for Week 13 of the 2022-23 NBA season. These players are seeing increases in minutes and playing time.

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.

NBA Playing Time Changes

Royce O'Neale - SF/PF, Brooklyn Nets

ESPN: 27.5% rostered

Week 12: 35:30 Minutes per Game

I'll start off this week with Royce O'Neale, I've mentioned O'Neale in a previous week for this article, but here he is once again. While O'Neale is relatively highly owned across ESPN leagues, he's not seeing enough ownership in my opinion, at least for the next month.

Kevin Durant suffered a knee injury earlier in the week, which opens the door for O'Neale, Joe Harris, and Ben Simmons to get more minutes. O'Neale is averaging 35.06 minutes per game this season already, so it won't be much of an uptick, but it's worth noting his usage jumps from 12.3% to 13.4% without KD on the floor.

Juan Toscano-Anderson - PF, Los Angeles Lakers

ESPN: 0.2% rostered

Week 12: 20:00 Minutes per Game

Not one of my favorite guys to put on the list, but I feel it necessary to throw him in here. The Lakers will be without Anthony Davis, Lonnie Walker, and Austin Reaves for at least another week, and of course, LeBron will take his load management days.

Despite all of that, Juan Toscano-Anderson, or "Juan Tuscaloosa-Alabama" as my buddy calls him, does not get a ton of minutes nor does he produce a ton from a fantasy perspective. In his four games last week, he averaged 3.8/2.3/1. He's maybe worth a flier in super deep leagues but is worth mentioning due to his starting role for the time being.

Ricky Rubio - PG, Cleveland Cavaliers

ESPN: 5.5% rostered

Week 12: N/A

I'll finish things up with Ricky Rubio. While Rubio isn't a starter, and probably won't be all season (unless both Donovan Mitchell and Darius Garland end up sitting on the same night), I'll be more than happy to take a flier on him.

It'll be interesting to see how much Rubio plays right away, I'm sure it'll take a week or two for his conditioning to be up to par. Despite being a bench player and not seeing a ton of minutes regardless, he's 32 years old and coming off of a knee injury. With that said, though, Rubio's coming off of a season where he averaged 13.1/4.1/6.6 across 28.5 minutes off of the bench. Even if those numbers get cut down by about 20%, he's a worthy option in deeper leagues of all formats.

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