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Welcome to Rotation Watch! Each week this article will break down who is gaining and who is losing minutes around the NBA. Fantasy managers want the players that are getting the opportunity to shine, not the ones who are sitting on the bench and watching from the sidelines.
Happy Holidays from Rotation Watch! Today is the unofficial biggest day of the NBA season. With five games spread out over 13 hours of primetime viewing. So as a special treat, we will be talking about players from the games happening today. Boston-Toronto. Milwaukee-Philadelphia. Houston-Golden State. Clippers-Lakers. And last but not least, Pelicans-Nuggets. The league did a great job with its Christmas Day scheduling this year and there are so many things to watch from a fantasy basketball perspective.
So without further ado, let's start searching those box scores from December 16th to December 22nd and look for those hidden gems that are grabbing some minutes to help your fantasy basketball team.
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NBA Playing Time Changes
George Hill (PG - Milwaukee Bucks)
Season: 21.4 Minutes per Game
Week 9: 20.7 Minutes per Game
Milwaukee Bucks point guard Grant Hill saw his minutes go down in Week 9, but his production did the opposite and he saw an uptick in points, rebounds, and three-pointers made. In fact, in Sunday's matchup against the Pacers he had a season-high nine rebounds.
Hill has reached double-digits in five straight appearances and averaged 16.0 points, 5.0 rebounds, 2.3 assists, and 2.7 made threes per game during his three Week 9 contests.
Something else to consider is that in his reserve role he is now shooting a career-high 51.6% from behind the arc. Eric Bledsoe still leads him on the depth chart, but Hill is one of the best backups in the league. If he continues to produce these kind of statistical weeks, he should see his ownership percentage steadily rise as more and more fantasy basketball owners look to mine productive minutes from some of the better offensive teams in the league.
Alec Burks (SG, SF - Golden State Warriors)
Season: 29.6 Minutes per Game
Week 9: 32.3 Minutes per Game
Golden State Warriors Alec Burks has scored at least 10 points in his last 13 games, but that is underselling how impressive he has been in the scoring department lately. He has only started 4 of the 11 December games for the Warriors but is still finding a role in the offense.
In Week 9, he saw his minutes rise to 32.3 per game and his production followed suit. He averaged 19.7 points, 5.3 rebounds, 5.0 assists, 2.7 steals, and 2.3 made threes per game. There are plenty of trade rumors circling the eighth-year player, but as long as he is on the Warriors and gets his fair share of minutes he will offer decent scoring upside in most fantasy leagues and formats.
Al Horford (PF, C - Philadelphia 76ers)
Season: 30.5 Minutes per Game
Week 9: 29.3 Minutes per Game
Al Horford has been a steady hand for the Philadelphia 76ers this season and had his fair share of productivity. Unfortunately, his name seems to be carrying more value than he deserves. This is not 2011 Al Horford anymore. He is not a primary, or even a secondary, option in the offense and is more valuable to his real team as a leader in the clubhouse than a producer of stats.
On the season, he is averaging 13.1 points, 6.7 rebounds, and 3.8 assists. Those are not terrible numbers, but not what we are looking for. And in Week 9, things took a turn for the worse. Horford averaged 10.0 points, 5.3 rebounds, and 3.3 assists in 29.3 minutes. He only lost 1.2 minutes per game, but his production took quite a hit.
Those numbers were not good enough to make him a top-35 power forward in ESPN leagues last week. My advice would be to ship him in a trade while his name still carries some weight. It's the holiday season and the season of giving. So why not give your fantasy team a boost and "gift" Al Horford to a rival manager and receive something useful in return.
Serge Ibaka (PF, C - Toronto Raptors)
Season: 24.2 Minutes per Game
Week 9: 33.3 Minutes per Game
Serge Ibaka proved that he's still a force to be reckoned with after an outstanding series of performances in Week 9 of the fantasy basketball season. He reach the double-digit scoring mark in three of his four contests and that included two games where he scored 23 and 25 points.
The Toronto big man has primarily been coming off the bench most of the season. He has only started three of the 20 games he has appeared in but was still averaging 24.2 minutes per contest. His spike in production was due to the 33.3 minutes he played in the four Week 9 games. His Week 9 stats were 19.3 points, 9.3 rebounds, 1.3 blocks, and 1.0 made threes. That made him a top-15 power forward for the week.
Derrick Favors (PF, C - New Orleans Pelicans)
Season: 21.5 Minutes per Game
Week 9: 24.5 Minutes per Game
Derrick Favors has been playing a solid role for the New Orleans Pelicans over the first third of the season. Before Week 9, he was averaging 8.0 points, 9.1 rebounds, and 0.8 blocks. He stepped up his game in Week 9 and saw his averages climb to 8.8 points, 10.8 rebounds, and 1.8 blocks.
Those are perfectly usable numbers in fantasy basketball, but he is appropriately owned at the moment as his 60% is probably all standard formats. If we sneak into Week 10 though, you would see that he had 30 minutes on Monday night against Portland and recorded his second straight double-double.
Fantasy basketball, and regular basketball, fans are awaiting the debut of Zion Williamson. Favors may be phased out whenever the much-anticipated rookie makes his arrival.
