NBA Fantasy Basketball Week 9 Preview
Week 9 Streaming Plan
The NBA Cup is wrapping up, the schedule is settling, and this is the type of week Yahoo, ESPN, and Sleeper should have merged with Week 8 to make the fantasy experience way better. But that’s a whole ‘nother article.
Week 9 Schedule Overview
Here is how the games actually fall for Week 9:
Monday: 5 games
Tuesday: 0 games for fantasy
Wednesday: 2 games
Thursday: 12 games
Friday: 5 games
Saturday: 10 games
Sunday: 6 games
On Tuesday, the NBA Cup final is played, but that game does not count. It does not count for NBA standings, it does not count in regular season stats, and it does not count for fantasy. So for our purposes Tuesday is a pure zero.
Games Per Team
We are back to a more typical setup with a small four game edge:
3 teams play 4 games:
Houston Rockets
Miami Heat
Toronto Raptors
14 teams play 3 games
13 teams play 2 games:
Brooklyn Nets
Charlotte Hornets
Cleveland Cavaliers
Golden State Warriors
Indiana Pacers
Los Angeles Lakers
Milwaukee Bucks
New Orleans Pelicans
Oklahoma City Thunder
Orlando Magic
Philadelphia 76ers
Phoenix Suns
Portland Trail Blazers
In a week where 27 teams play either two or three games, a four game week stands out more. A two game week is not great, but it is not the same level of disaster as it would be in one of those weeks where twenty plus teams all play four times.
Houston, Miami, and Toronto are the main volume winners. They get four games because one of the loser makeup games from the Cup landed on Monday. That could have been the Suns or Lakers, but their loser game shifted onto Sunday instead and does not count for this fantasy week.
Quality Game Days
Using your usual definition, quality days are:
Monday
Wednesday
Friday
Saturday
Sunday
On those days, most managers will be able to add a streamer and get that player into an active lineup without forcing a sit decision.
Tuesday is a zero fantasy day.
Thursday has 12 games and will be overloaded for most rosters, so treat it like a non streaming day.
Saturday has 10 games. That is still a quality day.
The three four game teams (Houston, Miami, Toronto) each play one game on that heavy Thursday, which means they do not get the “all quality days” boost. Still, they have three quality games and the volume edge.
Several three game teams avoid Thursday entirely and end up with all three games on quality days. Teams like Boston, Chicago, Memphis, and Minnesota fit that profile. They do not play Thursday, so every one of their games is streamable. That is a nice bonus, but the timing and how you use your moves matters more than just counting quality days on paper.
Streaming Blueprint For Week 9
A lot of teams only have one true quality game. That is where streaming can unlock a big advantage. You can turn that single usable game from a fringe piece into five quality games from the same roster slot.
Teams with only one quality game include:
Brooklyn
Charlotte
Golden State
Indiana
Lakers
Bucks
Pelicans
Thunder
Magic
Suns
Blazers
If you are holding fringe names from those teams, you are probably leaving games on the table. You are better off streaming that slot aggressively.
The cleanest pattern in a standard four move setup is:
Single stream Monday
Single stream Wednesday
Single stream Friday
Weekend back to back (Saturday–Sunday) from one of:
Houston
Toronto
Sacramento
Washington
That turns one quality game into five quality games from that roster spot. You skip the 12 game Thursday and the zero game Tuesday. You lean into the five days where streaming makes sense.
You can also mix in midweek back to backs if you prefer, like using Wednesday–Friday combos from teams such as Chicago, Minnesota, or Cleveland, then stacking a Saturday–Sunday move. The core idea is the same. You move out a one game fringe player, you bring in a chain of streamers, and you come out with five games instead of one.
Schedule Quirks And Back To Backs
One important quirk: the 76ers do not play until Friday. They have a Friday–Saturday back to back, then nothing Sunday. That means Joel Embiid and Paul George (on that team in this context) will only play once in Week 9, because you should assume they sit one half of that back to back. That makes it very hard to rely on fringe Sixers for more than one usable appearance.
Back to backs this week do not show up until late:
No back to backs at all before Thursday–Friday.
Thursday–Friday back to backs: Boston, Miami, New York, San Antonio, Oklahoma City and others in that cluster.
Friday–Saturday back to back: Philadelphia. Joel Embiid and Paul George are very likely to rest one game.
Saturday–Sunday back to back: includes teams like Orlando, Milwaukee, and Toronto.
Good Luck!
Good luck this week and reach out if you need anything.
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Robbin Marx
NBA Fantasy Analyst
Experience: NBC Sports - Rotoworld, HashTag Basketball, Bleav Network