Lesson 5: Adjusting for Late Scratches and Injuries
Injuries play a larger role in daily fantasy basketball than they do in any other sport. It is absolutely essential to monitor injuries and to be able to adjust to the news in a timely manner. One single injury can change the entire landscape of a slate. Let’s say that it is ten minutes before lineup lock and out of nowhere LeBron James is scratched. Whether you had LeBron in your lineup or not, this news completely alters the entire slate.
LeBron is responsible for such a large portion of his team’s production that his teammates have to pick up their production by necessity. The injury to LeBron not only creates better opportunities for his teammates, but it also changes the optimal lineup construction. There have been nights when I’ve completely changed every player in my lineup based on one piece of news that was announced ten minutes before lineups locked. Being able to adapt to the late-breaking news may be the most important aspect of daily fantasy basketball.
In general, I like to break injuries into two different categories: Late scratches and long-term injuries.
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