The Fig Cap: Is It Always Sunny in Phoenix?

Only fantasy sports fans will tell you that they prefer a broken leg over a sprained ankle any day. While a broken leg would likely be considered a more serious injury, at least you know the player is out a finite number of weeks (4-6 weeks in this case) and that he’ll be back good as new once that time has elapsed. With a sprained ankle, nothing is certain and everything is open to interpretation. As a result, the injury report will always say “day-to-day” and said player will usually be the dreaded “game-time decision.”

Handling Game-time Decisions

You might be a great fantasy general manager or owner having stockpiled a wealth of talent in the draft and/or via trade, however, it’s how you coach your squad and the key personnel decisions you make that will determine if you’re top tier or just another guppy.

In order to capture your league title, you’ll need to make some calls along the way that will be tougher than a two-dollar steak. The Fantasy Lab is here to offer guidance as we delve deeper into the advanced strategy series. Note: This article will make the most sense for those in head-to-head leagues but it is also applicable for those in rotisserie style leagues with maximum game limits per position.

A game-time decision for one of your players is actually a day-long process for you to determine if the player in question should be in your starting lineup. Granted there are many small variables that should affect each final decision, but the following is a solid plan to follow on the path to starting or benching enlightenment.

For best results, start with a perusal of your favorite fantasy information site (after checking out DroppingDimes.com of course). If you’re player is listed, most of them will contain links to the local paper where the article was first published. It is very important to go to the actual article and read the whole thing. The snippets found on conglomerate fantasy note sites can often omit key information and don’t always accurately identify the injury or current problem. Plus, the expert analysis that’s provided is often just one person’s opinion so don’t interpret it as fact. That’s how vicious rumors get started.

While reading the article, we’re looking for information outside of identifying the player as day-to-day or a game-time decision. Find out if he practiced yesterday. If so, that’s usually a strong sign he’ll play that day. Does the paper indicate if he’ll participate in that morning’s shoot-around? Again, this is a positive sign that he’ll play. On the flip side, if said player skipped practice and was in the trainer’s room for any reason, this should immediately raise a red flag and have you thinking about other starting options.

The other things to note in the article are if the coach comments on the player or if the players comments on himself. A favorable or hopeful assessment of the situation traditionally indicates they’ll play that night. A negative, unsure or wait-and-see approach usually translates into a DNP. Not to get all spiritualistic on you, but it can be more important to listen to the overall tone of the quotation than the actual words spoken.

Now that you have a good base of information established from the original article, seek out other articles on the same subject. Do this by checking another local paper, searching Google News or checking additional fantasy info sites. Later in the day, sometime in the early afternoon, hopefully a beat writer from the paper will update his blog with info about the morning shoot-around or new intel on the player in discussion. In order to know when this happens, subscribe to RSS feeds of the blogs with your players on it. That way, you should be privy to any late-breaking news – something that we didn’t even have access to a year or two ago. Some of the stronger authors will even answer personal email or comments on their blog, so don’t be afraid to try interacting with them.

The final step and consistently the most accurate (though not consistently accurate itself) for making the call whether to start or bench a player is checking the online box scores for about the final 30-10 minutes before game time. The NBA Rulebook states in Rule No. 3 Section II that “At least ten minutes before the game is scheduled to begin, the scorers shall be supplied with the name and number of each player who may participate in the game. Starting line-ups will be indicated.”

This info is made available to beat writers and more importantly wire and scoring services. It is often delivered well before game-time and sports sites such as Yahoo! make the box score link active with the names of the starting five listed atop all the other players. If your player is normally a starter and isn’t listed in the top five names, you should immediately make other arrangements for your starting spot.

There are a couple of caveats for this system though. Sometimes the box scores list the entire roster alphabetically. If this is the case, it’s usually before the real lineup was announced so be sure to ignore this. They will refresh with the correct lineup as soon as they receive it. Every so often, the names will appear randomly with no rhyme or reason to them. Recognize this isn’t the normal starting five and ignore. The real five should be on their way shortly. Overall, this method is accurate about 19 out of 20 times.

If you were checking Amare Stoudemire’s status yesterday regarding his sore knee and the game-time decision label he recently acquired, following this plan would have allowed you ample time to insert a new starter. The morning paper indicated he was hurting and might not play. The Suns blogger also reiterated that Amare was questionable for the night. If you hadn’t replaced him by then, when his name didn’t show up in the box score around 6:40 pm EST last night, you then knew he wasn’t going to play.

So despite owning the cursed “game-time decision” player, when game-time came around, the correct decision had already been made.