WEEK 16 PICKUPS:

Because Week 16 is a short week (4 days), pickups are that much more important in H2H leagues.  So, in order to give you guys some more time to make those make-or-break pickups, I’m skipping the usual Week 15 Recap (Noah and the Foot Arch) in favor of posting this a day earlier than usual. First, some logistics:

Maybe the most important thing to note in H2H is: ORLANDO has three games.

Most teams have two games, but SA has two games and plays on both Monday and Thursday (where there are only a total of 5 games going on).  This is important because it allows you to maximize (if your league doesn’t have a cap) the number of games you can get in for this week.

Think about it: If you’re only able to start 6 or 8 players per night, for example, you can maximize your games played (and minimize your games wasted on the bench) by picking up players that play on Monday and/or Thursday (or what I call “Off-Days” because most teams have those days off).  ORL and SA both play on both of the Off-Days for this week. 

The following teams have two games this week, one of which occurs on an Off-Day: NO, GS, DAL, LAK, SA, DEN, and CLE.  In other words, if you have limited pickups, target players on ORL, SA, or these squads.

 Now onto the pickups (by team, with all/most guys available in 50+% of Yahoo leagues):

Orlando

J.J. Redick and Jason Williams are both decent bets for 3’s, as they’re getting solid minutes off the bench.  Matt Barnes has slowed of late, but he provides across the board production (and 3 games from him might be worth more than 1 game by a better player).

San Antonio