With Yahoo’s fantasy basketball format, High Score, it’s the perfect time to start planning your next moves — even before the season tips off. Managing your squad after draft day — which I dove into strategy for here — is just as important as the draft itself, so having the right in-season plan is key.
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If you’d rather get the basics down first before we dive deeper into strategy, check out my High Score 101 article.
As a reminder, here’s how scoring works:
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Points: 1 point
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Rebounds: 1 point
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Assists: 2 points
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Steals: 3 points
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Blocks: 3 points
And here’s the starting lineup:
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Guard
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Guard
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Frontcourt
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Frontcourt
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Frontcourt
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FLEX/UTIL
There are also four bench spots.
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Roster Management Advice
Use your small bench to your advantage
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Smaller rosters mean a deeper waiver wire. There’s almost always someone useful sitting out there.
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Don’t get attached. If a late-round pick isn’t producing, drop him and move on with no regrets.
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Treat your last couple of bench spots like a tryout. Grab the hot hand, see if he can boost your weekly total, and cut bait if he can’t.
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The default transaction limit is four per week, so spend them on moves that actually matter.
Max out your IL spots
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Use your two Injured List (IL) slots even if your team is fully healthy.
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Stash high-upside guys who fell outside the top 100 in drafts, like Jimmy Butler
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Be proactive but realistic. If you’ve got room to stash an injured player who can raise your ceiling once he’s back, do it.
Know your bench rules (this is where weeks are won, or lost)
This is the rule that trips up new managers the most: benching a player wipes out his high score for the week. If you put him back in later, only his games from that point on count.
Say you start Victor Wembanyama on Thursday and he drops 65 fantasy points. You bench him, bring him back, and he scores 55 on Sunday. Only the 55 counts. You just lost 10 points on your weekly high score.
So when should you actually hit the bench button?
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Big game early in the week? Leave him alone. When a player opened the week well above his normal output, he topped it later that week less than half the time. Lock it in.
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Rough game early, but two or more games left? Be patient. Players who opened the week below their average and had at least two games left beat that score on their own more than eight times out of 10. Benching him just throws those chances away.
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Rough game and no game for a few days? Now you swap. If a guy scores under 20 on Monday and doesn’t play again until Friday, I’d sit him for someone playing Wednesday or Thursday. That new player gets a crack at beating the low score. If he doesn’t, you can slide your original guy back in for Friday.
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How you manage the back half of the week should depend on the score.
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Trailing heading into the weekend? Get aggressive. Bench or drop players who’ve already finished their games, and pick up guys playing Saturday or Sunday against fantasy-friendly opponents. You need a big game to close the gap, so go chase one.
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Leading? Protect what you’ve got. Don’t bench anyone who already posted a strong score, and lean on steadier players for your open spots. You don’t need a miracle. You just need to not give points back.
Schedule matters!
More games means more shots at a big night, and the difference is bigger than you’d think. Last season, a typical rotation player’s best game in a two-game week came in about 15% above his season average. Give him three games and that jumped to 27%. Four games? 32%.
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NBA teams play anywhere from two to five games in a scoring week, so check the schedule before setting your lineup and making pickups.
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A four-game week is a real edge, but it’s not everything. Sometimes a guy with fewer games and a fantasy-friendly matchup is the better start.
Player Personnel Advice
Embrace boom-or-bust players
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Think of your roster as daily fantasy meets best ball. You’re collecting each player’s best performance of the week, not his average one.
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Don’t fear inconsistency. Only the ceiling games count.
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High-variance bigs like Kel’el Ware and Derik Queen are more valuable in High Score than their season averages suggest. Last season, Ware’s best game each week averaged 32% more than his overall average, and Queen’s 31% more. A steady star like Jaylen Brown got just 14% more. In High Score, you get the spike without paying for the valleys.
One important caveat. Volatility is a tiebreaker, not a reason to pass on a star. Brown’s best game each week still averaged about 57 fantasy points, way ahead of Queen (about 42) and Ware (about 36). Keep your studs. Boom-or-bust guys really earn their keep when you’re choosing between two similar players, filling your UTIL spot or grabbing bench and waiver adds.
Volume and opportunity are king
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Keep an eye on players getting more minutes, more shots and a bigger role. Those are the guys who can lift your team as the season goes on.
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When a star sits, get his replacement on your watch list. Next man up. A bigger role means a better shot at a big night, and in this format one big night is all you need.
Final thoughts
High Score comes down to one idea: only the best game counts. Chase upside, don’t panic over bad nights, use busy weeks to your advantage, and think before you decide to bench a player.
Stay flexible, don’t get attached to low-ceiling guys who give you the same line every night, and keep your eyes peeled for anyone who can go off. Good luck!
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