Lineups

Where the depth chart comes from

The depth chart on this page is a published one: the order each club’s players are listed in at the five positions, point guard, shooting guard, small forward, power forward and center, from the same public player data our basketball section already reads once a day for its trending adds and eligibility. We read it from that daily copy and never more often. Before building on it we checked it against a second published depth chart, club by club, and on 27 September 2026 the two agreed on all 150 starting spots. A depth chart is a statement about the roster today. It says who is expected to start, not who did, and it moves when a coach names a new starter, when a starter is hurt and when a trade lands. That is why this page keeps it apart from the minutes, which are a record of what happened.

Starting five against rotation

Starting is not the whole story in basketball the way it is in football. A sixth man who closes games can play more than the starter he replaces, and a starting center on a club that goes small late in games can finish with twenty minutes. So every club’s page carries the rotation beside the depth chart: games played, games started, minutes a game and minutes over the player’s last five games, for every player on the roster today. When the last-five figure is well above the season figure, a role is growing; well below, it is shrinking, whatever the depth chart says. In a points league minutes are most of the value. In a category league they are the ceiling on every counting stat, so the same rule holds.

Reading the injury flags

A starter on the injury report is flagged on the board: red for out, gold for day-to-day, questionable and the like. Under every starter on the report the board names the next player listed at his position, because that is where a coach looks first when the starter sits. It is not always who gets the minutes. Coaches often replace a starter by committee, moving a forward to guard or promoting the sixth man at a different position, and the minutes spread across three players rather than landing on one. For the evidence of who actually played more when a player sat, open Next Man Up, which splits a club’s games into the ones the player missed and the ones he played.

The change list

A depth chart keeps no history of its own, so this page keeps one. Every day it files who is listed first at each position for every club, and when that name changes from one day to the next the change goes on the list with its date and the position. A change is a promotion (the player now listed first), a demotion (the player who was first, and where he sits now), or a player moving between positions without losing his place in the five. In the preseason the list is busier than it will be in January, because coaches try things in October that they do not keep. The list covers the last seven days, and the filter above the board shows only the clubs with a new starter.

Before opening night

Until the regular season opens on 20 October, the minutes and starts on every club’s page are last season’s. A player who has changed clubs since is shown with his line for his previous club and marked as such, because his minutes there were earned on a different roster and are a guide, not a promise. A rookie or a player who did not appear last season has no line at all, and the page shows the dash rather than a guess. Once games are played the minutes switch to the new season on their own, and each club’s page adds the starting five from its most recent game, with the changes from the game before.

How to use it through a week

In a league that sets lineups every day, check the board before lineup lock: a red flag on a starter you roster means the bench, and the next man named at his position is the first place to look for a replacement on the wire. In a weekly league, read the change list on Monday: a new starter who is widely available is often the best pickup of the week, and a demotion is the signal to sell or bench before the minutes fall. Then take the name to the other tools. The schedule planner counts his games this week, the streamers page ranks tonight’s options, and the waiver planner fits the add under your league’s cap.

What the page does not know

It does not know the confirmed starting five at tip-off: clubs announce those shortly before each game and this page does not read the announcements. It does not know a minutes restriction, a coach’s stated plan for a returning player, or a late scratch that happened after the last refresh. The depth chart is read once a day and the injury report every hour, so a change in the afternoon can take a few hours to reach the board. Read it as the best available picture of the roster, and check the news wire before a lineup lock that matters.

The depth chart is refreshed daily and the injury report hourly on our own feeds; the minutes are rebuilt nightly from the box scores. If the feed is unavailable the page says so rather than showing a stale board.